泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Past, present, and future of Steam (Part 1)

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Past, present, and future of Steam (Part 1)

 

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, a video game made by Krafton (known as Bluehole Studio until April 2015), which is a South Korean video game developer, has recently come into focus. The company is best known for TERA, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) since it was established in 2007.

 

The reason PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is receiving the major spotlight is that not only because it is a PC platform-based Third-person shooter (TPS) paying full price for a version of the game but also because it has been high in the rank since it was released in Steam, a video game digital distribution platform.

 

Few national PC gaming developers target only the local market because its domestic market is relatively small in scale compared with other game platforms. The size of the PC gaming market is a lot smaller than the other ones even if it includes overseas markets. It lost its ground to stand on at home over the past several years in the face of competition with online and mobile games. Furthermore, users can hardly find full-paid PC games since in-app purchases (IAP) and selling virtual goods have been widely popularized throughout the online and mobile games. However, the biggest cause of the attention is that this is the first time the local PC game has brought big achievements on the global game platform Steam.

 

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds totaled over 60 billion dollars in revenue selling over 2 million copies of 29.99 dollars a piece for less than two months since it launched in March 2017. Moreover, it used Steam's early access before the official release. And the result was the top-level record among numerous other released video games in the Steam gaming platform in both South Korea and abroad, which is raising users' expectations of the official version that is scheduled to go on sale in August this year. Alpha-access is a funding model in the video game platform by which players can purchase and enjoy a game in the making for user feedback and suggestions.

 

The reason I elaborate on the Krafton-made video game is that Battlegrounds showed its potential for the international expansion of domestic PC games through the distribution channel Steam. For this reason, I'd like to talk about past, present, and future of Steam which is unfamiliar to local game developers yet.

 

I'm not sure, but this article will be of help to small and medium-sized game companies considering release their game on Steam.

 

 

※ 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] Between something new and familiar

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Between something new and familiar

 

There is a constant struggle between something new and familiar. We are often at the crossroads as we are forced to choose between two things, for instance, today's style and my favorite costume, a new job and the present job, or a newly-built fancy apartment and cozy old house because of the gap between expectations for something fresh and sense of familiarity with something old.

 

Recently I had dinner with the CEO of a film studio. We talked a lot about a new cinema in the planning stage including a business model to make a connection between a movie storyline and webcomics or video game in particular. I concluded the biggest difference between the motion picture and the video game is that they take different forms to show something "novel" and "accustomed" while we were discussing the planning. I'd like to deal with the difference between the two content - the narrative-based film and the interaction-oriented video game - in the planning stage.

 

Let me introduce a story which I heard before. A busy moviemaker asked a screenplay writer to summarize his scenario in a single sentence and the scriptwriter replied that it's a story about a terminally ill woman and a man who loves her. Readers may recall quite a few films or TV series which are associated with the summing-up. There are probably Love Story (1970 American film) or The letter (1997 South Korean film); the roles of the man and woman in the local movie are reversed unlike the first, etc. The basic attribute of storytelling-centered content is based on its familiarity. Nevertheless, no one would want to watch an unexceptionable motion picture or a predictable television series all the time. So something unconventional is needed in the processing of delivering despite its familiar structure. The narrative-focused content is equal to a house. A bedroom, living room, and restroom are considered necessary spaces on its solid foundations, however, the house can be designed differently for its flow of residents, outer wall or interior decoration, and furniture, etc. No one would like the house which is uniform in its interior and exterior structure and where there are no rooms for bathroom or kitchen, etc.

 

Meanwhile, communication-oriented content is equivalent to a car. Many Korean tourists to Japan may have been troubled when they drive on the left side of the road for the first time. It may be harder for drivers to control gear of a car with their feet and brake and accelerator with their hands. Let's put this into a newly released video game of totally different gameplay with other existing game rules. Users may want to stop playing the game if they can't become accustomed to the new specific way no matter what they do. On the other hand, users will get tired of enjoying the game with a predictable result.

 

A film needs to show a new form of familiarity, but a video game should guide players to the familiar-seeming new world. While you can easily guess the owner of a house where you visit once, it's hard to notice who owns the car with only an automobile-interior photo. Of course, it wouldn't be used in all content. But I reckon that a content product manager needs to think more carefully about this issue.

 

 

※ 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] What a game interest expects to the new government

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

What a game interest expects to the new government

 

The biggest recent issue in South Korea was that president-elect Moon was sworn in as President on Wednesday. Inauguration of the new president means that the leader of the country has been replaced at the micro-level, besides, not only cabinet ministers under the head of the administrative branch of the government but also many of the government policies would be changed in a broad perspective. The latest election was the nation's first presidential by-election. Therefore, it seems that there will be a radical change in government more than ever.

 

A new team leader in most companies often causes a lot of changes. Even a firm got a new CEO can be drastically transformed without any changes in the organization. I also was very confused by the new manager as if I was working for another corporate at one time in the past. Under these circumstances in Korea, a big change driven by the new government seems inevitable.

 

In recent years, the local gaming industry has been regulated in many ways. The government has considered enforcing Cooling-off Law and Game Addiction Law and has implemented Shutdown Law (Cinderella Law) to limit young online gamers for their right to learn and enough sleep. The idea of stricter regulations on playing a video game is absolute nonsense while there are lots of discussions to develop the creativity of young people because the game is the most innovative content among many to help teenagers to enhance their creativity and one of Korea's biggest industries.

 

The existing regulation-driven policies will clearly hinder the domestic gaming industry development. There are approximately 100,000 employees in the gaming sector and the video game industry is a major contributor as it accounts for a big part of the local content exports. Gaming industry workers who have been poorly treated are frustrated with this. We can't laugh off an employee's self-deprecating joke calling themselves as "an illegal drug manufacturer" when the video game was criticized unfavorably by national news outlets and media outlets. Both serialized articles about a way of starting a firm in foreign countries and Korean game maker-targeted business information sessions in the video game trade show on shifting the companies overseas are shreds of evidence that the Korean government has looked down on the gaming sector.

 

The new game-related policy direction is still unclear. But the Moon administration should at least not follow in the wake of the former government. Only a few people-involved expect the administration's full support such as huge tax incentives and large-scale funding for the local gaming industry. Those within the field are just hoping for not being fell through the cracks as the narcotic distributor and be treated fairly so that we are no longer mention the local gaming sector in crisis. I eagerly anticipate the new government promoting the depressed gaming 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