Questions
by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor

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Answers
by Karl Mehta, CEO and Founder of PlaySpan Inc.




On massively multiplayer online gaming forums, one subject often causes
more controversy and argument than any other: the topic of
microtransactions. For many years, publishers often had no choice but
to ban and/or threaten players and agencies that engaged in
microtransactions. However, there may now be another option. The developers at PlaySpan have created a safe environment for online traders, one that actually works for the game and not against it. Ten Ton Hammer’s Cody “Micajah” Bye
recently asked a few questions to Karl Mehta, the CEO and founder of
PlaySpan. Keep reading to see how PlaySpan could change MMO gaming!




Ten Ton Hammer: To start,
could you give a brief summary of what PlaySpan is and how it affects
MMO gamers?




Karl Mehta:
PlaySpan is game industry’s first publisher-sponsored in-game
commerce network. Prior to PlaySpan, MMO gamers had to go to various
unsanctioned sites to buy in-game items and currencies which publishers
dislike for obvious reasons.  We saw that gamers love to trade
and publishers need an integrated and secure platform to drive their
micro-transactions both in primary and secondary markets. So, we built
a secure in-game commerce and payment platform just for digital goods
and designed for game publishers and gamers that supports game balance
and enables publishers to drive revenues


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Karl Mehta

Ten Ton Hammer: According
to your website, PlaySpan was originally founded by an elementary
school student. Could you give us a bit of detail on why he started
this company? Why was he so interested in creating a safe environment
for micro transactions?




Karl:
PlaySpan was founded by an 11 year old self-admitted gamer, Arjun
Mehta. Arjun is pretty good at a number of MMOs. His favorites are
Runescape and WoW. Arjun was getting frustrated spending a lot of his
play time in auction houses and forums trying to find items and trade
opportunities. He suggested an application that was in the game and
would offer players the ability to buy and sell to other
players.  More specifically, he wanted to do it with his
friends and people that he trusts.  We started the company at
that point with these ideas.  We want to make a gamer-friendly
marketplace for gamers to buy and sell what they have and need.
     



Ten Ton Hammer: How does
PlaySpan actually work? How do gamers buy and sell items using your
technology?




Karl:
PlaySpan is not a destination site. We want to keep gamers in the game
and not take away traffic from our publisher’s game. So, we
have built the first downloadable in-game widget that works like a
‘plug-in’ or as an ‘overlay’ to
game clients/sites. Publishers have various options and controls over
UI and presentation. Gamers connect to out commerce network through the
widget and can buy directly from Publisher (Primary Market) or from
other gamers (Secondary Market).



Ten Ton Hammer: There are
currently three games that PlaySpan is supported in: Knight Online, MU
Online, and UpShift Strike Racer. All of these games are imported
products from Korea; do you have any plans to make deals with some of
the bigger North American publishers like EA Mythic or Sony Online
Entertainment?




Karl: We
have received strong interest from several Tier-1 publishers from North
America, Europe and Asia and we will be announcing several AAA titles
that incorporate PlaySpan technology in the near future.



Ten Ton Hammer: Selling
virtual items is a sensitive subject to many gamers; they either love
it or they hate it. How do you hope to advance the positive attitudes
towards micro transaction sales?




Karl: We
believe there is a misperception about virtual item sales due to a lot
of unsanctioned sites selling game currencies without publisher
support. These sites disrupt in game mechanics and economies, which is
frustrating to publishers and ethically-minded gamers. At PlaySpan, we
are resolving those issues. We are providing a rules-based, integrated
platform that works within the game and does not disturb the game-play.
Our catalog system has items that are placed by the publishers and game
producers to sell directly from publisher-2-player and/ or
player-2-player and are part of the game-play



Ten Ton Hammer: What sort
of systems are in place in PlaySpan to keep gamers safe? How do you
prevent hackers and/or con-artists from abusing the system?




Karl: We
have a comprehensive set of security and anti-fraud technology
solutions implemented at every level of the end-2-end platform. We have
built IP around identifying fraud or fraudsters by triangulating and
co-relating various pieces of information across user identity, payment
method, order patterns, in-game behavior and so on…


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A screenshot of
PlaySpan

Ten Ton Hammer: How do
you support the rights of the game developers and/or publishers? What
sort of deal do they get from using PlaySpan?




Karl:
PlaySpan was built from the ground-up with a publisher-sponsored model,
so game developers and publishers can use the technology to maintain
their IP on items and currencies. We are the only company in the world
to have integrated with multiple games and so publishers have ease of
integration and fast time to market to generate micro-transaction
revenues both from primary and secondary markets.



Ten Ton Hammer: PlaySpan
recently was rated as a “Red Herring”, one of the
top 100 most innovative technology companies in North America. Why were
you selected for this award, and should we expect more awards to come
to PlaySpan in the near future?




Karl: The
Red Herring panel has long history of picking winners based on
technology innovation, execution, market opportunity, management team
and a number of other capabilities that are required to build a
successful company.  We are honored to have won both the Red
Herring 100 and also Silicon India 100 awards. Since then,
we’ve won the OnHollywood 100 award. We hope that gamers and
the game industry recognizes the hard-work and innovative technologies
that we have built.



Ten Ton Hammer: On a
personal level, what’s the most exciting part of the PlaySpan
technology? What is the biggest draw for gamers?




Karl:
Knowing that we are making life better for both publishers and gamers
is what is most exciting to us. The lifeblood of the online world is a
good in-game economy.  Economies run out of control with these
unsanctioned, unregulated web sites who are selling items and
currency.  Not only does it destroy game balance for both
publisher and the gamer, the gamers are at huge risk themselves as the
vast majority of these sites are infested with fraud, account theft,
and no guarantee of delivery.



The PlaySpan system remedies these challenges in giving the publisher
the tools they need to control and gain revenues from their in-game
economy, mitigates fraud, and protects their gaming community by giving
them a safe and secure channel to buy and sell virtual items and
currency without the worry of delivery.  This helps make for a
happy gamer in the end, and that is what is important to us.



Ten Ton Hammer: Finally,
is there anything else you’d like to tell Ten Ton Hammer
readers?




Karl:
I’d say we are working hard on some really cool stuff, so
keep checking out for more innovation. Also, I’m interested
in ideas from the gamer community, so will be happy to hear from your
readers. I can be contacted at [email protected]. Thanks for your
time and interest.


Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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