What are the ways you interact with your community?

For the Rise of Immortals community team at Petroglyph, there are four primary methods we use to communicate with our community - 1) Website/Forums, 2) Game Interface, 3) Chat/Social Networks, 4) E-mail

The website/forums is number one in importance simply because it provides both short-term and long-term communication. You can post a news announcement valid for that specific period of time that anyone can reference repeatedly through a common link, or something that can be archived for review months later.

The game interface is next in importance because we can post news directly on the launcher, in-game ad sections, and send updated messages to those that are playing a game at that time. The downsize is all of these areas, particularly one-off messages in chat are time sensitive and mainly only apply to that moment. This is why I place it second in importance, as you can always regurgitate news via the website/forums.

And then there's all those social networks, excellent ways to spread the word about an announcement after it has been established in the game and main website/forums. Just as important are tools like Skype which we use constantly for those one-off messages and more personable discussion between community leaders. Skype is excellent for active group chat this way.

And last is e-mail, used sparingly every week or two for key announcements consolidated through newsletters. The best way to reach older community members that may have drifted off to another game and need a reminder at how awesome yours is still after that last game update announced in the previous methods.

From previous discussion on LinkedIn.

China's Social Gaming Landscape: What's Coming

From: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/china_social_gaming_landscape_whats_coming_next.php

It's no longer a secret that China's online gaming industry is booming, and growth is set to continue with companies such as Shanda Games, Netease and The9 leading the way. In 2009, China's online gaming industry earned nearly $4 billion, growing 39.5% from 2008.

Each day, millions of high school students trying to forget the pressures of college entrance exams and young adults discontent with their jobs flock to Internet cafes to play online role-playing games. They're part of China's 384 million netizens, and they sit in front of rows of computers in dimly lighted smoke-filled rooms for upwardhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs of eight hours at a time, living in virtual worlds to escape the pressures of contemporary Chinese life.

But beyond the Internet cafés, social games have emerged as a convenient alternative for students and workers alike to gain a sense of release and revitalize themselves before tackling the next assignment of the day in their everyday lives. They take breaks to tend to their garden on 5 Minutes' Happy Farm (Kaixin Nongchang) farming game, or steal their friend's car parking space on Kaixin001's Qiang Chewei. RenRenWang (formerly Xiaonei), Kaixin001 and Tencent's QQ Xiaoyou are leading SNS portals, and are the go-to sites to access China's most popular gaming applications.

The widespread popularity of social games is not solely limited to white collar workers in their 20s - social gaming appeals to China's youth, their middle-aged parents, and even elderly retirees looking to share a common hobby with relatives spread throughout the country. The social gaming landscape is developing at an extremely rapid pace, with competition growing increasingly fierce by the day.

What Makes a 'Winning' Social Game in China?

The most popular social games in China are simple to play and appeal to a broad audience. These winning games take place in easily recognizable environments such as kitchens, gardens and parking lots, and only require a few clicks of a mouse to have a shared social gaming experience with your friends.

Happy Farm is the most popular Chinese social game to date. Created by Shanghai-based social game developer 5 Minutes, the game is quite similar to Zynga's FarmVille. Players own a virtual farm where they plant fruits and vegetables. They purchase supplies like seeds, pesticide and fertilizer at a virtual market. While part of the game is about growing and protecting your own harvest, the real fun is sneaking into your friends' farms to steal their vegetables. The game is easy to learn, taps into traditional Chinese farming culture and is extremely addictive - appealing to the young, the old and everyone in between.

Which Social Game Developers in China You Should Know About?

5 Minutes (五分钟), CEO: Shaofei Gao

5 Minutes was founded in 2006 by three college students. In November 2008 it released Happy Farm (below) and achieved immediate success, partnering with leading SNS portals, and receiving a one-time multi-million Chinese RMB payment from Tencent for full rights to the game on its QQZone platform. At the end of 2009, 5 Minutes received $3.5 million in venture capital funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Rekoo (热酷), CEO: Yong Liu

Founded in 2008, Rekoo is one of China's leading social gaming developers with several domestic partners: RenRenWang, 51.com, Alibaba, Baidu and Sohu. Rekoo also has strategic overseas partnerships with Facebook, MIXI, Myspace and Cyworld. Rekoo's most successful games are Sunshine Ranch and Animal Paradise.

IsMole (奇矩互动), CEO: Edwin Chen

Founded in 2008, IsMole started off as a market-leading game developer for social networks, but quickly lost its competitive edge to others like 5 Minutes and Rekoo. IsMole's is best known for its Xingfu Chufang (below) cooking social game that has been released in five different languages across seven countries on thirteen different SNS platforms.

Kingnet Games (恺英网络), CEO: Yue Wang

Founded in 2008, Kingnet first released Tower of Babel in April 2009, and within three months had over 500,000 users. In July 2009 Kingnet received venture capital investment from KPCB China. In October 2009, Kingnet had over 2 million users on Facebook.

Challenges Facing Social Game Developers

Social game development in China has entered a period of tremendous growth, but it has yet to fully mature. Companies compete fiercely with varying levels of experience and capital to create the next winning game. Two major challenges have arisen as a result of this environment.

1. Lack of Innovation: There is an overall lack of diversity in gaming context. Copying is rampant amongst competitors - once a social game is proven successful, competitors begin producing their own versions. For example, there are numerous games that take place in farms such as 5 Minutes' Happy Farm: Rekoo's Sunshine Ranch, Kaixin001's Kaixin Huayuan, and Zhiming Xingtong's Happy Farmer.

2. Lack of Continuous Improvement: There is a tendency for developers to stop investing in the game after it is on the SNS platform. In some cases this is due to lack of sufficient capital, while others stop because they're trying to make multiple games to obtain a quick return on investment. This lack of continuous improvement creates short game lifecycles, as user experience ultimately suffers, and a short period of success finally leads to replacement by the next popular game.

To win in this environment over the long-term, it is unavoidable that operational costs will continue to rise, as developers must continuously improve the quality and uniqueness of their games to fend off domestic competition and maintain their market share.

This Is Only The Beginning

Despite these challenges, there is tremendous growth potential in social gaming in China. The first years of growth in China's social game development have served as a foundation. The next few years will see a convergence between social games and 3G mobile gaming. The social game user base that is predominantly comprised of students and young white-collar workers will continue to grow with even more older players joining the crowd.

While Chinese companies will continue to face a competitive market at home, the best companies will develop unique winning strategies domestically and localize them to win success overseas. In a recent interview, 5 Minute's CEO Shaofei Gao was quoted as saying: "China's netizens are becoming more mature, they are gradually becoming more accustomed to paying for gaming, and social gaming market opportunities will definitely continue to increase in the future."

The world is changing, led by China

The world is really changing at an amazing pace, but lead not just this century by United States, but just as much by China. It was projected that China would economically pass the United States by more than double in 2050, which is some ways off, but not past many of our lifetimes. Now it's just 2020 due to the recent world economic issues, of which China has been largely immune from.

China is both geographically and demographically huge and has been growing steadily for the past several decades. Never in modern civilization's history has a developing country passed a developed country economically, but China is set for that record. It also means that China will also become not just a developed country, but the very leading country in the world in the next couple of decades.

What the world needs to realize is that China is different than the west by measures most of us don't quite grasp yet. For starters, we should understand that many developing countries are not necessarily going to westernize upon becoming developed. We have this mentality that "civilization" equals fast cars and huge homes. This is not entirely going to be the case for China. It will remain in fundamental respects, very different than any country outside the Asian sphere of cultural influence.

It's probably a good idea to understand what China really is then, how it arrived at its current existence, and also how it's going to change itself and the world in the decades to come. First, we assume that China is nation state, much like the United States with it's 50 states. This is a misconception. China is a "civilization state", a term coined by Martin Jacques, which comes from the binding of the Chinese behind the Han dynasty and the absolutism of the family.

Chinese care more for the whole than for the person. This is what has kept China, a huge country the size of the United States, together for over two thousand years... the absolute authority of the family and belief that all Chinese are of one race. The head of the family itself is not the parents of a child, nor of the grandparents, but the government. You can maybe see why Chinese have an absolutist approach toward Tibetans and Taiwan for instance.

China is also a single country with two systems. I emphasize the point by focusing on Hong Kong, handed over to the Chinese in 1997. A decade before that, no one believed that it a handover of such magnitude was possible. How did the world miscalculate such a significant transition? It's because China operates on the one nation, one system mentality. Hong Kong is by default a part of China, and in the near future, Taiwan will be the same, at least if they have their way.

Why is China so much different in respect to the government than the west, primarily the United States? It partly has to do with isolation. The United States was founded on refugees escaping from a religiously fanatical Europe of the time, persecuting anyone who thought differently or was different than the mainstream. Struggling to survive, skepticism and defense of ones person trumped the respect and integrity that a government, at its best, can provide.

China is different. They don't see the state like that at all. They view the state as I mentioned earlier, as a major member of the family. This has largely what's helped to keep China together, and what will keep it together for the next several decades. This is both something perhaps that the west doesn't entirely understand and will soon see in emphasis as China becomes the new super power of the world, near 2020.

This view of China can sound scary to many. It's a view that China is somehow a selfish and even immoral being because it prides and respects itself not on the person, but on the whole. I've been to China, taught in a Chinese school for a year, so I have a unique perspective than most might have to what they here on CNN or search through Google.

The world is really changing at an amazing pace, but lead not just this century by United States, but just as much by China. It was projected that China would economically pass the United States by more than double in 2050, which is some ways off, but not past many of our lifetimes. Now it's just 2020 due to the recent world economic issues, of which China has been largely immune from.

China is both geographically and demographically huge and has been growing steadily for the past several decades. Never in modern civilization's history has a developing country passed a developed country economically, but China is set for that record. It also means that China will also become not just a developed country, but the very leading country in the world in the next couple of decades.

What the world needs to realize is that China is different than the west by measures most of us don't quite grasp yet. For starters, we should understand that many developing countries are not necessarily going to westernize upon becoming developed. We have this mentality that "civilization" equals fast cars and huge homes. This is not entirely going to be the case for China. It will remain in fundamental respects, very different than any country outside the Asian sphere of cultural influence.

It's probably a good idea to understand what China really is then, how it arrived at its current existence, and also how it's going to change itself and the world in the decades to come. First, we assume that China is nation state, much like the United States with it's 50 states. This is a misconception. China is a "civilization state", which comes from the binding of the Chinese behind the Han dynasty and the absolutism of the family.

Chinese care more for the whole than for the person. This is what has kept China, a huge country the size of the United States, together for over two thousand years... the absolute authority of the family and belief that all Chinese are of one race. The head of the family itself is not the parents of a child, nor of the grandparents, but the government. You can maybe see why Chinese have an absolutist approach toward Tibetans and Taiwan for instance.

China is also a single country with two systems. I emphasize the point by focusing on Hong Kong, handed over to the Chinese in 1997. A decade before that, no one believed that it a handover of such magnitude was possible. How did the world miscalculate such a significant transition? It's because China operates on the one nation, one system mentality. Hong Kong is by default a part of China, and in the near future, Taiwan will be the same, at least if they have their way.

Why is China so much different in respect to the government than the west, primarily the United States? It partly has to do with isolation. The United States was founded on refugees escaping from a religiously fanatical Europe of the time, persecuting anyone who thought differently or was different than the mainstream. Struggling to survive, skepticism and defense of ones person trumped the respect and integrity that a government, at its best, can provide.

China is different. They don't see the state like that at all. They view the state as I mentioned earlier, as a major member of the family. This has largely what's helped to keep China together, and what will keep it together for the next several decades. This is both something perhaps that the west doesn't entirely understand and will soon see in emphasis as China becomes the new super power of the world, near 2020.

This view of China can sound scary to many. It's a view that China is somehow a selfish and even immoral being because it prides and respects itself not on the person, but on the whole. I've been to China, taught in a Chinese school for a year, so I have a unique perspective than most might have to what they here on CNN or search through Google.

While there are rightful concerns, I honestly feel that our planet and civilization will require a country like China to prosper through the technological 21st century. China isn't entirely the monster many see from a new power. In fact, te need of a country like China doesn't necessarily spell doom for our way of life, but all around benefits. And as powerful as China is set to become, and is already, they are not without problems either. Far from it.

"India and China are entering the world's economic market. It's the most significant event to hit our economy in decades if not centuries. Think of it--half the population of the world, suddenly wanting to buy." - Cliff Brewis

"India and China are entering the world's economic market. It's the most significant event to hit our economy in decades if not centuries. Think of it--half the population of the world, suddenly wanting to buy." - Cliff Brewis

Facebook has serious competition in China

You would think that the Chinese would be grabbing hold of Facebook and Twitter as fast as they have with our sports, clubbing, and other Western-style decadent cultural influences. They love American-everything. Yet Facebook and especially Twitter are but Pinto cars to China's fast growing Social Networking giants, RenRen and Qzone. Kaixin001 and 51.com round out the four social networking giants in China.

I've spent much of the Christmas holiday chatting with friends from all over the world on dozens of social networks. Nearly every week I find another social network, never mind the games found on those networks. Sure, you could use a select few to connect to virtually everyone around the globe, but just about each country has their own networks that often cater in special ways (language being the primary) that simply aren't offered on others.

RenRen in China is particularly an interesting case. Originally called 'Xiaonei', it's almost a virtual copy of Facebook. That's not really surprising in itself, considering that China copies quite a bit of Western technologies and ideas. They split off from the core technology and get rather unique in how they market the product, considering it a way to restore long-lost friendships and discover the true inner core of one's person through connecting with strangers in nearby cities.

Kaixin001 has been marketed more toward white-collar works and social games than RenRen's friend factor. For the past few years, Qzone has connected closely with QQ, China's primary instant messaging service, and has become a major social network for young teens and particularly rural users that may have spotty internet connections (which isn't a surprising element in even China's urban centers). 51.com used to be more popular than all the others, but has since begun a rapid decline back in 2008.

If you want to hook up with someone from China, Qzone is the way to go, for now. It has the largest social network by far and a great way to hook up with those already using the QQ instant messaging service. However, don't expect it to be an all-in-one service like Facebook that provides a lot of interesting games on the side. It is also weak on more in-depth search capabilities for university students looking to share information. Go to RenRen for that.

Much like Facebook is fast becoming an all-in-one giant in the West, RenRen is increasingly becoming popular for a wider range of users in China and nibbling at Qzone's market share. It may not be long before RenRen encroaches on Facebook's territory and an interesting international social networking war begins. The irony is that Facebook started as a university networking tool, while RenRen is becoming one in the end.

Chinese exporting an increasing list of games

Games are one of the few mediums of entertainment in the West where the influence of the East has been profoundly felt. Nintendo, Sega, Square-Enix, and countless other Japanese game companies have been in the enviable position of actually shaping the tastes of western gamers for decades. Although that influence has waned—in fact, there has been much talk of a game development crisis in Japan—no one would bother denying that the way we game today owes as much to Japan as it does to native influences such as Atari, Activision-Blizzard, and Zynga.

And while Japan may be stumbling, no one questions that China is on the world superpower fast track. Could this be the next Eastern game industry giant? China is already the world’s largest gaming market, and an emerging tech powerhouse. The phrase “Chinese Exports” usually conjures images of plastic widgets slathered in toxic paint, but this is more of a PR problem than a fair representation of the state of Chinese product development. Anyone with real knowledge of the market forces (skilled workforce, relatively low wages, room for expansion, government support) knows that China is already on its way to being a major player in the tech industry worldwide.

But what of games? The truth is, the wave of Chinese game exports is already underway and has been growing steadily over the last four years. Starting from two or three companies exporting games in 2006, there are now dozens of major Chinese game companies involved, many of them operating multiple games overseas. And while the blistering pace of growth in the Chinese domestic game market has slowed recently, revenue earned by Chinese game companies in overseas markets continues to grow by as much as 20% annually. As such, overseas profits are becoming a major strategy focus as the domestic market grows more competitive.

The numbers don’t lie: they are among us. But, where exactly? We have yet to see a major Chinese gaming hit to focus everyone’s attention on this phenomenon, and even moderately successful games have often avoided branding themselves as Chinese, which further reduces visibility. But they’re out there. Social game developers Five Minutes and Rekoo have been able to boast millions of monthly active users on Facebook, while Taiwanese-produced Runes of Magic has garnered praise as one of the highest quality F2P MMORPGs available. Beijing-based Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD), perhaps the most aggressive and forward-thinking participant in this trend, has a whole slew of F2P MMO titles and a 150-employee marketing, service and operations center in Silicon Valley. Though Perfect World’s overseas revenues have flagged recently, they still hit USD 7.8 million in Q3 2010, accounting for 7.4% of the company’s total. On a more ignominious note, the oft-ridiculed yet highly profitable strategy web-game Evony is a Chinese product. So, be warned, the Chinese invasion is on, and promises to bring dozens, if not hundreds, of new titles into the twitchy hands of western gamers with every passing year.

- Techrice.com

China's game industry is bursting at the seams

I was reading a few articles earlier this morning about how much smaller the Chinese game industry is compared to the West's. This is changing. Soon we'll be seeing a monster of a game industry in China the likes of which hasn't been seen since the rise of electronic entertainment itself.

Like many industry's in China, growth is at 10% per year or better and outpacing many competitor's in nearly all areas. The Chinese game industry is one of the highest growth industries right now in the country. Kingsoft, one of China's big publisher and R&D investor, grew 100% last year alone. Network development costs, as well as huge salary increases, are all signs that China's game industry is growing just about as fast as it possibly can.

The burden to China's game industry right now is not a lack of monetary resources, but a lack of robust talent and expertise. Hiring is at a run-away pace and production is up in nearly every studio. They're all crying for more quality production materials, communications access, and talented employees able to get the job done.

What's made the tremendous growth especially painful is the constant shift in the attitude of the Chinese towards a certain genre of games. The last couple of years we saw interest in Massively Multiplayer Online games, specifically Role-Playing ones like World of Warcraft and Lineage 2. Now we're seeing a rather jarring shift toward more casual, browser-based games, especially as more and more Chinese gain access to the Internet from their homes instead of stuffy basement-like Internet cafes.

Even though it may seem at times that the Chinese game industry is building upon itself, it's still largely being driven by American and European companies. The Chinese game industry is projected to continue double-digit growth for the next several years. They are going to need more than ever our expertise and experience, just as much as we need them right now for raw material goods.

Asian Games begin in Guangzhou, China

The 16th Asian Games (www.gz2010.cn/en), part of the worldwide Olympic movement and governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), will has the final rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony this evening – now two days away before the Games begin.

The Asian Games are the second largest sports event in the world after the Summer Olympic Games.

Xu Ruisheng, deputy mayor of Guangzhou lauded the praise of civic and games organizers, saying that Guangzhou has “the highest standards of water and electricity supply, smooth urban traffic and air, water and living environment quality. Guangzhou is ready to extend its welcoming hands”.

Timothy Tsun-Ting Fok, vice president of Olympic Council of Asia, said that the upcoming Guangzhou Asian Games will be the best one in history.

"Guangzhou once hosted the most successful National Games, and I'm sure it will also present the best Asian Games this time. The Asian Games provides a rare opportunity for Guangzhou to showcase its brand-new side. The whole world will share this rare opportunity. The entire city of Guangzhou will enjoy this historic moment," said Fok, who also serves as the president of the Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China.

The 16th Asian Games are ready to dazzle the three million spectators set to watch all of the competition and billions of TV viewers across Asia and around the globe with 53 competition venues and 17 training stadiums ready to go. Guangzhou city is locked down well in advance of Friday's opening ceremony, and the completion of test events for all 42 sports.

Games officials announced that a record number of doping tests will be carried out at the Games. “The Olympic Council of Asia plans for some 1,500 urine tests and probably more than 200 blood tests at the Asian Games which is expected to attract nearly 12,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions during November 12-27”, according to Zhao Jian, deputy head of China’s Anti-Doping Agency.

"The tests will be carried out according to Olympic standards," Zhao said. Testing started on Saturday in the Athletes Village and each morning a flight will carry the samples to the Beijing lab where about 5,000 tests were done during the Beijing Olympic Games.

"The negative reports return in 24 hours and for the positive ones, 48 hours," said Zhao.

The China Anti-doping Agency fielded 81 doping test officials, most of them serving the Beijing Summer Olympics, to the Asian Games as well as 11 international officials recommended by the OCA. The organizers also recruited 600 escorts and volunteers into the anti-doping force.
Games officials also announced that during The 16th Asian Games some 3,989 medals will be awarded. The medals for The 16th Asian Games take its theme from the ancient Silk Road and are a positive fusing of the Games and emblem of the OCA together with graphics depicting the Guangzhou city flower … the red kapok.

Featuring the OCA logo of the dancing dragon and soaring hawk, the medals also depicts the OCA’s shining sun visual effect through a bowstring grain design that expresses the core elements of The 16th Asian Games – the bright sun and the delicate Red Kapok flower.
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Each of the award ceremony elements have been meticulously prepared to the finest details include all of the medals, certificates, flowers, awards platform, pallets and background boards used as well as specific sizes for each national flag, timed national anthems and opening award ceremony music.

The 16th Asian Games awards bouquet will consist mainly of gladiolus, red ear crown composition, plus crystal grass, blue leaf, turtle bamboo or golden bowl anise for accent decoration.

There are 39 Asian Games ceremony work teams with 1,166 workers, 146 team workers, 380 awards etiquette staff, 250 flag-raising staff and 390 general volunteers.
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Games organizers spent one year searching across China for the young ladies that would participate in the award ceremonies. The search committee traveled to more than 110 universities and ultimately selected 380 individuals to become official Asian Games awards etiquette volunteers.

The flag raising staff come from Guangdong Armed Police Department, Guangzhou military region and Hong Kong units. When the Asian Games begin, 380 awards etiquette and 250 flag-raising staff will work together to form 23 ceremony professional volunteer teams.

Source: http://etravelblackboardasia.com/article.asp?nav=21&id=71521