MW: FGIs w/ Children

Background

Would it appeals to younger players?

The product team wanted to determine whether MapleStory Worlds appeals to younger players, comparing it to potential competitors like Roblox and Minecraft, while addressing concerns that the long-standing IP might feel outdated to this audience.

Objectives

1️⃣ Understand younger players’ gaming habits and familiarity with the MapleStory IP

2️⃣ Collect younger players’ impressions of MapleStory Worlds and its key features

Methods

Focus Groups with Children

To understand children’s impressions of MapleStory Worlds and their gameplay characteristics, we conducted focus group testing (FGT) with children. For preschoolers, we also looked at their non-verbal expressions, considering their cognitive abilities.

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Participants

We recruited a total of 15 participants across three different age groups, as our preliminary research suggested that children’s preferences can differ significantly, even with small age gaps. We aimed to take this diversity into account.

Reporting

Summary: Age · Gender Differences

Breaking down the analysis by age and gender, we explored participants’ gaming habits, their perception of the MapleStory IP, and impressions of MapleStory Worlds’ key features: Avatar Customization, Content Creation, and Regular Gameplay.

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Part 1. Understanding Younger Players

Our first goal was to understand young players’ gaming habits and their familiarity with the MapleStory IP.

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Part 2. Impressions of MapleStory Worlds

Presenting the concept videos, we also gathered young players’ impressions of MapleStory Worlds’ key features.

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Appendix: Additional Findings

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Research Impact

👩‍🏫 Post-Project Research Readouts

• Research findings were shared through post-project readouts.
• Findings were also further documented and shared with overseas branches.

📌 Product Impact

• Helped define the key concept to focus on, with an emphasis on the social platform.

📌 Strategic Impact

• Initiated discussions on conducting larger-scale research with more participants.
• Sparked thoughts on expanding research globally.
• Discussed further research opportunities with the product team.

📌 Cultural Impact

• Invited stakeholders to observe participants during each session.

📌 Internal Impact

• Established the first case for conducting research with children.
• • Key Takeaways:
    • Preschoolers were accompanied by a guardian, and some of their responses were considered valid.
    • Considering children’s cognitive levels, non-verbal cues like observations were considered valid.
    • Considering children’s cognitive levels, it is necessary to reduce the number of answer choices.
    • Child-friendly and context-appropriate environment would greatly help ease their participation.

My Role

In the beginning, MapleStory Worlds was merely an idea. I took the lead in research, identifying key needs and opportunities, laying the groundwork for its early stages, and fostering long-term collaboration with stakeholders.

1️⃣ Leading Strategic · Tactical Research

I managed a small team of researchers over a two-year collaboration with the product team. Our efforts encompassed diverse areas, including gameplay experience, content creation, and publishing, utilizing generative research and co-creation methodologies.

2️⃣ Uncovering Needs and Opportunities

In the early stages, we explored user needs and opportunities in first-mover metaverse and social platforms like Roblox, Minecraft, and TikTok. As the project evolved, we expanded our focus to include diverse user types—regular players, creators, and streamers.

Conclusion

📌 Early Stage · Long-Term Collaboration: How it all went

Wrapping up this long-term collaboration, I gave a speech at MCI22 (MapleStory Worlds’ Creators Invitational 2022) on the topic of ‘Co-Creating MapleStory Worlds with the User’. I highlighted our extensive co-creation and collaboration with diverse stakeholders and users, sharing various studies and insights gained from them.

Research Impact

📌 Cultural Impact

Initiated during the ideation phase, the early stage collaboration defined target users through personas, uncovering their needs and opportunity areas. This collaborative design thinking process, involving designers, developers, and users—including creators and streamers—helped shape the product’s go-to-market strategy.

📌 Product Impact

This approach demonstrated how early collaboration can drive long-term product success. MapleStory World achieved a successful launch and has since become a beloved service, now with 60K+ active players, continuing to thrive.

At the conclusion of the collaboration, user needs-based heuristics were provided as a lasting KPI for the product team.

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