Conservatively Geeky
MMOs have become pretty ubiquitous these days; it’s a safe bet that your clueless coworkers will at least know what World of Warcraft is, even if they look at you blankly when you launch into the finer points of theorycraft and epic lootz.
According to an article on MMORPG Examiner, however, there’s still a new market out there: the Middle East.
“The absence of MMO Game publishers in the region have resulted in the state of unawareness about the concept of MMO Gaming.
Many gamers in the region have no idea that there is a genre of games where you “live” at, play and interact with thousands of others, and improve your “game life” as you play your way through. Many starting players were confused at not being able to find the “Game Over” of the game, or at not being able to aim while shooting a monster.”
Seems a new company named Game Power 7 aims to change that, with a unique challenge: making MMOs more understandable to a completely different culture. GP7 took the free Asian MMO Rappelz and tailored it to their target audience.
One of the more startling changes is the lack of chainmail bikinis, illustrated at the slideshow at the bottom of the article. While the characters mostly retain their “fantasy” look, GP7 decided to make the outfits much less revealing to keep to the higher standards of female modesty in their target countries. (Sorry, guys; no more making a female alt and dancing in your underwear in front of the AH. Tragic, I know.)
Also interesting was the process of removing any religious symbols; again, on the premise of making the game more understandable (and, obviously, less contraversial), according to Fadi Mujahid, GM at GP7: “the original story talks about three races and three gods, which is very odd to our culture. We had to modify that to make it about three nations and three kings.”
I have to admit, I initially rolled my eyes at the whole process of “censoring” a MMO. But reading more into the story, it seems like Game Power 7 genuinely wants to bring a new style of gaming to a new market on their terms. While it may seem overly conservative to Western gamers, I think it makes sense to err on the side of caution and avoid inadvertently killing the emerging market.
Video games are a great uniting force, and the more we have in common with people from different cultures, the more we’ll realize that we’re all just geeks at heart.
[via MTV Multiplayer]