泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ Business ethics in the gaming industry

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Business ethics in the gaming industry

 

January.16.2014

There are many people probably heard about House of Medici in the Renaissance. The Medici family, the Italian political dynasty in Florence, Italy, is well known for sponsoring many artists of its time with a great fortune. Famous artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sandro Botticelli etc. were supported by the Medici. The reason why I mentioned the family is to talk about investment in the gaming industry.

I heard a silly story recently. Summing up, the story is this. A company named XXXX (hereafter called 'A') invested in a game company named OOOO (hereafter called 'B') for a mobile game development project, however, B launched a game with a new program on the Google play store without A's consent and insisted that the deal had been closed. I don't want to place the blame on either of the companies. A is in the middle of a lawsuit against B and the court's decision will side with either of the two. But examining the proposal, the contract, and the released game, I can't help thinking that B did so intentionally for the money in the third person. It seems that I'm in favor of A because I work for a venture capital firm. But I'm merely feeling a mug looking at the series of the process—B uploaded the app in haste a month before the completion date after informing A that it will leave out a part of the project which is considered very important. B insisted that it was not essential for fun of the game, however, a social network game without nurture does not hold water like I Love Coffee without shop decorations. It's cheesy and sleazy.

B will continue to make games and it can make a lot of money from some good games in the future. But an executive of the venture capital firm mentioned that he personally doesn't want to invest in video games later saying that it's hard to make an investment in games in the company due to the failure of the first investment in game project followed policy of the company to aggressively invest in the gaming sector—A invested a lot of money in the domestic contents industry and has been considering investing in the gaming industry expecting to create synergy with the other contents. B actually blew up many chances for some game companies to raise money from A.

There is 'corporate ethics' or business ethics' in every range of industrial sector. It can be also expressed in many ways like manners, etiquette, or basics of the industry, however, it means that there is a sense of duty which industry officials should have. B didn't seem to keep corporate ethics in this case to say the least. A lot of gaming firms compete with each others to make good games struggling to be invested on. Please don't take away chances for those companies to have The Medici family to back them up. I pray that lots of firms silently keeping the morality in business will be successful in developing good games.

※ 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 _ Are video games art?

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Are video games art?

 

December.26.2013

Recently I read an article about why video game is not an art. Summarizing the critical review, video game must reflect its artistic side to become part of a culture, however, game graphic is just a skill which lacks elements of art and video game story doesn't have literary value on the lower level of collect and edit without any meaningful factors.

In fact, I never knew the game critic who wrote the story. He is a total stranger and it's nothing personal against him. Both as a gaming industry employee and as a person who loves games, I just want to say a few thing about it which is, I guess, being ignored.

To begin with, I don't agree with a proposition which states that artistic aspect is essential for defining as a culture. Should a culture reflect artistic side? A culture embraces an art and a culture is not a subset of an art. We use a word of culture not art referring to the gift-giving culture to exam candidates—conventionally Chapssaltteok (glutinous rice cake) or Yeot (Korean hard taffy)—when the college entrance exam is just around the corner in Korea.

Furthermore, the opinion that game graphic is just a technique is no different from the view that fashion design, character design, industrial design, and motion graphic design etc. are just a skill. Video game graphics bring together character costumes, concept art, items, mechanical design, and character motion graphics etc. And they are the fruit of teamwork of a lot of designers. Of course I assume that not every game shows result with artistic value. But I don't agree with the opinion that all essentials for game graphics are only a technical skill far from arts. This is equivalent to calling everything painted by an artist not works of art. I could ever agree to the idea "game graphic is a skill" in a situation where many game designers create works of art with their concept arts, sometimes famous artists join a game-making project, and there are exhibitions of concept arts.

Lastly, he jumped to conclusion that video game stories don't have literary value just by analyzing a small number of local online games. There is Resident Evil, the film adaptation of a game story and Enter the Matrix, the first game based on The Matrix series of films and there are some games with video game characters of famous movie stars. Game story is one of the most important factors for game and users sometimes are extremely impressed by the story itself. Of course game story is not essential for some games or specific genres and there are some games with poor structure of the story. Nevertheless, the hasty conclusion that game story doesn't have any literary value is a hasty generalization.

I assume that it will take long time for video games to be valued as an art by the public. Many genres of pop culture were viewed by people as being trivial and dumbed-down before finding consensual acceptance form the mainstream. Photograph, cinema, and popular music came under heavy criticism for the first time. Not too long ago, there were many people with more negative perceptions toward comic strip, however, it is already accepted as a legitimate art—the "ninth art" in the '90s across the globe regardless of the others' evaluation of the artistic and literary value of the cartoon. Video games recently turned sixty and there is a long way to go.

I guarantee that video game is a culture with plenty of artistic factors. It only needs time to be accepted as an art by the public. Therefore, gaming employees should examine themselves and make great efforts.

※ 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 _ If Kakao market is opened

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

If Kakao market is opened

 

December.12.2013

Recent news about KakaoTalk's acquisition of T store has become a hot issue in the gaming industry. KaTalk and SK Communications both stated that there was no foundation for the report, however, where there's smoke, there is fire. I carefully guess that there should have been general ideas about it. I don't want to discuss whether it is true or not here. As the old saying goes, "You hold the memorial service at a chance to see the rice cake", I just pictured what it would be like if Kakao market is actually opened.

In fact, people have already talked about the possibility since summer that KaTalk would manage the store itself. But it's not easy choice. The reason why it's hard to directly operate it is very simple. Because there is a possibility of failure of the market like T store or Olleh Market with poor market share. And it also needs to learn knowhow required to run it and accept initial cost by trial and error. Therefore, the buyout of T store can be a suitable alternative if KakaoTalk manages it firsthand, regardless of whether it's true or not.

Then, What does it mean for KaTalk to directly run the market? To begin with, it can boost sales. The IT company forecasts to earn sales of 100-200 billion won this year. Over half of the income is expected from video game division. It means that video game companies have paid commission, about 100-200 billion won a year, to the other stores where charge 1.5 times higher the fee than KaTalk does. Since T store's current annual sales is predicted to reach 20-30 billion won, the tech company partnered with KakaoTalk can expect an additional revenue from the new market.

In addition, it will generate more revenue with lower commission than now. KakaoTalk get a 21% commission on game sales at present, while the other markets charge 30% for the transaction fee. As a result, game companies consequentially have 49% of revenue. But if KakaoTalk runs the market itself, it can expects 1.5 times the current sales with just commission. Furthermore, if it charges 40% of market commission and platform fee in total, it can anticipate generating 2 times the present figures. Either is acceptable for game developers and there is no reason for them to object to the lower service charge. Of course it won't be easy for KaTalk to persuade customers to use its service.

Lastly the competitive factors in the domestic market will benefit the developers. There must be new attempts in the area where competition is fierce. KaTalk has attracted so many users and its proven ability will reasonably force the other competitors not to create revenue as they get now once it opens its market. When they get to that point, the rivals will inevitably try to change this difficult reality in many different ways and any attempts can have positive influences on the game developers.

'Dinosaur', 'Mobile giant', or 'Unstoppable force' became to call the mobile messenger application company of late. These epithets indicate that it is considered as big business and people think its commission is too expensive. But KakaoTalk is only a startup company with 100-200 billion won of sales a year. I give the startup a big hand which has helped to expand to local mobile game market and I hope that it will be a flagship of the Korean IT industry to win recognition overseas based on consistent growth. 

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

   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui