"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]   The Tooth and the Nail   Recently, I attended the preview of a film named The Tooth and the Nail which would be released the moment you are reading this. It's a suspense thriller film. The word "thriller" appears to be used interchangeably with the word "suspense", however, the two terms precisely have different meanings. "Suspense" is a feeling of tension or anxiety when an audience has more information than a character in the movie, on the other hand, the viewer has less information than the character in terms of "thriller". For instance, if a detective tries to find a murder suspect whom no one knows where he is hiding, it's a "thriller", whereas if the policeman is approaching the criminal when both the cop and the audience don't realize that the suspect is hiding behind a wall holding a knife, it's "suspen...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   A fried chicken restaurant-like game developer   The early presidential election, which was originally been scheduled at the end of the year, is probably the hottest issue in Korea these days. I don't think that political pledges of candidates seem an appropriate topic for a column. So I just want to mention youth unemployment such as founding and employment here.   One of the candidates has promised to help the young by raising conglomerates' corporate tax or high earners' income tax, on the other hand, another candidate has pledged to increase employment by supporting large enterprises. As I reckon - it's slightly off-topic, though - that latter isn't much different from the "trickle-down effect" of Lee Myung-Bak administration, which seems to be less effective.   Not too long ago, I talked about foreign game developers with a frien...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Where have all cherry blossoms in Kyoto gone?   I‘m staying in Kyoto at this moment writing this column. There are many famous cultural heritages in the historical city and some of them are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I went to visit some tourist attractions such as Tō-ji: it protected the country at the time Kyoto became the capital of Japan and there is the five-storied Pagoda (gojūnotō) which is the national treasure of Japan, Tenryū-ji: it was founded to pray for the repose of the Emperor of Japan, and Chikurin-no-michi (Arashiyama Bamboo Grove): it is a representative sightseeing spot in the city, and Ginkaku-ji: a shogun built the golden temple to keep the Śarīra — Buddhist relics, etc. I found a delicious ramen restaurant, waffle store serving good coffee, and cozy pub by chance while wandering in the streets by a small rental car. I came across a Japane...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Let's take a look at Korea's gaming industry (Part 3)   In the previous columns, I expected that Korea's gaming industry will be difficult in the years ahead. Aside from many other causes and solutions to the bad situation in the field, I want to deal with government policy-related topics.   The gaming industry has characteristics of content and software at the same time. Also, various game-related government agencies have announced promotion policies and regulation policies on game addiction which many people kept continually expressing concerns about. When it comes to game promotion policy, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) are in charge of cultural content and content convergence respectively. On the other hand, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) and Ministry of Health ...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Let's take a look at Korea's gaming industry (Part 2)   I'd like to talk about South Korea's gaming industry more specifically.   The composite leading indicator (CLI) is a business barometer showing short-term economic movements. The best example of the CLIs is a stock index. It means that the stock market index reflects business forecasting. If buyers expect high earnings, stocks will rise, and the opposite can also happen. The representative CLI for venture capital (VC), which deals with unlisted stocks of startup companies or small businesses, is the scale and the number of cases of investment in the industry.   According to data from the Korean Venture Capital Association, investment in the gaming industry has been declined year by year for the past three years from ￦ 176.2 billion in 2014 to ￦ 168.3 billion in 2015 and ￦ 142.7 billion last ye...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   Let's take a look at Korea's gaming industry (Part 1)   Lawmakers, government officials, and civilian experts gathered in the National Assembly recently to discuss the video gaming industry policy of the next administration. The purpose of the discussion was to aware of the current problem of the gaming industry policy and to set a new direction for Moon administration. In the policy debate, many experts including Kim Byeong-Kwan, developer and entrepreneur-turned-member of the National Assembly, Hwang Seong-Ik, the president of Korea Mobile Game Association, and Lee Jae-hong, the president of Korea Game Society, etc. exchanged opinions about regulatory reforms and necessity of the institution dedicated to the industry. As a person engaged in the game-related field, I'd like to talk about this subject.   Many people say that the domestic gaming industry has bee...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   A publisher can't have it both ways   Recently, the news that Ban Ki-moon announced that he would not run for the presidential election is the talk of the town. Sometimes we define ourselves by the expectations of the others. So many people around us make the wrong decision since they think too highly of themselves or don't have an accurate picture of their abilities, for example, an unsuccessful athlete-turned-entertainer or a failed entertainer-turned-entrepreneur. So in that sense, I support the former UN Secretary-General's position. The diplomatic expert probably doesn't have all the necessary qualities for a politician and it doesn't seem to fit for him to take part in local politics due to his lack of understanding of the domestic situation. I think it's comparable with legendary basketball icon Michael Jordan who tried to be a professional basebal...