How’s it going TERA community? I just got back from a week-long trip to Korea, where key members of our Ops team (COO Pat Wyatt, Director of CS Adam Stayer, and me, Sam Kim—our resident Guy in the Corner) met with Bluehole developers for discussions regarding our publishing platform. It was an intense week of collaborations, meetings, brainstorming, question-and-answer sessions, and discussions, but it’s been great working with such an experienced and talented team intent on building a high quality publishing platform focused on great user experiences and streamlined support.
“What in the world is a publishing platform?” you ask? It is the aggregation of features and technology that allows us to publish and service the game efficiently and effectively. This includes features such as an account management system, subscription engine, payment method acceptance, customer support portal, knowledge database, security, moderation and CS support tools, analytics, bot detection, and so much more. The goal is to ensure a high quality experience for our players beyond the actual gameplay, everything from account creation to customer support to billing, and all the surrounding and supporting features required for a great overall user experience. But in order to ensure a great experience, it’s extremely important to build the platform specifically tailored to the appropriate audience—in En Masse’s case, North America.
This recent trip was just one of countless examples of the effort that both En Masse and Bluehole are investing into building a great game and platform for TERA players. It was an incredibly busy and productive trip, but we didn’t forget to do one of the things that make working in this industry so awesome: have fun! In fact, I’m happy to report that between Pat, Adam, and me, En Masse held their own against the drinking prowess of the team at Bluehole, a feat not easily accomplished and always regrettable (the following morning)!