泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ Between 2003 HULK and 2015 Marvel: Future Fight

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Between 2003 HULK and 2015 Marvel: Future Fight

A mobile game HULK was released in 2003 with a small capacity of 100KB and a half the size of the current smart-phone screen. The Com2uS-developed game was a shock to me who ran a mobile-game development at that time. It was the one that I desperately wanted to make. Besides, I guessed that an action-mobile game of that level would become into the market in 1-2 years.

Marvel: Future Fight has gained huge popularity with users. I'm also spending the longest time playing it among the recently released ones. It is a superhero-themed video game based on characters of Avengers: Age of Ultron which was the fourth foreign film recorded over 10 million viewers in South Korea. The days when I enjoyed the HULK in 2003 seem to belong to a different age. The tough and strong 'Hulk' character, which I desperately wanted to express, on the very little screen in 2D back then and realistic 3D characters of showy colors today are poles apart like the gap between a bicycle and a car.

In retrospect, it's not easy to find a hit video game based on a cartoon, film, or novel. One Source Multi-Use (OSMU) is widely used in the local content industry, however, it would be difficult for readers reading this column to list more than ten mega-hit video games from a different genre of content.

Why are developers making a video game based on the original content despite a slim chance of success in the market? I can't say for sure, but I believe that the main reason is brand recognition. Marketing costs for recently-released video games are much more incredible than in the past, thus some game makers try to choose a famous character from original work that users are easily aware of it. There should be lots of potential customers who want to play a video game with characters such as Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor Odinson, etc.

But original-based video games simply become a double-edged sword, if they don't meet the high expectations of users. It's hard to build a different worldview from the setting of the original work and not easy to make the well-balanced game due to restrictions on game characters. Poor-quality video games cannot help being drawn criticism from fans of the original ones.

Marvel: Future Fight is a well-made video game. The user response to a recently released The God of High School, which is based on a domestic webtoon, is still good. I expect to see many hit video games with characters based on the local original content, not overseas ones.

 

※ 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 _ MU Online, 全民奇迹MU, and MU Origin

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

MU Online, 全民奇迹MU, and MU Origin

The recent biggest news in the gaming industry seems to be a notable success of MU Origin in the domestic market. It was second on the Top Grossing category list of the Google Play within a week and temporarily took the first place beating Raven (Evilbane in the U.S.) by Netmarble.

MU Origin is 全民奇迹(Jeonmingijeok)-MU developed by TIANMA and published by Kingnet in China. It already proved to be successful, ranking high on top of Chinese mobile game charts for a few months. As the title suggests it, MU Origin is the mobile version of MU Online, the greatest hit by Webzen, which was released more than a decade earlier in Korea. Cutting classes to play MU Online in 2001 is still fresh in my memory. Despite poor grades, the Webzen-produced MMORPG had a big impact on my life; I set up a video game company in 2002 and I'm still working in the gaming-related industry. To return, MU Origin shows gameplay, worldview, and game characters of the PC-based MU in the same way. There have been many variations of user interface and input devices suitable for mobile use for more than ten years, however, a user who had any previous experience playing MU Online easily can see familiar monsters, characters, and maps as soon as it begins.

Recently, it is not rare to hear that China has a leg up on South Korea in the field of video-game development citing the notable success of MU Origin. Because China-developed games such as MU, 刀塔传奇 (Dao Ta Chuan Qi), Rush of Heroes (我叫MT2 in China, Top of Tanker in South Korea), etc. have made record-high sales in the local market, while domestic developers haven't achieved any performance in the Chinese market during the same period.

But I have different thoughts on the issue. The population of China is ten times that of South Korea and a large number of video games are made and released to its population. Well-made games and low-quality games are mixed in together. A few record-high-sales games among them have drawn the attention, however, there have been numerous ones have disappeared from the local market before we were aware of them. Korean game developers haven't had a proper chance to release their superior-quality video games and it's not suitable time to evaluate excellence with the sales performance of a few Korean games selling in China due to the unproven ability of Chinese publishers. It might be a lack of localization or management ability of Chinese publishers not because of the problem of games themselves.

It is too soon to tell that the growth of China is surpassing the national ability to develop mobile games. Of course, I think that China is getting more advanced while our research on the Chinese gaming market is lacking. But, as I mentioned previously, the fact that MU Origin based on the huge-hit MU Online was made by Chinese development and won success in Korean market paradoxically might show hope of Korean games' success in the Chinese market. South Korea is still recognized as the personal-computer-game powerhouse and its mobile game market is in the top 5 in the world. I expect that a game like MU Origin would be made by a domestic development, not by overseas one.

※ 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 _ 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