Press Releases
Frogster Donates 82,000 Euro to Children in Bhutan
Thanks to overwhelming support from the gaming community, the publisher can fund additional Save the Children projects
Berlin, 11.02.2011:
With a result far exceeding the company’s expectations, Frogster concluded its Christmas charity project to benefit children and adolescents in Bhutan in January. Yesterday, the publisher of online role-playing games was able to hand Save the Children Germany e.V. a cheque in the amount of 82,000 Euro thanks to the overwhelming support of the gaming community. Compared to a similar promotion last year, Frogster was able to more than double its previous charitable contribution. In addition to setting up so-called ‘Remote Classrooms’ in the isolated mountain regions of Bhutan as originally planned, the world’s largest independent children’s rights organization can now implement further aid projects in the country.
The ‘Remote Classrooms’ project is not just about building schools. Save the Children will ensure that children and adolescents receive good education and healthcare. At the same time, families will be educated about the problems adolescents are facing. Additionally, Save the Children will train 40 pupil advisors to be involved in three-day workshops for adolescents held by the children’s rights organization at higher education institutions throughout the country. Thanks to Frogster’s donation, two editions of a youth guidebook will also be published. The guidebook will provide the youths with information about career prospects and other topics. Furthermore, Save the Children will establish two youth centres as well as employ and train two caretakers for adolescents.
Due to its position in the middle of the Himalayas, Bhutan was largely isolated from the rest of the world until recently. Kathrin Wieland, German Executive Director of Save the Children, visited the country two years ago and knows the problems there: “In Bhutan, there are suddenly children surfing the Internet and zapping through 400 television channels. Their parents, on the other hand, are people who haven’t learnt to read or write. They have never in their lives been bombarded with advertising. In other words, what we have here is a clash of two ages of civilisation.” With their on-site projects, Save the Children will assist children and their families in this transformation process, reducing the by-products which negatively affect the living conditions of adolescents, such as pollution, drug abuse, and crime.
Frogster started the charity project in mid-December 2010. Until the end of the promotion in January, players of Runes of Magic and Bounty Bay Online could purchase exclusive virtual mounts and a ship cover from the shops in the online role-playing games. All proceeds after VAT and fixed third-party costs are now funding the projects of Save the Children in Bhutan. Runewaker, the Taiwanese developer of Runes of Magic, waived its share of the sales for the mounts to support the charity effort on their part.
On handing over the cheque, Seth Iorio, Member of the Executive Board of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, commented on the outcome: “We have been impressed and inspired by the work of Save the Children in the mountain regions of Bhutan from the beginning. We are very happy that, through the support of our players, we can significantly extend the scope of our cooperative projects.”
Kathrin Wieland, Executive Director of Save the Children Germany e.V., was surprised and delighted at the great generosity of the computer game players: “I am very happy about the engagement of Frogster and its players, which allows us to clear a path for these children to a positive future.”
Bounty Bay Online
Pirates, Merchants & Explorers
With ‘Bounty Bay Online’ players enter the historic Age of Discoveries when famous circumnavigators were roaming the seas. Since 2007, they start an online career as a merchant, sailor, fisherman, pirate, explorer or in one of several other professions in a charming sailor setting. Alone or with a guild of players they follow gripping quests, start a flourishing overseas trade and discover monumental sights. Following exciting player vs. player battles on land and sea, powerful guilds can take control of cities and entire colonies and thus control their destinies.
More information on www.bountybayonline.com.
Runes of Magic
a world full of wizardry and adventure
‘Runes of Magic’ has been redefining the standard for free-to-play MMORPGs since 2009 with its massive amount of features. The online role-playing game is based on an exciting, multi-layered story, driven by thousands of quests set in the atmospheric fantasy world of Taborea. ‘Runes of Magic’ features a unique multiple class system enabling players to combine one of eight primary classes with a second and third class. Thanks to a comprehensive crafting system, individual player homes, arenas and battlefields, guild castles and siege wars, challenging dungeons and many other features, ‘Runes of Magic’ offers plenty of online adventures for all kinds of players.
More information can be found on www.runesofmagic.com.
TERA
online game world to set new standards in the genre
An impressive and highly-detailed virtual world with triple-A quality claim awaits thousands of players with ‘TERA’. Entirely developed in Unreal Engine 3, ‘TERA’ transcends current representatives of the genre with breathtaking 3D graphical environments, thrilling animations and spectacular effects. With seven races and eight character classes, ‘TERA’ offers an abundance of possibilities for character creation and development. The dynamic real-time combat system of ‘TERA’ gets players engaged in battles considerably more actively than all conventional MMORPGs available on the market. ‘TERA’ is set to be released in May 2012 based on a subscription model.
More information can be found on www.tera-europe.com.
Eligium
The Chosen One
In ‘Eligium – The Chosen One’, MMO fans will come face-to-face with hordes of menacing demons. It is up to the chosen one to reunite the four races in order to repel the hellish creatures. Through its various features including an atmospheric game world, numerous gloomy dungeons with demanding boss battles, raid instances, an inspired PvP and ranking system, open world events, an unique item upgrade system, and mounts which players can train and watch grow, ‘Eligium’ provides players with a feature packed gaming experience unlike no other.
More information can be found on www.eligium.com.
RaiderZ
An Action-Packed Fantasy Game World
With ‘RaiderZ’, Frogster will release an action-oriented online game that requires sophisticated tactical combat skills. Unlike traditional point-and-click MMO games, players will have direct control over their characters in combat due to the game’s innovative non-targeting combat system. ‘RaiderZ’ sets itself apart with its detailed and atmospheric game environments, an epic background story and impressive boss opponents. Frogster is currently planning to unveil the title as a free download starting in the second half of 2012.
More information can be found on www.raiderz-europe.com.
Seth Iorio
CEO | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG | Managing Director and COO | Frogster Online Gaming GmbH
Seth Iorio assumed the role of Managing Director and COO at Frogster Online Gaming GmbH at the beginning of October 2010, taking over responsibility for the technical and customer-focused areas of customer care, community management, payment and fraud management, localization, programming, and IT. In January 2011, he was appointed to the executive board of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and has held the position of CEO since 1 January 2012. Seth Iorio is also a member of the executive board as COO at Frogster’s parent company Gameforge AG.
Prior to his start at Frogster, Seth Iorio, who holds a diploma in business management, was VP Business Development and authorized representative responsible for Customer Communications and Marketing at Gameforge. In 2000 he founded Rabbit Software AG which he led as CTO. Following this, he was active as an IT consultant for companies such as Victoria Versicherung AG and as project leader for United Internet.
Tobias Haar
Member of the Executive Board | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG
The supervisory board appointed Tobias Haar to the executive board of Frogster with effect of January 1, 2012. In this position, he is responsible in particular for the activities of the foreign subsidiaries, licence contracting, and the legal and administrative business areas. Tobias has led the joint Legal Department of Frogster and Gameforge since September 2011 as General Counsel. In addition to his positions at Gameforge and Frogster, he is Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of G.A.M.E., the German Computer Game Industry Association in Berlin. The legal graduate, lawyer and legal informatics specialist specialises in national and international economic and IT law as well as mergers and acquisitions and recently coordinated the legal and administrative aspects of the takeover of Frogster by Gameforge. He came to the Gameforge group in 2008, after many years of professional experience as a lawyer in a leading international law firm as well as in the private sector.
Dominic Scheve
Vice President Finance | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG | Managing Director and CFO | Frogster Online Gaming GmbH
Dominic Scheve came to Frogster in 2006 holding a university diploma in business administration. After completing his postgraduate degree as Master of Business Administration (MBA) successfully, he works as Vice President Finance at Frogster Interactive Pictures AG since spring of 2009. As of October 2010 Dominic Scheve has taken responsibility as Managing Director and CFO at Frogster Online Gaming leading the fields of finance and controlling.
