An Exclusive Interview with Mr. O’neil Buena, Brand Manager Perfect World Philippines

Game! has an exclusive interview with Mr. O’neil Buena, Brand Manager Perfect World Philippines and we asked him about the CBT delays, how will the public be able to get PW installers, will Perfect World be Free to Play or Pay to Play and what he thinks of the community support so far:

Game!: Kindly introduce yourself to our readers:
O’neil Buena:
Name: O’neil Buena
Role: Brand Manager for Perfect World
Board Name: NocturnalSun
E-mail: perfectworld@levelupgames.ph

LU! Stats:
- Delivered and launched RF Online as Business Unit Head (IGN:
DeusExMachina)
- Project Head for Level Up! Site 2.0

Game!: Perfect World Philippines’ Closed Beta Test has been delayed for the second time in as many weeks, any official message you want to convey to the PW community regarding this matter? Will the actual CBT date be announced next week?
O’neil Buena:The task of translating the whole game was different from our initial estimates. These estimates were based from our previous experience with the Korean games and this being our first Chinese game, we had a more thorough
approach in terms of localizing the game and setting up its infrastructure. We want the game to be readily available to the players the soonest time possible but we’d rather bite the bullet and extend our own localization than to give a sub par gaming experience to our players. This means a lot to us and the development company due to the really promising game play of Perfect World. We wouldn’t want to excite the players only to give them a dud of an experience.

Yes, we are running new estimates based on the efforts we’re doing right now and will definitely inform our players. We’re trying to be transparent as much as possible and that’s one of the prime motivations for stepping back at this juncture to review a more realistic timing. We will inform players definitely since we do want players to be as involved in the game as much as possible.

Game!: Rumors say that while the CBT will be moved to a new date the OBT date wont be pushed back leaving a shorter time for the CBT experience, any comments?
O’neil Buena:There are actually four phases in the game:
Limited Closed Beta
Public Closed Beta
Open Beta
Commercial Launch

Limited Closed Beta was initially reserved for game testers and a handful of outside testers; handful was around 10 to 20 players. Public Closed Beta is when we extend that handpicked testers to include a wider range of player and café base. Open Beta is fully opening the game to the public.

We extended the player base of the Limited Closed Beta to give players a better appreciation of the game and to share the gaming experience with those whom we think can help, hence, the various promos to get in the limited closed beta period. Knowing this now, Public Closed and Open Beta were not actually touched. We had to move the extended and handpicked beta testers for limited closed beta.

Public Closed Beta and Open Beta are still in the same time frame as what we initially anticipated.

Yes, internal closed beta shall now be affected

Game!: Please clarify once and for all: Perfect World will be Free to Play or Pay to Play?
O’neil Buena: Yes, it is Free to Play.

Game!: When will the Perfect World Installer be available to the public? How will those with CBT invites be able to get a hold of the PW installer?
O’neil Buena: We will announce the availability of the client once full testing is done. We’re opening channels for downloading the game via torrent and hopefully direct download. We’re in the process of printing out limited copies of the installer as well. Various efforts are also being done and other communities offered to help us out in distributing the client just so they (and their players) will have access to the game the quickest possible time. We’re open to alternative channels for distribution and they
can just e-mail it to us at Perfect World (perfectworld@levelupgames.ph) if they would like to volunteer .

Game!: The PW forums has been down when we accessed it today, is this related to the CBT delay?
O’neil Buena: No, it wasn’t. We were checking it as well and realized the drop in the users in the forum. It was an infrastructure problem. We do try to answer the queries as much as we can.

Game!: Any thoughts about the response the PW Team has been getting from the community:
O’neil Buena: Based on the messages from the boards and the mails I’ve been getting, there’s a lot to be happy about with the quality of users we’re getting so far. Players do help one another and share the different experiences they have with the Chinese version. That’s the kind of players that we like to further foster. Since a lot of their gaming experience is really dependent on the type of community they would like to play in. If we were to use the exchange of ideas in the boards now as a barometer to the kind of playing they will have in PW then I think we are in the right track to building a real gaming community.

Game!: Thank you for the interview. We hope to play PW soon!