"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]   MU Online, 全民奇迹 MU, and MU Origin The recent biggest news in the gaming industry seems to be a notable success of MU Origin in the domestic market. It was second on the Top Grossing category list of the Google Play within a week and temporarily took the first place beating Raven (Evilbane in the U.S.) by Netmarble. MU Origin is 全民奇迹 (Jeonmingijeok)-MU developed by TIANMA and published by Kingnet in China. It already proved to be successful, ranking high on top of Chinese mobile game charts for a few months. As the title suggests it, MU Origin is the mobile version of MU Online, the greatest hit by Webzen, which was released more than a decade earlier in Korea. Cutting classes to play MU Online in 2001 is still fresh in my memory. Despite poor grades, the Webzen-produced MMORPG had a big impact on my life; I set up a video game company in 2002 and I'm still working in the g...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   It's hard to study all the time   It seems like a brand new year started just a few days ago, however, it's already April 2015 at this moment writing this column. One-third of the year has already passed. I have been in the video-game-involved field for 13 years since I first stepped into the gaming industry. I have spent one-third of my whole life working in the game business. Numerous video games have been released. Some of them gained huge mainstream success and others disappeared being shunned by consumers. Out of countless choices for recent online video games, Hearthstone, which is a digital collectible card game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, has left a deep impression on me. The game is a typical turn-based card game between two opponents. A player collects lots of cards, constructs the player's decks, and competes with the opponent. There are also an ...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   A tax on a digital signal   Recently, aside from public interest, there was a cultural-content-related big issue in Korea's investment industry. Filmmaker R & K — a production company produced The Berlin File, a 2013 South Korean action thriller film — had to pay its tax on an external hard disk drive stored video clips which were filmed in overseas locations since it lost the case for withdrawal of tax enforcement by the Seoul Administration Court.   Here are some of the details of step-by-step processes.   1. The filmmaker R & K declared an empty hard disk drive as a piece of filming equipment at the customhouse ahead of its departure. 2. R & K took a film with local production in Germany and its neighbors. 3. R & K paid the local film studio and the interested party about 2.2 billion won. 4. R & K brought back the portable...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and KakaoTalk   The biggest news in the mobile market recently, as I think, is that Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge eventually came out. I had an opportunity to see the new cell phone in person thanks to a friend of mine working for Samsung Electronics. Remarkably curved surface and multiple functions using the new shape notably made the phone look cool as to be called the new generation of Galaxy design. I was highly satisfied with the style that there is a significant difference before and after Edge. Comparing to the disappointing design and sales performance of Galaxy 5, we can see huge differences in particular. Of course, I don't writing this column to show off that I checked it out ahead of time. Probably users can buy Edge in the market when the column would be released. The reason I mentioned the new phone is to talk about Nokia. Less than 10 ye...

Enjoy Korea with Hui: Change of viewpoint makes novelty_泥中蟠龍‘s Game愛歌 : S urvive! Mola mola!,  The Deal, and  Megamind  from the left Do you know a recent Japanese mobile game Survive! Mola mola! ? Game her...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Change of viewpoint makes novelty   Do you know a recent Japanese mobile game Survive! Mola Mola!? In most games, a game character has to survive, which is the most important mission. However, the more a fish dies, the more gets it stronger in the new concept of Survive! Mola Mola!. Nowadays I'm coming into competition with my friends how many times it dies. It's even hard to die after numerous death and rebirth because the character is too strong. My character has died eighty times and I'm now playing the game with my eighty-first sunfish. I'm hard at playing it for the hundredth revival. Do you Know a recent Korean movie The Deal? Most crime thrillers deal with a story of the main character tracking down a criminal. But the newly-released film talks about revenge for a murderer who has already caught since he frustrated due to limitations of the administration...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Have the courage to create uncontested market space   I have ever heard such a funny story that Kang Ho Dong, a famous South Korean MC and comedian, is not known to many junior high and high school students as the top wrestler-turned TV star. The former wrestler began a career as a master of ceremonies and comedian as well in 1999 on MBC TV show. But 20 years later, his successful wrestling — Ssireum — career appears to have not existed anymore. Recently video game users seem to take it for granted that a new mobile game is released through Kakao Talk almost like MC Kang Ho Dong, not the wrestler. Kakao Talk Game Center opened just 3 years ago, however, we already got used to it. I've recently asked a representative of a video game developer about the type of game between online and mobile when I had a business meeting with him. "Is there still an online game devel...