泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ Imitation precedes creation but the two are not identical

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Imitation precedes creation but the two are not identical

 

Recently various rumors are abroad about trademark registration of a British video game developer King in the gaming industry. The U.K. giant King.com has "trademarked" the word "Candy" for Candy Crush Saga, the most successful social game. It seems that a wider range of discussion about whether it can obtain trademark registration for the particular word which is widely used. Plus, a recently released mobile game Anipang 2 by SundayToz is pretty hot in the Korean market these days. But adding on to the trademark issue, Candy Crush Saga has naturally become an issue again after the launch of the sequel because its basic structure is very similar to the puzzle video game of King.

I don't want to argue about whether it is plagiarism or not by law. We should respect the court's judgment if King files a suit against SundayToz. I'd like to mention about the company's leading position in the Korean market and its response to criticism about copying the structure. I fully understand management's stance with a lot of pressure on sales record of the first sequel since SundayToz listed on KOSDAQ. And Candy Crush Saga could be an attractive target to copy thanks to its enough game users and proven gameplay etc. Frankly speaking, I merely so upset at responses of the presses saying, "It's not a copyright violation." or "It's not piracy." Plus, I am quite appalled by a SNS post of the CEO of the venture capital firm, one of the two big shareholders, which directly invested in the company. To sum up, it boils down to one thing "There is no 100% creation in the world. One copied and pasted from something that already existed often shows good results. Don't criticize it before you do it." I have cleared level 400 in Candy Crush Saga and level 100 in Anipang 2. And aside from any legal judgments, I think that Anypang 2 plagiarized the one of the highest-grossing and most-played mobile apps. A controversy about differences in terms of detail and structural elements seems to be an excuse to get out of its responsibility for plagiarism. Both games have the exact same characteristics of basic puzzle game, which are elements and obstacles that users have to consider to clear levels. The rest of the small details can be compared only to the same engine-installed vehicles with slightly different exterior and interior designs.

SundayToz is the first gaming company which went public on the domestic stock market since the mobile game services went for full-launch. It is also a symbol that represents domestic mobile game firms. I assume that Anypang 2 will be a big hit and obviously bring in the big bucks as well. But, as one of the biggest mobile game company, it should accept any criticism about the act of plagiarizing. I expect SundayToz to be honest at least if it examined and copied the game of King within the legal limits of copyright laws due to steady sales. There are many cases of piracy produced fine results, however, they accepted blame at the very least.

Before finishing the column, I'd like to quote a line from a story of Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda. "I hate to follow suit. So I struggled to find my own way. Although I spent a long time to catch up competitors, it finally became a technological difference."

 

※ 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 _ 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