MMORPG: The most favored game genre in China
January 6, 2009 by Joel Tan
Filed under Asian MMO, Asian MMO Players, Cabal Online, Crazy Kart, Fly For Fun, MMO Action, MMO Dance, MMO Music, MMORPG, MMORPG News, Perfect World, RF Online, Ran Online
Gee, why am I not surprised? Seriously now. I’m really not surprised that massively multiplayer online role-playing games is still the preferred genre of online games fanatics despite the fact that popularity of online fighting or battle games and music and dance games is picking up.
Here’s the lowdown from China-based online games portal 17173:
According to The Eighth China Online Game Market Survey, most Chinese players rated MMORPG as their favorite game genre, no matter their ages. For players whose age fall between 19 and 25, the percentage is lower, at about 78.3 percent. They are more for online battle games.
As to the game genre most favored by players, MMORPG tops the list with 84.4 percent of votes. It’s estimated that MMORPGs will continue to dominate the market. It’s noticed that virtual reality games, which debuted on the list for the first time and won seven percent of votes. According to iResearch, this is in close relation to the fast development of webgames and the SNS community. With the combination of the two, virtual reality games will be more popular this year.
Of course, the trend isn’t limited to China. In this part of the continent and the world, MMORPGs like Perfect World, RF Online, Fly For Fun, RAN Online and Cabal also enjoy a strong following. Casual online games such as Dance Battle Audition, O2Jam and Crazy Kart are merely second fiddle, usually to break the monotony of playing MMORPGs for almost the entire day.
Image shows screenshot from Martial Heroes, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by CR-Space Inc.
