We definitely saw a lot of interesting titles there; our team of 5 people from our content group went to all the booths and tried out all the games during the convention's first 2 days. However, we can't say which titles we will be testing further when we get back home...for obvious reasons.

The next title we're launching in OBT is actually a game made by Shanda (SNDA) of China, it's Crazy Kart. We recently launched it's official site and I hope all you guys visit it, it's pretty cool (www.crazykart.ph). Our closed beta period is coming to an end this month and we'll announce in the site when the OBT launch is in the next few days.

MMOsite: I noticed that most of your games are cute style MMOs such as Ragnarok Zeny, Rose Zuly and FlyFF Penya. How do you describe the Philippine players?Do you think that Philippine players have a predilection for cute games?

Jake San Diego: That is true. With Ragnarok zeny breaking through the mainstream and being accepted as part of pop culture, it definitely set the bar in terms of the art you would expect out of an online game. However, the past 2 years saw the growth in terms of popularity of games with the classic MMORPG style artwork. Games like RF Online and Perfect World displaying realistic character art now cater to the more hardcore, mature gamers.

MMOsite: Many people think that casual games can't have a lot of hardcore gamers, but it seems that it's different for RO zeny Level Up!'s games. What's the reason behind?

Jake San Diego: Casual games have definitely grown a lot in the country the past year. Mostly due to entry of new titles. Primarily, what drives the hardcore players in the game would be the tournaments that are done both locally, at the internet cafe level, and nationally, through events like Level Up! Live.

MMOsite: In your opinion, what contributed to the great success of Level Up! in Philippine? And what are your future prospects for Level Up!?

Jake San Diego: It helped a lot that we were the ones who started locally publishing games in the country. But personally, I think that what made Level Up! successful in the Philippines is that it has constantly remained true to it's vision-- which is to have a Level Up! Gamer in each and every Filipino household. This is the battlecry of all the employees of the company; from the people in charge of content who make sure we have a wide array of games for whatever type of gamer there is, to the people in marketing who spread the word, down to the people in the operations side of the business--all of whom espouse the age old business adage that the customers should always come first. Our main inspiration is seeing the Level Up! Community growing every single day.