泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ Change of viewpoint makes novelty

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 of justice. Unlike most common crime thrillers, there are very little movie scenes where the main character chases a criminal.

Do you know an animated superhero comedy film Megamind? In most animated films, a hero/heroine fights for justice. But Megamind is a supervillain. The film presents a situation after the villain, who accidentally defeated a brave man, took over the world.

I'd like to talk about fresh attempts as mentioned above. Recently, lots of well-made video games have released. But regardless of the quality, it's not easy to discern their differences because they look pretty much similar comparing random screenshots from one and another. A new trial usually can be said special effort to make something new applied a different method with others. Recent new games seem to be repackaged and renamed after combining some games with a good sales performance without any change of view. New challenges of Survive! Mola Mola!, The Deal, and Megamind are fresh and pleasant in that sense.

Of course, the new attempt doesn't bring about good result all the time. We knew there were many fresh games which are not interesting to play; You must have deleted the games just right after you downloaded or you don't even remember at all about the games themselves. Plus there are a lot of games which are not fresh in the least and don't leave a tiny impression behind; In the past two years, it's hard to count how many Wind Runner-style run games and puzzle games like Anypang were have made.

A new trial is always hard to do and painstaking research is necessarily needed. It is not only a mission but also a challenge itself. Therefore, I love to try to do something new and also to see others' new challenges all the time. For that, I support game developers who launch a fresh attempt. At the same time, I give a big hand to developers to Survive! Mola Mola!, The Deal, and Megamind who already have created the new-style contents.

※ 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 _ Have the courage to create uncontested market space

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 developer which attracts investment?" He asked me in return. Unfortunately, it's not easy to see an investment proposal for online game companies nowadays. But I am a little bit perplexed by the current situation where most game developers are making their games just for a mobile platform such as Kakao Talk.

Since mobile games like Anipang, Dragon Flight made a great hit with Kakao Talk social network, numerous mobile game studios were started to found from the fall of 2012 like so many mushrooms grow after the rain. The mobile game world naturally attracted investors and the industry climatically flourished in 2013.

I was very passionate about looking for a promising online game company when Kakao Talk was more than a success in late 2012. My logic was simple and clear. Online games were ignored by investors including venture capitalists, which would lead online game developers to stop making games at some point. I thought that newly-released online game would sharply reduce within 2~3 years because online game makers should stop manufacturing due to lack of money. And I was sure that a few online game companies can provide a differentiated service creating uncontested market space and have the potential to succeed in 2~3 years.

We usually use words such as the red ocean or blue ocean. Most people generally don't notice that the blue ocean is a good choice for them unlike the red ocean because there is no competition. That's why people who choose blue ocean are brave and they finally win recognition.

Online games are once again rising recently thanks to Black Desert's good performance. In 2013, I invested in one online-game developer and I failed to invest in the other one due to opposition from the company insiders. The game studio I couldn't invest in is NPIC SOFT that developed ELOA. That is one of my lost opportunities, however, I am also excited at the same time. I will play the game this week with the greatest pleasure. Fashion comes full circle. we need to carefully consider to look back upon the trends of the past which we are not interested in anymore.

 

※ 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 _ FPS! FPS! I wanna play FPS!

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

FPS! FPS! I wanna play FPS!

 

Today I have a confession to make. I have a very serious Stereoblindness. As you probably know, it is the inability to see in 3D using stereo vision. Even though it is generally caused by differences between a signal received by the optic nerve and the body, people in the gaming industry usually make fun of them saying that it's too boorish.

The reason why I tell the truth is that I cannot play First-person shooter (FPS) video games despite a video game expert. After just 10-minutes playing, I feel sick and heavily dizzy.

There was an only one FPS that I had finished it. It is a legendary First-person shooter Xbox video game Halo: Combat Evolved which was released in 2001. In those days FPS-style console games had a very small market share compared to the PC platform. I believe that the biggest reason—of course, there would be other reasons—is that—unlike the combination of a keyboard and mouse on a personal computer—the Xbox controller, the input device, was not suitable for First-person shooter games which need fast controlling. This is why I could finish the game although it was still hard. Slow scene changes with analog sticks relatively didn't make me dizzy compared to use of the mouse. It could be good for a boorish person like me, on the flip-side, it's not good for gamers enjoying the uniqueness of FPS genre. If so, how could it be legendary FPS　with numerous series after overcoming difficulties of input devices? I probably couldn't have finished the Halo without the fun of the game even if I didn't get dizzy easily. It changed battlefields from very closed, small spaces to the broad, flat regions. Halo has—of course, there was this kind of battle scenes in other games—the overwhelming majority of battle scenes using a cover in wide-open ground. Besides, it made up for shooting difficulties to overcome the disadvantage of input devices by improving accuracy with a time delay when an enemy shows up. It showed a lot of effort for player: a quick-turn button to make a player character turn round much more quickly; the arrangement of a varying number of enemies, not top and bottom but right and left to have an avatar easily kill enemy characters; adding vehicles for better shooting game.

The reason why I have described Halo in detail is to talk about 全民突击 (Jeonmindolgyeok)—called Hide and Fire in Japan and Rival Fire in North America—, the most popular mobile game in China recently. It's hard to say that Rival Fire is a typical First-person shooter when it comes to viewpoint, mobility, and shooting, etc. But the mobile game darted straight to the top when it was released in China since it had solved the problems of FPS genre on mobile devices. It's not quite easy. Recently some of quality Chinese video games are surprising the world. Now we don't guarantee anymore that domestic games are better than Chinese ones. A paradigm shift in any field of industry is arisen based on deep contemplation and hard work. Am I too greedy to expect that the new paradigm in the gaming industry would be formed here in Korea? 

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

   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui