1. Turkish Delight ! Rahul Sandil GamersFirst Case Study: Knight Online Monetizing a Free2Play game and keeping it alive and fresh over 8 years

2. 1 ONE Background • Key Market Indicators • Founded GamersFirst in 2001 • Found Knight Online in 2003 s e c t i o n

3. Key Market Demo

4. TURKISH ONLINE USERS

5. THE WORLD‘S 2ND FASTEST GROWING ECOMMERCE MARKET IN 2011 68% Growth

6. Social Media Turkey is Ranked 4th Facebook 1st FriendFeed 9th Twitter

7. Combined CCU of Top 5 MMOs

8. BACKGROUND • Found Knight Online in 2003 • Already released in Korea in 2001, it set the land speed record for failure… • Which meant that by the laws of Inverse Demographics (which I just made up), it would blow the roof off of the North American Market! • Game was translated to English and published by K2 shortly afterwards

9. 2 TWO s e c t i o n HORIZONTAL EXPANSION ALT TITLE: MORE TURKEY PLEASE

10. 2 TWO Horizontal Expansion • Initial wave of Turkish players in 2006 • Within a year game overrun with Turkish players (in a good way) • Gaming phenomenon!! s e c t i o n

11. HORIZONTAL EXPANSION • Turkish player data: • ConvRate: 8% - 12% • ARPPU: $18-$26 • Average LTV: $80-$120 • 1 in 10 Turkish citizens has played Knight Online • OEM “hardware” appears: The KO Pedal

12. HORIZONTAL EXPANSION • Turkish player data: • ConvRate: 8% - 12% • ARPPU: $18-$26 • Average LTV: $80-$120 • 1 in 10 Turkish citizens has played Knight Online • OEM “hardware” appears: The KO Pedal

13. EVERYTHING WAS LOOKING GOOD . . . UNTIL THE DARK TIMES…

14. Hackers/cheaters begin to appear en masse • DDOS attacks in 2007 cripple game servers for months • Turkish government BANS Knight Online (possibly preparing for 2011’s attempt to ban the internet) • Net result?

15. A few million more unique logins appear • Max CCUs double • Number of transactions quintuple • Hackers/cheaters begin to appear en masse • DDOS attacks in 2007 cripple game servers for months • Turkish government BANS Knight Online (possibly preparing for 2011’s attempt to ban the internet) • Net result?

16. 3 THREE s e c t i o n Three Cs of Monetization • Community • Currency • Content

17. Combos and Sliding: Two features that started their lives as bugs • Daily/Weekly/Monthly Live events • Localized GM/CS • Embraced Social Media early 1. COMMUNITY

18. Pricking with E-Pins • KOL everywhere! • Everyone Makes Money [on the secondary market] 2. CURRENCY

19. PVP: The UGC gift that keeps on giving • Everyone Loves a Trader • Annual Content Updates 3. CONTENT

20. SUMMARY s u m m a r y LEARNINGS

21. Tipping the Scales DON’T Play Play

22. Tipping the Scales DON’T Play Play I want items

23. Tipping the Scales I don’t want to spend money I want items

24. Tipping the Scales DON’T Play Play I don’t want to spend money I want items

25. Tipping the Scales DON’T Play Play I want to PVP I don’t want to spend money I want items

26. Tipping the Scales DON’T Play Play I can pay with Cash How did my friend get that? I don’t want to spend money I want to PVP My clan needs me I want items

27. DON’T Play Play I don’t want to spend money Wow – The GM’s speak Turkish !! DON’T Play How did my friend get that? I can pay with cash I want to PVP My clan needs me I want items Tipping the Scales

28. Tipping the Scales Wow – The GM’s speak Turkish !! I don’t want to spend money DON’T Play How did my friend get that? I can pay with cash I want to PVP My clan needs me I want items

29. THANK YOU (ALT TITLE: SHAMELESS TWITTER WHORING) @rahulsandil