Global Communicator Archives

Monthly Email Newsletter
November 2005

IN THIS ISSUE:
I.   Message from the Editor
II.  Articles:
*** FEATURED INDUSTRY: Online Gaming
1. MPOG's Virtual Economy
2. Online Gambling
3. Useful Links
     *** FEATURED LANGUAGE: German
4. German Quick-Glance
5. e-Business in Germany
6. Useful Links
III.  GLS in the News
IV. Industry Tip Sheets Available
V.   In Our Next Issue
VI.  Your Feedback
VII. How to Subscribe

I.   MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR

The use of Internet technology to reach a larger audience is obvious in everyday situations. From instant messaging programs to online shopping, it has never been easier to access information immediately.

This month, the Global Communicator explores the exploding online gaming industry. The World Wide Web has opened up a whole new world of interactivity with virtual playmates and playgrounds, if you will. From multiplayer online games to its virtual economies, this borderless phenomenon could soon become a $9 billion dollar plus industry. In addition to the virtual medias of Nintendo, Sony, and the like, winning a poker hand and placing actual bets at your computer has taken gambling to a new level of convenience.but is it legal?

Our featured language in this issue is German, which is spoken by more than 100 million people worldwide. The German people adapted quickly to the Internet. Take a look at our e-Business in Germany article for more information on just how many Germans are logging on and what it is they are buying.

Since this newsletter is meant to create a virtual community where we share the latest news and advice, we invite you to submit your suggestions, story ideas, statistics, and website tips to

mailto:newsletter@globallanguages.com.

-- Inna Kassatkina, Editor
mailto:editor@globallanguages.com


II.  ARTICLES

*** FEATURED INDUSTRY: ONLINE GAMING

1.  MPOG's VIRTUAL ECONOMY

For more than a decade, software developers across the globe have become increasingly interested in getting a piece of the global video game market. To pursue this goal, developers have been focusing on online games, while localizing their software for distribution in foreign markets. However, it wasn't until 1999, with the release of Sega Dreamcast, that online games started to be promoted as a core feature of video game systems.

According to PC World Magazine, online game revenues are forecasted to reach $9.8 billion by 2009, though other organizations such as Price Waterhouse Coopers have it at a more modest $5 billion market.  Multiplayer online games ("MPOGs") are a large piece of the online gaming revenue revolution. MPOGs attempt to create vast virtual reality environments that can spread across the world.

MPOGs are a rapidly growing industry. But there is an interesting economic development occurring within the walls of the online gaming space termed a virtual economy. Edward Castronova, a professor at Indiana University, who has written a series of papers examining the virtual economy, says virtual economies are supported by assets collected during a game- such as the power to slay a dragon that are then sold on the Internet for real dollars to other players looking for a competitive edge. Most business models for these games include a monthly subscription and thousands of players who acquire "loot" - like virtual gold, magic powers, shields, and other items.

According to Castronova, "This virtual wealth was innocent enough until people began paying real money for it on eBay or any number of trading sites. What changed? Certain players wanted to explore virtual worlds, but didn't have time to play long enough to reach the highest levels. When time-pressed people met the gamers who spend most of their day in these worlds, a market was born."

According to CNET News, here's how a transaction occurs: One "avatar," or a digital representation of a person, finds another within the game who has a desirable power. After a negotiation, the deal can be completed through an instant message screen and online payment systems like PayPal. Conversely, these trades can happen in an open market through websites that act as stock exchanges where virtual loot is swapped for real dollars, such as IGE and EBay.

IGE, who operates the world's largest secure network of buying and selling sites for MPOG virtual currency and assets on the Internet, concludes that commerce is a natural consequence of these complex, exciting virtual worlds as game players create, trade, buy, and sell in-game assets. Gamers have assigned real-word value to virtual currency and other in-game commodities, creating a vibrant secondary market for MPOGs. This secondary market represents one of the most successful forms of emergent behavior ever seen in entertainment.

In fact, according to IGE, some analysts estimate the 2005 marketplace for virtual assets in MPOGs is approaching $900 million.

To find out more about online gaming, MPOGs, and virtual economies, reference our Useful Links in Article 3.

SOURCES:
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS): http://www.globalization101.org
PC World Magazine
BusinessWeek Online
CNET News
IGE: http://www.ige.com

2. ONLINE GAMBLING

About 1800 e-gaming websites have popped up since the mid-1990s. In fact, online gambling is legal in more than 50 countries and jurisdictions, yet about 90 percent of the gambling is operated from the Caribbean, Europe, and along the Pacific Rim.

According to Keith Furlong, deputy director of Interactive Gaming Council, an industry trade organization located in Canada, online casinos will attract about $10 billion in 2005. Americans make up 60-65 percent of their business, he added.

According to Gambling-Law-US.com, the words "gamble" and "gambling" are generally used to discuss an activity that may run afoul of applicable criminal laws.  The word "gaming" is usually reserved for those instances where the activity has been specifically legalized by applicable laws or where the activity is exempt from the criminal laws.  Thus, playing a casino-style game at a for-profit website online in the United States is referred to as gambling, since no state has yet finalized any law specifically authorizing a for-profit website operator to offer any casino games.

In the United States, courts generally have agreed that the 1961 Wire Communications Act, which prohibits the use of interstate or international telecommunications wires to transmit bets, applies to the Internet, effectively making online gambling illegal. Others claim that since the law was drafted BEFORE the Internet, that it shouldn't apply. Either way, until a decision to legalize that dealer on your computer monitor in your living room, Americans may well be breaking U.S. laws when playing poker online.

3. USEFUL LINKS

ONLINE GAMING LEGISLATION/ SPECIAL INTERESTS:
http://www.igda.org/online/
http://www.igcouncil.org/

ONLINE GAMING NEWS SITES:
http://www.topix.net/business/gaming
http://www.igamingnews.com/
http://www.gameindustry.com/

VIRTUAL ECONOMIES:
http://www.ige.com/
http://www.ebay.com
http://www.mysupersales.com/

ONLINE GAMBLING LAWS (U.S.):
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/Federal-Laws/
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/
http://www.igcouncil.org/

ONLINE GAMING INDUSTRY EVENTS:
January 26-27, 2006 -- Mobile Gambling Europe 06: http://www.mformobile.com/mobilegambling/

February 20-21, 2006 -- Pacific Congress on I-Gaming in Macau-Hong Kong area: http://www.rivercitygroup.com/pcig/2006/?page=home

*** FEATURED LANGUAGE:  GERMAN

4.  GERMAN QUICK-GLANCE

Over 100 million people speak German (Deutsch) as their native language. German is the official language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the four national languages of Switzerland. German is spoken in diverse modern dialects in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, northern Italy, much of Switzerland, eastern France (Alsace and parts of Lorraine), as well as parts of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Emigration has spread the German language to many other parts of the globe. There are communities of people who speak German in Canada, the U.S. (approximately 1.5 million speakers), South America (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), South Africa, and Australia.

According to the University of Exeter, Low German dialects are spoken in the flatlands of the northern regions of Germany. They sound more similar to Dutch and English than to High German. No standard literary language exists for this group of dialects. The High German dialectal group stems from the highlands in the southern parts of Germany. The standard written German language evolved from High German dialects.

SOURCES:
University of Exeter
About.com

5. E-BUSINESS IN GERMANY
 
According to leading financial publication, The Economist, Germans quickly adopted the Internet and online shopping. The Federal Statistical Office published its first comprehensive study of the e-commerce sector in July 2004, using data from 2003. According to its findings, 51% of German households have access to the Internet at home; of these, 17% have fast DSL (digital subscriber line) or cable connections. Of all Internet users, 26% access the web on a daily basis.

Of the goods bought online, books ranked first, followed by clothing, music, computer software and games, and travel tickets. The main objections against e-commerce were the lack of personal consultation, followed by concerns about credit-card security and privacy. Among the EU member states, only the Scandinavian countries surpass Germany in using e-commerce.

A study by the Statistical Office on the corporate sector showed that 39% of German companies had their own websites in 2003, an increase of seven percentage points on 2002. But most companies used their web presence solely for self-promotion; only 8% reported selling goods directly via the Internet. Consequently, the share of online sales was a mere 0.6% of total sales of the 650,000 companies analyzed. By contrast, more than 22% of companies used the Internet for procurement.

 
6. USEFUL LINKS

Local newspapers and country- or language-specific search engines can be great sources of information about political, economic, and social issues that are important to German people. Business articles will also help you to identify new business contacts, refine your marketing methods, and assess whether economy is strong enough and the timing is right to launch your new business expansion abroad.

NEWSPAPERS AND ONLINE NEWS RESOURCES:
http://www.berlinonline.de/
http://www.abendblatt.de/
http://www.aschendorff.de/zeitung/index.php
http://www.germannews.com/index_e.asp

SEARCH ENGINES:
http://www.de.abacho.com/
http://de.findelio.com/
http://www.hit-net.de/
http://search.msn.de/
http://www.google.de/

OTHER SITES:
http://www.dihk.de (German only)
http://www.invest-in-germany.com

III.  GLS IN THE NEWS
 
Global Language Solutions (GLS) has been providing linguistic solutions in over 100 languages to pharmaceutical, biomedical, and healthcare related companies for more than a decade. It will lend its expertise to several leading publications in this space over the coming months.
GLS president, Inna Kassatkina, contributed an article on successful translation in global clinical trials for the November 2005 issue of the Good Clinical Practices Journal (GCPj).

Coming in December, GLS contributes a translation tip sheet specific to the healthcare industry to the ACRP Monitor and serves as a medical translation source expert for the Orange County Register.

IV. INDUSTRY TIP SHEETS AVAILABLE

Request one of our useful tip sheets on hiring a translation firm, successful ICF translation, or using interpreters in the legal industry by sending an e-mail to mailto:tipsheets@globallanguages.com.

V.  IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

***** FEATURED TOPIC:  Healthcare & Cultural Diversity in the U.S.
***** FEATURED LANGUAGE: Spanish

V. YOUR FEEDBACK

Have questions? Or a story idea or topic you would like us to address in a future issue? Let us know by sending a message to
newsletter@globallanguages.com.

VI. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE