泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
A pleasant confession
I have a confession to make today. Recently I found out that my prediction in public about two years ago was completely wrong. As the introduction says, I've lived as a gamer for twenty years and I've worked in the gaming industry for the last ten years as so-called the game expert. Only two years ago, I predicted that League of Legends (LoL) would be way ahead of the others in the domestic online video game market for quite some time. And I also expected that Sudden Attack would leave all the other FPS games far behind for a good while. I forecasted that even Sudden Attack 2 couldn't be as good as the original game. Of course, I didn't think that nothing could escape my attention. It's just very embarrassing that the potent argument proved to be wrong in two years.
The best way to enjoy a video game is to play the game oneself. And it's also enjoyable to watch someone playing the game. Plus, there is the pleasure of playing the game with the others. Playing oneself doesn't mean a single-player game mode. It means that the user amuses oneself because there is nobody to play with. As you know, the fun of watching is not only from seeing games of top players in e-sports gaming leagues and tournaments but also learning from them. The pleasure of having together is from "true" offline friendship in the physical world, not from the online universe. Team play amongst close friends is not comparable to teaming up with a stranger in the online world.
What I got exactly wrong was about the pleasure of having together. The key to this enjoyment is based on the universality of the rule. During the holidays, family members can have a good time playing Yunnori, a traditional board game played in Korea, because the participants know the game rules. Likewise, the market power of League of Legends (LoL) or Sudden Attack is from countless customers all around the world who know the rules of the game and are ready to play with. My argument was supported by the fact that it's not easy to draw lots of users who can join in on the fun in a short time.
Overwatch was soon released as if I was ridiculed for my claim. And it proved that the Overwatch-like good game could attract enough users in a short period. The team-based multiplayer first-person shooter has topped the game charts after one month of its release overtaking Sudden Attack, which had maintained No.1 sales in the domestic FPS market over ten years, and League of Legends (LoL), which had been the top-ranked in local game market for several years. I had new kinds of fun with the Blizzard game. It was hope. In recent years, a star hasn't been born in the domestic online game field. New games had disappeared so quickly not stomping on the existing game's parade for a long time, which made me hesitate to invest in an online video game in the market's stagnant atmosphere. However, Overwatch showed that a new game could dominate the market and it is worth putting money in a game company for a new project. I'm very happy about having the pleasant confession because I found hope. I should find out a game developer which can make a game over Overwatch.
※ 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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