What if the competitor to your favorite videogame issued you a challenge: Check out its game, and if you don’t like it, they’ll give you your money back and then some. Now what if that game were a free-to-play online MMO, and instead of “money back,” the game’s developer offered you virtual cash.
Well, that’s essentially what publisher THQ*ICE is doing for its free-to-play online MMO, Dragonica Online, in what it’s calling the “Side-Scroller Showdown.” Starting today, it’s inviting players of side-scrolling MMOs to give Dragonica Online a try. If they find that they like the game, they’ll be issued a $5 in-game credit (in addition to an exclusive in-game “gift pack”) for what they’re hoping will be their new addiction. On the other hand, if they decide Dragonica Online is not for them, THQ*ICE will give issue them a $5 credit for their game of choice.
It’s a gutsy move on the part of THQ*ICE, but CEO Eddie Chen is so confident that Dragonica Online is a superior product, that he’s not worried the publisher will take a loss.
As Chen puts it, players have nothing to lose — it’s a win-win situation. THQ*ICE is just asking that players give Dragonica Online a fair shake, requiring them to play the game until their player hits level 19 before they make a final decision. Chen calls this the “minimum requirement” a player would need to familiarize themselves with the game; it should take the average player two or three hours, or a couple of short play sessions over a few days.
At that point, users then get to make the decision — is Dragonica Online a better title than the one they’re playing now, or do they just want THQ*ICE to cough up the dough so they can go back to playing their free-to-play MMO of choice?
“As far as the user’s concerned,” Chen tells me, “they can’t lose either way.”
I ask Chen why he’s so confident in the title, why he thinks that after a few hours of play users who may have been playing a competitor’s game — say the popular Maple Story, for instance — would want to make the switch. He concedes that the side-scroller market is a huge and crowded market, which attributes mostly to the straightforward nature of the gameplay. But he also notes that some of these games, even the most popular ones, have remained stagnant for many years. He points to what he calls very flat 2D graphics, and a basic battle system that lends itself to slower gameplay.
Dragonica Online, he says, offers a more fast-paced experienced, with lush 3D visuals to match. Chen feels that it’s time for people to graduate from these dated side-scrollers to what he feels is a more modern game experience.
“It’s a natural migration for people to move from an old side-scroller to a new side-scroller,” he says. “Just like when people went from black and white TVs to color TVs, from regular TVs to HDTVs.”
The offer is open to the first 10,000 people who sign up for the showdown; in theory, THQ*ICE stands to lose up to $50,000 on the promotion. From the way he speaks to me, Chen doesn’t sound overly concerned that people wouldn’t find that Dragonica Online is better than the side-scrolling free-to-play MMO they’re currently playing. The only way someone would choose another title over Dragonica, he says, is that if Dragonica is not as good as their title of choice. To him, that’s a ridiculous concept.
“That’s like saying that HDTV is inferior to an old fashioned TV,” he explains, “which is very difficult to justify.”
The Dragonica Online “Side-Scroller Showdown” starts today, and runs through March 9.
Published: Feb 23, 2010 07:00 am