MMORPGs - Do you know them?

MMORPG – “Massively Multi-player On-line Role Playing Game”, or more generally MMOG - “Massively Multi-player On-line Gaming”. Have you heard of it? You will.

Forrester has noticed:

“Huge communities like Habbo Hotel (which has 70 million registered accounts) and Cyworld (with 18 million registered accounts just in Korea) not only challenge MySpace.com as social networking destinations, but generate significant revenues from item transactions”

“World of Warcraft is the most popular current example of this type of virtual world — it had 8.5 million active subscribers as of March 2007, each paying up to $15 per month after an initial free trial period.”

(Forrester, March 20007 - The Real Business Of Virtual Worlds, by Paul Jackson)

The business is growing and some real money is at play. What is interesting to me is that it seems there is very little effort to leverage the potential advertising exposure opportunities withing this growing segment.

While there is no doubt that it is tricky in certain cases, it is doable. Some first hand experience: My son and I play FFXI – Final Fantasy XI On line. FFXI is more than a simple game, it is truly a digital world. On our server alone there are no less than 2000 players on-line at any given time. Square Enix maintains some 20 servers for FFXI. The game is immersive and can be played indefinitely, there really is no “end” or “winning”. Players create teams, groups, and do hundreds of missions, quests, and other things together. You can have a career such as cooking or blacksmith; you can marry other players; and you can “skill-up” in literally dozens of areas. Most players play for many years. As with other games of this type, a real-world economy exists around the purchase and sales of in-game items and currency.

Surprisingly, there is zero advertising in this experience. One reason is that there would be no way to advertise in the game itself. You have to realize that the game is fantasy space, it would ruin the effect of a virtual other-world to have Coke and Nike logos all over the place. However, let us not be so narrow. A few ideas:

• There are many other interfaces as you log on and manage your account. A brand could absolutely buy space in the log-on, billing, messaging, account, and other areas.

• Sponsorships are another fertile ground. A brand could gain massive exposure and impact by offering to pick-up ½ the subscription fees for a month; or they could work with the game publisher to create a hot new in-game item.

• There could also be brand reps in game. EA, a huge player in gaming, could hire someone to organize an EA group within WOW, FFXI, or another game. By leveraging the resources of a large company such as EA the members of such a group could gain some interesting benefits.

• Points and rebates could be offered in the form on in-game currency or items.

These are just a few ideas. This area will continue to grow. It will expand into different devices, business application, broader audiences and more.

J