The 'Navy Field' developed by SDEnternet (CEO: Hakyong KIM, www.sdenternet.co.kr), an MMOTSG, setting the ocean as a battle field from World War II, has been chosen 2 years consecutively as an official game of KIPA's GNGWC (Game&Game World Championships), and is expected to gain worldwide naval battle game mania attention again in 2008.
The 'Navy Field' was a finale of GNGWC2007 the final game of last year in KOEX, now being served in the U.S., Japan, Germany, and Russia as well as in Korea. Unlike last year, Germany and Singapore as well will be holding the local tournaments in the GNGWC 2008.
The 'Navy Field', a long-run game being served for 6 years, has been popular with worldwide gamers with its unique game background and story. We visited SDEnternet who is preparing for GNGWC 2008 and interviewed the company about recent news regarding 'Navy Field'
The following is the full interview:
Q. What is the background of developing Navy Field?
- Navy Field is for sure a unique game. There is no such game anywhere in the world. There were some games about army or air force, but nothing about the navy when Navy Field was developed. Our developers have been interested in naval battles and they had corresponding knowledge of such. As a result, a unique naval battle game called Navy Field was born.
Q. Was there any difficulties regarding the service in the beginning?
- Frankly speaking, we didn't even have any concept for service in the beginning. We opened an incomplete game to users. As such, there were many difficulties of service. However, as starting charges to partial game, we continuously updated contents and focused on administration in order to bring gamers back to the game. After all, we now have a steady number of user accesses running at the same time.
Q. What did you get from GNGWC 2007?
- Navy Field has a structure based on PvP team plays, which we believe is a suitable structure for game contests. Also, Navy Field is open not just to a certain country, but to all around the world through a global service. Localized services are being improved by partners in each country. Navy Field is a great game made in Korea. In addition, GNGWC is a great event for worldwide users to enjoy such games like Navy Field.
Q. Was there any episode from the last version of GNCWC 2007?
- There was a raffle event at the end of the local contests in Japan for the GNGWC 2007. The items for raffle were MP3 players, NavyField crystal souvenirs, etc. Even though the actual price for a MP3 player is more expensive than a NavyField crystal souvenirs, there were many people who wanted to exchange their MP3 Players for a NavyField souvenir after the raffle. It was like a crowded auction site… with that, we felt the power of contents as well as a sense of the Japanese love toward NavyField. After all, the final winner of GNGWC2007 was from Japan.
Q. How about the current global service status?
- We opened the game in Korea first and started to distribute the service in China and in Japan through our partners. In the U.S., we began to service through a GSP (global service platform), which brought great attention from users. Finally, we established a local office for serving the U.S. Based on the US service, we started the service in Germany and in Russia starting in 2007, and there are still many countries with on-going service negotiations.
Q. How about the localization?
- We believe that localization is a key to success in the overseas market and we are still considering ways on how we can solve this issue. The basic step would be translated for each local area. We have also thought of other various possibilities including adding unique maps for users in each country or taking events for local holidays. But, most of all, we need the role of administration in each country who can bring local user opinions to us so that we can develop and address such issues.
Q. Tell us about the powerful community of Navy Field.
- Navy Field has been served for more than 5 years. So many gamers have been enjoying the Navy Field. In view of the game feature related to the military, the user community is getting improved with the mania. The enthusiastic gamers through their voluntary activities and advertisements have brought other gamers who left the Navy Field back to the game.
Q. Any final comments for the gamers attending the GNGWC 2008?
- We are proud of joining the GNGWC as an official game this year again. We ask gamers to enjoy and make exciting memories with GNGWC 2008 this year. We will do our best.