"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]   Between something new and familiar   There is a constant struggle between something new and familiar. We are often at the crossroads as we are forced to choose between two things, for instance, today's style and my favorite costume, a new job and the present job, or a newly-built fancy apartment and cozy old house because of the gap between expectations for something fresh and sense of familiarity with something old.   Recently I had dinner with the CEO of a film studio. We talked a lot about a new cinema in the planning stage including a business model to make a connection between a movie storyline and webcomics or video game in particular. I concluded the biggest difference between the motion picture and the video game is that they take different forms to show something "novel" and "accustomed" while we were discussing the planning. I'd like t...

泥中蟠龍 's Game 愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]   What a game interest expects to the new government   The biggest recent issue in South Korea was that president-elect Moon was sworn in as President on Wednesday. Inauguration of the new president means that the leader of the country has been replaced at the micro-level, besides, not only cabinet ministers under the head of the administrative branch of the government but also many of the government policies would be changed in a broad perspective. The latest election was the nation's first presidential by-election. Therefore, it seems that there will be a radical change in government more than ever.   A new team leader in most companies often causes a lot of changes. Even a firm got a new CEO can be drastically transformed without any changes in the organization. I also was very confused by the new manager as if I was working for another corporate at one time in ...

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...