cricketparty.com, the world's first Cricket MMOG launched

[tasmia]

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/other/200803128014.htm

CRICKET is a passion and national obsession in India. Ever since India won the Cricket World Cup and subsequent tournaments, the sport has become a craze with Indians. Be it children or teens, adults or old, male or female, cricket is the common code word for brotherhood.

To give further fillip to the sport is Agneya Infotech, a Hyderabad based Socio-Gaming Company. It has conceptualised and developed the world’s first cricket Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) combining social networking with gaming. The MMOG platform is a instant hit as it has a minimum of 1500 teams playing the game at any given period of time. It has one lakh greens to host the teams. And registered a record of 1.5 million registered users achieved in just 5 months while beta version, informed Mr. Tagore Guttinkonda, Chairman, Agneya Infotech addressing a press conference in city today.

[Sunbury]

"fillip" - humm, I don't think iv'e ever come across that word.

This doesn't help much, I guess the meaning above is N.2 or tr.v 2?

fil·lip
n.
1. A snap or light blow made by pressing a fingertip against the thumb and suddenly releasing it.
2. An embellishment that excites or stimulates: "Spritely tabasco onions, just a little crunch for the top, were an added fillip" Alison Arnett.
3. One that is trivial or of little importance.
tr.v. fil·liped, fil·lip·ing, fil·lips
1. To strike or propel rapidly by as or as if by a fillip: filliped his finger against my ear; filliped the pretzel across the counter.
2. To stimulate or arouse.

[Signe]

You should watch more cricket, then.  You'll learn all sorts of strange and wonderful words.

I'll try it.  If I like the tea, I'll stay.

[Draegan]

Cricket?  I don't have any witty to say about the sport.  I'll pass.

[IainC]

I have a couple of friends who work for Empire of Sports which is a multi-sports MMO apparently due to launch imminently. I'm not sure if it's going to release outside of Europe and Asia though.

It's worth pointing out that while you may laugh at the idea of a cricketing MMO, there are more cricket fans in India than there are NFL fans worldwide.

[Draegan]

How can you prove that?  And what is that link you just posted?  Seems like a silly blog.

[K9]

It's a pretty fair assumption, given that the population of India is just shy of 1 billion and cricket is the #1 sport there. Even if every single person in America was considered a die-hard NFL fan you'd still only need 1 in 4 Indians to consider themselves a cricket supporter to beat out the difference.

[Draegan]

Hmm thats true.

[pants]

And they sure take their cricket seriously in India.  Here are some fans burning an effigy of the now ex-coach when he dropped the captain of the national side due to poor form.



I think this idea makes a lot of sense.  There are a billion Indians.  They do all love cricket.  And courtesy of all those outsourced jobs, they are rapidly getting disposable income to spend on stuff like this.

[IainC]

I think this idea makes a lot of sense.  There are a billion Indians.  They do all love cricket.  And courtesy of all those outsourced jobs, they are rapidly getting disposable income to spend on stuff like this.

India has the world's biggest middle class. There are 350 million or so well educated Indians with enough disposable income to indulge reasonably expensive hobbies like computer gaming. When I worked at Games Workshop I heard from several of the managers there that the Indian market was the one they desperately wanted to crack - and this was before the outsourcing rush began in earnest.

[UnSub]

From the wiki:

Cricket is one of the most widely played sports in the world. More than 120 cricket-playing nations are recognised by the International Cricket Council.[8] In the countries of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, cricket is the most popular sport.[9][10][11] Similarly, it is the most popular sport in Australia,[12][13] United Arab Emirates,[14] Bermuda,[15] Cayman Islands[16] and the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean, which are collectively known in cricketing parlance as the West Indies.[17] Cricket is also the national sport of England[18] and The Bahamas,[19] and a major sport in the countries of Europe (including Wales,[20] Scotland,[21] Ireland[22] and Italy[23]), Africa (containing South Africa,[24] Zimbabwe,[25] Kenya,[26] Namibia,[27] Uganda[28] and Zambia[29]), Asia (including Hong Kong,[30] Fiji[31] and Papua New Guinea[32]), and in New Zealand,[33] etc.

If it's a convenient world wide platform, a cricket online game could get a lot of attention.

Personally, I don't care less. I don't really like cricket (well, I don't like the Australian cricket team and can't be bothered watching anyone else) so this game doesn't interest me. However, it's a smart move into a largely untapped market.

[DarkSign]

And they sure take their cricket seriously in India.  Here are some fans burning an effigy of the now ex-coach when he dropped the captain of the national side due to poor form.



I think this idea makes a lot of sense.  There are a billion Indians.  They do all love cricket.  And courtesy of all those outsourced jobs, they are rapidly getting disposable income to spend on stuff like this.

That was Greg Chapple and he deserved it. India and Pakistan have had ceasefires in wars because a cricket match was on. Tied with soccer for world's best sport.

[Lietgardis]

Man, I thought this game was going to be about cricket fighting.

[WayAbvPar]

Is that one of the side shows at the flea circus?

[UnSub]

Man, I thought this game was going to be about cricket fighting.

You've just found an untapped gap in the MMO market.

Make the fighting cute enough and you can attract the kiddies as well.

[rk47]

isn't that what pokemon did. I wonder why there's no PokeMMOn yet?
I thought that is automatic moneyhats. It's turn based, so it can be browser based. Add some flash animation for attack, keep introducing new content with downloadable optional rare 'mons' with microtransactions = Good Cash Cow?

[UnSub]

Massively.com reported yesterday that a Digimon MMO is making its way to western shores. Perhaps that will have cricket fighting.

[HaemishM]

isn't that what pokemon did. I wonder why there's no PokeMMOn yet?

Because Nintendo owns the Pokemon license and does not believe in MMOG's. They barely believe in online play.