The Funeral of WoW Gold

Frogster tell us why this free-to-play MMORPG is much more than just a WoW clone.

There’s no denying it – on the surface, the similarities between Runwaker’s upstart Runes of Magic and Blizzard’s all-conquering World of Warcraft are striking, so much so that from a distance it’s remarkably easy to confuse the two. However, as Joerg Koonen of Frogster – the Berlin-based company responsible for localising the Asian free-to-play game – points out, such similarities could work in the game’s favour, and having taken a tour through the game’s opening levels, IGN will attest there’s alot going for the burgeoning MMORPG.

With a crisp artistic style that retains an Eastern influence, an intriguing system wherein it’s possible to mix character classes and a host of other unique features, there’s no reason that Runes of Magic can’t tempt away dungeon crawlers and Orc lovers away from Azeroth. And, perhaps most pertinently, it’s all free. Joerg Koonen takes us through the game’s world of Taborea, as well as offering his thoughts on the state of MMORPGs and where the genre’s future may lie.

IGN: The launch date of March 19th is coming ever nearer – how’s the response been to the open beta so far?

Joerg Koonen: The general reaction so far is very good with more than half a million registered players worldwide. Not only are many players excited by the scope and depth of our game but also the press, traditionally very sceptical about free to play games, has picked up on Runes of Magic. The feedback from previews is very encouraging. Many editors and testers are declaring Runes of Magic as being a real contestant for the established full price MMOs.

IGN: There are perhaps some assumptions about free-to-play games – chiefly that if it costs nothing the quality can’t be as high as something like World of Warcraft. How does Runes of Magic challenge these assumptions?

Joerg Koonen: Quite simple: by delivering a quality game.

When people hear about free-to-play games they think of low quality graphics, endless grind and the necessity to spend insane amounts of money on items or to enjoy all of the content. With Runes of Magic, developer Runewaker Entertainment in close cooperation with us at Frogster set out to change the general perception of free-to-play games by creating a game that breaks with this stereotype.

When you look at Runes of Magic, you will notice the level of detail of the character models, you see that there are literally thousands of quests instead of endless grinding, you notice that all content is accessible to all players.

Furthermore, we have a very interesting dual class system, granting extra skills and allow you to switch classes. There are raid instances, there’s PvP content, we’ve got mounts, housing, an auction house. Currently we are working on castle sieges, more arena features, server-vs.-server-battles of three server communities against each other and much more.

And − probably the most important bit in this equation − we are listening closely to our community. Since then, we’ve got tons of great feedback from our community on the forums.

IGN: How do you react to accusations that Runes of Magic is merely a World of WarCraft clone?

Joerg Koonen: We simply have to acknowledge that World of Warcraft has reached so many players and has set a number of standards that it’s really difficult to avoid comparison.

And to be honest: we’re rather thrilled when we hear that people name us in the same breath as established MMORPGs. Personally, I think it just shows that we have reached a level of quality and depth that makes us comparable.

When you develop a new game, it is only valid to look at what is already there. Why should you ignore something that has proven successful and not use it as inspiration for your own product?

I mean, there was a life before World of Warcraft and there were other games - starting with good old fashioned MUDs, Ultima Online, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot and many, many more.

When Runewaker decided to develop their own MMORPG, they looked around at all the other games already out there for inspiration. And that wasn’t just about copying random features but a careful analysis to see what is working, what fits into the game’s setting and where it needed improvement.

In the end it’s less of an accusation and more of a compliment because it just goes to show that we made the right call.

IGN: Runes of Magic’s funded by micro-transactions – can you explain how these are woven into the fabric of the game?

Joerg Koonen: Up until now many Free to Play games forced their players, if they wanted to stay competitive or access all available content, to buy virtual items like special weapons or armour that wasn’t available through normal game-play. Many people think that it’s not right if only people with a big wallet can actually enjoy all of a game while those without can’t.

We are following a different route with Runes of Magic. There is no uber-weapon or armour in our shop. The main purpose of the items we are offering in our Item Shop is to level the playing field for casual players.

Most of what we are selling in the Item Shop is available through normal game-play; some drop as rare loot from boss monsters, some can be acquired with special in-game quest rewards and some are available as special rewards for certain tasks.

It’s a sensitive topic and we take great care to keep this balanced. We want casual players to have the same chances to stay in game as players that have a lot of time on their hands so that everyone can either compete in PvP on equal terms or go raiding together.

Vivendi is betting on its Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft games to boost profits this year, despite the global economic slump.

Europe’s largest entertainment group owns Activision Blizzard, the world’s top video games company.

It also expects to benefit from slight growth at its pay-TV unit Canal Plus and its telecoms arm SFR. It said restructuring costs tied to acquisitions would be lower after it posted 2008 earnings in line with expectations.

Despite a solid balance sheet and good cash flow, Vivendi played down prospects of making acquisitions in the near-term and notably in Spain, where it has been looking at pay-TV company Digital+.

“We are extremely confident and resilient despite the current market conditions but also vigilant and we will continue to monitor costs,” Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy told a conference call with journalists.

With 70 percent of revenue coming from phone, Internet, pay-TV and online video games subscriptions, Vivendi is viewed as one of the most defensive stocks in the media sector, with a low exposure to a bleak advertising market, analysts say.

“I would not say that Vivendi is immune to the crisis but Vivendi suffers less from the crisis than other groups who are in so-called cyclical sectors,” Levy later said.

Vivendi, owner of Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record company, and French telecom operator SFR, expects EBITA growth in 2009 to top the 4.9 percent achieved in 2008, Levy said. He would not provide a revenue target for 2009.

“We expect video games to continue to show a nice growth. We started the year with 12 million subscribers for World of Warcraft, which is a good base,” he said.

World of Warcraft is a popular multiplayer online role-playing game.

The group said it would propose a 7.7 percent rise in its 2008 dividend to 1.40 euros per share, also in line with expectations. Vivendi also vowed to continue in 2009 and beyond its policy to distribute half of net income in dividend.

“The market should be relieved by in-line earnings and a positive guidance which confirms the defensive profile of the stock,” CM-CIC analysts said in a note.

Vivendi shares were down 0.98 percent at 18.78 euros in early afternoon trade, with France’s benchmark CAC-40 index down 3.25 percent and the European media stocks sector down 2 percent. The company has a market capitalization of about 22 billion euros.

CANAL PLUS DROPS 2010 EBITA TARGET

The economic slump and regulatory costs were, however, expected to limit Canal Plus’s growth, with Vivendi predicting slight revenue growth in 2009 and a 10 percent rise in EBITA. Vivendi dropped a 1 billion EBITA target for Canal Plus in 2010.

Universal Music, whose artists roster includes Amy Winehouse and Duffy, was expected to maintain its 2009 EBITA at 2008 level at current currency.

Meanwhile, SFR was slated for slight revenue growth but a slight decrease in EBITDA for its fixed line business due to new taxes and fiber-optic development and a slight decrease in EBITDA for mobile operations amid a competitive environment.

Asked for an update on the group’s plans toward Digital+, the pay-TV unit of Spanish media group Prisa, Levy said: “To date we have no prospects of buying this asset in Spain, as we could not find a satisfactory agreement.”

He would not say if talks still continued on the issue.

Vivendi reported a 4.9 percent rise in 2008 earnings before tax and amortization (EBITA) to 4.953 billion euros ($6.28 billion), as the acquisitions of Neuf Cegetel and Activision helped fuel a 17.2 percent rise in revenue to 25.392 billion.

Net adjusted profit rose 8.4 percent on a like-for-like basis, in line with the group’s guidance for profit growth similar to the 8.3 percent achieved in 2007.

However, after 245 million euros in costs from the purchase of fixed-line operator Neuf Cegetel and Activision Blizzard adjusted net profit fell 3.4 percent to 2.735 billion euros.

The nine year-old PlayStation 2 maintains its relevance in the marketplace for Activision, even at the expense of its younger brother. On the opposite side, World of Warcraft, Wii, and Guitar Hero were big sellers for the publisher in 2008.

Activision, the world’s largest third-party gaming publisher, netted more than $3 billion in 2008, Kotaku reported on Friday. Coming as no surprise: World of Warcraft, Wii, and Guitar Hero drove a majority of said sales.

On the flipside, PlayStation sold the least amount of console product for the gaming giant, underscoring the stark role reversal of Nintendo and Sony in just three years. The PS2 accounted for $284 million in net sales for Activision, while the PS3 accounted for $241 million. You read that right. Activision made more revenue on PS2 than the PS3 last year.

To be sure, both figures are respectable and end up in the same checking account. But it’s somewhat of a stinger for Sony, who has yet to foster significant momentum for the PS3—more than two years since its release—while the PS2 lingers.

In fairness, the PS2 has sold more than 140 million systems since 2000, while the PS3 has moved 20 million units since 2006. That’s a big gap. But the revenue anomaly is likely a sizable concern for growth, particularly if you’re Activision, not to mention Sony.

Contrary to popular belief, which suggests third-party publishers take a back seat on Nintendo platforms, Activision’s biggest console in 2008 was actually the Wii. Thanks primarily to brisk sales of Guitar Hero 3 and Guitar Hero World Tour, the company netted $407 million on the motion-sensing system.

Slightly behind the Wii was the Xbox 360, driving $361 million in revenues for Activision last year. Even though the Wii outsells the Xbox 360 by almost 2 to 1, Microsoft’s machine carries the reputation for being the most friendly to third-party publishers.

Cocaine is a hell of a drug. And so is World of Warcraft, at least according to a Swedish youth organization, which has dubbed the diversion “the cocaine of the computer games world.”

The report (which the Youth Care Foundation has not yet formally published), bases its findings on anecdotes from gamers, their parents, and its own observations, not a controlled study that actually compares the effects of playing World of Warcraft vs. the inhalation of powdered cocaine. Nevertheless, the group says that the addictive characteristics of WoW are powerful, with the foundation’s Sven Rollenhagen noting, “There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.” He has also added that the game is “the crack cocaine of the computer game world” and “the most dangerous game on the market.”

The foundation runs an addiction treatment center that is one of several that in recent years has expanded to include computer gaming.

To be sure, World of Warcraft has been the center of attention of numerous allegations that it can cause psychological or medical harm to players — up to and including death. In
2008 a Swedish kid collapsed after playing the game for 20 hours straight. Reports were similarly aghast when one Korean child died while its parents went to a cafe to play the game. And there’s plenty more where that came from. For some players, the game certainly does appear so addictive as to require an intervention from someone.

But is it really “as addictive as cocaine?” Well, that’s probably just a convenient metaphor… not a literal comparison.