NDOORS CEO on Atlantica Online succeeding in the West

Well, if he wants the game to succeed in the western world he should first try to make it look a tad more western to begin with. I mean its like that in any "asian" MMO:
1st the chicks wear basically nothing. That is not a good way to make my wife play it. Besides it is totally out of place in a fantasy themed MMO.
2. Proportions of characters are totally exaggerated. The faces too. Hair looks like out of an Anime- nightmare (I hate Anime, stone me!)
3. swords are about 4 meters long and hammers have the size of a Volkswagen.
4. Every other time a character will hit the ground with the Volkswagen Hammer, or a sword, or a staff to cause totally exaggerated shaking of the screen a tsunami of effects and other havock that makes my head hurt...
5. Content is mostly grind, more grind and then some grind.
How am I doing so far?
Anyway as long as all that is the case in asian MMOs, I will pass...

Times are changing quite quickly atm and the F2P model, or at least the addition of micro transaction is having a rather huge impact on the mmo world. It's hard to tell what the future business will look like because it's hard to tell what gamers are willing to live with and how much money they are willing to fork over.

@ Skipjack

- Your opinions about the art direction are highly subjective. I'm a woman and absolutely love the Asian art style, busty women with next to no armor? Sweet! Seriously it's a matter of opinion. Many western fantasy artists used this style too, look it up. Same goes with the style of combat moves, it's not for everyone but to say most westerners hate it is dead wrong.

- Grind is starting to disappear from all games, yes even with the F2P models. Anyone who will want to make more money out of the model will have to put in more content and less grind. Or maybe more ways to PvP and gather extra points instead of a huge and slow level grind.

I can't stand the text in this game. So badly translated, it's like it was done by the Korean dev team (and even though almost all Korean language MMOs translated into English are like this, it's still no excuse).

I believe we're truly now experiencing the 'second wave' of Asian free-to-plays arriving on western shores, and Atlantica's success is a great indicator of even better things to come.

I've heard nothing but good things from every source concerning Atlantica Online. I personally like the art style of Asian MMOs a lot and the old skool turn based combat looks like it might be really nice for a change of pace from the current crop of P2P MMOs. I was trying to download it yesterday with no luck as filefront was being flaky> I hope this game is a great success in the west and will push developers into realizing that you don't have to be a WoW/EQ clone to be profitable.

Ok, I have one question about the game: Are there NPC mobs to fight, or are all your opponents humans? In ohter words, is their PvE, or is it totally a PvP game?

I should have mentioned that I am a 3d artist by profession (though lately more involved with graphics software development). I see this asian, particularily korean art style everywhere these days. It is totally flooding the art industry. It is ridiculous, if you ask me. Not matter how you look at it a string tanga- armor piece is ridiculous, as is a 4m long sword. There is nothing, nothing appealing about this unless you are a 12 year old boy who just discovers that things are starting to move down there when he sees some half naked pixels on the screen.
Cindy, I dont know about your sexual orientation... and maybe you are the exception to the rule. I dont know. Anyway, this stuff looks stupid and cheap and I cant stand it, just like I cant stand the cartoon shows that kids these days consume. With extreme dumb female characters with overdone proportions that giggle with high pitched voices because thats all a woman is supposedly capable of (according to asian mentality anyway).
When entering a japanese subway, the order is this:
Japanese men, foreign men, Japanese women, foreign women. Knowing this might make you look at the asian artwork differently (maybe not).
In addition to this the asian artwork is cheap. Artists there are worth nothing. You work on an MMO there, you are number(!) 500 something in an office with exactly 2 feet space for your workspace. Thats the way it is, like it or not.
If you want to support that, sure, go ahead.

"Skipjack, your comments are borderline racist and sexist."
I wont even go to comment on this. Considering that I was critizising the underlying sexism in asian artwork in the first place.
On tolerance. You know nothing about me. How can you even say that? I stated nothing but facts. Facts can not be sexist, or racist or whatever. Be careful with who you are accusing of what. You dont know anything about me. Calling someone racist for not liking an artstyle, is like calling a black rapper who does not like Mozart the same thing...

"that's right - because swordsmanship is still a popular pastime in Japan, just like gunmanship is in the West"
I have practiced several blade fighting arts myself. I do even own a medieval sword (old, not a replica).
I have payed several visits to our local, world famous, medieval armory. I do really, really like this kind of stuff. What I have never seen, are swords longer than 2 meters. There were twohanded 2 meter (at the very most) long swords. They were used to push knights of their horses. They were wielded by the strongest and tallest foot soldiers. They were NOT the norm.
They were almost impossible to hold up for an extended period of time, not even talking about actually fighting a sword fight with them.
They are still dwarved by the depictions of blade weapons in most asian fantasy games.

I agree gun fights in western movies and games are usually way to exaggerated and stupid.

"Well, it's no surprise when Japan alone produces over 60% of the world's animation, let alone other Asian countries. It sounds like you're bitter that companies would prefer Asian artwork over yours"

I was more complaining about how they are treating their artists there. It is true that many companies outsource artdepartments to asian countries these days. That is mostly a matter of price though (see cheap).

"Lastly, you're very rude to question another poster's orientation "
What I said was meant to be rhetorical and not insulting in nature. I actually did not express any values towards anyones sexual orientation in any way. To make that clear.

"So it's safe to assume you like the hard-bodied male character with rippling muscles and an eight-pack over a spiky-haired, emaciated androgyne?"
Shruggs, whatever rocks your boat man...
;)

"most guys would have a preference either way as long as the game was good"

Quality graphics are part of what makes a game "good" for me. That might have to do with my job, but I do know a lot of people that think the same way.

"Many of my female friends - both gay and straight - like it this way just fine"
That might be, but many dont, which is one reason (besides the others) why these games fail in the west, which was the topic of this article.