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The State of Korean PC Gaming
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed Aug 01, '07 02:12 PM
from the where-starcraft-reigns dept.
from the where-starcraft-reigns dept.
Gamasutra has up a feature on the world of PC gaming in South Korea, a country well-known for their love of online play. Nick Rumas, the author of the piece, takes us further behind the scenes of a country stereotyped by swarms of screaming StarCraft fans. He looks at what is hot on store shelves, discusses the reality of illegal game downloading there, and walks through the ten most popular online games in the country (StarCraft isn't even #1). From the article: "That, in a nutshell, is where the PC gaming industry in Korea currently finds itself. Physical retail is dead, and while that isn't going to change any time soon, it's a rather insignificant issue, because the online market is the only one that really matters here ... The world of PC gaming in Korea may massively dwarf that of consoles, but Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are engaged in their own little war on the peninsula, as well."
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Good read
(Score:2)Micropayments
(Score:3, Insightful)(http://www.ceyah.org/~jandrese/ | Last Journal: Wednesday October 01, @02:47PM)
Re:Micropayments
(Score:5, Interesting)Take a look at games like Gunbound and Maple Story. Both sell in-game content but they only alter your character's appearance. Neat, but nothing the mass market (of MMO players) are willing to pay for.
Current State
(Score:5, Funny)(http://matoushin.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 24, @10:28AM)
Starcraft could be #1
(Score:2, Insightful)Re:Starcraft could be #1
(Score:5, Informative)The hotel room had a TV and they had quite a few 'Gaming Channels' where they showed other people playing games all day. Most of the shows were Warcraft type strategy games, but some of them were FPS tournaments and Racing games as well. Game reviews were sprinkled in between... I didn't watch for more than an hour or so and the shows were in Korean, but I did get the feeling that out of the 6-7 channels only 1-2 could've be anything other than 24hr game channels
The Dongdaemun electronics market was also fascinating from a nerd POV. Few to no pirated games, really cool phones, mp3 players and the like... It was pretty cool except for the fact that I knew I would've been fleeced given the absence of fixed prices and exorbitant tags on the devices on display... I wasn't planning on buying electronics either
The new years eve celebration itself was fantastic. I managed to get in the centre of the action based on a tip to get there 5 hrs early from a cute girl at the airport (who spoke bad english). The intersection of two roughly 6 lane roads was packed with people in all four directions for about half a mile each way and EACH ONE of them had a firecracker of some sort. Coupled with extravagant dancing and music performances at the square and an hour of organized fireworks (with people's fireworks competing) meant that it was one of the greatest experiences I've had. My hair smelled of phosphorus and sulphur for a couple of days even after about 7-8 shampooing efforts...
If you wanna go to Seoul, make it ther for new years...
</nostalgia>
Cheers!
Well...
(Score:5, Funny)(http://doodle77.dyndns.org/)
What? No Mention of Kart Rider or Maple Story...
(Score:1)In my experience...
(Score:2, Insightful)(http://www.maegworks.com/)
Essentially they hate MOST games that don't have that MMO element of "time or money spent in/on the game means you're ALWAYS better than the guy below you."
Super Swing Golf and its online counterpart Albatross18 are actually a VERY nice golf game, though. Think Hot Shots Golf but online. Great course designs and decent friendslist-type things.
I've been to Korea...
(Score:1)Focus on online play
(Score:2, Interesting)