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Abhinav Ramnarayan

Chennai , Dec. 25

BEFORE people could exclaim in wonder at the phenomenon that is LAN (Local Area Network) gaming — where gamers compete against one another over a LAN rather than play against computer-generated opponents — the next step is already here.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are games where people all over the country log on to the same server and play the same game against, with and along with one another.

Level Up Network India, the first online game publisher in the country, has introduced Ragnarok, the Korean MMORPG in India.

Ragnarok is a role playing game where the gamer chooses a character (there are many, from a swordsman to a merchant and a priest) and wages war, seeks treasure, conquers monsters and makes friends in the virtual world, called Rune Migard, along with everybody else who is playing in India at that time.

But how conducive is the market? In Korea, 54 per cent of Internet users are also gamers. India, which is a nascent market, is nowhere close to achieving that, said Mr Venkat Mallik, Managing Director, Level Up. "But of late there has been a lot of interest."

He said that it would still take some time to catch attention. Ragnarok, for example, will take around three years to become profitable, he said.

In the meantime, Level Up is heavily promoting its first entry into the MMORPG world. The game can be purchased at the Web site for Rs 100 and there is no subscription fee involved.

"For the moment, it is free," said Mr Mallik, "but we are working on a subscription model, though we are not ready to announce it at the moment." Internationally, the subscription fee comes to about $7 to $8 a month. "But then you will have the option of purchasing hourly cards, or daily cards, which are cheaper," he added.

The other way of promoting it is through organising events on Halloween and Christmas, and even a fashion show featuring the clothes and accessories that appear in the game.

Also, twice a week, Level Up organises a `castle siege', where players across the country fight battles against each other to win ownership of a castle, one of the most prestigious achievements in the game.

Level Up first set up a large server that could accommodate the needs of millions of users — a `server farm'— and then databases of various kinds. It then becomes possible for people to log in and connect to the main server.

"One of the chief problems we had was the existing infrastructure," said Mr Mallik. India has 750,000 broadband connections, a number that fell short of the target, which was set at one million broadband users in the first year since the launch.

Mr Mallik, however, believes that in five years, broadband will be beating the target comfortably.

"And hopefully online gaming will follow at the kind of level it does in Korea," he added.

Level Up had to improvise by working closely with Internet Cafes. "Net cafes make a lot of money out of us, because your average Internet user is not going to stay much longer than 15-20 minutes to type an e-mail. Playing Ragnarok, they'll be at it for at least an hour or two everyday."

On the other hand, cafes are valuable partners for Level Up, with their widespread reach. Satyam i-Way has over 2,500 cafes, and Reliance Web Worlds are 230 plus in number, not to mention the numerous small game café chains at the city level.

Ragnarok has a presence in over 70 cities in the country.

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