User:MeghanElizabeth/Themis Group, Inc.

Themis Group, Inc. is an interactive marketing services, community management and media publishing company working within the video gaming industry. Founded in 2001 by Tom Kurz and Alexander Macris, Themis Group has grown to be an influential force in the gaming industry. Themis is comprised of two divisions: Themis Media, an online publishing company and TAP Interactive, a public relations, marketing agency and community management agency. Themis Media includes The Escapist Magazine, WarCry and All Game News.

Themis Group, Inc. has been recognized for various achievements including a finalist in the 2007 Winning Workplaces sponsored by Wall Street Journal and other department specific awards.

Corporate Timeline
November 1999 WarCry founded by Alexander Macris, Willie Macris, Jake Okun, and Paulo Lima as “MP3.com for Games”, designed to empower independent game developers through digital distribution of online games direct to the community.

February 2000 WarCry Corp. incorporated and the management team begins fund-raising.

April 2000 Completion of WarCry Corp. series A offering ($400,000)

December 2000 Launch of WarCry Game Center website with seven games, including the first multiplayer game created with the Wild Tangent game engine.

March 2001 WarCry Corp. acquires Crossroads Gaming Network LLC, a popular massively multiplayer game community and integrates it into a new WarCry Network.

April 2001 WarCry Corp. announces “Independent” retail publishing label.

July 2001 WarCry Corp. releases Road Wars, Seven Kingdoms, and Capitalism Plus under its “WarCry Independent” label.

September 2001 Funcom hires WarCry Corp. in a 4-month engagement to provide community management consulting for its ailing massively multiplayer game Anarchy Online.

October 2001 A separate company is created for the community management business, branded as Themis Group, Inc. WarCry Corp. and Themis Group, Inc. are made subsidiaries of an overall holding company, WCG Holdings, Inc. The Funcom engagement is serviced under Themis Group. Funcom engagement begins in Durham, NC. Themis Group team has relocated there to provide on-site support. Alexander Macris develops Player Satisfaction Matrix.

January 2002 NetDevil hires Themis Group to provide community management for its massively multiplayer game Jumpgate. The contract includes “community building” (marketing) responsibilities. WarCry Game Center is shut down and Independent publishing label is sold to IGS Publishing so that WarCry Corp. can focus on its WarCry Network business.

March 2002 Themis Group releases the first Themis Report on Online and Wireless Gaming.

June 2002 Lyra Studios hires Themis Group to provide “community building” services for its game Underlight.

September 2002 Nicely Crafted, Inc. hires Themis Group to provide marketing and public relations for its massively multiplayer game Time of Defiance.

CDV hires Themis Group to manage online advertising and marketing for all of its titles. CDV is based in the Triangle, NC.

October 2002 Intel hires Themis Group to consult to its Emerging Platforms Lab on strategies in the gaming space.

November 2002 Diversions Entertainment hires Themis Group to manage marketing and public relations for its game One Must Fall: Battlegrounds.

January 2003 Sierra Tel hires Themis Group to present a two-day seminar on online gaming pitfalls and possibilities.

March 2003 Sierra Tel hires Themis Group to develop brand and strategy for a possible massively multiplayer game.

May 2003 Cyber Warrior hires Themis Group to provide marketing and public relations for its game Rubies of Eventide.

June 2003 Themis Group implements the successful “Choose Wisely” campaign for Rubies of Eventide.

August 2003 Auran Pty Ltd hires Themis Group to provide online game design consulting for its game Hwarang.

November 2003 Mutable Realms hires Themis Group to provide community management services for its game Wish.

December 2003 Themis Group releases the second Themis Report on Online and Wireless Gaming. Nevrax SARL hires Themis Group to provide community management and public relations services for its massively multiplayer game The Saga of Ryzom. Gameshadow hires Themis Group to provide marketing and public relations services.

March 2004 Mutable Realms hires Themis Group to provide online advertising for its game Wish.

May 2004 Themis Group reaches 15 employees.

September 2004 Saga of Ryzom is launched worldwide. Nokia hires Themis Group to provide marketing and public relations for its mobile game Pocket Kingdom: Own the W0rld.

October 2004 Themis Group perfects its “superconductor marketing” technique with the implementation of its most successful campaign to date, Own thew0rld.com, for Nokia’s Pocket Kingdom. Refero, managed by former Funcom CEO Andre Backen, hires Themis Group to provide marketing for its mobile community dating service. Themis Group reaches 20 employees.

February 2005 Perpetual Entertainment hires Themis Group to provide public relations and marketing for its game Gods & Heroes.

April 2005 Perpetual Entertainment hires Themis Group to provide community management for its game Gods & Heroes.

June 2005 Themis Group announces the creation of four branded divisions: TAP Interactive, Playerbase Solutions, Iridea Mobile, and WarCry Network.

Nokia hires Playerbase Solutions to provide community management for its American N-Gage Arena community.

July 2005 Themis Group launches The Escapist magazine. The Escapist is critically acclaimed and becomes a “cult brand”, growing to 100,000 monthly readers within 3 months.

August 2005 Nokia hires Playerbase Solutions to provide community management for European and Indian N-Gage Arena community. Nokia hires TAP Interactive to provide marketing and public relations for upcoming project.

October 2005 Atari hires TAP Interactive to provide public relations for its console game Driver: Parallel Lines. Nokia hires TAP Interactive to provide marketing and public relations for its N-Gage Arena.

November 2005 Ubisoft hires TAP Interactive to provide marketing for its PC game Heroes of Might & Magic.

December 2005 Runestone hires TAP Interactive to provide marketing for its MMORPG Seed.

February 2007 Alexander Macris is named the Game Developers Conference's Geek of the Week.

Themis Media
The Escapist covers gaming and gamer culture with a progressive editorial syle, with articles and columns by the top writers in and outside of the industry. A weekly publication, its magazine-style updates offer content for a mature audience of gamers, entertainment enthusiasts, industry insiders, and other "NetSet" readers. Published every Tuesday, each issue of The Escapist explores a central theme, addressing head-on the topics relevant to gamers. The Escapist has been praised for its editorial approach to gaming journalism and the hit series “Zero Punctuation”.

Currently The Escapist has an Alexa traffic rank of 14,075 and reached 1 million unique users in October 2007.

WarCry is the online community centered around massively multiplayer online games. With an audience of over five million enthusiasts of games, technology and entertainment, WarCry provides daily updated news, extensive MMO network, forums high profile interviews and breaking news.

Currently WarCry has an Alexa traffic rank of 17,468.

TAP Interactive
TAP Interactive is the marketing, public relations and customer service division of Themis Group, Inc. With years of combined experience, TAP is an agency of gamers that know gaming. Clients include Ubisoft, Nokia and Sega, along with independent developers, international developers trying to break into the States, and other providers in the gaming industry.

TAP was awarded with the Association of Electronic Interactive Marketers’ MI6 2007 Awards for Interactive Media Promotional Game for the creation of Heroes Mini, a minigame of Ubisoft's Heroes of Might & Magic V. TAP recently created the game Settlers Mini for Ubisoft to accompany the release of the game Settlers: Rise of an Empire.

Viral Projects

TAP has created viral video, mini-games, and interactive websites to engage users:

 Death Star Designer was created in conjunction with Lucasarts' Star Wars:Lethal Alliance. The goal of the game is to design the Empire's ultimate weapon for Grand Moff Tarkin.

In Heroes Mini, created for Ubisoft's Heroes of Might & Magic, is the ongoing battle tournaments taking place in the land of Ashan.

Merc-Y is the online adoption program for mercenaries in Micronesia; adopt a MERC and help change his life. Merc-Y was created for the release of Ubisoft's FarCry: Vengence.

Rayman Residesis the second in Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids series. TAP created a unique and interactive Myspace page for Rayman Resides building a viral community for the game.

Most recently, TAP created Settlers Mini, a revolving game where players build their settlers' community through the seasons. The mini game was released before the Ubisoft game Settler's Mini: Rise of an Empire. 

Research & Reports
TAP Interactive presents a quantitative understanding and depth of market knowledge. Our research and reports on the demographics, trends, business models, and revenues of online gaming are well known and widely read throughout a cross-section of industries.

MMORPGs for Dummies (2006) Alexander Macris, Original Concept & Foreword Nova Barlow, Technical Editor IGDA ARG Sig Whitepaper (2006) Nova Barlow, Contributing Author

State of Play Primer on MMORPGs (2005) Nova Barlow, Lead Writer & Research Manager

Themis Report on Online Gaming (2004) Alexander Macris, Editor-in-Chief & Co-Writer Nova Barlow, Lead Writer & Research Manager

State of Play Primer on MMORPGs (2004) Nova Barlow, Lead Writer & Research Manager Alexander Macris, Writer

Themis Report on Online Gaming (2002) Alexander Macris, Editor-in-Chief & Co-Writer

Conference Presentations
Themis Group's industry-leading staff is actively sought for speaking engagements on word of mouth and viral marketing, online gaming, and digital entertainment.

Developing Community Alexander Macris, Panelist Online Game Developers Conference, April, 2007

Life after Subscriptions Alexander Macris, Panel Head Austin Games Conference, Sept 2006

Third Party Community Sites – What Can They Do For You? Joe Blancato, Panelist Austin Games Conference, Sept 2006

The Effectiveness of Viral Marketing: From Loving Bees to Making Friends on MySpace Alexander Macris, Panel Head Game Marketing Conference, March 2006

Profiting without a Publisher Alexander Macris, Speaker Digital Games Expo, July 2006

Word of Mouth Marketing: Gaming Sales is Driven Online With or Without You Gregory Lincoln, Speaker Digital Games Expo, July 2006

Achieving Success through Word of Mouth Marketing Alexander Macris, Speaker International Word of Mouth Marketing Conference, October 2005

Nontraditional Marketing for Games Alexander Macris, Speaker Digital Games Expo, July 2005

Creating Buzz through Video Games Alexander Macris, Panelist The Wall Street Transcript Igniting Buzz Summit, Sept 2005

Creating Gaming Communities: Lessons Learned Marketing MMOs Alexander Macris, Speaker Connected Community-Based Gaming Conference, August 2005

Emerging Business Models in Online Games Alexander Macris, Panelist Austin Games Conference, September 2004