AnuBiS-NET
Salutations dear
teleads of the Great Mankind Galaxy!
Welcome on
AnuBiS-NET, today you will enjoy one more prime-time exclusivity!
An exclusive and
very complete interview of the o2oe team, the "New-Mans with the Master
Plans". The team that ,days & nights of thousands of suns, take care
of our meta-links to the Galaxy, the ones that saved our beloved Universe!
An interview
realised by our kamar Activista Anarkaoz, here with us back from his trip to
planet Mother-Earth!
Activista could you
please tell us how and specially why you did that interview?
Activista: Like lots of peoples and Nations
of the Galaxy I wanted to have answers to our questions on the MK future, I was
tired of all vain & false rumours and others misunderstandings. Even
Anarkaoz's patience have limit, so we decided to establish contact in order to
make our own opinion on facts.
A very easy, friendly and immediate
contact: that team, those peoples did give us lot of time and attention, much
more that we expected. Due to well know "Hyper-jump to Earth"
difficulties, we first worked via the Matrix.
Sending questions to o2o's rep: Samuel, he
answering and consulting the whole team. Once reached the final version we
finally meted in a secret place located close to the Hong-Kong peninsula to
celebrate.
Before to let you enjoy that interview I'd
like to add last comments:
-This interview had been made in
"meta-English", something between "frenglish" and
"chinaglish", so we ask the readers to be comprehensive and please
note the work, not some weird "way of talk" that you shall read...
-I did meet very friendly and attentive
peoples, as I collaborate with some planet Earth European press I can also
testify that they actually work on promotion, actively.
-For a more comfortable reading the
interview is split in parts:
1) Introduction to o2oe
2)Technical department:
3)Game updates
4)The cheat problem
5)The "what about" section
6)Communication & communities
7)The Communities Managers
8)Future and promotion
-I want to thanks again the o2oe team and
specially Samuel for his time and attention, for this long interview in which
you will read lots of nice and interesting technical but also
"cultural" info and... some real scoops, have nice times!
ÅNARK@ØZ
PRODUCTION
http://site.voila.fr/anubisnet/
Introduction
to O2O:
“…The company started three years ago as
a distributor for Mankind and few other European titles such as Fire Team, T.H.
2001....”
Activista: Could you present the o2oe society?
O2: Yes, O2 is rather a young company compare with
some of it counterparts in Europe, USA and fit quiet well into
the young and ambitious company catalogue. The company started three
years ago as a distributor for Mankind and few other European titles such as
Fire Team, Treasury hunt 2001.... etc. We have enjoyed quiet a success, as
there are only few competitors around. Besides saying that I know form day
one - the only way out for the company is to have our own products and rely
less on licensing game from third party.
The real break through must be Mankind we started as a
distributor for the game in Hong Kong and China at around mid 2002.
Then in late fall 2002 Vibes the original developer of the game have
went into financial trouble and after some careful consideration, we have decided
to put in the bid for the game and the remain asset of Vibes. And the result
is we have obtained a very potential game in term of game-play and
the backend architecture but the game is in such a bad state and need to put in
intensive care unit. The most encourage thing for me and the rest of the
crew is Mankind has responded to our care & love and soon will be
back in it former glory.
Activista: How much peoples are working in, in total?
O2: At present we employed a total of ten peoples in the company.
My ideal is to keep the front line operation team as lean as possible so
that we can be more easier to adapt and react to different situations in
the coming future.
Activista: Could you present the team working on
"mankind"? (How many peoples, occupation, ages, hobbies, zodiacal
sign…?)
O2: which include five programmers working solidly on the game, three
customers support base here in Hong Kong Shanghai (China) and Europe.
The rest of us including myself are involved in management for
mapping out for the future growth of the game with sight in sale
& marketing. As a young company we do employ staff in there early 20's for
there energetic and creative drive toward the game for the management side we
do like have some mature people to over look the operation and financial side.
For some unexplained reason we keep having employees which
born in the year of Horse and Dragon. In Chinese traditional these two
birth signs are see as the source of energy & luck and let keep
it this way I hope.
Activista: do you play Mankind?
O2: Yes, from time to time not as often
as use to be.
Activista: Where are situated the offices where you work in?
O2: Our headquarter or nerve centre is base in Hong Kong and customer
support and sale office base in Shanghai (China). We will be setting up
representative offices around the world later in the year as we started to see
the demand on that level.
Activista: How old is o2oe & what have you
work on/produce/done previously?
O2: The company started open it door for business in year 2000 and was
mainly involved in distribution of third party online game.
Activista: Which are o2oe plans for future & which part take Mankind in those plans?
O2: There are two things we like to working on at this moment - First
stabilize and improve - second improve the sale channel of the game.
To achieve these are we are looking to set up a research and development
centre in China, which eventual the company will able to tap into the vast
pool of talents and reduce it labour cost. I think Mankind series online
game can live for another 3 -5 years as we see not much serious competitor
in horizon. Beside saying that O2 must prepare for the up coming challenge and
only go through these challenges will enable the company growth even further.
Technical department:
“…thanks to some hard work of the team we are able to
see a much clear picture now and I will say we have almost 80% of the
knowledge and some major break through have happened last week and it
bring us a step closer to end of the tunnel. “
Activista: Which is your analysis after those seven months of Mankind
management?
O2: I need to correct you at this point the court of liquidation did
awarded us the game and it remain assets of the Vibes but we only have access
to the source toward the end of April. However we have since put our technical
team in fast forward mode in order to gain experience. As the handover source
do not have any supporting documents or and guidance from the former owner we
walked straight into the maze. Fortunately thanks to some hard work of the team
we are able to see a much clear picture now and I will say we have almost
80% of the knowledge and some major break through have happened last
week and it bring us a step closer to end of the tunnel.
Activista: How many & which type of server do
you use?
O2: We have purchased all new servers here in Hong Kong and locate back
it software from US. The reason behind that we like
the server locate in a place where we can have easy
access to carry our service & maintenance with this relocate the
team have gained a better understanding on the structure of the whole
system. We are totally using 13 sets of machines for the game, which
included three of it as for redundancy purpose.
Activista: What about the number of players, is it increasing?
O2: Yes, It has an increase of 20% in term of subscribers both new and
old.
Activista: Can you give actual number of players?
It was in a terrible state when we received the game
four months ago ONLY 3,000 active players left but started two months ago the
subscription rate have steadily climbing at a rate of 30% each month. We are
expecting the number of subscriber could achieve 10,000 in month’s time.
Activista: Are there any plans to change client
side/part (see cheats)?
O2: Apart from we a list of cheats submitted
by the player we are also looking to more quiet a few modules to the
server side which I think is the final solution for some of the serious cheats.
Game
updates
“…we had some major break through last week and
translate it to word mean we are able to re-complies both the client and server
side code. However we are still facing the largest & final hurdle -
update the source code to current state. After that I think limit or any other
modifications are just a easy job for the team.”
Activista: Which are your general’s plans for Mankind's future?
O2: There will be two immediately steps or updates for Mankind within
the next few weeks. First we will be introducing the double character input system
for the game. It is long over due to those players wish to communicate inside
the game with there own language.
And second for everyone we like to increase the units for the game,
which we found, is the most demand request from email we received.
There are few thing which we looking to improve
1) the firepower
2) upgrade the defence system in some part of the game
3) introduce new crafts and new resources to the game
4) looking ways to expand existing universe
5) player will able to receive attack alert mail through their cell
phone via SMS gateway
6) once we have enough subscribers we will start to introduce MK
merchandise. But the priority to us is still the same eliminate most of the
bugs ASAP.
Activista: Firepower of which units? And why?
Same about the defences…?
O2: Activista, most
of these issues are still been examine the possibility so I will prefer you
only briefly mention those changes. Just in case we over commit.
Activista: When will new updates happen?
O2: We have scheduled most of the about event complete by the end
of 2003, we will be published the exact timetable ASAP.
Activista: Which are the options asked by players that you plan to
implement/add & when?
First: when will the unit limit increase to 15 or 20k as said in announcements?
O2: I hope it will be ready within a month this is after an all-clear
pass from internal and external test.
Activista: Will it be 15, 20k or more?
O2: 15k is the minimum and planned but
will increase to 20K if it make the game more interesting.
-What about the "cash limit?"
O2: As I mentioned to you in above answer we had some major break
through last week and translate it to word mean we are able to re-complies both
the client and server side code. However we are still facing the largest &
final hurdle - update the source code to current state. After that I think
limit or any other modifications are just an easy job for the team.
The “what about” section:
“O2:
Note that after
discussed with the technical team, they prefer answer fully & definitively
those questions below in two months time when investigation complete and with a
solid plan. As do not like to mislead anyone or over commit on something they
cannot achieve “
- Mass select/build for the factories
O2: Yes, in future releases/updates.
-Alphabetic order in
bases windows
O2: In future
releases.
-Possibility to select by name in bases
O2: In future releases.
-Possibility to select only full or empty units in
bases
O2: Not planed yet.
-Auto-destruction option
O2: Not planed.
-CONFIRMATION when fire on friend or ally units!
O2: In future releases
-F2 "auto-update"
O2: Temporarily not in function
-An in game real "guild management"
O2: In progress.
-A "Guild building " (communication
interface in)
O2: In progress.
-Inter-system chat canals
O2: Not planed yet.
-A new option/window that allow count of selected
units
O2: In future releases.
-To bind use of HF-Tech ships and higher to a wonder
instead of to a city
O2: Not planed.
-To link limit unit to cities&/or to technology level
O2: Not planed.
-NEW Technologies: origin: alien/new wonder. Could be
ability to: spy/super-jumps/access to forbidden planets/autopilot
O2: In future releases
-What about some specials Jump gates
O2: Not planed.
-Do you plan to implement or modify any units?
O2: Yes, of course
-Lots of players ask a ship with ability to
"capture" enemy ships (pirates etc)
O2: In discussion
-A ship that can repair ships is also asked.
O2: In future releases
-Do you plan to update Mankind's graphics &/or
soundtracks?
O2: This is original part of our plan and still have to solve few
technical issues before we can successfully implement the change.
Note that after discussed with the technical team, they prefer answer
fully & definitively those questions below in two months time when
investigation complete and with a solid plan. As do not like to mislead anyone
or over commit on something they cannot achieve
The cheat problem:
“..the most serious offend which are those players
illegally alternate the client, which I believe is totally unacceptable to
all international law…”
Activista: About the problem of the cheaters, did any new EoG happen since the patch?
O2: As far as players and servers log are negative in this
issue.
Activista: When do you plan to counter the
"time hack" cheat?
O2: Testing a new patch for that right now.
Activista: Have you any plan to change the client part/side to avoid
more cheat or hacks?
O2: I'm afraid this is the only solution to eliminate further cheats but
it will involve a lot of manpower and effort but we are actively consider
moving part of the source there.
Activista: When do you plan to do it? And in that case will you need to reset the Mankind Galaxy?
We are evaluating the possibility on
that and if our technician comfortable and confident with the new engine we
shall do it ASAP but again as I said before is a rather big job and will take
3-6 days for the migration. Our technician will try to eliminate damage as much
as possible.
Activista: Could you explain exactly what happened about the hacker's intrusion in Mk?
O2: Yes, it is very simple some players which illegally
alter the client source in order to create chaos for us.
Activista: What happened to the mail alert system?
O2: It took use four weeks to search for the source as most of the
sources are all over place and we managed to locate it and fix it.
Activista: Was the problem result of hacker sabotage?
O2: What I can tell you is a well-planned
action and was done by someone have a high degree of understanding the
structure behind.
Activista: You have posted about a "third party" that was clearly
doing intentional MK sabotage; did you mean most hack attacks had same
origins?
O2: From all evident collected by the law enforcement agencies and us it
point to an intentional sabotage.
And there were few machines
using the same IP for the attacked at the same time.
Activista: Was your travel to France linked to this?
O2: Yes, part of it link to that issue.
Activista: What is it about the judicial action that you launched against
some cheaters/hackers?
O2: I think I cannot talk too much in this issue as the law enforcement
agencies are still working on this case but I believe the guilty part will be
prosecuted.
Activista: Is it truth that some of
yours young employees did use their job to take advantages in game? If yes what
did you do about?
O2: I think this is a baseless claim as all our
employees are work under close supervision and it will be quiet hard for them
to take any advantage in game. Further with the current workload I can't
think any of them will have time to play the game
Activista: What about the
MK "CM Court", that system seems too partial to most?
O2: I think the CM job is to help add value to the
player and not create hostile situation for the company. As most of the cheat
took place without witness present or concrete evident it will be a bad thing
for the company and the CM to ban or suspend players account.
And the court will not be gaining a respect from the player or even
worse thing may happen.
The most serious offend which are those players illegally alternate
the client, which I believe is totally unacceptable to all international law,
warn first then ban is the sentence!
Apart from those, all accusations of cheat must be deal with a
sensitive hand, which doesn't mean we will tolerate any behaviour opposite
to the game rules inside the game.
Activista: Do this mean that 02 will not ask CM’s to give advice on cheaters anymore?
O2: Of course not, but we look for a system in which
they can change the way to deal with the problem and eliminate the tension
between players.
Communication & communities:
”MK is a very good mirror to the world we live in,
people fail to communicate and try hard to impose their value to other…”
Activista: Which is your impression about the different Mk communities?
O2: The biggest difference I found in Mk community is western players
are much more mature then the Asian players in term of age.
The western players are from late 20's -
40 pus compare with average Asian players are late teen to mid 20's.
Activista: What is proportion of peoples having access to Internet in HK
& in China mainland? What about home users proportion?
O2:In HK we have around 2.7 million Internet user to
a city of 7 million and In China they have 68 million Internet compare with a
population of 1.3 billion.
Activista: What is the average income (salary) in China mainland and in
HK?
O2:In China the average annual income in big city is
around US$800 and the number is far less in some rural areas but in HK the
average annual increase is US$24,000. So you can see is a big different and now
see why MK have to cut price in China.
Activista: Could you tell us following you which is best quality & worst
default of both Occidental and Asian communities?
O2: I think it will be quiet unfair to use quality to measure
player I will rather call it a different culture background. Most of the
incident happened in the last few months are generated through a series of
misunderstanding and different ways of life. As the western players have been
playing this game for quiet sometime and they suddenly find a bunch of
Asian immigrants trying hard to take over there territories for course
they will find it very offensive. But I think MK is a very good mirror to the
world we live in, people fail to communicate and try hard to impose
their value to other. I may say is a very interesting game after
all.
Activista: Indeed, the game is
called Mankind! I’ve heard that o2 did think about split the communities on
separate servers, don’t you think it would quit one of the unique aspect of the
game?
O2: Yes, It would totally kill the nature of the
game. Again this is only one of the suggestion discussed with one of our
GM in past time however he told it so seriously and spread like wild fire.
Activista: What is the importance, the place electronic & online
games in Chinese culture?
O2: The western players have been playing online game
for the last decade compare with Mainland Chinese they only started playing
online game three years ago. I can still remember when I started the
company there is ONLY one online game available in Chinese. And with the
progress of the Internet the games available are now excess 70 titles. However
the Korean makes 90% of those titles and all of them are role-play game.
Therefore mankind do stand up in the crowd.
Activista:
What do you think is or are for Chinese &/or Asian players the most difficult
thing(s) to understand with/from occidentals players and why?
O2:I think the language
is one of the main barriers to the community and I see a lot of tension origin
from there.
Activista:
Do you have the impression that those two communities have different “way of
playing” or a different approach of the game?
O2: Yes, the Chinese
players are use to play role play game and the main task is to PK other player
so when they started playing MK they will bring with them that bad habit too.
Activista:
Do Chinese peoples watch/read Science Fiction? Which are the three top watched
SF movies in China & HK?
O2: Media control still
very strict in China and they can only read certain things allow by the
communist party. Which compare in HK are totally different people here do what
ever we want and can.
The Communities Managers
(CM):
“ …a job which is not very easy and in there own
expense, they did a huge work and we must thanks them for it!”
Activista: What about the community's managers, which are their exact
task?
O2: The role for CM is to serve as a bridge between the
company and it player.
Activista: Are you happy with the actual team?
O2: Yes and no. Yes because they have been volunteer to do a
job which is not very easy and in there own expense, they did a huge work
and we must thanks them for it!
But I think this issue did first put the company in a very embarrassing
situation.
Some information was released too soon
to players and some positive event turned in opposite
way. e.g.. the alert mail issue: we have spent months to find the
source of origin to fix the problem in return they released the news in rush
and claimed we accidental found the cure…
Anyway that is on the past we must focus most on what will happen in the
future
Activista: Maybe the problem was
that CM had been appointed in emergency with not enough preparation from both
side?
O2: Yes, CM was appointed in the rush and not enough
public opinions were taken into account.
Activista: So is the actual CM team
still in charge or not? And will you establish more clear CM
responsibilities & rules?
O2: Yes, of course they are still in charge. For now
we are laying out different options for the upcoming CM election (which can be expected late October)
Activista: Will you organise election of next team on your own web site?
O2: Yes, we will have to do that in order for players to choose their
own voice.
Future and promotion:
“…MK is a global
game and as a company we can’t only focus on one group of player and
I guess the Occidental players just over react. “
Activista: Have you actually any plans about Mankind2?
O2: Yes, we have planned for that too but it is still in the drawing
board so for the best is to announce when it ready. But again I think MK2
should be part of MK1 series with more added value in term of better and
smoother game engine, graphic and technology.... etc.
Activista: Are you working on it?
O2: Yes, in fact we are still gathering together the source code
received before.
Activista: Do you plan any promotional campaign on actual Mankind, which type
& where?
O2: Yes, we are engaging with few European telecom for promotion MK and
let me share with you some of our ideals, ideas & deals:
We have been doing join promotion effort with both Hong Kong
and China Telecom and the result are very positive and enable us to gain quiet
a few new players in short term and I hope we can repeat this business model
with the European telecom. The plan is quiet simple call ADSL bundling and it
work like this: In the past 12 months we has bundled MK client into
telecom company ADSL start up kit for new users. In return we ONLY charge
the telecom companies a small licence fee of US$ 2.00 for
each copy they bundle it into there CD.
It was so successful with China Telecom last Christmas and
we are able to gain a recorded of total 25,000 new subscribers to the game
within the first month. However when we think we can push it further Vibes
has decided top turn off all the key code they sold through Cryo. And I
think you can figure out the rest.
O2: Answers are quiet simple is a win for both parties.
a) First they do not have to spend a cent on the licence cost because
they have transferred the entire licence fee to the final customer and properly
inflate the price several times.
b) And the customer will always love thing for free and this is what
they call it a "feel good factory" in telecom business.
c) As telecom people love talk about "added
value service" this is exactly what they see a revenue generator.
Once the player get hook on the telecom operator start collect more
in connection fee. Again it generates extra revenue for them.
“…Some feared that
o2 will focus on Asian market and for sake the Occidental players, what would
you answer them?”
From our experience so far the biggest sale revenue are came
form selling box set. In Asia telecom operators love to have partner like
us create both contents and extra revenue for them. And for us it is
proven to be a much safer partner then a normal distributor, first the telecom
company have already hundreds of retail shops in the high street and
second they are the most unlikely company to run off with your money.
Activista: Some feared that o2 will focus on Asian market and for sake the Occidental players, what would you answer them?
O2: As I have repeatedly telling
everyone MK is a global game and as a company we can’t only focus on
one group of player and I guess the Occidental players just
over react.
Activista: Do you or will you sell any goodies,
as posters, shirts, warship miniatures etc.?
O2: Merchandises is one of the important items missing in the passed
three years and we will be teaming up with local toy manufacturer to come up
with the items you mention.
Activista: What about meeting in about two months for another questions-round and to talk about the last evolutions?
O2: Yes and I guess we will have more to
talk about.
Activista: Last but not least question: do the o2 team drink coffee, if yes what coffee-machine do you use and did you put it far enough from the servers?
O2: Sorry we can't afford a coffee machine
at the moment, so we go to “Starbucks” instead just locate around our office…
Let’s meet there in two months and talk about all changes that will be then
facts!
Activista: Perfect idea, thanks a lot and see you
there!