Virtual dissonance
Posted on December 5, 2007 by Martin Zagorsek
Nexon Inc, one of the largest online multiplayer game publishers, announced a deal this week with several of their retail partners where they’ll be featuring virtual versions of these retailers within Nexon’s games. I can’t find the release online (it was emailed to me) but here’s the first part:
Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia’s leading online entertainment company Nexon Group, whose Game Cards are available at retail giants such as Target, Best Buy, and 7-Eleven, Inc., announced today plans to integrate its mega store partners into MapleStory, its most popular game. Nexon America is educating their players on the availability of the Nexon Game Cards through outlets such as Best Buy, CVS, Duane Reade and 7-Eleven, by bringing the stores to the players virtually.
This partnership between Nexon America, a leader in virtual goods sales, and major retailers is unprecedented. Nexon America will send its millions of MapleStory players to the virtual markets with themed quests that will promote both the retailers and the availability of Nexon Game Cards in these stores. The special quests will prompt users to complete various tasks and visit any of these chains to earn their own virtual Nexon Game Card, which will provide Maple Points, the in-game currency of MapleStory.
On the surface this doesn’t seem like a bad deal - several retailers have created virtual destinations in online worlds like Second Life, and unlike SL, MapleStory actually has a large and loyal fanbase. The target demographic is highly desirable - tweens and teens - and Nexon claims 3 million users in the US alone. While this is probably an overstatement, the game is big enough to have earned its very own segment on Fox about the dangers of online game addiction.
Gameplay video from MapleStory
The oddness of this deal becomes evident as soon as you see the game in action. Unlike Second Life, this isn’t a 3D semi-realistic world, it’s a cartoony 2D fantasy game. How will they represent a virtual 7-Eleven in a way that players will connect with a real store? Will the context in which they experience the brand be too different to translate into real-world equity, or will the interactivity make it better than regular one-way messaging? Either way it’s a deal worth watching, not least because it’s becoming harder and harder to effectively target that age group.As you might expect, Nexon themselves have learned a thing or two about communicating with teens & tweens.. not only do they have the requisite MySpace page with >40k friends, they’re also using MySpace as a test bed for ad creative - the fans are not exactly representative of the target group, but it’s a very quick (and very cheap) way to get initial feedback that would take days or weeks to gather via traditional focus groups. Sphere: Related Content
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