The arcade action play and the ability to use a game pad heightens the appeal of Lunia Gold to the millions of console players outside of Asia. Lunia also was designed to target the global market of manga readers which is exploding in popularity in North America.

Can you explain some of the decision-making processes involved in successfully rolling out a traditional Asian MMO stateside?

RW: It starts with choosing a good developer to partner with. We look for a developer that really wants to be successful outside of their home markets and understands the need to localize the game and the game's business model for the targeted export market. While this seems straightforward, we have found that, when working with Korean developers in particular, there can often time be a strong resistance to change even small things in the game and changes are slow-coming in general.

We also have found that Korean developers tend to manage the development lifecycle of the game in a manner that is not optimal for internet-delivered content, which is a significantly faster tempo than what is required to be successful in the PC Cafe markets of Asia . North American online games need to be operated in a very on-demand and just-in-time update-driven manner, while the PC Cafe market in Asia is very similar to the enterprise software arena in North America and Europe where things are tightly controlled, risk mitigation is more important than user satisfaction, processes are locked on-rails, and changes are made on slow, predictable schedules.

We also look for games that can be localized with minimum code changes. This means the game has been designed to easily change text, sounds, and character avatar appearance. Most importantly, the gameplay needs to be something we feel will be appealing to North American gamers, and more specifically, gamers that we feel are underserved by the current market offerings. With Lunia Gold, we identified an ideal mix of these things and have found Allm to be a very good developer to partner with.

What kind of audience in North America is interested in a game like Lunia? Is it similar to the Asian user base?

RW: The casual RPG elements in the game combined with the strong solo and small team focus -- which is a hallmark for a lot of Asian MMORPGs -- allows us to reach out to the huge numbers of gamers who do not have 18 hours or more a week to invest in the World of Warcraft and Everquest-type of games which we see as very niche, legacy products that are leaving tens of millions of MMORPG gamers’ needs unfulfilled.