泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Adieu 2015!!! (Part1)

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Adieu 2015!!! (Part1)

 

The year 2015 is coming to an end soon. This column would be probably released in the new year. I feel like to blame a love who dumped someone before one can barely go 10lis—approximately equal to 5kms—, however, I want to let the year 2015 go and have meaningful time looking back over the past year.

 

To begin with, many highly popular RPG(Role-playing game)s have been released in 2015. Until January of this year, Clash of Clans notched up to the No.1 spot competing with No.2 ranking Seven Knights and the other top-ranked RPGs such as Hero and Monster Tamer. By March, Raven immediately rose to the number one just after its release. MU Origin, which was published at the end of April, competed for first place with Raven for some time since, and Seven Knights joined in ever since before the release of Idea and Hit in November. Six games including Hit, MU Origin, Raven, Seven Knights, Idea, and Monster Tamer are currently placed in the top ten based on sales and four games in top five are role-playing games. Taking this into consideration, RPGs have been particularly loved by users for nearly a year.

 

Secondly, many famous actors have modeled for video games in TV commercials or billboards. Cha Seung-won for Raven was first one, followed by top actors including Ha Jung-woo for ChronoBlade, Jang Dong-gun for Mu Origin, Lee Jung-jae for Ghost, Jung Woo-sung for 乱斗(Romaja: Nantoo), and Lee Byung-hun for Idea. It reflects the heightened status of the video game. On the one hand, a small number of RPGs are gaining control of the gaming market. A newly-released video game without a big advertising campaign is almost impossible to be high on various game charts where the top players generate most of the industry-wide revenue.

 

Moreover, clicker games—also known as incremental games or idle games—such as Survive, Sunfish!, Tap Titans 2, Mr.Kim, Idle Knight, and Endless Frontier have shown better-than-expected results. Idle games can be made in a relatively short period time and an idea especially counts for them. Therefore incremental games are now emerging as a new alternative of the smaller firms or indie game developers. In-game advertising, which often serves as an advertising media for the popular ones ranked high in the list of games, is a major source of the clicker game's revenue.

 

Finally, Chinese game makers have started to expand into the domestic market. At the beginning of the year, a large number of internal game developers had plans to enter the Chinese market. In sharp contrast, now there are too many news stories about Chinese games which would be released in Korea. It's hard to acknowledge the reality of the situation we're in because any Chinese game hasn't held the top spots in-game revenue ranking yet. However, if you look at it closely, there are dozens of Chinese games in the domestic ranking. Besides, MU Origin, though it is a mobile version of the Korean game, can be considered as a top-ranked Chinese game in the home market because it was made in China.

- to be continued

 

 

※ 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] The grief of a sequel

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

The grief of a sequel

 

I'm looking forward to Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, the upcoming epic space-opera film. Probably it would be released when this column is published. Distinguished and successful movie series commonly draw attention before its release of sequels. So filmmakers prefer to make sequels of the box office hits and often come up with a plan of series from the beginning. Star Wars: The Force Awakens especially is widely anticipated because it is a derivative of the original film series which was over.

 

However, some people advise not to have excessive expectations saying "Follow-up is never going to be better than its superior predecessor". sequels are rarely well-received by audiences and critics. Aside from reviews of a cinematic quality or artistry, Alien and The Terminator yielded higher box-office profits in the second films and, taking inflation into account, Star Wars Series is another example. Plus, there are The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and Marrying the Mafia among domestic films. The fact that it takes some time to recall several examples supports for the slim chance of success of the sequels.

Why are box-office hit sequels uncommon? Probably it is because they hardly meet viewers' increasing expectations. Refreshing or disturbing scenes look boring after so many repeats. Various attempts to show too many things more often backfire. High expectations of fans and a failure of attempts can lead to disappointment, which makes viewers are not favorable to the sequels.

 

What about a video game which is considered under the same category? It's not also free from this contradiction. Game making process, of course, is working on the well-ordered game-development system and it can be adjusted through the improved system before its release based on user feedback. Plus, game graphics can be made to look better than the previous one as hardware-technology advances. However, nobody can expect the game to do so well if there is no attraction to the product itself. A lot of games' success didn't always equal the sequels' victory. Only a small number of sequels such as Warcraft, Biohazard (Resident Evil), and Diablo were exceptionally applauded by users.

 

Nevertheless, a sequel is attractive enough. The commercially successful original game generally guarantees above-average sales and allows its marketing and advertising campaigns much easier. However, certain challenges must be overcome coming up with clear improvements to develop better sequel beyond the original work. Recently, I've been asked to invest in some sequels. Investees should remember that poorly-made second sequel would blow their chance to create its third one. So, I expect them to make a challenge after thorough consideration. I hope to see a successful domestic game series with more than ten sequels like Star Trek.

 

 

※ 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] Vitamin and painkiller

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Vitamin and painkiller

 

As I mentioned several times before, I am a venture capitalist who specializes in investment in the content industry. In the area of investment, as much as anywhere else, there are lots of proverbs or sayings. One of the most well-known maxims is probably "Don't put all your eggs in one basket". This is a piece of advice which means that an investor should not concentrate all resources in one area, no matter how attractive it is, as one could lose everything—in other words it means that the investor should reduce risk factors, which may be left out on review, through diversified investment. It also means that a low loss rate is more important than a high rate of return in the long term and focusing on a specific area is little short of gambling. For example, if you invest 100 won in a company A and take 150 won making 50% profit, however, if you lose 50% from B which you invested 150 won, the total amount of money is 75 won. On the other hand, if you invest 50 won in A and B each and make 50% earnings and loss 50% respectively, the total amount of money is 100 won. It seems like it might be simple, however, it's not easy to keep the principle. Another saying is "An investment is a marriage which involves divorce". It means that investor and investee work together after investment to achieve better results, however, they have to go separate ways once the investor retrieves its investment for realization of revenue.

 

I'd like to talk about a saying "It's better to invest in a company building a painkiller, not vitamin" among many other ones. Not everybody takes vitamins every day although they know that vitamins are good for their health. Most of them think that it doesn't matter even if they don't take them regularly. However, people cannot help taking a painkiller when they have severe pain. It would be better, as it were, to invest in living necessaries. The reason why I mention some investment sayings is to think whether the game content is a vitamin or painkiller. The game content, in an intuitive manner, is seen more like vitamins. People who are not good at video games don't put their life on hold or feel their lives are being threatened. They may not need games a lot fewer than vitamins. It seems that whole contents including video games, in the grand scheme of things, look like vitamins.

 

I have a different opinion on that. We have more leisure time as civilization progresses and our lives are getting easier. Most people today live and work in the close confines in the cities of artificial environments, while we have much free time. Now content is essential to modern people as entertainment to spend their spare time due to constraints of space. Video game, in common with much other content such as literature, film, music, is a simple entertainment for people in the society with a highly developed civilization. Competition between painkillers intense, so we have to focus on making games on a selective basis.

 

 

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

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

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui