During last week's G-Star 2012, we had boots on the ground to bring our readers our own exclusive impressions of one of the world's most attended gaming conventions. We've got thoughts to share so keep reading and then join the conversation in the comments.

The week before leaving, I was excited about the trip but also a touch intimidated. Having done my online part to ensure South Korean pop star Psy's “Gangnam Style” YouTube fame, I was thrilled at the thought of visiting the country that inspired such a phenomenon. Then again, the idea of flying half way around the world to a place where I could neither read the signs (I thought) nor understand the language was anxiety-inducing. In retrospect, my misgivings were absurd. Even had South Korea not been gracious enough to provide English translations for more or less everything, I should have realized; gamers, no matter where they come from, speak each other's language. 

Read more of Neilie Johnson's G-Star 2012 - When Game Cultures Collide.

South Koreans really understand boundaries.  For the most part, even top idol stars can walk through an area and, while a VERY large group will begin to follow them, they will do just that: follow.  No advances or grabbing. For the most part.

I wish I had known about G-Star when I was there as it would have been an amazing event to see.  Unfortunately, my only gaming goodness came from Korean Starcraft II, Blade & Soul beta and... yeah. :/

the G-Star attendees were all allowed to test and play World of Tanks. certainly Wargaming has been trying very hard to lure this lucrative demographic to play on the recently launched SEA server. unfortunately, the decision was also made to grant all these convention players (many of who had never played) tier 10 tanks and thrown to the wolves. in a hotly contested 15v15 match where only the most experienced players battle in this tier, the result was...well, not ideal. the G-Star players were clearly identified by their moniker, and if they didn't immediately plunge off a cliff to instant death or shoot a team mate, then their inexperience was certainly a liability. 

personally, i found the whole affair pretty harmless, but some of the in-match chat vitriol was epic...not in a good way. all i can say is thank goodness these poor chaps were not thrown onto the russian servers, where they more often than not would have been TK'd in the first 10 seconds. i do hope that those who may have had an unpleasant experience give the game another try...starting from the beginning tutorial and tier 1 tanks. they will likely find the game rather fun :)

I attended G-Star and I have to say, there were some great things at G-Star, and some slight dissapointments.  I'd like to share some of my opinions about the show.

The guest writer did a good job mentioning a lot of the things happening at G-Star, but a few things that were also seen at G-Star included:

Independent or college games:  I'd say almost a fourth of the show floor was dedicated to college and small company games that didn't receive big press or weren't well known.  A lot of the emerging game designers aka students were equally excited to talk to you and explain their games.  Some of the games weren't really ready to be shown off at the show, and were definitely in beta stages, but a few gems were really good games.

Example:  Wake Up Princess.  A really well done kill the monsters before they destory your tower game.  It was actually so good that I wanted it to play after the show but it was just there to be shown off.  The end of the trailer takes a dive, but overall the game was great!  LInk:  http://video.online-station.net/game-trailer/sd/3512

International Game Competitions:  There were 4 games, none of them truly main stream, but they had teams from The Uk, US. Japan, Korea, and China all competing over the course of 2 days to claim top world wide rights.

League of Legends:  This game is huge in Korea right now, and people lined up outside a secondary building at BEXCO to a new live match between two champion teams.  You can always watch people play on television but people love watching matches live as well.

There are a bunch of noteworthy things, but on a side note, I'd really like to point out that in South Korea one thing that bothers me is their lack of copyright laws.  If you look around you'll notice it almost everywhere, and it was prevelent in a lot of the games being shown off as well.  A lot of the game designs looked like they were blantently stolen or taken from other ideas both in Korea and abroad.  I saw a man in armor having an almost uncanny resemblence to Dead Space, game cover art taken directly from Left for Dead 2, and other tired ideas just to name a few.

I really love Korea, and after living here for a year in a half I feel that Korea has some solid ideas, and new innovation in its blood, but designers are doing things they know will work, aka new MMO fresh coat of paint, and hopefully it'll work out well.  People aren't really pushing the genre forward or trying new ideas outside of independent small publishers or cell phone game makers.  After looking at all of the MMOs there, I have to say:  Yes they're pretty, but really if I didn't see different names on top of them or I wasn't paying attention from a distance they all look very similar. Bless, Asta, and Icarus, all felt so similar.  Bless however did look wicked cool when played on 3 30'inch lcd displays and had a panoramic view.

Overall a pretty fun show, where you could sit down and play a ton of really fun games, but I wished that I saw more signs of innovation.

Originally posted by koreawut

South Koreans really understand boundaries.  For the most part, even top idol stars can walk through an area and, while a VERY large group will begin to follow them, they will do just that: follow.  No advances or grabbing. For the most part.

I wish I had known about G-Star when I was there as it would have been an amazing event to see.  Unfortunately, my only gaming goodness came from Korean Starcraft II, Blade & Soul beta and... yeah. :/

EDIT: Oh yeah, accidentally finding NCSoft's R&D department xD

yeah they are crazy about games .missing school and work for games is gonna put these guys in ecnomic disaster .mark my words . south korea is finished if its younger generation keeps on going on this path 

Lotaparty,  The thing I think that you're missing out on here is that high school students are in school for 14 hours a day.  Korea's educational system is insane, and when they game they also go about it with the same ideas, hardcore.  Theydon't mess around.

Korean society is not going to falter anytime soon from games.  They may love games, but they spend far more time studying, and working hard in the ultra competetive society in which they live.  Just some food for thought!

Originally posted by lotaparty

Originally posted by koreawut

South Koreans really understand boundaries.  For the most part, even top idol stars can walk through an area and, while a VERY large group will begin to follow them, they will do just that: follow.  No advances or grabbing. For the most part.

I wish I had known about G-Star when I was there as it would have been an amazing event to see.  Unfortunately, my only gaming goodness came from Korean Starcraft II, Blade & Soul beta and... yeah. :/

EDIT: Oh yeah, accidentally finding NCSoft's R&D department xD

yeah they are crazy about games .missing school and work for games is gonna put these guys in ecnomic disaster .mark my words . south korea is finished if its younger generation keeps on going on this path 

Meanwhile in the real world its economy is booming and their educational system is one of the best. I don't think you should talk about things you know little about.

Originally posted by lotaparty

Originally posted by koreawut

South Koreans really understand boundaries.  For the most part, even top idol stars can walk through an area and, while a VERY large group will begin to follow them, they will do just that: follow.  No advances or grabbing. For the most part.

I wish I had known about G-Star when I was there as it would have been an amazing event to see.  Unfortunately, my only gaming goodness came from Korean Starcraft II, Blade & Soul beta and... yeah. :/

EDIT: Oh yeah, accidentally finding NCSoft's R&D department xD

yeah they are crazy about games .missing school and work for games is gonna put these guys in ecnomic disaster .mark my words . south korea is finished if its younger generation keeps on going on this path 

You have no idea what you are talking about. South Koreans are way smarter than you due to the fact that their schooling is a lot harder and longer. Also they spell and use grammar better than you just demonstrated.

Originally posted by 9reesracer9

the G-Star attendees were all allowed to test and play World of Tanks. certainly Wargaming has been trying very hard to lure this lucrative demographic to play on the recently launched SEA server. unfortunately, the decision was also made to grant all these convention players (many of who had never played) tier 10 tanks and thrown to the wolves. in a hotly contested 15v15 match where only the most experienced players battle in this tier, the result was...well, not ideal. the G-Star players were clearly identified by their moniker, and if they didn't immediately plunge off a cliff to instant death or shoot a team mate, then their inexperience was certainly a liability. 

personally, i found the whole affair pretty harmless, but some of the in-match chat vitriol was epic...not in a good way. all i can say is thank goodness these poor chaps were not thrown onto the russian servers, where they more often than not would have been TK'd in the first 10 seconds. i do hope that those who may have had an unpleasant experience give the game another try...starting from the beginning tutorial and tier 1 tanks. they will likely find the game rather fun :)

lol a bad choice there by wargaming, but makes for a funny story. Reminds me to give WOT a try.

Over all I found this article to be well done and informative, as a long time S korean gameplayer (In N.A. Aion ) It realy grabbed my interest, well done.

Weird, I always thought G Star were pants... hmm.

As to the article, yes, gamers mentality in Asia is way different. I have a South-Korean brother in law and I was in Japan several times, and that alone gave me enough insight. The mentality in everything is different, of course also in gaming.

Not that this is bad, but we should not ignore different mentalities. In games it just means Asia MMOs are not for us at large and vice versa.

Originally posted by SirFubar
Ho god what would I give to have a chance to go to South Korea to visit the country, attending G-Star event as well as a Proleague.... You are really lucky sir!

 

prefer to go to S. Korea to watch Son Dam Bi and 4Minute live :)))))

Originally posted by defector1968

Originally posted by SirFubar
Ho god what would I give to have a chance to go to South Korea to visit the country, attending G-Star event as well as a Proleague.... You are really lucky sir!

 

prefer to go to S. Korea to watch Son Dam Bi and 4Minute live :)))))

I had the chance to see 4Minute and I'm pretty upset that I wasted the attempt.  Son Dambi on the other hand... <3

(SISTAR hwaiting)

“Still, standing outside BEXCO with thousands of excited tweens, teens and twenty-somethings”

I blame a lot of what has happened to the gaming industry on the ever decreasing age of gamers. The industry is pandering to the teenagers and we all must play is their games. For those of you who like to reply that surveys show the average gamer was in his thirties where were we at this event then?

“More women play and make games in the U.S., and as those numbers have risen, E3's booth babe population has dropped.”

The article writer is confusing causes here. Gender politics are more prevalent in the US than Korea, that’s why there is now less booth baes in the US. If it was down to an increasing numbers of female players they would have just introduced “booth guys”. :)

“Mobile and online games are steadily converging”

Yes they are and that is to the detriment of gaming as a whole. Mobiles do not have the processing power of a PC or console and the screen is midget sized. This means we are heading towards games being increasingly designed with less processing power in mind, no control systems like a mouse or controller and only as much as you can fit on a screen a few inches wide.

But mobile games are made for a different platform you say? What happens in the mobile world cannot effect what happens to PC’s and consoles? Wait until we have our first gaming port from a mobile to the PC or Console. Then you will see the damage mobiles will cause to gaming standards.

Are these noobs at MMORPG.COM ever going to add the games present at Gstar into the game list?

Still waiting for Black Desert and Bless to be listed.   Take your time... every other mmo site only started articles about them 3 months ago...  no hurry.