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Neutral Creeps Interview: GG.MaRs, Garena HoN Product Manager

To coincide with the upcoming release of Garena Heroes of Newerth 2.0, we sat down with Garena HoN's Product Manager, Weicheng Zhou, for a quick interview regarding Garena, Heroes of Newerth and the Dota genre.

1. Tell us about the typical workday at Garena.

The first thing we do is to check the servers and forums to make sure that everything is running smoothly. We read the statistic reports to know if everything is in the right direction. One of the most important tasks is to contact S2 Games about the progress of various projects, and inform them about what's happening in Garena HoN. Game Masters monitor the game and start to run events in the afternoon. If there are new patches, we spend most of the time testing, e.g. we are now testing 2.0 to make sure that we deliver a perfect patch to the gamers.

2. What were the reasons why Garena decided to obtain exclusive rights for Heroes of Newerth in Southeast Asia?

We think Heroes of Newerth is a wonderful game that is going to be one of the most popular games in the region. It has many advantages over DotA, e.g. exciting game play, reconnection, and fantastic graphics. We always want to bring the excellent games to the gamers. HoN is definitely one of them.

3. What can you say about the community's warm reception of Garena HoN? Case in point: Thousands of Garena HoN beta keys gone in minutes.

I am very surprised to see that the players are crazy to play the game. The community's response is beyond my expectation.

4. A lot of Garena HoN players have expressed concerns regarding smurf accounts. How does Garena intend to solve this problem?

First of all, we will apply restrictions on the registration of new accounts. Players will need to verify their email and enter correct personal particulars to activate the game. Secondly, with the 2.0 launching soon, the store items will be linked with the accounts. Spending time playing smurf accounts won't help in coin gain.

5. Will Garena HoN retain the free to play model after the game is officially released? How does Garena HoN intend to earn revenue and maintain sustainability?

HoN will be free to play in SEA. We intend to earn revenue from 2.0 via the in game store and mostly from the cosmetic items.

6. Seeing that Heroes of Newerth has both MAC and Linux clients, does Garena have any plans of supporting MAC/Linux in the future?

We do think that we should focus our resources on making the PC version perfect and up to date first. We would consider MAC/Linux when we think that the timing is good.

7. What are your personal thoughts on the increasing popularity of DotA genre games?

The DotA type game is a new genre in online games market. It is still in its early stages but it is already taking up market share rapidly. I am sure there is a lot of potential to grow.

8. Closing Message to the Garena and HoN communities.
We would like to thank everyone for supporting us all the time. HoN 2.0 is a big patch which you will love for sure!

About Garena
Garena is an online gaming platform known for connecting DotA gamers from all over the world. Garena is publishing Heroes of Newerth in the Southeast Asian region as a free to play game.

About Weicheng Zhou (GG.MaRs)
Weicheng Zhou graduated from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) with a degree in Computer Engineering. He started working for Garena in 2007 and is the current product manager for Garena Heroes of Newerth.

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Update:
Due to the high number of requests for free Garena HoN beta keys from our readers, Neutral Creeps is giving away free Garena HoN beta keys.