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At the Game Developers Convention (GDC), Jong Hyun Wi, Ph.D, gave a presentation regarding East and West gaming preferences and why the World of Warcraft seems to work for both. He is the president of the Game Contents Research Center at Chung-Ang University, Korea and during the GDC presentation, showed some interesting numbers about eastern and western players.
Dr. Wi gathered polls from player communities from both territories and found several differences between the two sides. Chinese players are more goal oriented which means they value item gathering. Customization, number of valuable items and item diversity are most attractive to them. Also, Player vs Player (PvP) gameplay is an important part of the gaming experience and socializing in game is mostly for play advantage.
Western gamers on the other hand prefer good graphics and quests. Only 34.7% of American gamers experienced PvP as opposed to 91.3% of Chinese players. Western gamers like the hunt for items though it's more important for them that the quests or raids be substantial. Another gaping difference is that 48.68% of Americans join guilds to meet friends.
Dr. Wi concluded the Chinese players are focused on the endgame while American players prefer fostering communities. And since Blizzard's World of Warcraft basically has all the said content, there's no question why it shouldn't appeal to both Eastern and Western players - even when Asian MMOs get imported to the US and Western MMOs fail miserably when trying to grab an Asian playerbase.
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