泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] The fourth industrial revolution and the gaming industry (Part1)

The fourth industrial revolution and the gaming industry



泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

The fourth industrial revolution and the gaming industry (Part1)


April. 12. 2018.

 The inaugural Gyeonggi Global Game Forum, which was supervised by Gyeonggi Content Agency, was held recently under the theme "Past, Present, and future of South Korea's Gaming Industry". I delivered a keynote address in the forum. Thanks to this column series that I have written for about five years, I assume that I played an important role as the opening keynote speaker. Taking this opportunity, I'd like to convey my sincere appreciation to The Kyunghyang Games.

 In my introductory statement, I needed to elaborate on past and current situations of the gaming sector and prospects for the industry in the era of the fourth industrial revolution. I kept talking about the past and present of the gaming industry through previous columns and I dealt with the future of the sector couple of times. On the other hand, I've never focused on a specific topic of the relation between the fourth industrial revolution and the gaming industry.

 Video game-related technologies typically include: digital reality—augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality—; artificial intelligence (AI)—intelligence demonstrated by machines—; big data technologies; and blockchain—cryptocurrency is how it became known to the public. They are applied in a variety of content as well as a video game. People can easily experience VR images or videos and access AR characters. And the Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected to the AI can offer various content for users. Also, big data technologies help purchasers to find specific content, which they would like, by analyzing consumer spending patterns, and blockchain is applied to protect the intellectual property rights of diverse content. These technologies are contributed to increasing the value of digital content by and large.

 The game sector is the leader within the digital content industry. Now multiple game developers are made VR games and not a few new generations of games with virtual reality technology are released in the market. VR games give players a truly immersive experience more than any other existing game genre although this technology still leaves much room for improvement. This applied science is in its beginning stages, however, with so many platforms offering virtual reality games, VR amusement parks or VR theme parks have sprung up here and there. Increasingly affordable prices of VR hardware and improved usability also help the related market expand. Only a few years later, we may reminisce of players—who put themselves in a heroic character's shoes—on the computer fighting an evil king off or having a gun battle using a keyboard and a computer mouse in a first-person shooter (FPS). AR games—Pokémon Go is a prime example—bringing digital characters into reality offers a brand-new experience for anyone who plays the game. Many Pokémon Go fans, who took their time to look at their smartphone screens on the roadside at this time last year, made me think of the monsters living together in this 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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