Frequency of access and hours doesn't really measure gamers loyalty

As Internet online gaming continues to grow in the Philippines, the battle is on among gaming companies to attract more members, play often, and build a loyal base of users. For Jessa Jamilla, assistant product manager and community manager of RAN Online, frequency of access and hours doesn't really measure loyalty. "We have gamers who play 24 hours a day and also gamers who turned out to be forum moderators but seldom play their characters. I think, loyal is being attached to the community no matter how often or seldom you play the game."

RAN Online is a campus-based massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG). "It has a contemporary style but was enveloped with mystery. If not all, most of us were once students. So, everyone can relate with the game. With RAN Online, you get to start your character as a student and as you level up more skills and more maps will unfold. The game is very easy to play but is challenging enough because of the other game features. I guess, these points make the gamers more attached to the game," Jessa explained.

The game currently has 300 active guilds. Each consists of 50 members, and may have a maximum of 3 more guild expansions. 80% are considered loyal. Jessa adds, "We consider our community as a new breed of gamers where most are really first timers. RAN Online is also built as a party-dependent game. The characters level up faster when they party-up with other characters. This feature made the gamers stick together, form real-life ‘barkadas’, and also bond families together."


Community managers like Jessa performs an important in leading the activities - interacting with the gamers, getting feedback and game-related concerns, conceptualizing events, and other ideas to bond the players together. "We ensure that our valued players are having the best gaming experience. We continuously come up with online and offline events for the players to meet the gaming experience they can't find in other games."

"Of all the gaming companies, we are proud to say that e-Games/RAN has very active game masters both in-game and through forums. The management's main objective is to make the players happy that's why our game master's are always there to assist and resolve problems as soon as possible."

Free2Play MMO Games by e-Games.com.ph

Here's a coverage made by Jason Cheng on this event.

MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games usually requires credits from the players or gamers to have more game time to play longer, gain more in-game items and be stronger, especially for the case of MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). Steve Tsao, Chief Operations Officer of IPVG Corporation had the idea of a youth-friendly and a flexible pay-to-look-cool solution for the gamers, which is the Free2Play model.

“I don’t expect the youth nowadays to spend too much on gaming, that’s why we thought of this solution for this kind of market,” Steve cited. The Free2Play model allows the gamers to have a choice to play the game all the way for free, or buy some in-game items if they want to have a flashy avatar or useful items which makes the player’s character much stronger. The breakdown of the game cards ranges from 20 e-Points card, 50 e-Points card and 100 e-Points card. e-Games currently have 2 games and an online community portal. The games are RAN Online and O2Jam, while Dreamville is the community portal.

RAN Online features a full 3D Oriental campus style setting where the students will have to defend their school against dangerous and evil monsters. Aside from selecting their school (Phoenix, Mystic Peak, and Sacred Gate Campus), players can also choose to assume any of the four fighting classes: hand-to-hand combat (Brawlers), Sword (Swordsman), Archery (Archers), and Qigong (Shamans), each class using different martial art styles, attributes, weapons and armors. “RAN Online is similar to the real world for the students, wherein they also have their assignments, projects, and the only thing that is different is, they are fighting for their respective schools.” Steve added. RAN Online has a total of 20,000+ active players daily, and a total of 250,000 registered users.

Their 2^nd game, O2Jam is the 1^st and only online music based game in the Philippines. Earn credits, gain experience, free your mind, and jam with your friends, purchase items to customize your avatar to your style and liking. O2Jam is similar to the music arcade games like Guitar Freakz, Drummzle Mania, Dance Dance Revolution, and the only difference is, it is keyboard based, and is MMO. “The game has plenty of gaming modes, like the single player mode, wherein you can choose a song and practice solo, then the multiplayer mode, wherein you compete with up to 8 players, and the couple mode, wherein two players share in one keyboard.” O2Jam Product Manager, Paolo Obles added. O2Jam will soon have OPM songs to be sold in game for only 40 e-Points.

Finally, for those who love joining in community portals: Dreamville, the only avatar based online community portal allows users to create their own Hompy (The shortcut for Home Page in Dreamville), have customizable avatar which represents the users themselves, and also allows users to use those avatars to talk with other users in the mini-world of Dreamville. You can even have a virtual space or lot in Dreamville! What’s more interesting here is, if you are a fan of Cueshe or Solice, you can see them active here walking around the world of Dreamville. Not just reaching out to music fans, but all of the people who are into the modern habits: texting, chatting, blogging, and playing online games. Dreamville is an integration of existing internet technologies such as blogging, instant messaging, and website generation. It is also the ‘melting pot’ for gamers of all kinds, both hardcore and casual, as well as the everyday internet user.

E-Games.com.ph Commercial Launch

I got invited this Friday for the commercial launch of e-Games game titles---RAN Online, O2 Jam, Battle Position, and Dreamville. I guess this will add to more income possibility to professional gamers for hire. Hmm..