泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ It's time for a game designer to impress users

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
 
It's time for a game designer to impress users
 
Some time ago, I wrote about "Are video games art?" Apart from the artistic value of a video game which I strongly claimed, I'll talk about some others. In recent years, I have had many chances to talk with game developers. There were some great game designers who I, as a former game designer, wanted to follow their examples and some of them were honestly less than worthy designers. I don't think that I am better enough at a game design to evaluate their qualification and skills. I only want to talk about the basic elements of a game designer.

The element of a video game is divided into game design and game graphics. Unlike the others, game design is a combination of various factors. It needs to include a story that a game designer wants to tell a player and show a theme of a game. But most game designs are still at a low point showing needs of playing and it just covers some elements for game production and game service.

At first, I believed that it perhaps stemmed from a domestic game player's lack of interest in a story and strong interest in playing the game, which led designers to focus on the market demands. But I concluded, after talking with many domestic game designers, that a number of designers lack the humanistic discipline to apply it in a game.

A video game story is basically similar to literature. There should be a well-organized narrative; the introduction, the development of the theme, conversion, and summing up, and a clear message. Plus, the element of gameplay should be designed to send the message. It's impossible for a game designer who lacks the humanistic discipline to meet the requirements. Western literature is basically founded on Christian culture and humanism led by Greek and Roman culture. The number of designers who read the Old Testament and read Greek and Roman mythology carefully was less than half of the designers whom I met. Only a few people read The Lord of the Rings, a classic fantasy, and Romance of the three kingdoms, Legend of Chu an Han, and Water Margin—these are Chinese novels. Principles of Economics—it's for managing virtual goods within a game—caused the number to diminish more and, including Mise-en-scène and symbolism for game-screen direction, the number can be disastrous.

The gaming industry is now the leading content industry in Korea and is the most recognized field than any other content in the global market. It's time to discuss on not excellent techniques of game-making but qualitative sides of the game content as Korea raises its status in the world and continues to upgrade its industrial base.

I still remember that I so moved to play Final Fantasy series and I was very surprised playing Warcraft series thanks to its imaginary world-building. It's not easy to deny that the domestic game-making techniques are truly world class. Nevertheless, I don't remember when I was inspired by a local video game since The War of Genesis. Now it's time for Korean game designers to effort to impress users more than just fun. To do that, I believe that they should start to study humanities. I expect to see many game designers who give fantastic impressions to gamers all over the world.

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui

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