The beginning of the Middle Eastern MMO scene: Game Power 7 and Arabic Rappelz

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I think MMOs are a force for good. I think they provide a common ground for people who would never meet in the physical world, and allow people to be as they really are without being limited by their age, physical appearance, gender, race, or income. With that said, you can understand why I’m really excited by the idea of MMOs in the Middle East.

Fadi Mujahid is the general manager at Game Power 7, the company that localized Rappelz for the Middle East/North African (MENA) market. I contacted him looking for more information on how his team localized an Asian free to play game for a population that simply hasn’t had much contact with MMOs in general. I also wanted to know a little more about the company. He sent back a pile of information, and some before and after shots to illustrate the process.

The typical customer

No one with any hope of success dives in to the MMO pool without doing market research into who will buy the game, and how many of those people are out there. I asked what the typical Middle East gamer was like. Mujahid told me that internet cafes are a big part of the youth culture in many of the countries in his target market. Kids and young adults, mostly male, as you would expect. But he said that his gamers come from all across society, with no changes from one socioeconomic level to another.

Game Power 7’s beginning

Game Power 7 is a subsidiary of Weiss Investment group, and my Googlefu utterly failed me – in two hours of searching, I could not find a website for any group of that name that specializes in Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian media. They are referenced in a number of entertainment articles from the region, but appear to have no internet presence of their own.

At any rate, Game Power 7 started doing research and market surveys in November of 2007, to figure out how they were going to enter the market in the MENA region. In Mujahid’s words:

“We came to two conclusions: MMO games are our main focus, and the cultural localization is the key to the success in this market. At that point, we started the shopping process to find an MMO game developer to partner with in order to localize and culturalize their game. NFlavor showed a big interest in the MENA market, and were willing to work with us to create a culturally localized version of Rappelz. Rappelz is a successful game with a proven record of localization to many regions.”

They appear to be the first Arabic company in the Middle East to be in the MMO business. That’s good – no competition! – and bad – no track record to attract partners and investment. The only research available is their own. Their overlords have two decades of entertainment experience in the region, as well as experience with localizing foreign intellectual properties.

Localization

I was told that their localization focused on three major points: Remodeling the characters, removing religious signs and symbols, and rewriting the content to make it more understandable (and acceptable) to the MENA region customers.

The characters are still recognizably from Rappelz, with the same attitude and feel. But Game Power 7 has a policy of fighting what they see as an “emphasis [in] MMO gaming on revealing clothes and [a] sexualized culture. They hired a “large” team of designers and 3D modelers to tone down the clothing and add “Middle Eastern touches” to the characters. The before and after pictures in the slideshow are courtesy of Game Power 7, demonstrating their visual localization.

Removing the religious signs and symbols makes sense for a region where it is not yet possible to use a religious symbol divorced of its religious context without people jumping to conclusions. (A single rumor about the symbolism in Pokemon resulted in a large scale regional flop. Compare that to the North American market, where the rumor of secret messages on records played backwards, or a rumored flash of pixilated nudity, increases sales dramatically.) I doubt many would be willing to take any risks or make any statements with the first game in the market.

As with Aion,  there are some story and quest elements that were changed. Unlike Aion, the changes were made less from concern about comprehension than concern about whether the content would be culturally “acceptable.” The example Mujahid gave me was that “the original story talks about three races and three gods, which is very odd to our culture. We had to modify that to make it about three nations and three kings.”

Getting the word out

As Mujahid puts it,

“The absence of MMO Game publishers in the region have resulted in the state of unawareness about the concept of MMO Gaming.

Many gamers in the region have no idea that there is a genre of games where you “live” at, play and interact with thousands of others, and improve your “game life” as you play your way through. Many starting players were confused at not being able to find the “Game Over” of the game, or at not being able to aim while shooting a monster.”

Since Arabic Rappelz launched last fall, Game Power 7 has been using gaming forums, social networks, television, and print media to convey the basic concepts of MMOs, as well as to advertise the game itself.

Thoughts from the company

Social responsibility is important to them. They’re wrapping up a campaign in which the monsters drop literacy promoting materials in addition to loot, and they’ve set up a team to deal directly with concerned parents.

They’re also looking into MMO addiction, and trying to figure out a way to keep people playing as much as possible without crossing the line into addictive behavior. Uh, good luck with that, guys.

They’ve got plans to publish three more MMO games in 2009, and their overall vision is to be a one stop shop for the MENA region, with their own development teams as well as the localization and publishing divisions.

Short term, they’re looking to be a partner for established game companies looking to get a foothold into an untapped market, a partner that understands the region and can handle all the localizing and marketing.

I'd like to see MMOs succeed in this new market – and I hope that with success will come a certain unification of gamers, and a certain meeting of the minds, no matter where we live.