Looking at the Middle Eastern MMO Market

MMORPG Examiner takes a look at Game Power 7 and how they've brought the Asian free-to-play MMO "Rappelz" to the Middle East.

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Over at MMORPG Examiner, industry veteran Sanya Weathers talked with Fadi Mujahid, the general manager of Game Power 7 about how the company localized Asian free-to-play game "Rappelz" for the Middle East/North African market.

One big change that they had to make to the game was to cover up more of the avatars' skin. From Weathers' article:

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.

For more about how the company started, the typical consumer and other localization issues, check out the whole story. I wonder which MMO will come to that region next...

The beginning of the Middle Eastern MMO scene: Game Power 7 and Arabic Rappelz [via Massively]