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You made a mistake about my presentation
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We don't have 3 million users or 50 employees
We have 30 employees and ...
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...about the 3 million users,
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Once a journalist asked us how many people
were following the development of our game
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It's a video game...
we will say more about it later
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At the moment we have about 300k registered
users at our forums... in our beta...
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Who are actually trying to get to our beta
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Of course our system cannot support 300K users
simultaneously at this stage.
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Our product is going to be released
very soon
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Darkfall is our product
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A few moments ago there was an
image of it here.
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It's an online video game
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Online... that is, it is played
through the internet
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It's a virtual world
that we have created
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It is located in a server somewhere
in Germany
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Where each users
plays a role
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That is, he has a character that
enters this virtual world
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And every other character he meet
in there, is another user
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from a another place in the world
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So, I could be playing with people
from all over the world
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The most well known game of the
genre is World of Warcraft
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And if you haven't heard of it, you
probably are not familiar with the genre
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They have announced having
around 10.5 million users
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without knowing what exactly happens
in China, in Russia
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and in other countries for which
we don't have good statistics
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11.5 million users for a product,
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Up until then, the genre had
to show as the highest
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500k users, from a previous game
called Everquest
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And in Asia there was something
similar
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We started some 6 years ago
this effort
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which it had already been started
as a concept in Norway from 4 people
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We went to find them
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We brought them here in Greece
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We incorparated with them
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The interesting bit is that a small
company from Norway,
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as soon as it left the country there
were headlines about it
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In the biggest Norwegian newspaper
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I am mentioning this because if
something like that happend
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to a Greek company, noone would have
noticed
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So how did Darkfall start out?
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We went to Norway and brought the
company to Greee
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we added Greek technical staff
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We brought Greek scientists back
from abroad
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who were working in foreign
companies
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We brought the technical expertise,
and we 've been in development now
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for 6 years non stop
following a very serious pace
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Because all our competitors
follow serious paces
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All our technology is
transferable/re-usable
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We we can make more games with it
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Our philosophy was this.
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What is it that the users (gamers)
from these games want
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and it is not given to them
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We were playing these games
ourselves, that's why we know them
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So moved in the opposite direction.
We thought about what the users wanted
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what we wanted, and why it wasn't
happening and how it could happen
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When we saw that it wasn't happening
because at that time
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There wasn't the technology that
could allow such things
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We decided to develop the technology
ourselves
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Which in hindsight, was a very good
decision
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But we have doubted this decision
many times over the years
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.. we have been developing a video
game for 6 years now
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To get an ida of what we are talking
about
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Becuase you may not be familiar
with it
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..a small video..
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Every one you see here is a
character played by a user
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In this case of course, it is us
playing in the office
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As you can see, it is
medieval fantasy
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Q: Do play with only with other
users or also with the computer?
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Yes, yes, both among themselves and
the computer
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There are .. creatures in the game
they can face
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This is for you to get an idea
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It is a virtual world which in
size is something like a small country
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And it supports, this virtual world,
10K users simultaneously
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More actually, but we put this as a
safety limit
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So, imagine 10K users per virtual
world
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to enter it, to socialise, and...
do what you see here
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Q:In terms of hardware, what are
we talking about?
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We talking about lots of servers
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hundreds of proccessors...
in Germany
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Q: how many?
80, but times 8 proccessors
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To get a magnitude of the
processing power.
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It is enough to recreate a
virtual world
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Notice here the tree leaves
moving, and for every tree
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Lots of things going on, there
are million of objects
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tens of thousands of users
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this interaction you see here
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it requires a huge proccessing power
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Q: Is there as plot in the game?
Yes, there is one... but
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we are actually interested in...
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We call this a 'sandbox game'
meaning that...
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what we actually have made is
give the users a virtual world
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that provides them with a relatively
absolute freedom
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When I say 'relatively absolute'...
well you can't just do anything
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Whereas in other game there is a...
linear progression
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Meaning, you have to do there do
this, in order to progress
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You can't just move freely, which
annoyed us as players
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And we decided to make what we
actaully to play as gamers
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and thinking along those lines
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I think we have created something
unique
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Because a small company with zero
marketing budget
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which has at this movement million
of people following the game
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and we are being told we are the
most anticipated online game
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in the world
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Of course you could challenge that
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However, in every poll that is what
happens, from a large community
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That is quite an achievement
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And this is partly due to
the fact
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to provide what the users actually
wants
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(You have 2 more minutes for the
presentation)
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I will tell you then something which
can inspire you maybe
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Let's not talk just about the game
itself but also how it was created
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As we said we moved backwards,
what does the user want?
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We turned to the world market
from the start
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The Greek market only interests
because we are here
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The way in which we function is
to make the right partnerships
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but always based on what WE
want to do
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We had publishers coming to us
... large companies
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All have heard of them, that are
familiar with the genre
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Which have to told us
'Take this money, lots of it,
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we will take care of the publishing
for Europe, US, anywhwre..
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but we want you to do this thing'
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Which thing, it may not be
compatible with what WE want
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You may argue that we had the luxury
to do something like that
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No, actually we didn't
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and we have made lots of
sacrifices
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But we would have never made it
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if we couldn't make it as we
wanted, as we believed
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We have a partnership now with a
company, Audiovisual SA
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for the distribution of the game
in Europe
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With a deal which...
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was the deal that WE wanted
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We were looking and found a
company
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that was willing to accept our terms
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So we started from what the users
wanted
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Or rather, what they 'actually' want
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because there is a diffence between
what they want
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and what they think they want
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This is very important
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And, when someone tells you
'I want this'
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It doesn't neccessarily mean that
is what he really want
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In practice, there is often
a difference
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I could be talking all day but
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Q: What percentage from the company
are actually in the Board?
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We are 8 people in the Board from
the 30 people in the company
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and we are all actively
involved in the project
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Q: What will be the cost of the game
subscription?
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It's a bit lower that the
competition
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about 10 to 11 euroes
per month
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Q: And when is it being released?
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22nd of january is our launch date
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[They say something about a demo tha
Tasos hadn't time to prepare]
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Q: And where is the game being
launched?
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Worldwide. We are launching in
Europe with the US also taking part
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And we have seen that our game can
run problem-free from our tests
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Q: A large portion of your audience
is mad about WoW,
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why would a WoW player leave a game
he's been playing for years
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and come to you?
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We could be talking all day about
the things that make Darkfall unique.
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One thing is what I already
mentioned earlier about the company
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Another one is the level of
interaction we allow among our users
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that you cant find in WoW
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And let us not go into graphics
and users per server
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There is no doubt that WoW
is a great game
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But it's a different game
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We dont want WoW's users
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We want that part of the users which
are not covered by what WoW offers
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And they play WoW and say 'Why can't
I do this and that and that'
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Q:You mentioned something about 6
years development, Greek you brought
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from abroad, a company from Norway
.. and you are still in beta...
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how exactly....ehh..
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You mean, how we can justify all
these years, right?
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One of the hardest undertaking in
the computer industry, is video games
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And in video games, the hardest you
can make is this type of games
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We also made the technology from
scratch, which is re-usable
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If we had to make this game now, it
could only take us a couple of years
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assuming we had the same team
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We had less people ... than...
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Some large companies have
around 300 people
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To produce some similar, or rather
not even something like that
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80 million euroes budget and an
additional 80 for marketing
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Q: My question is how did you get
fundng, even if it was for 2 persons,
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even for 2 people working for
6 years....
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Yes, the budget we had to work with
was..... END OF BATTERY!!!!