Yu-Gi-Oh! Online International

International news and rankings in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online

Customer Service

Posted on | August 14, 2009 | 1 Comment

yugiohonlineWhat is Konami’s take on the fact that a large segment of the world has to actively break Konami’s own Terms of Service to play? YGO Online International gauges the response and then tries to find a method behind the madness.

Some time ago, I sent a short, polite e-mail to Konami regarding the lack of selectable nations in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online. After all, as I pointed out before, Konami has left entire continents off their outdated list, forcing new players from those nations to break Konami’s own TOS to play.

The response was less than stellar.

Hello,

Dear Sir,

Thank you for contacting Konami Customer Support.

In response to your questions about Y02, I’m very sorry to tell you we have no information at this time regarding this.

Please keep an eye on our website http://www.yugioh-online.net/top/english-eu/index.htm for information about developments and future plans.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your feedback.

Regards,

KDE-US, Customer Support

No information? What, didn’t they notice that citizens of 52 different recognised nations (and that’s not including self-governed territories which Konami have listed as well), making up some 2,341,535,759 (2.3 BILLION) people are not covered?

I’m smart enough to realise that the nations Konami do cater for are the nations they will always likely make the most profit from. But considering that Yu-Gi-Oh! Online caters to all of Africa, which is a continent with 52 nations that brings in the least amount of TP besides Oceania, is it unreasonable to assume that somewhere in the mass of two billion players there may be the possibility of turning a profit?

You see, it’s the striking out of Central and South America and the Caribbean that is most grating. While we can say that perhaps Konami does not want to bother setting up a Chinese language server to cater to the 1.3 billion potential Chinese players (although Hong Kong and Taiwan are selectable and use the language), almost of all of Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, speaks either English or Spanish.

Language doesn’t hold up as an excuse however when you realise that it is not as if the languages offered by Yu-Gi-Oh! Online currently (English, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian and Spanish) cover all available nations anyway. Portugal is selectable, Greece is selectable, Russia is selectable and so on.

We can take at face value the idea that the nations not selectable simply don’t have a potential online audience the way the current selection does; it would be a waste of time to even make them selectable. But that’s not true when you consider there are nations in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online which have literally never generated one single TP, and that’s with some duelists singing up as obscure countries on purpose widening the spread of TP.

Can we really say Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, to name just three, could not generate more income for Konami than Oman (current TP: 0), Namibia (current TP: 0) and Samoa (current TP: 0)? In fact, Duelpasses are easily available to physically purchase in Mexico, but you can’t select the nation when you register an account. Am I the only one to find that a little messed up?

Seeing as it’s quite clear that many duelists are from outside Konami’s limited selection, the only reasonable conclusion is that Konami’s administration of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online is marked with complete and utter indifference. Of course, that’s hardly a shock, but this is so easily rectifiable and would encourage so many new duelists to sign up it’s ludicrous to think Konami wouldn’t do it.

But it’s okay. I’m sure it’s good business to not cater to a third of the world’s population in a global game. After all, if I knew better, I’d be the one running the game, right?

Category: World Meta

Comments

One Response to “Customer Service”

  1. drkmagic
    September 23rd, 2009 @ 7:53 am

    Ummmm………you going to post anything new?

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  • News in Brief (August 16)

    • In and Out New Zealand plummet from 36th to 52nd as their lone representative drops out of the TP rankings. The once powerful Oceanic nation now looks a spent force in the online game.
    • Rise of Empire Great Britain (5th) is now only 3,271 TP behind 4th placed Italy. If Britain can overtake by season's end, it will mark the first time they've reached 4th since Season 7 around this time last year.
    • Seychelles Smashers The mercenaries of Seychelles continue their rise, reaching 12th this week, just 508 TP behind 11th placed Australia. The pressure is now on Australia to maintain their renaissance since Season 9.
    • Seventh Heaven The total accumulated TP spluttered across the 7 million mark this week with 7,252,670 TP being recorded. Accumulation rates have slowed dramatically and it is likely we will end the season with a TP recession.
    • Point Droppers United States (-3,698), Greece (-2,006), Gaza Strip (-4,098), Albania (-4,706) and New Zealand (-4,758) all dropped TP since last week.