My name is Ingo Horn, and I am the Senior PR Manager of Travian Games. I started in the industry more than 15 years ago as an editor of a gaming magazine in Germany, before I switched to the PR side of our beloved gaming industry. I have been working for PC and console game publishers like Interplay, Virgin Interactive, Infogrames (now Atari) and several developers before I made the next logical step to join an online games company. I am still working with high motivation because of so many interesting titles in our line-up.

Apart from Travian, what MMO do you play, and do you play on console? If yes then what’s your favorite game on which platform.
I´ve been a gamer since I´ve been a kid and this hasn’t changed at all! Of course I am playing all our company’s games and beta versions. I am very proud of the upcoming Travian 4, which is going live this spring worldwide! Additionally I play on my PlayStation 3 – mostly racing games and sports games (GT5, NFS or Pro Evo), while the PC is for playing RPGs, strategy games and RTS games (Civilization 5 & Starcraft II currently and waiting for Dragon Age II). In terms of MMOs I have just quit playing World of Warcraft after several years with a really cool European guild and I will invest the time gained into other games in the near future.

What was the first videogame that you ever played in your life?
That’s a really hard question to answer, but I think during a summer vacation with my parents in 1982 I dumped my first coins in a Centipede or Frogger arcade machine. After that a neighbor got an Atari videogame console, where we played Pitfall, Asteroids and all the other classic games – those were the days…

How does the Arabian online gamers differ from their counterparts in Europe or the US or South Asia?
I personally think the general appeal of games and the way users play games online (and offline as well) does not differ that much around the world, as most people simply enjoy being entertained. The only difference is related to the cultural background of each country and the local legal issues in general. Age ratings differ from territory to territory;  for example some cultures might be offended by blood and violent content, while others are more open to this kind of content.

In terms of our line-up we see that Arabian gamers are really attracted to Travian and enjoy competing with other players to defend their villages or to be the first to build a monument. The communication inside the community is still very friendly and an Arabic player is a hard enemy to compete against, as your gamers are very ambitious and clever.

How many Travian servers are there in the Middle East region, and on average how many players log on to those servers?
The number of servers has decreased in the past months, because everybody is waiting for Travian 4 to be launched very soon. So it is hard to launch new worlds in the classical Travian game, when most gamers are standing in line to join the brand new Travian 4 with many new features and enhanced graphics to look forward to. But we still have 28 servers up and running in many different Middle Eastern countries and we are looking forward to launch more servers, when Travian 4 has been released.

What’s the maximum capacity that (i.e. number of concurrent logged in users) every Middle East Travian server can handle, on average?
The maximum player capacity is 60.000 activated accounts on each server. (28 servers times 60K=1.68Mil!)

On average, which Arabian countries have the most numbers of active Travian subscribers, and which weekdays are the busiest and which hours of the day?
It is no surprise that the evening hours and the weekend are the busiest hours in Travian. In terms of countries, Saudi Arabia is the territory with the highest number of players from the Middle Eastern countries.

Every MMO has its own moments, do you remember any unexpected – funny – hilarious moments that Arab users were the cause of them?
Indeed there is one great moment I remember. There is one sheik, who is a big Travian fan. He has hired three persons to take care of his account 24/7 to secure that his account is always aware of attacks and defense. Additionally he has formed a really tough alliance to be the strongest on their server and to build a monument. The plan worked out and in the end they celebrated their success with a huge party together with all alliance members. The big surprise of the party was: A huge Travian cake, shaped like a world wonder. I do not think that such an enthusiasm and devotion can be topped easily.

What’s in the pipeline for Travian, shall we see any expansions packs, new releases, or other MMOs?
This spring we will launch Travian 4 with a completely enhanced UI, graphics and several new features. This is not an expansion but a totally new release! Beside that we will still run the classical Travian servers for those players who prefer playing the older version. Beside Travian 4 there is Travians, which is also very popular in the Arabic countries and our soccer management simulation; Goalunited, which has just been upgraded to the 2011 edition, which is quite popular in Arabic countries, too. For all our games there are constant updates on a frequent basis, and on Travian you can expect an ongoing process of enhancements and upgrades, too.

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