For my first post I figured I should share a bit about why I decided to start this blog.
I'm currently working for a Korean online game developer as their Global Business Development Manager. Far from being just a salesman for our games to overseas publishers, it's part of my job to bridge the gaps between Korean business and gaming culture with that of the West. Sound easy? I remember a few days back when I popped a blood vessal trying to explain tabletop gaming like Warhammer and pen&paper RPGs to my boss. I get to talk to a lot of my colleagues working with other Korean developers and we share the kind of experiences we have when we try to bring our games overseas.
I spent my entire life in Toronto and I'm much more familiar with gaming the way you guys understand it. But after spending a long time out here in Asia I had a lot of opportunities to get inside the heads of game design specialists discussing why they make games the way they do. I came to realize that the simple argument that "they make people grind because they're lazy" isn't entirely accurate.
My goal isn't to defend everything Korean or to convince anyone that it is the future of gaming or whatever. I think there are a lot of people genuinely interested in this very different style of game design and want to gain a deeper understanding. I don't pretend to be THE authority on these matters but I am exposed to Korean gaming at a deeper level. Heck, I'm in a country with offline gaming newspapers, two pro-gaming channels, game FMVs are displayed in the subway like movie trailers etc... I think I can offer a fresh perspective to people who are interested to hear it.
Until I get any indication that anyone is reading this blog and gives two sh*ts about what I write about, I'm probably going to come up with my own topics. Most likely they'll be whatever I'm pondering at work haha. I'm more than open to receiving specific questions, but we'll see how it goes.
Cheers
welcome, nice to see someone actually working in the business, sharing his thoughts. Good luck with the asians.
Fri Sep 26 2008 4:03AM ReportI remember when the Korean version of City of Heroes launched, and also remember when it closed. Despite being a solid game and the backing of NCSoft, the property failed in Korea. There was a lot of conjecture on the CoH forums about what might've caused the problems, most of them revolving around cultural differences and experience ("Koreans don't get superheroes", basically). I'd be really interested in your take on that situation.
Mon Sep 29 2008 4:43PM ReportMMORPG.com writes:
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