"Games, the Contents and the Economy" written by Acean D Park]

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Video game development and investment   I have mainly written about domestic video game developers hoping that they will be able to commercially successful with a good-quality game. But, it may sound like an excuse, I'd like to make harsh comments for game makers this time. Recently I went to a conference-like meeting for content producers and developers. There were a large number of manufacturers and content providers complaining about investors. In short, the complaints can be summed up in four ways. Firstly getting investment is no different from taking out loans with high-interest rates due to overly conservative investment conditions. Secondly, in spite of detailed explanations, investors cannot well understand a good point of the content because they lack the ability to evaluate it. Thirdly investment firms mostly refuse to invest in new content whose sales performan...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Korea's game industry in crisis   The United States and the Soviet Union had always been rivals in many areas since World War II and the two superpowers put securing German rocket technology, the best one of those days, on the top of the list. Of course, it was possible because of Nazi Germany's defeat. America recruited German scientists, engineers, and technicians before Germany was defeated and collapsed under a secret program named Operation Paperclip. Soviet Russia, which was fallen behind the competition, secured production facilities. As a result, the Soviet Union stayed ahead of the competition for aerospace industry based on its infrastructure, however, it was beaten by the United States which had the world's best space technology. In recent years, the Korean gaming industry has developed in a difficult situation. Government has regularly imposed regulation...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Looking back on 10 years in the mobile gaming industry   I have worked in the gaming industry since a cold winter day in January 2002. Looking back, writing a column related to a game, it seems as if ages had passed since then when I was an amateur gamer who had no background in the field. The reason I give a long-winded explanation is to mention what I felt during a recent meeting for investment with a developer about the constraints of a mobile device for a mobile game. The developer, who has played an online game for a long time, talked about mobile computer device bringing about inconvenience: small screen, low specification, and difficulty of customization due to various devices. Listening to him, it brought back the moment when I just set foot in the gaming industry, which made me be lost in the old memories. Mobile phones featuring color displays, one of the technolog...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Video game development and investment   I have serially written a column about the video gaming market and video game development over a period of time. But this time, I'd like to talk about a game developer which I, as a venture capitalist, invest in. I don't intend to whine about it. The reason I chose this topic because of what I went through recently. This column is actually for game developers which attract investment on the borrower's side. The recent experience made me feel bad is quite simple. A cash-strapped game studio having developed a good game asked me to make an investment and I couldn't help but turn down the suggestion after thorough consideration. Some readers might think that what the problem is if there is a good game. Besides, the majority of leaders of game developers actually do think so. It takes a long time and effort for a developer t...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Hang in there, Korean games!   The Admiral: Roaring Currents, a South Korean naval war film, has recently smashed the nation's box office records. Summing up for people who haven't watched the movie, it's a story of the historical Battle of Myeongnyang in which Korean naval commander Yi Sun-sin, who were seriously defeated in the Battle of Chilcheollyang, led the only 12 ships remaining in his command to a great victory against an invading Japanese fleet of 333 vessels. The number of viewers crossed the 16 million mark as of August 2014. Of course, I don't want to talk about the film. Actually, I'd like to write about the question below:   Is it possible for The Admiral doing well on foreign markets?   Cultural products, which are generally called 'content', are appealing to the member of a particular group or society sharing the same cul...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Conflict in a video game   I have talked about what I think about the video games industry through my columns. Although I mentioned a game itself a couple of times, there was always the games market at the heart of it. But I want to talk about another topic today. When it comes to content, there should be a message which connects between a creator and a consumer. It is usually called a narrative or subject. If that is the case, how can the creator deliver the message to the user? When the creator frames a story, he/she generally uses the conflict. Today I'd like to deal with the conflict in a video game. The conflict can be divided up with many different types of categories. I especially sort it as following: a conflict between +(plus) and +(plus), a conflict between +(plus) and – (minus), and conflict between – (minus) and – (minus). Firstly, (+)(+) conflict is ba...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Hit effects of video games   Anyone who likes a movie probably knows Nowhere to Hide, a 1999 South Korean film. Most people, at least, would have heard of the movie title and watched the trailer with the two main characters' punch scene in the rain and the murder scene on the stairs. The murder scene on the stairs, which is one of the film's most famous scenes, is a tribute to the best-known sequence 'Odessa steps' from Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 Soviet silent film. The reason I describe the scene tediously is that it is very useful to explain effective directing. Before explaining it, first, let me talk about hit effects led to mentioning directing. A term 'hit effects' is commonly used in the gaming industry. Although it literally means a feeling of a hit, the point of the word is to make a gamer feel quite real watching action scenes of character...