泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] No one can leave the island on foot

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

No one can leave the island on foot

December. 28. 2017.

 

I heard a heartbreaking story from an acquaintance in the gaming industry a while ago. Investors are reluctant to invest in mobile games, despite currently ongoing boom for the local gaming sector thanks in part to a couple of successful game makers. In particular, some start-ups are said to be cash-strapped. Even an investor who is interested in a big publisher's game project that a famous developer involves doesn't want to consider to commit capital to a game with a low success rate due to astronomical cost for marketing, user or marketing data tracking, and a global strategy, etc. I strongly argued that not every venture capital firm isn't like that and I actively examine details of the small start-ups, however, it is true that he pointed out that I don't represent the whole venture capitalists and most investors currently aren't interested in mobile games much. I also sympathize with him in his point of view about the reason why investment firms are passive in spending money.

 

There is no riskless investment, not to mention the cliché that 'Never let a good crisis go to waste.' The more you take the risk, the more you can expect high profit. Venture capital is high-risk, high-return investing in support of business creation and growth. VCs may turn the currently hostile environment by investing in a handful of prospective companies with good conditions. The latest cases that created huge investment returns were born from courage in the face of danger. A developer should persuade an investor to stress its strength. It's probably as unlikely that a game without a very distinctive concept, design, or gameplay will be a huge success, as it is unlikely that a classic arcade game Galaga will make a comeback thanks to the recent retro fad in the whole content industry. Game makers must have a point to encourage users to distinguish themselves from other ordinary game developers and use it when they make investors believe that their product is well worth investing in. Despite in case the project failed, they need to highlight the games' strengths that their return on investment will be pretty high if they succeed.

 

A market that is not open to business from companies in other countries is called 'Galápagos islands'. The recluse islands are often cited as explaining Darwin's theory of evolution. Galápagos each have their unique flora and fauna because of out-of-the-way places with the uncommon natural environment. On the contrary, it is difficult for those animals and plants that adapted well to the out-of-the-ordinary setting to survive in a normal environment. The local gaming industry has adapted to a peculiar circumstance for a long time may lose survival ability in the global market place. Now developers should try to leave the island. The effort is subject to take many risks and more challenges ahead. Challenges at great risks don't guarantee success. But I'd like to say that no one can leave the island on foot.

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

 

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

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

Survivorship bias

 

December. 14. 2017.

During World War II, United States Armed Forces conducted a study of the damage done to aircraft that had returned from missions to minimize bomber losses. The study showed a tendency by the returning aircraft, in particular, to be hit on the wings and tail with a bullet and had recommended that armor be added to the areas that showed the most damage. However, questioning the analysis result, a researcher proposed that the Navy reinforce areas where the survived military aircraft were unharmed: cockpit and engine. The mathematician commented that the study didn't consider bombers that had been shot down in the engine or cockpit in their missions, while the majority of aircraft with holes on wings and tail returned home safely. If he hadn't detected the fallacy of the data analysis, the U.S. Army may have wasted a lot of budget due to unnecessary schemes and more fighter pilots could be killed. It's a form of selection bias and generally called "Survivorship bias" or "Survival bias".

 

While talking about commercially successful video games with developers, they used to say that they can succeed in attracting users if only they copy the elements which the top-ranked games have. However, failed imitative video games are more numerous than ones well receiving in markets. Of course, I don't mean that those key elements that make a game successful are bad or wrong. But if developers make the mistake of hasty generalization that some elements determine the success of the game, biased data is more likely to lead them toward the wrong directions. There are dozens of reasons that a successful game is loved by customers, whereas that could be the only way that a failed game is shunned by users.

 

Mentioning successful mobile-version games—Lineage series, TERA, Yulgang, and Fate/stay the night, etc.—based on well-known originals, quite a lot of people say that a mobile game built on the famous original must have achieved popularity and high profit. However, despite a notable original, I've seen a messed-up game with the poor outcome a hundred times. Game users' love of the latest successful games is not because they are constructed on well-made original works but because it just so happens that they are based on the originals.

 

Let's go back to the beginning of this article. "Survival bias" is a mistake that anybody can make. We need to look at the data from multiple points of view not to go astray. Game makers should see the market in a different direction while lots of uniformly similar-trend video games are released. The only way to reduce the probability of failure is that those game developers take a closer look at whether they have missed an element of success among excluded factors or they haven't found it yet. I hope that as many as game developers can return safely from the fierce battlefield for success.

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

 

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

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

The founder and the owner

 

November. 30. 2017.

Recently, I heard of a painful story from the CEO of an investment firm. To sums up,

 

“Why do most chief executive officers are the majority shareholder in the video game companies and keep holding it since the firm received investment several times? Why don't they evenly divide profits with the founding members? I think there seems to be an issue."

 

As the introduction says, I worked extensively with video game development and I'm now working with investment in game studios. An investor who provides capital to start-ups showing high growth potential is called a "venture capitalist (VC)". Among them, the number of VCs that specializes in investing in game development is not significant. Therefore, I have been given a chance often to deliver a lecture on things that a game company needs to prepare to attract investment such as the process of attracting and writing up a business plan, etc. I used to say that the higher the stakes of the CEO, the better the win situation for attracting investment. A good few venture capitalists are reluctant to invest in a game developer where the leader owns a considerably low percentage of stock. If a venture-funded business, which wants to attract a follow-up investment after its initial one, has abnormally low CEO stakes, it can be a big hindrance to encourage investors.

 

Apart from that, along with investment firm-related problems, not only the CEO but also ex-VC pointed out that most successful entrepreneurs in the local gaming industry have tended to be tight-fisted to share money with employees and to think of themselves as not a founder or chief executive officer but an owner or ruler. I also have the experience of running a video game company in the past and I'm not the exception, either. I was at a complete loss for words when I was asked what I have done to change our perception of the industry as one of the venture capitalists who specialize in a video game.

 

The national gaming industry is the engine that drives all the other content industries and there are many listed companies. Every year, a couple of video game firms go public, which makes several persons very rich with about from a few hundred billion won to a few trillion won. A new star in the industry has been born this year and it is also expected to continue next year. However, the more the new rich share in profits, the more the industry will flourish. I hope that the number of would-be entrepreneurs, who make a game they want to create from the experience of the successful developer and its team, more than the number of future CEOs, who want to be the owner of the company from taking a leaf out of the successful owner CEO's book. I should change my perception of a developer where the CEO owns a high percent stake. And I expect that the small change will make a big difference.

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

 

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] G-Star and Busan International Film Festival

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

G-Star and Busan International Film Festival

 

November. 23. 2017.

I go to Busan a couple of times every year to attend Busan Indie Connect Festival (BIC Fest) in summer, Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in October, and G-Star in November. Aside from relatively small-scale BIC Fest, there are many similarities between BIC Fest and the other huge international content-related events. Participants have an opportunity to look back on what has happened in each industry for the past year and see brand-new content which will be released soon. The festival is attended by celebrities and famous producers. Also, there are many content creators to attract investment for a project in preparation and overseas sales as well.

 

The majority expected that the number of audiences would decrease a lot since College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) pushed back a week due to earthquakes hit Pohang and the surrounding areas, however, there were many visitors unexpectedly and a national video game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) stood out the most in years beating out foreign video games. Despite this good news, I felt a big difference in quality between the film festival and the game show.

 

During the BIFF, South Korea's second-most-populous city is alive with lots of media professionals. The media publish hundreds or thousands of stories on the film festival in a single day and moviegoers arrive from across the country to enjoy the event. More than a few volunteers are found throughout the city and even taxi drivers are well aware of relevant information. Whenever I went to the city, I used to secure the same hotel, which is just off Haeundae, for four years because of the shortage of accommodations in the main area. In October, the hotel owner, who remembers my face, used to ask me that I visited the city for BIFF, whereas in November, he used to wonder about the unexpected visits. The over ten-year-old game show seems to shunned by the public due in part to its low event awareness. During the event, only Haeundae and surrounding areas around Bexco are crowded. The number of tourists for the fete is much lower than the number of visitors to the film festival. Some people tend to look down on video game fans for G-Star as if they are people with nothing to do unlike respecting serious film fans for BIFF, which brings me a very uncomfortable feeling.

 

The local gaming industry constitutes a great proportion of Korea's whole industry. Even now numerous game developers are trying to make a good game. I reckon that it's an important time in improving public awareness about video games as cultural content. It was only some decades ago that cinema was also judged as being a waste of time. The gradual alteration of the audience is from a great number of movie professionals' efforts. Now is the time for video game workers to change the way the public understands the game content.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

 

이중반룡의 게임애가 泥中蟠龍’s Game愛歌 쩍벌남과 다꼬녀같은 저격방송

이중반룡의 게임애가

泥中蟠龍’s Game愛歌

쩍벌남과 다꼬녀같은 저격방송

2020.03.26

‘쩍벌남’, ‘다꼬녀’ 이런 단어를 한번쯤은 들어봤을 것이다. 지하철 등의 대중 교통에서 다리를 과하게 벌리고 앉아 옆의 승객에게 불편을 주거나, 다리를 꼬고 앉아 앞의 승객에게 불편을 주는 공중예절이 부족한 사람을 지칭하는 말이다. 이런 공중예절이 부족한 사람 유형에서 이제는 사라진 유형이 있다. ‘신문 펼쳐보는 사람’이라는 유형이다. 불과 십년 전 지하철 예절 캠페인에는 ‘신문은 접어서 보고, 내릴 때 가지고 내리자’는 캠페인이 있었으나, 지금은 지하철에서 신문을 보는 사람을 찾기가 어렵다. 그만큼 신문을 보는 사람이 줄어든 영향이다.

 

현재 대부분의 중년층 이하는 종이 신문을 거의 읽지 않는다. 필자의 경우도 본지를 제외하면 최근 몇 년간 종이 신문을 읽은 횟수가 손으로 꼽는다. 대부분의 뉴스는 스마트폰을 통해 읽고 있다. 그런데 이해가 안 되는 것은 국내 주요 언론사의 매출은 독자 감소에 비하여 크게 줄지 않았다는 사실이다. 독자는 크게 줄었으나, 광고 매출은 크게 줄지 않았다. 유동인구가 대폭 줄었는데 상가 임대료는 떨어지지 않은 것처럼 이해가 안 되는 현상이다. 임대료를 낮추지 않아도 임대하는 사람이 있기 때문이다. 언론사가 광고주의 눈치를 보는 상황이 발생하는 이유이다. 언론이 제대로 된 비판 기능을 하지 못하니 점점 신뢰를 잃어가고, 신뢰가 없으니 독자가 감소하는 악순환이 반복된다. 그나마 새로운 기기에 익숙하지 못한 노년층과 장년층이 전통 미디어를 지켜주고 있어 일정 수준은 유지하는 중이다. 그 결과 지금 대한민국 언론의 신뢰도는 주요 국가 중 최하위를 기록하고 있다.

 

지난 본지 771호에서 김상현 편집국장이 쓴 인터넷 저격 방송에 대한 글을 읽었다. 몇 몇 유명 인터넷 게임 방송에서 구독자를 근거로 과한 광고료를 요구하고, 광고를 하지 않으면 악의적인 평가를 방송하는 것으로 추정된다는 내용의 글이었다. 인터넷 방송은 하나의 대안 미디어로 주목받아왔다. 그들은 소비자의 입장에 서 있다는 이유로 공정성을 의심받지 않았으며, 신뢰를 받았다. 미디어의 생명은 신뢰이다. 신뢰를 잃는 순간 그들의 목소리는 소음과 다름없다. 그러나 악의적인 저격 방송은 그들의 신뢰를 갈아먹을 것이다. 신뢰를 잃는 순간 그들은 서있을 자리도, 신뢰도, 명성도, 명예도 다 잃을 것이다. 그들에게는 지속적인 지지를 보내줄 노년층도 장년층도 없다.

 

십년 전 출근길 지하철역 앞에는 많은 종류의 무료 신문을 나누어 주었다. 필자 역시 2~3개를 챙겨 출근하는 지하철 안에서 읽었던 기억이 있다. 지금 지하철에서는 그것들을 볼 수 없다. 필자는 인터넷 게임 방송이 이렇게 사라지지 않기를 바란다. 많은 게임 방송이 게이머들에게 신뢰를 받기 바란다. 신뢰받는 많은 게임 방송이 게임의 저변을 늘려주기 바라고, 게임의 이미지 개선에 기여하길 바란다. 그러나 이런 저격방송이 계속 문제가 된다면, 쩍벌남, 다꼬녀 추방 캠페인처럼 인터넷 게임 방송 추방 캠페인이 생길지도 모를 일이다.

※ 이중반룡의 게임애가(泥中蟠龍의 Game愛歌)는 본인이 현재 <경향 게임스>에 2013년 9월부터 연재하고 있는 칼럼의 초고를 올리는 것입니다.