泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ It's hard to study all the time

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

It's hard to study all the time

 

It seems like a brand new year started just a few days ago, however, it's already April 2015 at this moment writing this column. One-third of the year has already passed. I have been in the video-game-involved field for 13 years since I first stepped into the gaming industry. I have spent one-third of my whole life working in the game business. Numerous video games have been released. Some of them gained huge mainstream success and others disappeared being shunned by consumers.

Out of countless choices for recent online video games, Hearthstone, which is a digital collectible card game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, has left a deep impression on me. The game is a typical turn-based card game between two opponents. A player collects lots of cards, constructs the player's decks, and competes with the opponent. There are also an online match and a story mode. Nevertheless, the reason why I quite interested in the success of the Hearthstone is that it displays the difference from other recently released mobile games.

Newly released mobile games in the domestic market mainly feature slightly modified Role-playing game (RPG) in various ways. They are virtually the same type of RPGs focused on auto-battle system. Hearthstone, on the other hand, is probably unfamiliar to users who haven't played its PC version. Also, it would have been quite difficult to design game interfaces for mobile users to give them the same user environments with computer-based one.

One impressive feature is that the Blizzard game has solved the learning difficulties. Go-stop or poker games continuedly have been on the market because users can easily learn rules to start the games. Games such as Go, Jamggi, and Gomoku have been provided for a long time, without the big hit, because there are always users thanks to the universality of the rules.

The high barrier of entry for some video games, which is from the learning difficulties, has an absolute effect on user retention rate. Players probably won't waste their time to access the app unless they understand how to play it in the early stage of the game. Retention rate has a great impact on company's revenue since Free-to-play (F2P)—games that give players access to a significant portion of the content without paying and require payment to access additional content—video games have become common in the market. It makes developers reluctant to do any attempt under the influence of the customer retention rate.

As mentioned previously, I don't confident that F2P will be positive for the video game market. But users, who already get used to the current arrangements, probably don't want to go back to before. In these circumstances, difficult rules are something to avoid. Still, Blizzard has overcome the obstacle and had a stellar performance. Studying is hard all the time. Despite the form of entertainment, it's not easy to find a video game which makes not-so-fun rules enjoyable. I expect to see many fun games that help users to enjoy studying the rules.

※ 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 _ A tax on a digital signal

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

A tax on a digital signal

 

Recently, aside from public interest, there was a cultural-content-related big issue in Korea's investment industry. Filmmaker R & K—a production company produced The Berlin File, a 2013 South Korean action thriller film—had to pay its tax on an external hard disk drive stored video clips which were filmed in overseas locations since it lost the case for withdrawal of tax enforcement by the Seoul Administration Court.

 

Here are some of the details of step-by-step processes.

 

1. The filmmaker R & K declared an empty hard disk drive as a piece of filming equipment at the customhouse ahead of its departure.

2. R & K took a film with local production in Germany and its neighbors.

3. R & K paid the local film studio and the interested party about 2.2 billion won.

4. R & K brought back the portable data storage device with video clips into the country without additional customs declaration.

5. Korea Customs imposed R & K to pay 220 million won—value-added tax of the images-containing hard disk—and 66 million won in fines.

 

I don't like to raise a question about the court declaring itself although it sounds like nonsense to me. But one of the problems is that the film studio didn't be treated fairly before the law. I've never heard of that a staff member of Samsung Electronics or LG Electronics had been imposed a tax on a laptop stored program source which he/she had developed on an overseas business trip. It's hard to understand that the authorities concerned regards unfair tax on the only apparently-identified item as the proper enforcement. It seems not to differ essentially from excessive tax burdens on salaried workers who are mockingly called "glass wallets". But there are other things that I want to mention first.

The government needs to implement a new system and policy for a creative economy, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and convergence, not just talking about them. If the images were stored on a cloud server and downloaded within the country, they would be nontaxable. The legal interpretation to charge the tax on digital signals because they were stored in the portable data storage device is too farfetched, allowing for the law. By the logic, if 100 people have copied files, they have to pay one-hundredth of the tax amounts respectively because the tax is paid on goods with its value. It's undesirable to apply the current law for manufacturing to a new type of digital content. Social Overhead Capital (SOC) means basic services and facilities required for the societies and communities. SOC is the public infrastructures including transportation, education, utilities, etc,. however, it covers laws and policies in a broad sense. SOC for digital contents industry is desperately lacking. It's hard to find news about infrastructure investment for digital contents, while new roads are constructed and distribution centers are kept building. I desire government support for imperatively-necessary public infrastructures not pouring forth policies that make it seems caring. Frankly speaking, I just hope there are no more new restriction policies for the gaming industry. We don't even expect various tax benefits or support policy for the IT industry.

 

※ 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 _ Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and KakaoTalk

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and KakaoTalk

 

The biggest news in the mobile market recently, as I think, is that Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge eventually came out. I had an opportunity to see the new cell phone in person thanks to a friend of mine working for Samsung Electronics. Remarkably curved surface and multiple functions using the new shape notably made the phone look cool as to be called the new generation of Galaxy design. I was highly satisfied with the style that there is a significant difference before and after Edge. Comparing to the disappointing design and sales performance of Galaxy 5, we can see huge differences in particular.

Of course, I don't writing this column to show off that I checked it out ahead of time. Probably users can buy Edge in the market when the column would be released. The reason I mentioned the new phone is to talk about Nokia. Less than 10 years ago, the Finnish corporation was the global leader in mobile phones. It ranked first with the largest market share at more than 30 percent, which seemed never going to end. The market power of the Finnish company in those days was much stronger than the current South Korean multinational electronics company's. Nokia Oyj, the global company, accounted for a third of the Finnish economy, made up 60 percent of the total market value of Finland's listed companies, and formed 20 percent of the country's total export. Finnish former World No. 1, which couldn't adapt to market changes, inevitably have declined and now is unable to take the top 10 smartphones at present. This is the story that has only lasted for several years.

The hottest local mobile game which has been recently released is probably Raven: Festival. The Netmarble-published video game topped Supercell's Clash of Clans, which had been the top-ranked for a long time, however, as I see it, the big success without the help of Kakao Talk is probably the other reason being received the major spotlight. This is the first case that the domestic mobile game has taken the top 5 without KaTalk help in recent months regardless of the examples by foreign mobile games. It means that mobile-game service based on the mobile instant messaging application for smartphones is no longer a standard procedure at home.

I have quite often heard a rumor about that KaTalk has had less control over the domestic mobile-game market not so long ago. A decent number of users are said not to prefer it than before and to tend to treat text messages that recommend a newly-released game as spam. But Kakao Game center hasn't been changed yet. Recently I've heard the news that it has started to seek change. It seems to be willing to change their current commission rate. Raven has just proven that the local mobile game can rank first in the market without the help of the company which has a competitive advantage and it sets a new direction for other mobile-game developers.

Now Kakao Talk would be changed. It can be a second Nokia if it doesn't appropriately respond to rapid market changes. Expecting that Kakao Game center wouldn't repeat the same error like Nokia, I cautiously predict that a wind of change would be blowing through the mobile-game world in South 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