Growing Online / Gaming Content Market in Singapore

Last year in August 2008, there was an article on Business Times about a Frost research estimating Singapore's online content market to see robust growth reaching US$23.82 million in 2008. It seems the figure is estimated to reach US$120million by 2013. Some more details about the Frost research can be found in this article.

I was pretty skeptical about the figures initially. However, these few days there were reports of Singapore developers earning big bucks with their online games. One such group of developers is the Tyler Projects who developed Battle Stations on Facebook. According to this Straits Times article they are cashing in monthly sales of over $50,000. Not bad for a group of relatively new games developers. It does appear that online gaming (whether via gaming clients or social networking platforms) is fueling online content growth.

The growth of gaming locally has attracted the attention of big boys as well. Another Straits Times article (20 Feb 09) noted that Japanese gaming giant Koei has decided to hire 30 to 60 more staff for Singapore office. I think they had pretty good experience developing the 'Romance of the Three Kingdom Online' in Singapore. What is weird is that the Romance of Three Kingdom Online is not available to the Singapore gamer.

Other than the gaming developers, there are also more exhibitions planned for Singapore. Aside from the annual Games Convention Asia, there is also the Games XPO 2009 scheduled for July 2009 (see article). With all these activities, no wonder even the 9 years old kids are dabbling with games development (see article about 9 years old iPhone apps developer).

Seems like the August 2008 article is quite reliable after all. Maybe I should think about quitting my job to be a games developer, lolz.

Pet Society in Facebook

With so many applications in Facebook, one is often spoilt for choices. Recently I found an interesting apps 'Pet Society' by Playfish. The game is pretty simple, where the player raised a pet, and let the pet engages in various activities e.g. visiting friends, running races...etc. There is also the interactive part where the player could decorate the house of the pets with wall papers, furniture...etc.

Below is a screenshot of the 'Pet Society'. The three bars on the right denotes 'health', 'happiness', and cleanliness. Feeding the pet with food will raise the health bar. Playing with the pets by engaging in various activities could raise the happiness bar. Cleaning the pet with the soap given by the apps will help with the cleanliness bar of the pet. The upper left corner shows the number of coins and the centre top bar shows the level / 'paw points' (i.e. experience) of the pet. Raising levels for the pet will give the pet more rooms, and the house of the pet will also look bigger on the overall map. It is better to save the game (the disk icon located at upper right) before exiting 'Pet Society'.

Coins form an essential part of the 'Pet Society' and the player needs to participate in activities to earn the coins. Some of the ways include

• visiting friends to 'hug', 'tell a joke', 'kiss' (but not fighting though) etc which results in 20 coins per visit per day
• winning bet races, or participating in these races could also earn the pet coins. During races, pick up the banana skins for more coins! (screen shot below)
  
• or else the player could also play the frisbee, ball, or skipping ropes given by the apps with the pet for coins and trophies. Getting trophies is another way of earning coins
• merely logging in everyday means the 'Pet Society' application will give a 'lottery' prize per day to give between 50 and 500 coins
• walk among the trees and the pet could randomly get 2 coins (another screen shot below). If the player logs out of the game and logs in again, the 'trees giving coins' function is reset
• clean the pet or your friends' pets when the health bar is low, will also result in coins
• place the mouse cursor (not soup bar or brush) on your pet and press it while moving the cursor up and down, will also result in coins
  

Pets Racing at the Stadium

Pet getting coins radomly from the trees


List of trophies that the pet can get

Other than the stadium (for races), there are many shops for the pet to visit. There are the furniture and DIY shops for the pet to purchase household items. Some of the items could be animated for effects when the player clicks on it, e.g. the radio, TV set, lava lamp etc. There is also the food shop to buy various foods for the pet. The items could be given to other pets as gifts, or be sold for coins. If the player is tired of the pet's looks, it can be changed at the Stylist shop. Clothes and Luxury shops sell different items like clothes, rings, accessories, etc. If the player wants to visit pets of other people (non-friends), the player could go to the cafe and see the other pets. More shops are added as the developers enhanced the Pet Society apps.

Depending on the occasions, there could be 'special' items for sale. For example Valentine Day related items (flowers, bears, heart shaped decos) are on sale currently. During the Lunar New Year 2-3 weeks back, another set of items were on sale in the shops. Playfish is somewhat diligent in producing new items each week. There are also 3 different categories of mystery boxes which may give special items not found in the shops to the pets.

These are but brief description of the game. While this is essentially a social casual game with minimal depth, it is nonetheless a somewhat addictive game. Log in at the forum to see what other fans think about it, and get a pet yourself to try it!

See also:
- Pet Society - New Gardens Function

Fullmetal Alchemist 2 - April 2009

Read the news that Fullmetal Alchemist 2 will debut in Japan on 5th April 2009.

There is some doubt whether this is a re-make or is it a sequel, with story carrying on from the movie. Nonetheless you can take a look at the trailer from this website: http://www.hagaren.jp/special/trailer.html

There is also a second version of the trailer circulating around in the Internet but I've not obtain a copy yet. The 1st run of Fullmetal Alchemist is great, and hopefully this would be a sequel and not re-make.

Blooming of the free browser based online games

Those who have played MUD (pure text based multi-user dungeon) games in the past would know that there were a large number of different MUDs to choose from. When online games with graphical interfaces became popular, there were inclinations of free games with large thick clients, i.e. you have to download a large files (typically in the hundreds of megabytes) before you can play the game. In part this is due to lack of high speed connectivity since graphics and video will consume a large Internet bandwidth. In part the advance of gaming interfaces with ever more realisetic graphics for PC games, demand that other online games provide a minimal degree of good graphics.

Today, despite the increase in bandwidth, there seems to be a trend of a blooming free browser based online games. A simple search would have reveal many. Other than Travian (browser based strategy game), which I covered quite extensively in other blog posts, let me give a few other examples.

Thos who prefer Role-playing games with character stats to manage, we have Domain of Heroes. This is truly a simple RPG game; nothing complicated about skills or character stats. Items and quests are fairly straight forward. There is a good story plot, but the overall simplicity may not attract a large group of gamers. Domain of Heroes is part of the examples of newly created browser based games on the Internet. Revenue is earned by advertising and also user purchase of 'wishes' that allow for other in games activity, e.g. creation of guilds.

Not everything is new in these fields of browser based games. A different example would be Nile Online. Those who have played Children of Nile (e.g. me!) would find this game particularly interesting because it is sort of the same game, i.e. playing Children of the Nile together with hundreds of other players. Trading becomes important, and yes, Nile Online allows for trading of the 'bread' (in game currency) with resources. Would there be a trend of translating existing popular PC based games (e.g. Children of the Nile) into multiplayer persistent online games? Perhaps... there are a large potential and attractiveness for such games because the learning curve o play the online version would be much shorter.

Another category of free browser based games would be those provided via social networking sites. An example is Elven Blood that one could access via Facebook. The interface, gameplay and other mechanics are simple, and there is the added advantage of you playing with those among your own social network. The drawback is that you have to invite more people in order to explore certain part of the game realm. Nonehteless, the fact the game provides certain interface with your own social network is enough to draw more casual players into the game.

These are but examples of a few free browser based online games, and I'm sure there are many other categories of such games.

Gold farmers will be taxed?

It is interesting how the world of gold farming has evolved. Sometime back in August 2008, there was a report of an academic analysis of gold farming and I must say the report gave a pretty decent coverage of the entire gold farming industry, from the historical development to the breakdown of the different industry elements.

Subsequently in October 2008, there were some journalists in Singapore who decided to give the whole gold farm / transaction a try (i.e. purchase gold), and they provided a good account of the whole incident.

In a short span of a few months, i.e. 17 December 2008, an article (Straits Times) about gold farming taxes appeared in the news. Lolz. The article reported that the Korean National Tax Service had declared that gold farmers who earn more than 12 million won in 6 months would have to register as a business, declare their earnings and pay income tax. Apparently there are also gold farmers in Singapore, who earn income of about S$2,000 a month.

Wow! I wonder what next? A global conference for gold farmers? Legal debates about the legalities with gold farmers defending themselves in public against the anit-farmers? Would paying tax legalise and legitimise gold farming? Hmm interesting development of a semi-legitimate sub-industry.

Death Knight in Wrath of the Lich King

There are many discussions and blog posts about the new hero class - Death Knight (DK), released in the latest WoW expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" (魔兽世界：巫妖王之怒). Instead of launching into the merits or a guide of how to play the DK, let me show a few screen shots I took of the initial quests of DK. These initial quests provide talent points for the level 55 DK, and give an introductory story to guide DK into the WoW (魔兽世界) .

The conversations in the screen shots above and below hinted at the life of the player before he/she turned into a DK, and alluded to the possibility of a DK to turn 'good' again in WoW.

Here's the other screen shots of the 'final battle' at Eastern Plagueland between Arthas (i.e. Lich King)'s forces and the Scarlet / Argent Dawn armies. It is this battle where the DK forces 'turned' good when the commander of the DK forces awakened from the dark side.

Again the conversations are pretty interesting. The entire 'introductory' quest and story of DK are well planned, and I think this is what sets WoW apart from many other 'hack and slash' MMORPG with little storyline to offer.

Singapore's Tangs joined others in Second Life

Seems like our famous shopping retailer in Orchard has joined others in setting up a Second Life store. Folks who want to buy the clothes and items from the Tangs store could use Linden dollars or the First Meta credit cards to pay.

pay for their purchases in Linden dollars, the game's currency, or via a virtual credit card. Credit card bills are paid monthly in Linden dollars, which can be traded for real money

The Second Life craze has caught up with our local retailers, but I just wonder if it is a bit too late in joining the craze. Earlier retailers who joined Second Life has reaped all the good publicity. Maybe Tangs should look at Facebook with its 140 million users instead of Second Life with its 13 million users. Oh well, NUS's second Life is also hyping up, and so there are still a good number of users who would be interested.

After Second Life, what's next? Facebook, Twitter, and?