GAMES 09: Interview with Fadi Mujahid, Game Power 7
We chat with Fadi about Arabic Rappelz.
Game Power 7 develops and publishes online games and related digital contents. It’s one of the first companies in the Middle East to specialize in MMO games. As General Manager, Fadi Mujahid is spearheading it’s growth in this region. We had a chat with him about what got him into this business and the uptake of MMOs in this region.
Fadi Mujahid, General Manager, Game Power 7
MEGamers: Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into this role.
Fadi Mujahid: I’ve been in the IT field for over 12 years and I’ve had a passion for game programming. I’ve been working for the Space Toon group, the holding company of Game Power 7. When they started a games division, I was chosen to head it. We focus on developing and publishing online games. Our biggest product at the moment is Arabic Rappelz.
Tell us what it’s like developing an Arabic version of Rappelz for this region.
As you know, Rappelz is a famous global MMO game and we have localized it and tweaked it for this region. We’ve made sure that there the cultural and religious sensitivities of this region are respected while localizing this game. We also host the service in this region.
How popular is Arabic Rappelz?
23,000 gamers have joined Rappelz. Very few people know of online games except for World of Warcraft. There are over 6,000 MMO games out there. We want to promote more MMO games in this region.
Those are very impressive numbers. Which countries do you see most of your players logging on from?
Due to its population density, Saudi Arabia is number one. Egypt follows at number 2 and the United Arab Emirates at number 3, followed by Kuwait, Syria and Qatar. We’re very interested in the UAE market as that there is a significant uptake of the game here even though the UAE does not have a massive population.
Why do you think that is?
I think people in the UAE are better educated about MMO games than in other parts of this region.
What’s Rappelz all about?
It’s a very successful MMO game about 3 nations which were in peace. The peace is distrupted and it’s your job to bring peace and harmony to these three countries again.
As you develop your character in the game, you have to choose a job and a specialty – this could be in melee, spells or taming beasts that aid you in your battles. You can also occupy dungeons. This is when things get interesting as other guilds will try and attack you.
There are 15 types of monsters you can tame and an unlimited number of monsters you can fight. There are also weekly guild wars.
We also celebrate various occasions internally within the game. Recently we have celebrated Book Day, Anti-drug day, Ramadan and Eid.
How do you celebrate these days?
Well, to celebrate the anti-drug day, we added promotional messages within the games on how to avoid drugs. Players also got valuable ingame items when they killed monsters and within these gifts were promotional anti-drug messages.
How do you earn revenue through Rappelz
We earn revenue through a monthly subscription as well as sale of in-game items.
Is this your first GAMES event?
Yes.
What do you think of it?
It’s been very successful in brining in the customers. It is one of the most successful events we have participated in. I suggest that it is held in other countries as well. Many of our players have requested that it should be in Saudi and other countries as well.
What can we expect in the future from Game Power 7?
We are preparing 3 new games – MMO sports, MMO Racing and MMO Rpg which is like Rappelz but more advanced.
We look forward to it. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Fadi.
Thank you.
