Yu-Gi-Oh! Online International

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

Germany’s Rise Unthreatened

Posted on | July 5, 2009 | No Comments

germanyGermany are the second highest ranked Yu-Gi-Oh! Online playing nation in the world and also lead Europe by a considerable margin. YGO Online International analyses the reasons behind Germany’s dominance on the world stage.

Ever since even the earliest days of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, Germany has been 2nd in these world rankings. Although some distance away from their immediate leaders, Japan, Germany is also only the second nation which regularly breaks 1,000,000 TP at the end of season tournament rankings (It has achieved this milestone every season since Season 4).

Germany is also one the very few nations that features prominently in Konami’s seasonal YOC Championships. Whereas Konami may try and stimulate their irregular Japan versus Korea series as the battle of titans in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, it is clear that if any nation can act as a counterbalance to Japan, it is Germany.

But why Germany? Why not France or Britain or Italy or Spain or any other large western European nation? For that, we need to look outside of the online game and into its forbearer, the Yu-Gi-Oh! animé.

Although today the United States is the second largest animé market after Japan itself, it is western continental Europe which was first to embrace anime culture outside of its homeland, particularly France and Germany. Yu-Gi-Oh! is (was) a manga whose popularity kick-started a Japanese anime, whose popularity kick-started a card game, whose popularity eventually led to this; Yu-Gi-Oh! Online.

The entire basis of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online lies on the popularity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and, to a wider extent, on the popularity of anime in general. The relatively recent emergence of the United States as a leading market to anime may actually have helped Germany’s abilities in terms of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online. As the English speaking anime market is diluted by more and more products, potential online duelists are lost to other interests whereas a German market not quite so under bombardment from constant new series will inevitably lead to a greater percentage of potential duelists sticking to their anime franchise of choice.

It is likely this large variety of choice that allows Germany to keep so far ahead of the United States as well as the United Kingdom. Its large population also serves to keep it ahead of other European nations which may potentially benefit from this situation, such as Italy, France and Spain.

But while this alone explains the number of duelists from European nations participating in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, it does not fully explain Germany’s own dominance in the game.

This is partly explained by Konami’s own strong presence in the nation. Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH (formerly Konami of Europe) is based in the nation and it is the centre of Konami’s presence in Europe. The other two major offices are located in the United States and Japan, the three not-so-coincidentally forming the top three in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online world rankings.

As the centre of the manufacture and distribution of the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, in all its forms, in Europe, Germany holds a rare advantage that combined with the wider trends of the international anime market gift it with the potential to rate so highly on the international scene.

With such corporate powers behind the (entirely unintended) backbone of their regional strength, Germany, as well as Japan and the United States, are here to stay as the ring leaders of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online as a world game.

Category: Europe, Germany

No Chance in Seychelles

Posted on | July 1, 2009 | 2 Comments

seychellesThe Seychelles currently rank 17th in the world, but their entire position is founded on a lie. YGO Online International takes a look at (and bemoans) a statistical anomaly that can not be smoothed out so easily.

Although the African archipelago nation of Seychelles has been the bearer of colonial influences from both France and Great Britain in the past, Germany was one nation involved in the “Scramble for Africa” that did not stake a claim. Until now.

Several German duelists, including one prominent German duelist both on and offline, participate with alternate accounts under the Seychelles banner. To the point, in fact, that the Seychelles current ranking is obviously grossly distorted and unreliable.

The Seychelles represents a unique case in that it can be said that unlike one-season wonders and selective transnational duelists, the ranking and scoring of the Seychelles is so horribly distorted and inflated by this to have little to no bearing on reality. The Seychelles, a nation with a population of under 80,000 ranked 14th in the world rankings before this came out and one of its duelists was removed from the rankings.

As the Seychelles has grown from strength to strength in seasons past, rather than making a sudden impact followed by a long, drawn out decline, it is also unlikely that this can be considered a fluctuation that will smooth itself out over time. So the question now posed is what does this mean for the world rankings?

The answer; nothing.

Whatever the calculation method of the world rankings is, it is fundamentally based on the notion that duelists are representing the nations they register under. This is the case because without a full list of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online’s IP logs there is no other way to gauge national representation. While there are ways to investigate and confirm/debunk a duelists registered nationality, they are obviously too time consuming to be implemented on 1,000+ duelists every season.

Therefore, with only limited ability to determine the truthfulness behind claims of nationality, the status quo will likely remain where duelists registered nationalities are taken at face value.

Due to my own (rather overzealous and nerd based) interest in matters such as these, I would not be upset with an IP check administered by Konami to determine and confer nationalities to duelists upon registration myself although the logistics and costs behind such an endeavour is obviously not worth the roughly $0 that this would generate for Konami in return.

And so the world rankings shoulder on, dented but somewhat healed by the expulsion of German/Seychellois duelist DeAceControl from the rankings recently.

Konami’s Terms of Service for the game includes the following interesting (well, to me) rule.

3. User Registration

3.1. User Registration
Certain areas of this Software may require you to register and obtain user ID before accessing or participating in certain activities. Registration of user ID is limited to individuals and is subject to this Agreement at all times. You may decide to register or not. If you decide to register, you must provide true, current, and accurate information.

Of course, this condition as regards false nationhood is a low priority but it would be only a positive if Konami spent less time overloading their word filters until I can’t even type “Good game” without it seeming like I told my opponent to go fornicate himself and crushing the life out of the online metagame and more time enforcing rules that give a skewed perspective not only to myself, but also Konami, of the nature and popularity of the game worldwide.

Category: Africa, Seychelles
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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.