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Slithereen
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Posted - 2004.06.18 02:28:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Slithereen on 18/06/2004 02:32:07
Edited by: Slithereen on 18/06/2004 02:31:14
Is it possible to have an MMO with a million concurrent users?
According to this, it's been done.
The article goes on with healthy tips what it would take to penetrate the mainland Chinese and Asian markets.
Massively Multiplayer Gaming in China
Did you think Korea was the world's largest market, or the US? We look at the unchallenged but unknown leader.
http://www.chinastudygroup.org/print.php?type=news&id=6081
ign.com
2004-06-16
Richard Aihoshi
http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/523/523616p1.html
Around mid- to late 2000, for the vast majority of gamers and the gaming media in North America and Europe, it was a well known fact that the world's three most popular titles in the massively multiplayer category were Sony's EverQuest, Origin's Ultima Onlineand Turbine's Asheron's Call. However, there was just one not so tiny catch. It wasn't true. The old aphorism "out of sight, out of mind" proved to be more than a cliche. On the other side of the globe, NCsoft's Lineage: The Bloodpledge was virtually unknown in the west. Nonetheless, it had accumulated a far larger player base than any of the US-based offerings. For reasons ranging from differences between revenue models to outright denial, it took some time for both this and the understanding that the Korean market is the largest to gain broad acceptance."
"There's just one not so tiny catch. It isn't true. Not any more. Despite a lower rate of Internet penetration, the People's Republic of China has taken over the leadership position. Naturally, even a small proportion of the population there represent an enormous number of players. As for what they're playing, it's perhaps no surprise to see that, again, the one heading the pack is virtually unknown in the west. From the latest figures we've seen, it's Wemade Entertainment's The Legend of Mir 2. How big is it? Well, it's absolutely huge... and that may be an understatement. Western developer and publishers dream of reaching a million accounts, and the closest is only about halfway there. In contrast, Legend of Mir 2 has reportedly surpassed a million **simultaneous** users. With the help of some friends, we managed to learn more."
Read more for the rest of the article.
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"Is it me or the bad guys just getting totally pathetic?"---Clover, Totally Spies,
"Hope is wasted on the Hopeless."---Mandy, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
"Stars are holes in the sky from which the light of the Infinite shine through."---Confucius.
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Slithereen
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Posted - 2004.06.18 02:33:00 -
[2]
More from the article.
"Domestic online world development started later, but is growing rapidly, and such projects are gaining market share. Among the most popular are Shanda's The World of Legend, Kingsoft's JX Online, Netease' Westward Journey Online II and Object Software's Prince of Qin Online. As well, a Japanese endeavor thought to be among the country's top 10 is Square Enix' Crossgate. Interestingly, although the numbers are not directly comparable, the latter company has stated this endeavor has over 10 million members in China, Taiwan and Japan, and that Final Fantasy XI has over half a million subscriptions.
Among the names listed in the two preceding paragraphs, you'll notice that not a single one was developed in North America or Europe. Indeed, we have yet to see one from either of those regions achieve a significant level of success. The factors and reasons contributing to this are fairly numerous. One we can outline, although it's something of a sweeping generalization encompassing multiple facets, is that Chinese online gamers tend to differ from their western counterparts in terms of personal and group preferences. For instance, a strong narrative is very important; we're reliably informed that the non-existent average massively multiplayer game in that country is far more story-driven that we're accustomed to in the west, with considerably more text to read. Famous incidents or periods from Chinese or oriental history comprise the prevalent thematic trend, often with elements of legend or eastern-flavored fantasy mixed in."
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"Is it me or the bad guys just getting totally pathetic?"---Clover, Totally Spies,
"Hope is wasted on the Hopeless."---Mandy, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
"Stars are holes in the sky from which the light of the Infinite shine through."---Confucius.
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Haratu
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Posted - 2004.06.18 03:14:00 -
[3]
Having a lot of chinese friends that have recently immigrated from china i understand their connection to a good story...
They are generally bored easily by simple hack and slash stuff that requires no thinking, rather they like to occupy their minds with something more tangible.
I think the chinese have grasped something most westerners have forgotten... what it means to think.
I roleplay... there is this computer game called "Earth - The First Genesis" where i play a character in the early 21st century. |
Ichabod Dirange
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Posted - 2004.06.18 03:27:00 -
[4]
...and with that young grasshopper you're deep fried. 
One has to wonder what would become of EVE with 1 billion screaming chinamen storming the server. Would it be any different than the Curse russian eBay express?
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Warsawa
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Posted - 2004.06.18 04:50:00 -
[5]
 Originally by: Ichabod Dirange
...and with that young grasshopper you're deep fried.
One has to wonder what would become of EVE with 1 billion screaming chinamen storming the server. Would it be any different than the Curse russian eBay express?
It would make a great movie though.
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Ryco
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Posted - 2004.06.18 06:22:00 -
[6]
I think that the simultaneous statement is misleading. I would bet anything these 1 million "simultaneous" users were logged on over 100 or more different servers and not connected to eachother in any way(other then playing the same game). Other then that though, the Asian market is insanely lucrative compared to US or European market.
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Kerosene
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Posted - 2004.06.18 06:50:00 -
[7]
China is mad for Mir. This is helped by the fact that it has low system requirements. My cousin plays it all the time and essentially it looks like Diablo 2 to me so make of that what you will. I certainly didn't see any involved thinking storylines etc but that's by the by.
In China you can't move for internet cafe's. They are cheap as well as ADSL is prevelant in most urbanised areas with no bandwidth cap. Computer specs required to play Mir 2 are minimal which is just as well because I can tell you now, most of China is at least a year behind in terms of hardware. I went looking for a decent KV8 mobo and a AMD 64 and it was like pulling teeth.
China are also very very social compared to the west. Their idea of a good time is either drinking or playing and they do both to excess in a lot of cases. Mahjong is being replaced by Mir for the younger generations. As it is a MMORPG it's a social activity so they are getting their 'social' buzz that way.
Bad times ahead though. the PRC government are started to look at clamping down in internet cafes and indeed have closed a lot down in major cities citing public health reasons. They've come to the conclusion sitting in front of a computer for 8+ hours a day playing MMORPG's are a bad thing so the only thing they can do is restrict the availability of the game.
Lots of reasons why China are ahead of the game in terms of MMORPG players.
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TGIF
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Posted - 2004.06.18 07:21:00 -
[8]
Lineage had 100.000's of players, but they had 20-40 servers to cope with that ammount. I believe 5000 was the set limit per shard.
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Absinthe Fueled |
CHuskarl
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Posted - 2004.06.18 08:38:00 -
[9]
Originally by: Kerosene
China is mad for Mir. This is helped by ......
that's true, at least to teenager
the highest online record is 1M+ as they said
2004.10.09 02:38:01combatYour 800mm Repeating Artillery I perfectly strikes Sansha's Ravager, wrecking for 277.2 damage. |
HateClown
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Posted - 2004.06.18 09:10:00 -
[10]
Originally by: Ichabod Dirange
...and with that young grasshopper you're deep fried.
One has to wonder what would become of EVE with 1 billion screaming chinamen storming the server. Would it be any different than the Curse russian eBay express?
did u ebayed something, old guy?
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Oveur
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Posted - 2004.06.18 09:45:00 -
[11]
Yeah, the Asia markets are generally considered the most profitable MMOG markets, but as stated in that article, no "western" MMOG has been succesfull there.
They are also using the standard MMOG model where you have individual sharded worlds, each shard seldomely housing more than 5000-7000 simultaenous players, but of course have 100's of shards running.
_____________________________
I say hey sky, s'other say I won say, I pray to J I get the same ol' same ol. |
Bsport
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Posted - 2004.06.18 09:49:00 -
[12]
Edited by: Bsport on 18/06/2004 09:50:15
has ccp throught about showing them eve, or is it no woth the effort
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|~~~| I run out of money, so bunny has been
| OIL | grounded down to make grease for my
|____| rifter- poor bunny
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Coret Trobane
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Posted - 2004.06.18 10:44:00 -
[13]
How many milliseconds do you think it would take eve's servers to crash if 100,000 or more chinese guys logged on? :p
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Calavera
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Posted - 2004.06.18 10:58:00 -
[14]
Originally by: Bsport
Edited by: Bsport on 18/06/2004 09:50:15
has ccp throught about showing them eve, or is it no woth the effort
Considering they are adding 2 new asian bloodlines in Shiva, I'd say they've thought about it 
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Aesyetes
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Posted - 2004.06.18 17:23:00 -
[15]
There's a Korean MMORPG called Cyworld that has six million members -- obviously they don't all log in at the same time. You need a Korean ID card to get an account on it, and 13% of the population play it.
More here:
Digital Lifestyles
A
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Maya Rkell
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Posted - 2004.06.18 17:48:00 -
[16]
Originally by: Oveur
Yeah, the Asia markets are generally considered the most profitable MMOG markets, but as stated in that article, no "western" MMOG has been succesfull there.
That's not entirely true. Ultima Online does fairly well in Japan.
"As far as I can tell, It doesn't matter who you are, If you can believe there's something worth fighting for " - Garbage, "Parade" |
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