泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] G-Star and Busan International Film Festival

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

G-Star and Busan International Film Festival

 

November. 23. 2017.

I go to Busan a couple of times every year to attend Busan Indie Connect Festival (BIC Fest) in summer, Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in October, and G-Star in November. Aside from relatively small-scale BIC Fest, there are many similarities between BIC Fest and the other huge international content-related events. Participants have an opportunity to look back on what has happened in each industry for the past year and see brand-new content which will be released soon. The festival is attended by celebrities and famous producers. Also, there are many content creators to attract investment for a project in preparation and overseas sales as well.

 

The majority expected that the number of audiences would decrease a lot since College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) pushed back a week due to earthquakes hit Pohang and the surrounding areas, however, there were many visitors unexpectedly and a national video game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) stood out the most in years beating out foreign video games. Despite this good news, I felt a big difference in quality between the film festival and the game show.

 

During the BIFF, South Korea's second-most-populous city is alive with lots of media professionals. The media publish hundreds or thousands of stories on the film festival in a single day and moviegoers arrive from across the country to enjoy the event. More than a few volunteers are found throughout the city and even taxi drivers are well aware of relevant information. Whenever I went to the city, I used to secure the same hotel, which is just off Haeundae, for four years because of the shortage of accommodations in the main area. In October, the hotel owner, who remembers my face, used to ask me that I visited the city for BIFF, whereas in November, he used to wonder about the unexpected visits. The over ten-year-old game show seems to shunned by the public due in part to its low event awareness. During the event, only Haeundae and surrounding areas around Bexco are crowded. The number of tourists for the fete is much lower than the number of visitors to the film festival. Some people tend to look down on video game fans for G-Star as if they are people with nothing to do unlike respecting serious film fans for BIFF, which brings me a very uncomfortable feeling.

 

The local gaming industry constitutes a great proportion of Korea's whole industry. Even now numerous game developers are trying to make a good game. I reckon that it's an important time in improving public awareness about video games as cultural content. It was only some decades ago that cinema was also judged as being a waste of time. The gradual alteration of the audience is from a great number of movie professionals' efforts. Now is the time for video game workers to change the way the public understands the game content.

 

 

※ 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 Who is a data monopolist?

이중반룡의 게임애가

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Who is a data monopolist?

 

August. 29. 2018.

I recently read an article in which the Korea Communications Commission has launched policy developments to respond to data monopoly of companies including Google, Facebook, and Amazon etc. It also said that Google has been hit with €4.34 billion fine by EU regulators for forcing Android device manufacturers to load search engine and browser and KCC let their policy stand in the way of rectifying 'tilted playground' between multinational Internet content providers and local content corporations. I may be a person with a narrow outlook on the issue, but it doesn't give me a satisfactory explanation.

 

Before anything else, a monopoly exists when a specific person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. And an oligopoly is a market in which control over the supply of a commodity is in the hands of a few sellers. If a few large producers collude, it is no different from the monopolization and both can be distorted by a small number of suppliers.

 

I notice something strange here. Google specializes in Internet search engine. According to data by Opensurvey earlier this year, Naver ranked first with the largest market share at 75 percent and Google controlled about 12 percent of the entire market. So it does not make sense to take an issue with Google's monopoly.

 

As I said in the last column about net neutrality, a few Internet service providers, who provide services for accessing and using in the Internet, own one hundred percent of data supply. I don't understand why the Korea Communications Commission blames data monopoly on Internet content providers, a web portal or organization that handles the distribution of online content. Monopoly or oligopoly can be a problem when there is no alternative but to choose among a small number of suppliers. Alternative exist, no one could take issue with customer's choice. Even If this is problematic, KCC should have examine the No. 1 company first.

 

The penalty, which European Union imposed on Google, is not related to data. The multinational technology company has been slapped a record antitrust fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome apps on devices. European Union's decision is to fine for abusing internet search in the smartphone market with limited number of suppliers. It's not about data monopoly, which users use.

 

If the article is true, the policy development of KCC is to protect a few local corporations and is against government policy that I expected to the new government. As I mentioned earlier data can not be monopolized. Using the term 'data monopoly' to international content providers entered South Korean market is not that different from the scarlet letter. I hope that my apprehensions, which KCC colluded with local Internet service providers and market-dominating content providers intends to build 'tilted playground', won't realize.

 

※ 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 Should keep net neutrality alive? Part 03

이중반룡의 게임애가

泥中蟠龍‘s Game愛歌

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

Should keep net neutrality alive? Part 03

 

August. 15. 2018.

I talked about the dictionary definition of net neutrality, the characteristics as public goods, and the problem with zero rating in Part 02. Lastly, I'd like to take a look at why net neutrality should be kept alive.

 

Let's look back on the past. The telephone companies were heavily against the implementation of mVoIP, mobile Voice over Internet Protocol, in 2012. They insisted that the new service would pull down their profits and deter new investment. Anonymous people, called experts in the media, claimed that the net neutrality repeal will guarantee quality for network service and protect subscribers' interests in the long term. They also said that it is finding balance between the telephone companies and Internet content providers and protecting the rights of users who want better service even if they pay more. Furthermore, they insisted that the property rights of the networks must be protected as private property because telecommunications operators built the networks. This is the same with the argument over privatizing health care a few years ago and many state-owned enterprises which already moved from the public sector into the private sector. SK Telecom, who recently proclaimed that there is no money to invest in facility for 5G due to net neutrality, reached over W17 trillion in sales and over W1.5 trillion in operating profits in 2017. KT reported over W23 trillion in revenue and its operating profits reached over W1.3 trillion. LG+U' made W12 trillion in sales and over W800 billion in operating profits. They've never been unprofitable in recent years. Their profits are from W1 trillion to over W17 trillion. Aside from spending trillions of won on the new facilities, the companies earned the decent profits. I want them to be rather more straightforward to make more money like scum bag who forcefully take money from someone instead of walking on eggshells about fee hikes while the network service providers grow and prosper.

 

Frequency is a limited public good. It is nonsense to say that it is privately-owned property despite huge profits from assigned frequency. This parallels with an owner of private highway on the state-owned land reaped enormous profits asking for the most popular tourist destinations to pay extra money as many as numbers of visitors because they improved profits thanks to the travelers used the highway. Furthermore, the highway owner threatens to block traffic with lane restriction to the destinations if they don't pay extra charge. Better service for premium users paying more means that there will be a premium rate-only lane in the highway while discriminating people paying lower rates. It's no different from Korail, Korea Railroad Corporation, expects Busan City Government to pay congestion fees for passengers of KTX, Korea Train eXpress, during G-Star, an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry in South Korea. It's high-handed conduct of Internet service providers to instigate the rich become richer and the poor become poorer in modern society in which communications became an everyday item and the reason why we should keep net neutrality alive. If Internet service providers feel like they are philanthropists and don't have enough cash to invest, give up the rights to use frequencies and sell the companies. I want to take over, if only they are willing to sell.

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

   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui