ohai — we’re in Ars Technica!

ohai, this is full of coolness: Michael Thompson of uber tech site Ars Technica features ohai in an article on up-and-coming social games attracting the interest of major game publishers. Sample:

Ohai’s vampire-themed MMO—which is admittedly a great deal of fun—allows players to engage in a fast-paced action story involving a civil war amidst a number of undead houses. For those of us who see no appeal in strategy games like Farmville of Mafia Wars, it’s a welcome alternative that plays like a cross between Diablo and World of Warcraft.

Much more here, including insights from chief ohai Susan.

ohai — our first MMO, City of Eternals, is in open beta! Here’s usage stats from our private alpha!

ohai everyone –

Today we’re excited to announce that our first MMO, City of Eternals, is coming out of private alpha! Now, anyone can go to CityofEternals.com, log in with their Facebook account, and get into our game world of vampire fun. (And if you just happen to be a hipster who’s over vampires, then what’s better than jumping into City of Eternals and inflicting your Smug Glance of Hipster Disdain on some vampires? Or if that doesn’t work, unleash your Self-Esteem Shield of Ironic Distance.)

Our first MMO should give you a taste of what ohai is all about: applying web development principles to game dev – rapid iteration, agile frameworks, and constant adaptation to the market. That also means City of Eternals is still evolving. Even though we’re “launching” this week, you’re going to see many changes, much more evolution. This isn’t your grandfather’s static MMO! You’ll see new content and features pretty much every week, if not every day. Because of the backend architecture and toolset that we’ve built, we’ve been able to get City of Eternals to public beta in 9 months with 3 engineers’ efforts. Game development in web style, baby!

As we launch, I want to share some player stats from our alpha test, which involved over 40,000 players. Unlike every other MMO out there, City of Eternals has a near-equal gender split: 60% male, 40% female, while 70% of our most active players are female — women like Nileena, who’s a dentist in the Bay Area, or Diana, who’s a professional violinist from Transylvania (it’s now known as Romania, but it’s most famous for being Dracula’s birthplace.) Then there are our experienced gamers like Greg, who does a great job with our player wiki, cataloging game missions, recipes, and much more.

We’re tremendously proud that our mission to make MMOs for everyone is so far paying off. We’re also honored to build products for customers who are so passionate about what we’re doing. Thank you, alpha testers!

Here’s some more data from our alpha test:

- Average time spent in game: 65 minutes
- Most active players spend 7+ hours per day in game
- 42% active users play multiple sessions daily
- Our most active player in the last 7 days, Tanya, has averaged 12.77 hours every single day in game. In the last 30 days, Heather has averaged 10.85 hours every single day in game! Wow, that’s even more than our Community Manager Matt!

We’ve also been testing monetization of virtual currency for about a month — here’s some interesting early data:

- Average transaction size of ohais (our in-game currency) is $16.50 – a number of people buy more than once.
- One of our passionate players has already spent $584 in the last 30 days in City of Eternals! (wow! thank you!)
- Female purchasers: 44%, Male purchasers: 56%
- Generally speaking, male players buy less items overall but spend more on expensive individual items, while female players will buy many more items at lower prices.

While City of Eternals is free-to-play, we’re especially grateful to our players who’ve put their trust (and their money) in what we’re doing.

But as I say, this is just the beginning. Launching is just the start. There’s much more to come and so much more hard work to do. We’ll be sharing stats and insights on our blog frequently, so be sure to subscribe to our feed.

<3,
susan, chief ohai

ohai welcomes what the iPad will do for next gen MMOs

Everyone here at ohai is pretty excited about the iPad, just announced today. Apple has an incredible track record of opening up entirely new markets with simple and elegant consumer devices. And since our whole mission at ohai is about bringing World of Warcraft-caliber MMOs to as broad of an audience as possible, we’re going to be making full use of these new platforms. MMOs haven’t gained much traction in iPhone’s App Store, but we think the iPad’s big screen and interface will make them much more accessible. Full-scale MMOs on your touchscreen personal device, anywhere and everywhere? Awesome!

What’s all this mean for City of Eternals and other ohai MMOs we’re cooking up? Stay tuned, we think you’ll be as psyched as we are!

Original Jobs and iPad photo (before Batty-fication) by Ryan Anson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.

ohai Holiday Party!

ohai all and happy holidays!

Last night we had our holiday party at ohai HQ and we wanted to share some of the pics with you.

We started the party with our CTO, Don Neufeld, explaining the magic behind our first game, City of Eternals, followed by tons of food, cupcakes, beer, wine and apple cider with spiced rum.  We were all so excited to finally be able to show our friends and guests what we have been working on for the past few months!

Enjoy the pictures and hopefully we’ll see you at our next event!

Oh, and if you want to know a little more about us, check out our updated about the team page!

xoxo,

team ohai

San Jose Mercury Names Chief ohai Susan Among Top Ten “Silicon Valley Influencers”

ohai, this is gratifying news: in a Sunday front page article in the influential San Jose Mercury, chief ohai Susan was named among the top ten “Influencers of Silicon Valley”, cited for being “a pioneer of the online gaming and virtual goods economy”. As she puts it there: “Sending someone a virtual beer is not about the beer. It’s a way to show I have an affection for you. It’s the same reason people have bought bouquets or other ostentatious gifts to demonstrate a feeling.”

Meet Penelope, ohai Vampire Dog!

ohai — It’s Dogs and Cats Fridays at the office! Meet our first guest with paws: Penelope, a two year old golden retriever serenely overseeing work on City of Eternals. Here she’s currently at the feet of her owner Matt, ohai community manager, who went from firing a recurve bow on horseback in Mongolia to helping vampires in New Valencia.

If you see him in-game, be sure to pass on a greeting to Matt and Penelope alike!

Games.com Interviews Chief ohai Susan!

Games.com has an extensive interview with Susan, our chief ohai, who covers many topics pertaining to our new Vampire MMO, City of Eternals, and around the ohai philosophy of MMOs. Here’s a sample:
Read more…

ohai, We Have Press — TechCrunch and VentureBeat!

Gratifying media coverage of City of Eternals and ohai: “So far it’s working,” reports TechCrunch Internet guru Michael Arrington. “I do believe that this is the beginning of a new wave of social gaming.” Over at the influential VentureBeat, Dean Takahashi observes, “Ohai has a real opportunity… City of Eternals can tap into the growing popular interest in the romance, action and dark humor of vampires.” Stay tuned for more!