泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Byulbram and Pearl Abyss

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Byulbram and Pearl Abyss

January. 11. 2018.

 

Kim Gwangsam, a professor of Chungkang College of Cultural Industries, who is better known as his nickname "Byulbram", has recently joined Pearl Abyss, the nation's famous video game developer, which is well known for the hit MMORPG Black Desert. The news was very impressive for me because Byulbram is one of my favorite acquaintances and Black Desert is the video game that, unfortunately, I couldn't invest in due to complicated circumstances. I talk about Byulbram and Pearl Abyss today.

 

Professor Kim is well known for a one-person developer who is responsible for all things related to game development including video game designer, programmer, graphic designer, and composer, etc. Byulbram attempted many experimental things as a single developer or a small number of a development team creating Geunyeo-ui Gisadan - Her Knights, a side-scrolling action game Her Knights: All for the Princess, a fighting game Bloody Cross, an infiltration action game Silver Bullet, a creative-settings RPG Matterhorn. He has launched a game on various platforms such as PC, GP32 (Game Park 32bit)—a handheld game console—, smartphones, and Steam, etc. and served as the president of Korea Game Development Association. The former professor of the Chungkang College of Cultural Industries till quite recently is well known for his unique dressing style with a leather jacket and a red tie.

 

Pearl Abyss, a video game developer of the open-world MMORPG Black Desert, went into open beta in 2014 and now is developing a mobile version since its official release in 2015. The MMORPG is currently launched in more than 100 countries with sales of over 100 billion won and net profit of tens of billion won. Based on its results, the game developer went public on the KOSDAQ in 2015 and increased the value of its assets to 3 trillion won by now. The game is doing so well in North America a Europe peaking at No. 1 on the various game charts in those regions as well.

 

I've ever taught college students about the difference between "work" and "product". To sum up, a piece of work is an artist's message, whereas a product is a manufacturer's output for some potential economic benefits. Therefore, without the intention of generating revenue, the artist should make the piece only based on not an investor's resources but their own or patron's. Of course, I reckon that the two sometimes can successfully coexist. A piece of work having both characteristics in a coordinated manner is called by different names, for example, a masterpiece, a fine piece of work, or classic, etc.

 

Pearl Abyss is one of the country's representative video game developers showing good performance. And Byulbram is a representative single-person game developer of the country. I have high hopes of the two who bring together an amazing synergy, which will produce a good game that comes to be called a masterpiece or a fine piece of work.

 

※ 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] No one can leave the island on foot

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

No one can leave the island on foot

December. 28. 2017.

 

I heard a heartbreaking story from an acquaintance in the gaming industry a while ago. Investors are reluctant to invest in mobile games, despite currently ongoing boom for the local gaming sector thanks in part to a couple of successful game makers. In particular, some start-ups are said to be cash-strapped. Even an investor who is interested in a big publisher's game project that a famous developer involves doesn't want to consider to commit capital to a game with a low success rate due to astronomical cost for marketing, user or marketing data tracking, and a global strategy, etc. I strongly argued that not every venture capital firm isn't like that and I actively examine details of the small start-ups, however, it is true that he pointed out that I don't represent the whole venture capitalists and most investors currently aren't interested in mobile games much. I also sympathize with him in his point of view about the reason why investment firms are passive in spending money.

 

There is no riskless investment, not to mention the cliché that 'Never let a good crisis go to waste.' The more you take the risk, the more you can expect high profit. Venture capital is high-risk, high-return investing in support of business creation and growth. VCs may turn the currently hostile environment by investing in a handful of prospective companies with good conditions. The latest cases that created huge investment returns were born from courage in the face of danger. A developer should persuade an investor to stress its strength. It's probably as unlikely that a game without a very distinctive concept, design, or gameplay will be a huge success, as it is unlikely that a classic arcade game Galaga will make a comeback thanks to the recent retro fad in the whole content industry. Game makers must have a point to encourage users to distinguish themselves from other ordinary game developers and use it when they make investors believe that their product is well worth investing in. Despite in case the project failed, they need to highlight the games' strengths that their return on investment will be pretty high if they succeed.

 

A market that is not open to business from companies in other countries is called 'Galápagos islands'. The recluse islands are often cited as explaining Darwin's theory of evolution. Galápagos each have their unique flora and fauna because of out-of-the-way places with the uncommon natural environment. On the contrary, it is difficult for those animals and plants that adapted well to the out-of-the-ordinary setting to survive in a normal environment. The local gaming industry has adapted to a peculiar circumstance for a long time may lose survival ability in the global market place. Now developers should try to leave the island. The effort is subject to take many risks and more challenges ahead. Challenges at great risks don't guarantee success. But I'd like to say that no one can leave the island on foot.

 

※ 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] Survivorship bias

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Survivorship bias

 

December. 14. 2017.

During World War II, United States Armed Forces conducted a study of the damage done to aircraft that had returned from missions to minimize bomber losses. The study showed a tendency by the returning aircraft, in particular, to be hit on the wings and tail with a bullet and had recommended that armor be added to the areas that showed the most damage. However, questioning the analysis result, a researcher proposed that the Navy reinforce areas where the survived military aircraft were unharmed: cockpit and engine. The mathematician commented that the study didn't consider bombers that had been shot down in the engine or cockpit in their missions, while the majority of aircraft with holes on wings and tail returned home safely. If he hadn't detected the fallacy of the data analysis, the U.S. Army may have wasted a lot of budget due to unnecessary schemes and more fighter pilots could be killed. It's a form of selection bias and generally called "Survivorship bias" or "Survival bias".

 

While talking about commercially successful video games with developers, they used to say that they can succeed in attracting users if only they copy the elements which the top-ranked games have. However, failed imitative video games are more numerous than ones well receiving in markets. Of course, I don't mean that those key elements that make a game successful are bad or wrong. But if developers make the mistake of hasty generalization that some elements determine the success of the game, biased data is more likely to lead them toward the wrong directions. There are dozens of reasons that a successful game is loved by customers, whereas that could be the only way that a failed game is shunned by users.

 

Mentioning successful mobile-version games—Lineage series, TERA, Yulgang, and Fate/stay the night, etc.—based on well-known originals, quite a lot of people say that a mobile game built on the famous original must have achieved popularity and high profit. However, despite a notable original, I've seen a messed-up game with the poor outcome a hundred times. Game users' love of the latest successful games is not because they are constructed on well-made original works but because it just so happens that they are based on the originals.

 

Let's go back to the beginning of this article. "Survival bias" is a mistake that anybody can make. We need to look at the data from multiple points of view not to go astray. Game makers should see the market in a different direction while lots of uniformly similar-trend video games are released. The only way to reduce the probability of failure is that those game developers take a closer look at whether they have missed an element of success among excluded factors or they haven't found it yet. I hope that as many as game developers can return safely from the fierce battlefield for success.

 

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

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

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui