Jeux en ligne

Those lucky enough to be in Paris on 21 September/septembre might like to head along to this half-day symposium on intellectual property issues in online worlds. The program (en français) includes a presentation on the nature of virtual sales and the market, a paper explaining Ubisoft's position on the virtual sale of assets, a discussion of the law of virtual assets and a roundtable discussion.

Pas mal.

[Thanks Cédric]

Comments

[Edward Castronova]

1.

Now, shouldn't they have invited all of us? I heard they have good food over there in France.

[Richard Bartle]

2.

Ted>Now, shouldn't they have invited all of us?

Maybe they did, but we didn't understand the invitation?

Richard

[Betsy Book]

3.

Jeux en ligne - love that. I suppose the french term for virtual worlds is les mondes virtuelles then.

Looks like they might be discussing this.

Now I'm wondering how many virtual worlds are generally available for French-speaking players. Here's what a very quick google turned up:

ATITD has incorporated a French language option.

Here's one available in multiple languages, including French:
La 4ème Prophétie released by Vircom

And here's what appears to be a French speaking world unto itself:
DOFUS Nombre de joueurs: 33948. Not quite in the European 100K club yet but it's still en bêta-test.

How many other virtual worlds are available for native French speakers?

[ren]

4.

Betsy > I suppose the french term for virtual worlds is les mondes virtuelles then.

Guess so and I think that the term for MMO, when it’s not simple MMO, is simply persistent world i.e. Mondes Persistants.

> Now I'm wondering how many virtual worlds are generally available for French-speaking players.

A couple of French MMO sites that I know via ATITD (thx Tweetiti) are:

Mondes Persistants

Alchemic Dream

The French community has long been a part of ATITD (I used to have a handy sheet to remind me of the French for things like: Flax, University, Mud and of course ‘it might be easier on both of us if we do this in English’).

There is a separate German server - though I never quite understood the rational there as in my limited experience more Germans speak English than French.

Which makes me start to wonder – what is the idea split of servers? I’m not aware of any significant MMOs having French, German, Italian, Finnish, Dutch etc etc servers.

Is there a vast untapped market for native language services, or do we assume that any IT literate European not only can speak English (in so much as in game chat is English) but is happy to?

[Betsy Book]

5.

The two European sites listed in our 100K Group do have native language options. Playdo offers a Swedish version, while Habbo Hotel has Finnish, Swiss, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, and German versions. And not uncoincidentally, they also have over 10 million members. I'd say that's a tapping of the untapped market right there :)

Mokitown is based in Germany and offers both German and English versions. They're up to 200K members now.

Active Worlds has an International Teleports area with links to worlds based on various countries.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head for European language offerings in the social worlds realm. One obvious pattern here is that all of these worlds except AW are for children and teens. The other thing to keep in mind is that they are flash-based browser worlds and so it is much easier to create multiple versions.

[Tobold]

6.

I believe the biggest classical MMORPG with German and French language servers is Dark Age of Camelot. This is the official French DAoC site.

A major stumbling block for MMORPG in Europe is not language, but telecommunication cost. Broadband connections are still not offered everywhere, and are not as common as in the US or Korea. And dial-up connections cost around $1 per hour. Playing a MMORPG on dial-up therefore is not only painful, but also expensive. The monthly cost for the game of around $15 are insignificant compared to another $100 if you want to play 100 hours per month. So the European MMORPG market is small, and some games like City of Heroes are only available by import.

But broadband use and flatrates are on the increase, the Europeans are catching up to the rest of the world. With Germany being the second biggest market for computer games in the world, and France not being that small either, you can expect a larger proportion of European MMORPG players in the future.

[Cédric]

7.

YES we have virtual games in French! And even typically French games, like Kochonland [litteral translation: "pigland"], a... breeding simulation! (415,000 users - incredible).
There are other breeding games such as Phenix Land, Mouton King ["King of the sheeps"], and other games with chickens, rabbits, cows, dinosaurs, gladiators... and even cannabis!
Now, I am sure you are jealous that all these games are only in French! :-)