Perfecting the Online Games Ecosystem with MapleStory Universe - TOKEN2049 Singapore 2023

hello everyone uh good afternoon um uh first of all um uh I thank you for your precious time on my presentation uh because it's uh in the middle of lunch time you know so uh 30 minutes after this uh we'll be uh making you hungry but stay hungry is not a bad thing right and that will make you uh stay foolish as well and I thought I think uh that is also helpful to my presentation also so uh I'm gonna talk to you guys about the uh how we are going to make uh this online game service MapleStory uh into a whole new level of Ip Community Service uh with the help of blockchain Technology uh let me introduce myself to you first uh I'm Sonia Wang the executive producer of MapleStory Universe project and um it's it's it's been kicked up uh back in uh 2022 April so it's been a half and I haven't uh half one and a half year uh so far uh before this project I worked in a one of the biggest online company in the world next song at that time I let the whole live operation team for uh PCM morpg which is the also on one of the uh successful online game in the world as a game uh director and also uh I had the chance uh to be in uh a couple of famous IPS such as Mabinogi and a certain attack as a game producer at that time also so um these are the topics I'm going to cover with today uh with uh according to the subject so let's go into the first chapter MapleStory as a community service um this is MapleStory how MapleStory looks and hope you guys uh familiar with it uh I know Singapore is one of the country where MapleStory had a uh great success as an online game so uh of you guys familiar with that uh this uh it is launched uh back in 2003 and it had a it made a great success right after its launch um it succeeded in uh growing up the market size gaming Market size by flowing in a massive amount of casual player into the game Market um actually uh it's it made a big hit out of its duty-based uh cute uh pixel based graphics and simple uh game system and interface with uh actual game uh casual gameplay as well so as you can see here there are five months out of the game uh the third one uh the in the middle pink one Mr Pink bin is one of my favorite and actually uh I see him here in the screen on the outside the building on the way to the hotel in taxi uh today uh before yesterday when I just got here so it was really glad to see them here so um there are also astonishing figures around the game um we've been in service more than 20 years so far and we made a one and one and a 180 million uh the user base wise and we made uh over 4 billion USD as a revenue wise and after its launch it keeps its growth every year so it's always better than last year and of course this summer it still kept its growth as well on the other hand um as a online game developer myself I think a game online game is not a game product but a game service which needs a continuous development of following updates and big events and so on on also a live team has to look into the service figure uh to adapt the issue arising from the service such as fixing bugs and server patching and adjusting uh the the game balance inside and so on um so that that is what we call live operation as you all guys know uh these days uh almost every online game company use uh utilize this uh live operation strategy uh even in uh even with this with their uh single package game as well such as DLCs and so on but um as a successful provider of uh 20 years of service the live team MapleStory live team wanted to go further beyond the game service to make a much more sustainable service than ever before so we extended the existing boundary of the game service game experience to a whole new level of an IP experiences with uh various participants of community so now we're uh making and providing uh extended IP related um sorry IP related uh activities of our own uh outside the game in uh on and offline places such as a big fan festival and a musical concert with a professional Orchestra with uh of MapleStory OST and big Showcase of uh their team Zone all of these activities completes the whole new level of Ip experiences for a much wider range of participants of community and and that is why we see it as a IP community service in doing so we also figured notice that we're not the only one who creates these kind of activities for community itself also create their own IP related activities for themselves uh for example there are uh uh fan artist who creates a fan illustration cartoons and IP related goods and so on they're also influencers who create a video clip about the MapleStory game and there are also creators who create a companion app for uh games and also even I create a whole new play whole another play out of the MapleStory IP and uh there are so like this there are various of uh creators and community activities out of uh these all the community and um at first MapleStory uh might start as a single online game but now it has evolved to an evolve as a whole uh all-around IP community service now and the sustainable growth and the success of the service comes out of this power of the community so let's look into the power of community uh what are they uh we should uh understand the power potential power of community to do this so we have to think about their nature first there's self-sustainable they are created voluntarily and second there it's creativity they are so creative that sometimes uh with the live team cannot react to them properly even when it's necessary so there is always uncertainty in uh providing a community service for the uh various participants of community um such as the let's say there is an uh influencer who creates uh very helpful uh video that helps a newcomer on board to the community very easily and we want them go further and even we want them uh we want to share them up and because they have a definitely a positive influence to the IP reinforcement and expansion and also to the community but the other case uh let's say there is a illustrator if an artist who creates an illustration uh which includes some violent expression in sexual way uh and even exceed the age restriction of the game uh where Maple stories are all all okay for all AC by the way this is really bad actually uh definitely has a negative uh influences to the uh IP and the quality of game service that's the uncertainty of the power of community as well so we need some methodology to interact with them uh like uh we have to uh give a positive influence and react to uh positive uh activity and we have to give a negative one to the negative activity but for now uh there's no official appropriate and sustainable option for us to take at the moment so um for the positive pieceback only thing we can do is just we're just neglecting them and hoping them are going further without any help or support from our ends and for the negative feedback we just uh restricting them from creation on the ground that abusing our IP that's really sad for all of us that's why we need a new paradigm for uh building whole new relationship with creators uh that we can uh all the participants interact with each other uh intimate influences and make the IP uh reinforced and expanded starting point of our project MapleStory universe uh nft based Universe we are making MapleStory n which is the blockchain version of existing PC MMORPG and service right now and we're gonna Place uh two more components for community service base one is MapleStory world and the other is MapleStory SDK and these two will help in uh building up a new relationship with Community with the help of blockchain Technology and we're gonna onboard a various type of uh creators uh activity from community on chain uh in our universe as well and we're making a whole new uh IP uh community service where all the participants exchange the positive negative uh influences with each other uh facing for the IP reinforcement and expansion so um how we are gonna make this universe work the answer is we're gonna do that by sharing IP Control ability with the community on the screen you can see the massive amount of item bases which have been created along with the 20 years of service millions of trillions of game players have experienced the game play and as a result of that they earn they obtained the many of these items as a reward um in short they play the game ultimately for obtaining these items uh so these items these item based is the fundamental force and motivation for gamers to continue their gaming experiences in other world in other words uh most important thing for gamer is the items they earn from the gameplay if so these items will also be uh major goals for a community Creator as well because they create activities for uh Gamers and participants of community to enjoy so it's no surprise that many of the most beloved uh activities of communities uh have been those that allow Gamers to further utilize and enhance their own items hmm ultimately the foundation of maple story game service is this vast pool of items on which uh dedicate player and Community have accumulated the value uh over past two decades so this is the essence and the Heart of the MapleStory IP foreign therefore the key factor to make it possible to uh drive this uh activities to a specific direction to direction is the power coming out of this item base the item assets that is to say MapleStory IP assets and in order to align all the participant Vision into one single goal we're gonna share out this IP Control power with the with those who contribute to the IP reinforcement and expansion so we're gonna do two things for this first we're going to open up the IP assets to community creators and secondly we're going to Distributing item creating power to the contributors so firstly the item asset we Pro will be provided in various ways uh to meet the various needs of community creators through uh these two components that I've mentioned earlier MapleStory world and MapleStory SDK the MapleStory world is maple IP based ugc platform which is in service in web 2 space already and we are making a blockchain version of it and the MapleStory SK is for a more professional studio to enable them or creative activities and this will allow the whole Community participant to use freely much more wider uh variation of item assets ever done before uh for their own adapt creation process and number two we're going to Distributing this item creating ability to contributors what is who is the contributors and what is the item creating ability contributors mean as you can see on the screen participants who create the community activities that contribute to the IP reinforcement and expansion and we are making a contribution evaluating system that theoretically evaluates the level of contribution of that activity and and gives them contribution Point accordingly and creators of them will be reworded item creating ability according to the contribution point and this is how all the contribution evaluating system works so now we have contributors and they have uh item creating ability sorry oh sorry so they have earned this contribution point and they are rewarded item creating ability just like I said before and now we have contributors with item creating ability how do they use that ability it's really simple they use it to create a whole new item into the universe that's it but as you see on the screen there are complicated looking components interacting with each other in complicating way but I only have 30 minutes today so uh maybe I skipped that and let's keep it simple but just in case I left a detailed explanation about it on the bottom side of the slide so back to the main subject contributors used this ability to make a whole new item and put those in their activity as a reward and let those items flow into the MapleStory Universe uh indirectly actually through Gamers and participants of community um that makes this contributor an official item supplier of the universe and this item process is one and only item process in the universe so even the project team us will have to uh as a as a service provider of MapleStory and MapleStory world and so on we have to earn this ability and the point uh fairly with the system also and we have to carry on all the service only with the point and ability just like any other community creators from the community do yeah there goes item flow into the MapleStory universe so in the early stage of the service the contribution of the project team will be the absolute portion but as uh more contributors join in and and on board on the universe over time we expect a diverse uh item supplier base and finally we will look forward to the day when we have to uh step down from the being number one contributors in the universe um thanks to blockchain technology uh that we can come up with this concept item creating ability and we can make it a fungible manner so that we can divide it into pieces and share it with uh others that will be uh possible for that technology by the way so finally we can align the creators with the project teams perspective for the IP now uh when the contributors own this ability then they have the perspective of item supplier which already the project team has uh originally so creators along with the project team as a contributors share the same suspect a same perspective as an item supplier in the universe so the contributors will adjust their activities to maximize item utility as an item supplier and also they will execute this ability to maximize the benefit as the item supplier as well and both two actions will make it possible for iron to be more stronger much more stronger over time that means more the power more powerful item becomes the better it is for gamer so now we have creators and uh Gamers and our project Team all the participants in the ecosystem will be aligned in one single goal that is IP reinforcement and expansion now um we've reached the final conclusion so uh let me wrap up the thought and new generation of Ip community service for you so me we were making uh Next Generation IP community service out of current online game service and to do that we have to uh we have to know understand and taking a take advantage of community power that is a self-sustainability and creativity and to utilize this power uh we will going to we we are going to share the control power over our IP assets MapleStory IP with the health of the blockchain technology and finally uh we will make the self-powered expansion and evolution of the IP ecosystem uh that is IP community service yeah we came to this picture again and this is the last slide my presentation um this is the future of MapleStory game Service uh where the all the participants exchange intimate influences with each other and headed for the same goal IP expansion and reinforcement and this is the future of the IP community service which grows and expands by its own power which is self-sustainability and creativity and that is the vision of my project MapleStory universe thank you uh very much for your precious time on my presentation and hope you guys have a great lunch and uh also a great time uh with the rest of the conference token 29 uh to to 2049. thank you very much [Applause]