A sensual cover can sell just by itself. In video games it’s an absolute truth, with adolescents and young adults always interested in the new Tomb Raiders and such, drooling at the thousands of polygons used to render Miss Lara’s chest.
In MMO games it’s not so different. Marketing executives usually resort to beautiful girls to adorn ads and cover shots, trying to appeal to the significant 18-34 year old male demographic. And don’t even get us started on free-to-play Asian MMORPGs, whose usual biggest selling points are the attractive artworks. MMORPG Gate observes some games that used these strategies.
Aion – NCsoft
Aion follows the Korean school of MMORPG: beautiful anime-style artwork, with strangely coloured hair and revealing armour. It’s far from being the most blatant example of the genre, but there’s something oddly appealing in angelic female-winged warriors.
Luckily, Aion seems like a strong game without the need to resort to other strategies, and Ncsoft may have a winner in its hands.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures – Funcom
Age of Conan’s female scent comes courtesy of Keaira, who went through a few iterations before Funcom decided on the final look. They wanted to make her sinful and lush, and succeeded. Keaira was rescued by Conan and formed an unbreakable bond of loyalty to the barbarian.
Keaira appeared in the December 2007 issue of Playboy, and wasn’t the only girl from MMORPGs to be featured.
Auto Assault – NetDevil
Auto Assault was NetDevil’s failed attempt at an MMO Twisted Metal. What sits great next to heavily armoured cars? Apparently it’s beautiful women. They tried to appeal to male players with some nice artwork but it wasn’t enough to make Auto Assault successful.
Failure is due to badly designed game mechanics, with player skill being completely irrelevant to win a fight.
Blade & Soul - NCsoft
The Lineage II team is back with another MMORPG, targeted for a 2010/11 release. The focus here is on the prominent female parts, due to the involvement of Kim Hyung-Taek, art director for Blade & Soul and known for his 'interesting' artwork.
Set in an oriental world, the focus is on fast-paced, dynamic-looking battles. The western release is still unconfirmed, but it's still too soon for details. Check out the in-game screens below, with the certainty that there are a few artworks available which are much more revealing.
EverQuest – Sony Online Entertainment
EverQuest is one of the longest-running MMORPG (it was released in 1999 and the 16th expansion is targeted for November 2009) and used this beautiful female elven character named Firiona Vie on the box cover art.
Apparently it was such a successful marketing ploy that Firiona Vie is present in nearly all of EverQuest’s expansion box cover art.
In MMO games it’s not so different. Marketing executives usually resort to beautiful girls to adorn ads and cover shots, trying to appeal to the significant 18-34 year old male demographic. And don’t even get us started on free-to-play Asian MMORPGs, whose usual biggest selling points are the attractive artworks. MMORPG Gate observes some games that used these strategies.
Aion – NCsoft
Aion follows the Korean school of MMORPG: beautiful anime-style artwork, with strangely coloured hair and revealing armour. It’s far from being the most blatant example of the genre, but there’s something oddly appealing in angelic female-winged warriors.
Luckily, Aion seems like a strong game without the need to resort to other strategies, and Ncsoft may have a winner in its hands.
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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures – Funcom
Age of Conan’s female scent comes courtesy of Keaira, who went through a few iterations before Funcom decided on the final look. They wanted to make her sinful and lush, and succeeded. Keaira was rescued by Conan and formed an unbreakable bond of loyalty to the barbarian.
Keaira appeared in the December 2007 issue of Playboy, and wasn’t the only girl from MMORPGs to be featured.
 |
 |
 |
Auto Assault – NetDevil
Auto Assault was NetDevil’s failed attempt at an MMO Twisted Metal. What sits great next to heavily armoured cars? Apparently it’s beautiful women. They tried to appeal to male players with some nice artwork but it wasn’t enough to make Auto Assault successful.
Failure is due to badly designed game mechanics, with player skill being completely irrelevant to win a fight.
 |
 |
 |
Blade & Soul - NCsoft
The Lineage II team is back with another MMORPG, targeted for a 2010/11 release. The focus here is on the prominent female parts, due to the involvement of Kim Hyung-Taek, art director for Blade & Soul and known for his 'interesting' artwork.
Set in an oriental world, the focus is on fast-paced, dynamic-looking battles. The western release is still unconfirmed, but it's still too soon for details. Check out the in-game screens below, with the certainty that there are a few artworks available which are much more revealing.
 |
 |
 |
EverQuest – Sony Online Entertainment
EverQuest is one of the longest-running MMORPG (it was released in 1999 and the 16th expansion is targeted for November 2009) and used this beautiful female elven character named Firiona Vie on the box cover art.
Apparently it was such a successful marketing ploy that Firiona Vie is present in nearly all of EverQuest’s expansion box cover art.
 |
 |
 |
