泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Good BM and bad BM

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Good BM and bad BM

 

People in the gaming industry have heard about "good BM (Business Model)" at least once somewhere. It means that the video game business model with balanced in-app purchases that prompt users to spend adequate money on a game. In other words, a game which won't cost users more money is good.

 

On the contrary to this, there is a word of "devil‘s BM". After an initial free trial, users unwittingly spend small sums very often to level up, win, or advance, which quickly add up and players eventually expend lots of money in the app through pesky in-app purchases. Accordingly, it is universally accepted as the bad business model like the temptation of the devil.

 

Given the fact that the term is generally used in the gaming industry, it seems that we probably recognize that users have a problem with the current gaming business model which make excessive demands on in-app purchases. We have played a game with the in-app purchase model for only ten years. One-time purchase video games had become mainstream before then. If users pay for a game title once, they could enjoy the satisfaction without paying extra money. Also, users used to play monthly paid PC games. But in-app purchase model became the general form in the gaming market at some point.

 

Similarly, let's try to put this into film market; a free audience moves where he/she wants to sit during the movie if he/she pays for it, goes back to a specific scene or does it 2 times faster making others uncomfortable, and orders multiple dishes, which would probably make many viewers feel awkward. Nonetheless, people in the gaming industry have accepted this similar situation as naturally at some point. This is the circumstance where a theater owner doesn't care about free audiences whether they experience inconvenience due to charged ones who hurt their feelings and make them uncomfortable with their undignified behaviors.

 

Recently many mobile games create profit through ad revenue than in-app purchases. It helps non-spenders to reduce their stress more or less since they can easily catch up a minuscule percent of users, who spend lots of money to buy in-game items and points, in the early stages of the game watching rewarded ads—view-to-play. These are games with a good BM.

 

Of course, game developers are commercial companies which seek profit. If they take characteristics of the products as content into consideration, they should not deliberately discriminate against non-spenders although sales revenue is the money that is spent by consumers. Therefore, the view-to-play business model is more meaningful. Developers are satisfied with ads revenue where non-spenders can enjoy the game by spending more time than spenders. This may not be the answer. However, I hope that I can see the optimized game business model someday undergoing many trials and errors.

 

 

※ 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 love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Content and System

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Content and System

 

“Video game is content."

 

The reason why I started with the topic is that so-called game experts have considered a video game as a system for some time. Frankly speaking, I was not much different from them.

 

If someone asks me about the differences between the content and system, many parts of them would not be explained exactly. But one clear difference between the two is that both have causation. A video game offers a variety of experiences for users based on creativity which is the characteristic of the game as the content. On the other hand, the system presents specific experiences based on algorism where there are a set of rules specifying how to solve some problems. This difference can be explained by the clarity of input and output. Moviegoers who watch the same movie probably don't feel the same way and they can have very different reactions to the film. But people who operate calculators certainly take the same results as long as they put some formulas into calculators. This is one of the differences between the content and the system.

 

Talking about video games, people often use terms like "output against input" or "cost-effectiveness" these days. Although they must be expressed as "rate of return on investment" and "operating profit to sales" as an investor's point of view, it's a bit of a nonsense when it comes to video games.

 

Recently, I went to Busan to attend BIC (Busan Indie Connect) Festival. It is an indie- game expo which was begun in 2015. Despite its short history, it gave me a good chance to reflect on myself who have seen games with inertia. I have regarded a video game as a system focusing on managerial aspects such as expected investment returns and sales and operating profit against its advertising costs etc. to reduce risks, which makes me harder to see its basic and most important characteristic of the game as a content. Many indie games on display with novel ideas, distinctive stories, and unique interface and concept which are differentiated from the existing games of commercial video-game studios have broadened my thought.

 

It costs less than making commercial-purpose video games and adventurous challenging does not matter when it comes to indie games, while game companies realistically have no choice but to consider production cost from hundreds of millions of won to billions of won. But it cannot be denied that the essentials of the game are not different between the two. Now is the time for the gaming industry to break the frame in the current market where there are numerous video games with similar game characters and gameplay.

 

 

※ 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 love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] ChinaJoy or SaunaJoy

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

ChinaJoy or SaunaJoy

Recently, I went to China to attend ChinaJoy, China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference, held in Shanghai. The digital entertainment expo, which is comparable to the world's top three game shows, was an unforgettable large-scale international event. It was far different from others in exhibition spaces and audience figures.

 

Participation in the event was not that pleasant for me. I suffered from unusual heatwaves and muggy air as it is nicknamed "SaunaJoy", which made me lose weight of 2 Kilograms during the game show. In addition, I had to be the butt of joke among my company when I was mistaken for a Chinese by a flight attendant on the plane to Shanghai, someone in Shanghai Airport asked me if he could borrow my lighter in Chinese, and a stranger on the street of the largest city of China asked me the way in Chinese. Their deeds completely broke my hearts. (It seems that I need to seriously consider next visit.) Just cut the small talk and let's talk about ChinaJoy itself.

 

I think there are three key points in the game show.

To begin with, in spite of heavy opposition, when it comes to game-development ability, China has almost caught up with South Korea, its competitor. Some say that China is already more advanced than Korea, however, as I mentioned in the 37th column, I think that Korea is still better than China in terms of overall game development including resource optimization, screen direction, quality, etc. But it is obvious that the gap between the two countries has decreased.

 

Besides, contrary to my expectations, console games received greater focus. Instead of following the latest game-show trends where mobile games have taken the lead in the gaming industry worldwide, China has significantly expanded the release of console games. I guess that it's from the uniqueness of Chinese console-game market which was just opened last year. I expect that it would be sharply decreased if it doesn't gain popularity with internal players.

 

Lastly, there were many Virtual Reality (VR) games in the expo. VR-game development of South Korea is in its early stage. Nobody doubts that it would be the next hot thing in the gaming world, however, there hasn't been distinguished accomplishments yet. Participating ChinaJoy, I knew that Chinese gaming companies are getting more active in making VR games, which would lead it No.1 in the global VR gaming industry. It would seem to comparable to South Korea who stood at the top as the leader in a relatively short period time in the PC-gaming industry at the end of the 20th century based on its strong online infrastructure.

 

Of course, the three above doesn't explain all about ChinaJoy. But Korea would be beaten by China who is rapidly growing in the gaming industry unless we must strive to overcome this unstable situation. No time for domestic game makers to mull whether we should enter the Chinese market. We need to seriously ponder how we can handle Chinese gaming firms which will likely be available soon in Korea. After I visited Shanghai, I'm so sad since my sunburnt skin made me look from Chinese to Filipino.

 

 

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

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui