We caught up with Min Kim, Director of Game Operations at Nexon America, at today's MI6 Conference. We spoke to him about yesterday's panel, and his thoughts and experiences about the free-to-play game space.
GameCyte: You spoke yesterday on a panel called “The Next New Game,” which seemed to focus entirely on what are termed “Casual MMOs” and “Social Games.” Do you think that is, overall, the next new game? Are we going to see a lot more of these becoming prevalent?
Min Kim: I think so. I like to classify it more as “Free to Play” (F2P) gaming because “Casual” seems so raw. The F2P market, I think, is definitely something that is an unmet demand that the consumer has; in terms of going online, F2P games are an inevitable movement that’s happening here in the US. We’re not saying retail is going to go away, but people are looking for that social experience—not just playing a console game, but being able to hang out with people online and do social things.
GC: You mentioned yesterday that you feel the word “Casual” is a dangerous word to use for your games. You would prefer to use F2P?
MK: It’s hard to do—I don’t think anyone’s picked a really snazzy, cool name yet. Trying to convey the F2P message is hard to do, because you’re trying to explain a lot of different things, and the consumer out there right now really doesn’t understand our business model. For example, when we were at Digital Life showing a demo of Kart Rider, they said “Oh, this game is cool. Where do I buy this? It’s free to play? I don’t get it; where do I pick it up?” And we tell them, you go to the website, download it, install it, sign in, and you can play against other people over the internet. “Ohhhh, I get it.” But it’s that whole process of explaining what it is, and a lot of the mainstream audience doesn’t get that yet.
GC: You also mentioned there’s a common misconception about F2P games being of lower quality—that you-get-what-you-pay-for mentality. What has Nexon done to work against that, say, for Maple Story?
MK: It’s also a basic thing, like when you’re walking down the street, and someone says, “Hey, take this, it’s free.” Immediately, you’re a little bit defensive, and you want to see whether there’s value in that or not. So, you’ve got a little bit of that, but some of that has also come from the industry itself, because Maple Story has been so successful here in the states, that a lot of Asian companies are now localizing their products. Speeding them out; shipping them out here and hoping to make a buck, and some of those localization jobs have really not been that great. So, in the beginning, when we’re trying to get you guys to talk to us, you say, “Oh, that’s an Asian import? That’s not going to work here.” It’s been bad—not just that, it’s also people taking games that weren’t even successful in Asia and bringing them over here. I’m not saying that those are necessarily all bad games, but some of them are pretty bad. It’s been kind of tough for us.
What we try to do is, our games are the leading games, so we make sure that the localization is done responsibly. I’ve been challenging other publishers that are starting up in the states: If you’re going to localize a product and bring it over here, make sure you do it right. Don’t do a hack job, because it gives the industry a tough time in terms of moving forward.
GC: You’ve also noted how much more prevalent the F2P market is in Korea and other parts of Asia as compared to its success here in the US. Why do you think that is?
MK: For one, I think, in Korea we don’t really have a console market. Also, the infrastructure is there… there are a lot of these basic elements that are just starting up in the states now. We saw the same thing in Korea before, where you start with people using the internet for email and stuff, and then they go into actually “living” on the internet. If you look at a lot of teens now, they’re on Facebook, on MySpace, they’re not just using the internet for email. Once you start doing that, it’s that much easier to get them into the game, because now they’re looking for a more dynamic social experience, something that’s a little bit richer… and that’s online gaming.
GC: You mentioned, with Maple Story, that you’ve marketed with 7-Eleven Tie-ins; we’ve seen your ads on television… are those similar tactics to what’s used to promote the game in Korea?
MK: Some of our ideas, we’ve taken from Korea, but we’re trying to be creative and figure out what’s going to work in this market. The stage that we’re at, in this market, is completely different from what we’ve got in Korea. If you look at Maple Story in Korea, I think the install base is, I would guess, over 17 million, and that’s using a social security system so that you don’t have repeats. That’s probably over 25% of the population. It’s extremely mass-market over there, while not even close over here, yet. A lot of people probably still don’t know, not just what Maple Story is, but what type of experience F2P games are.
GC: In yesterday’s panel, you made some remarks about WoW’s core audience being young adults because they are more financially empowered. Is this really less of a hindrance in a micropayment model? Won’t the same obstacle come up for your younger audience needing access to money?
MK: We don’t make money off of every player that’s playing our game. I think a subscription model caters to one type of player: somebody that’s got a credit card, that’s psychologically willing to put down $15 a month to buy the boxed product. There’s a lot of people out there that are looking for a social experience that they don’t have to necessarily commit to, up front, and then you’ve got everybody below 18 that doesn’t have a credit card, that wants to have this rich MMO experience, but they don’t have a credit card and don’t want to ask mom to buy it. Do we make money off of every player that comes into the game? No. We make money off of a minority. People have come to me and said, “Well, that business kind of sucks, because if you’ve got a hundred people in there and only a couple are paying, how is that a good business model?” Well, we get that many more people playing the game. Maple Story, right now, is probably the #2 or #3 MMO in the states in terms of revenue. If you get a lot of players in there, a small percentage is paying, but that’s still a considerable number. I think one thing that people don’t consider is that people are content for other people.
GC: You’ve spoken about the ability of MMO developers to keep their games fluid based on community feedback. What is the biggest change ever made to a Nexon game based on player suggestions?
MK: A lot of the changes are made in Korea, and I can’t really speak to those—I’m not sure which ones they find out or listen for feedback on. In the states, I can think of a couple of things… some of it’s really been the timing of releases. Maple Story’s been around since 2003, so the players that are playing here in the states know the different things that have been released overseas, and they demand, “I want this, I want that,” and we’ve got to schedule it in with the development teams. There are customer service-type things; we get a lot of inquiries and we try to take care of those issues.
In terms of actual features that we’ve built into the game, the wedding system was something that was completely different. We knew that the Chinese wedding system that we had overseas wasn’t really going to work here, so we turned that into a Vegas-style wedding. We still constantly listen to what our players have to say.
GC: On the subject of customer service—with the business model you described, of going for high, high volumes of players in order to get that small percentage of paying customers to grow, how does that affect your customer service operations, in terms of things like in-game support?
MK: We don’t necessarily get flooded—you would think that we would!—with a lot of “nonsense” inquiries. Initially, when we started the business, we thought we would. We don’t answer questions about quests or things like that, we direct them to the message boards or different game guides. It really hasn’t been a problem up to this point.
GC: Not even for issues like theft or fraud, or in-game complaints?
MK: We get our share of people phishing accounts and things like that, but we do our best to get those back. I think we do a pretty decent job; I think we offer one of the best customer supports, especially considering that it’s a free game, and a lot of the people that are asking for support are not paying customers—but in the future, they can be. So, every customer that comes in, whether they’re paying or not, is important.
GC: When can we expect to see Kart Rider back again?
MK: No comment. [laughs] It’s coming! It won’t be for… I can’t give you an exact date right now, but not too long.
We would like to thank Min for taking the time to speak with us at GameCyte. We’ll have updates when Kart Racer is back.
WHAT?! psh. WHEN IS IT GONNA COME BACK!? At least notify us [KartRider fans] on how nexon is doing with the updates! At least "yes, it's gonna come [estimate] really sorry.. YADIYAH. Yet you guys are giving us crap, saying it's gonna come back BEFORE 2009. Dude that's like a 5 month gap.. Are you fricking kidding us? Even though there may be only 100 people who play this game, at least it's 100 people who won't give up on it. And no, I'm saying that you guys ARE giving up on Kart Rider. But it seems fairly long.. like what if Maplestory is closed for 4 months + you'd be ruined, right? For the rich-gaming experience, it doesn't matter on the quantity, but the quality. So, I do not see what the heck is taking so long.
I just want KartRider back before Christmas! So many memories of playing KartRider with the Christmas soundtrack playing in the background, *sigh* I really miss KartRider! Please bring it back quickly! :'(
[...] some lingering worries that the rise of so-called casual gaming spells doom for the hardcore enthusiast, 2008 continues to prove those fears unfounded with the [...]
Min Kim: I think so. I like to classify it more as “Free to Play” (F2P) gaming because “Casual” seems so raw. The F2P market, I think, is definitely something that is an unmet demand that the consumer has; in terms of going online, F2P games are an inevitable movement that’s happening here in the US. We’re not saying retail is going to go away, but people are looking for that social experience—not just playing a console game, but being able to hang out with people online and do social things.
MK: It’s also a basic thing, like when you’re walking down the street, and someone says, “Hey, take this, it’s free.” Immediately, you’re a little bit defensive, and you want to see whether there’s value in that or not. So, you’ve got a little bit of that, but some of that has also come from the industry itself, because Maple Story has been so successful here in the states, that a lot of Asian companies are now localizing their products. Speeding them out; shipping them out here and hoping to make a buck, and some of those localization jobs have really not been that great. So, in the beginning, when we’re trying to get you guys to talk to us, you say, “Oh, that’s an Asian import? That’s not going to work here.” It’s been bad—not just that, it’s also people taking games that weren’t even successful in Asia and bringing them over here. I’m not saying that those are necessarily all bad games, but some of them are pretty bad. It’s been kind of tough for us.
MK: We don’t make money off of every player that’s playing our game. I think a subscription model caters to one type of player: somebody that’s got a credit card, that’s psychologically willing to put down $15 a month to buy the boxed product. There’s a lot of people out there that are looking for a social experience that they don’t have to necessarily commit to, up front, and then you’ve got everybody below 18 that doesn’t have a credit card, that wants to have this rich MMO experience, but they don’t have a credit card and don’t want to ask mom to buy it. Do we make money off of every player that comes into the game? No. We make money off of a minority. People have come to me and said, “Well, that business kind of sucks, because if you’ve got a hundred people in there and only a couple are paying, how is that a good business model?” Well, we get that many more people playing the game. Maple Story, right now, is probably the #2 or #3 MMO in the states in terms of revenue. If you get a lot of players in there, a small percentage is paying, but that’s still a considerable number. I think one thing that people don’t consider is that people are content for other people.
MK: No comment. [laughs] It’s coming! It won’t be for… I can’t give you an exact date right now, but not too long.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
WHAT?! psh. WHEN IS IT GONNA COME BACK!? At least notify us [KartRider fans] on how nexon is doing with the updates! At least "yes, it's gonna come [estimate] really sorry.. YADIYAH. Yet you guys are giving us crap, saying it's gonna come back BEFORE 2009. Dude that's like a 5 month gap.. Are you fricking kidding us? Even though there may be only 100 people who play this game, at least it's 100 people who won't give up on it. And no, I'm saying that you guys ARE giving up on Kart Rider. But it seems fairly long.. like what if Maplestory is closed for 4 months + you'd be ruined, right? For the rich-gaming experience, it doesn't matter on the quantity, but the quality. So, I do not see what the heck is taking so long.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:36 am
I just want KartRider back before Christmas! So many memories of playing KartRider with the Christmas soundtrack playing in the background, *sigh* I really miss KartRider! Please bring it back quickly! :'(