Nexon's Min Kim and Mike Crouch sat down for an interview with The MMOGamer on examining the differences in culture between East vs. Western gamers and some possibilities on how to bridge that divide.

Mr. Kim's comments in this interview are both candid and incredibly insightful. When asked about the differences between Western and Eastern gamers he doesn't necessarily feel there is one, though he does concede that the gaming experience in Korea is definitely more social with Koreans mostly playing in LAN cafes, while in the West most gamers play by themselves at home.

So what is the real reason why Western games don't truly succeed in Korea and Eastern games don't really penetrate here? According to Kim, it's service:

I honestly think that the reason why certain games are successful over there and not successful over here and vice versa, has to do with the service element of the games.

If you look at Lineage over there, Ncsoft is a huge company in Korea and they service the games to an extremely high quality over there, but they probably don’t do that on this side of the ocean.

In the same way, when people take games in the West, and bring them over to Asia, they are going through a publishing relationship, they are not necessarily servicing the games in the best way, and that’s probably where you get a big disconnect is that, a game like World of Warcraft, well, not World of Warcraft, a game like Lineage in Korea, probably doesn’t feel like Lineage in the states.

It might not necessarily be all about how players play, but how you service the game.

Read the full interview over at MMOGamer to find out more about what Mr. Kim has to say on the East vs. West issues, including some pretty illuminating information on the differences in how the Korean gaming market was shaped.

I hope we stay divided, can't stand the mob grinding, potion spamming, anime mentality

oh I love the anime thing about eastern MMOs.. it's the MICROTRANSACTIONS that keep them from being popular becuase the "economic crysis" here and people really don't want to sink alot of money into items and such. The average person sinks like more then 50-90 bucks into a RMT game a month over there in the asian/east and people really cant blow that much over here and on several games to boot.

I am fully against RMT becuase you should have to earn your item from good gameplay rather then buying it. it's cheap and stupid to buy weapons with real cash.

He makes some valid points, but the western/eastern demographic split is deeper than that.  Eastern gamers have been conditioned to accept/expect levels of ganking/griefing that would totally niche a game in the west.  Its seeped into their gaming culture to an extent that they don't even think about it.  That is just one of the major elements that leads eastern games to limited niche markets in the west.

Another is the perception(right or wrong) that all too many eastern games are shovel ware, thrown together with little real thought as to the implications of the various design elements.  Couple that with the all too often translation mistakes, and limited or non existent in game GM/support and the stereotype gets further ingrained.  Not to mention the growing perception that NCsoft doesn't really take its western developments as seriously as it does its eastern.  Look at the three games it has axed. All have been western games.  Given how time intensive these games are, if this trend continues many people will begin to question the wisdom of investing that time in a western version of NCsofts games.

Since when is Western market only NA and Canada ? :p ( referring to DFO xD )

well the east has its own divisions within, look at the anime mmo's verse the lineage 2 and Pirates of the burning sea models.

I think the anime mmo's have something to add in the future, in the means of community and letting the mmo be a means in which people connect/talk and just do what ever they feel like. not forcing them to grind to max lvl to play the content or interact with each other.

I think that the west has a more set and harcore pvp element, its just that compared to the east its a smaller portion of players. The only open pk eastern mmo i can think of is forgot the name but there is one.... its one server among many... compared to the many titles that exist in the western market.

The grinders as Lineage have a graphics appeal, some of the pvp elements that they use i think will help non-pvp games progress in the future to meet a even divide.

But I dont see the eastern teams making anything that will change what the western player yurns for.

 I will admit that the east has done a 1/2 decent job in the anime mmorpg market...

Originally posted by Lumster

I hope we stay divided, can't stand the mob grinding, potion spamming, anime mentality

Then you're playing the wrong genre.

Originally posted by Haradeas

Since when is Western market only NA and Canada ? :p ( referring to DFO xD )

I guess since its a dude who work on Nexon they only care about NA and Canada (and that is why nexon can just burn).

A MMO with anime look would not be bad if, IF they make a nice one, no some old thing or some really old animes. the Problem with games from there is more like you need to invest a hell a lot of time to get some things, poor history (if any at all) and a lot of games are equip based, you don't need be good just equips and you will win. that kind of thing kill anyone who have little time to play or get bored too easy.

Originally posted by Wraithone

He makes some valid points, but the western/eastern demographic split is deeper than that.  Eastern gamers have been conditioned to accept/expect levels of ganking/griefing that would totally niche a game in the west.  Its seeped into their gaming culture to an extent that they don't even think about it.  That is just one of the major elements that leads eastern games to limited niche markets in the west.

Another is the perception(right or wrong) that all too many eastern games are shovel ware, thrown together with little real thought as to the implications of the various design elements.  Couple that with the all too often translation mistakes, and limited or non existent in game GM/support and the stereotype gets further ingrained.  Not to mention the growing perception that NCsoft doesn't really take its western developments as seriously as it does its eastern.  Look at the three games it has axed. All have been western games.  Given how time intensive these games are, if this trend continues many people will begin to question the wisdom of investing that time in a western version of NCsofts games.

MA Kim needs to read your post.  It has more incite than his.

There is a big difference in East vs West as Nim Kim has pointed out. But those differences are not easily overcome.

LAN cafes in the East are there in part due to the cultural difference. The East does not want there homes invaded by groups of children getting together to play. A more private cultural than that in the West. Another thing according to people I have met in the games I have played from other parts of the world and who live in the East is the internet availability/cost.

I don't see LAN cafes becoming popular in the West for a  number of reason. Security, privacy, childcare, etc. I mean a mother that plays can not afford to pay child care so she can go play the game outside the home. In the home the child(ren) can be cared for housework can be done, etc. A working man comes home and plays where as if he had to go to a cafe he would not be a family man for long if he went from work to a cafe to play.

The cost and availability of the internet. Internet in the West is available at a reasonable cost with unlimited access for the most part. In the East accounts from gaming friends it is not so cheap and based on how much download it takes and such. So with a very large  game it might put it where they are only able to play a short time daily or weekly. Europe is another that internet is based different than here in the West/USA.

Then there is the grind feast. Apparently the East does not like it but accepts it. The West does not like or accept it. That too is a difference in cultural. If many of us from the West had to live in the East for a given time we would find it very hard to conform to the difference in many things. One Nim Kim noted was here if he was in a meeting and didn't agree he could say so. Not the case in the East. He would have to take it to the person on a private level.. You can say this is wrong but it is a difference in cultural and is I would guess a means of respect to them. To openly in front of others disagree would be looked upon as most disrespectful I am sure.

You can find the same type differences in a game that was made say in Germany. Different cultural so thus the game will be different as well.

Can it be done successfully? With great effort and cooporation I am sure it would have a chance. I suppose time will tell.

"It might not necessarily be all about how players play, but how you service the game."

I guess he can't believe that people would actually get upset when it takes 1-3 months to get a response on a Nexon ticket....WHO KNEW!

I guess he wants Korean players that spend thier money and don't talk back. As someone who has had problems with Nexon and had to get an issue resolved, pulling teeth is easier. They have possibly one of the single worst coustomer service/game supports in the history of MMO companies. You figure with the money they are making hand-over-fist with every game being a cash grab, they would re-invest some of that into Support. But I guess shipping 75% of the profits back to Korea is something they would rather do.

Like I said before, while I hope that Nexon fails and has to leave this region, it will probably never happen. As long as you have people that want to be better than others in a video game and are willing to use their credit card/parent's card/paycheck on buying game items which give an advantage, they will always have a revenue stream. It's just sad that people don't realize how terrible companies like this are until it's too late. It will be worse when Nexon becomes Block Party and people go there not knowing about the bad history of the company. 

While I am critical and skeptical of Korean grind Games, since Lineage II (I do not play AION because of my experience with L2), I think some good points were expressed in this interview like:

Quote: "I honestly think that the PC market has been shooting itself in the foot by constantly pushing the envelope, so that only five people can play it."

On the East -West differences, I also think that good points were made, the Cafes do influence how people play these games, can you immagine different Cafes in different neighborhoods just competing with one another? No wonder the Competition is really more fearsome there rather than here.

First it means that you have a group of people that are playing together within a same cafee, this is always an advantage compared to the lone player in his room in the west.

This is communitarianism vs Indivisualism ways of playing games.

It has happened that I played MMORPG's within a LAN setting quite some time with guild mates, and it is a different experience, can you immagine being able to constantly play an MMORPG within a LAN party setting? That is what its like for many Koreans, so when character progression becomes a shared affair, the speed with which content can be consumed is much faster, hence grind is the answer and it is understandable, yet the same does not apply to the west because people do not play MMORPG's the same way, and what seems a small to moderate obstacle for a group of people in an internet cafee...becomes a task kin to crossing the Himalayas for the western player.

The interesting point here is however, that this difference in design is quantitative not qualitative, both east and west design games which focus on progression, levels and going though content...both applying precepts of the Themepark game, adapting them to the realities of how their respective players play these games in each local.

So maybe the solution of making a game that brings both worlds together would be to change design approach of the game rather than trying to make the existing designs work for both (which as expressed has not worked up to now).

All in all this was a nice interview.