Original Author and Translator: GLH
This is our first original work, we hope you like it!
Keke, the CEO of Wargee and War3station, as Neo said, she is the queen of Chinese Warcraft III. It's our pleasure that we had Keke here, in this interview, we will love to let you know something behind the scene, like what is Wargee, and what are they doing, what kind of problem they are facing, please, enjoy the interview.
GLH: Hi, Keke, thank you for accepting our interview, please say hi to all the Warcraft III fans.
Keke: Hello everyone, I am Kekelove, a staff behind the scenes of Warcraft III, like all of you, I am just a very ordinary person who loves to support this game.
GLH: As the CEO of 沃之文化(Wargee), can you introduce us about company? (When was it founded? Why did you found this company? What does its name mean?)
Keke: 沃之文化(Wargee) was founded on May 1, 2018, and it will be one year old very soon. War3 is pronounced as "wo san" in Chinese, with the transliteration, we got 沃 ( pronouns as wo), after that, when we were registering the name of company, 之(pronouns as zhi) is the only choice for second word for us, and it is a good choice as well, so we chose it.
This company is working on the RPG maps and the tournaments implementation of Warcraft III.
Official website of Wargee: https://www.wargee.com/
GLH: In the current environment of Chinese Warcraft III, is there a way to maintain a company by Warcraft III only?
Keke: It's very difficult, unless you can get through from the stages to behind the scenes, for example, if you could get the copyright of the events, sign with the streamer as a manager, after that, you have to make money through Taobao, promote the streamers as a star, and sell the peripheral products of those streamers, but we are not able to do it now. So far, War3station is still working with deficit, and we even have to subsidize Warcraft III from other departments.
GLH: So, War3station is just a part of Wargee. What other departments does it have?
Keke: The largest department of the company is the RPG department, they are responsible for the production and promotion of RPG maps. Laofen and Xun, who you are familiar with, they are the heads of this part.
GLH: I may say, RPG is the department which makes income for Wargee, am I right? Can you tell us more details about this department?
Keke: You are right. We have our own map production team, and we use our own promotion way to help the authors, let the authors have a better way to produce and promote their works. On the other hand, we have built the first media and a forum of RPG category, and we also have our own anchor union in Huya.
Remark: Huya(虎牙) is a streaming platform in China, such as Douyu.
天天RPG(RPG Everyday): https://www.mvprpg.com/
GLH: Let's come back to Warcraft! You just mentioned that War3station is still working with deficit, does it mean that War3station put all the sponsors into the prize pool?
Keke: Depends on the size of the tournament, a major tournament will charge a certain implementation fee, because it will need us to invest more labor forces and resources in short-term. Some of the tournaments are sponsored by enthusiastic audiences or fans, most of these tournaments we will get 0 fee, we treats this as daily work now.
GLH: In addition to the prizes, what are the costs of running a Warcraft III tournament?
Keke: Online tournament is relatively simple. Like XiaoY Cup, the configuration we need of this tournament is referees only, but in the early stage, there must be some labor forces and resources for planning, scheduling, and art design.
For Offline, in addition to the venue, we have to pay to fee of live broadcast, the fee for commentators, stage construction, players' travel, all of these need to be comprehensive. According to the current situation, running a 2-days offline tournament, without the costs of prizes and venue, we will need at least 400,000 yuan for a 2-days offline tournament, and it is the lowest standard.
GLH: We can see that War3station spends so much money, will the other departments be unhappy?
Keke: Luckily, all of us really love Warcraft III, we hope Warcraft III can be better and better, this is our original intention.
GLH: According to our observations, Chinese Warcraft III environment is much better than other region, such as the number of tournaments, prize pool, etc. What do you think the reason is? What are the advantages of Chinese Warcraft have to created the current environment?
Keke: The main reason is the China has a relatively large audiences. Although it is still much worse than the other games like League of Legends, Hearthstone, but the good news is, our audiences is mainly between 20-35 years old, which is a group that can withstand their consumption.
Moreover, the Chinese streaming industry is very developed, with the excellent wages of streaming, the players can keep playing Warcraft III, without that, these players might need to switch to other games or industries.
As we can see, NetEase has been very strong in recent years as well. From the more professional WGL to the announcement of the 5 million prizes in last year.
GLH: What do you think are the current difficulties in China's Warcraft III environment?
Keke:
1. In recent years, there are not many newcomers. 120 and Life are also elder players, they have been playing for years. The "living fossils" like TH000, Infi, and Moon, they will be retired, who can become new blood of Warcraft III? It is the most important problem that needs us to think about.
2. The professional system is not standardized enough, such as the management of the players in the event, the management of the players in the club, the management of the fans, these specifications are very common on other E-sports projects, but they are still very hard for us to do.
3. A project that has not been commercialized will be so hard to keep running in the future. What I mean is, except for the enthusiastic audiences and fans, it is difficult to have some commercial brands to sponsor Warcraft III, indicating that this project is not so valuable for them. This makes me very annoyed and I am still trying to change this situation.
GLH: In the face of these problems, how should Chinese Warcraft III environment be improved?
Keke:
The CSL(College Star League) is an attempt. We will also actively interact with NetEase and the clubs to organize a youth camp.
As for commercialization, I have been already trying it. If there are no accidents, there will be a good solution in June.
And now the Shanghai government has subsidies for E-sports competitions. I am also trying my best to get it.
GLH: According to your observations, is there a way for the Warcraft III environment in Europe and South Korea to keep up with China's footsteps (the number of tournaments, prizes, etc.)? How do you think they should improve?
Keke: It still depends on the number of audiences and the degree of commercialization. I think with the release of the Reforged Edition, if the number of audiences in Europe has risen sharply, neo will have to come to me sooner or later, bravely go out, throw everything away, and go all out to fight for war3.
GLH: W League is a brand event of Wargee. Why is it named W League?
Keke: W=WC3, and our company's name is started with W as well.
GLH: The offline of the W League S1 will be held in May. After that, will we have the second season? If yes, what do you want to improve?
Keke: The second season is already under planning. We will have an event improvement. Before that, please let me keep it secret.
GLH: Before we finish, let's talk a little bit relaxed. Back2warcraft's Neo called you as "The Queen of Chinese Warcraft III" in the live broadcast. What do you think of this?
Keke: Hahaha, this is an overrated compliment. It is too great, I don't deserve it!. Neo and his partners have gone through a long and thorny journey, they did it from nothing to the current situation. China's environment is much better, it's relatively easy for me and my partners to do. Additionally, my own economic situation is not bad, and my husband (he is a fan of Fly) also gave me great support.
GLH: Thank you again for accepting our interview. Before we finish this interview, do you still have anything to say?
Keke: When I know Gornlan Harbor, I will remind the lighthouse (corresponding to harbor). Yang (Aragorn Wong) is a very nice person. You couldn't imagine that a Malaysian will come to Warcraft III. It was just like you were walking in a crowd, the people around you are bustling, meanwhile, all of them love CSGO, Dota2 or Hearthstone, and you were always alone. However, it doesn't matter, you would be the lighthouse, in sooner or later, like us, you will find the other lighthouses and all of you will come together to illuminate the way we are going.
Author:
Gornlan Harbor
