KOREA FOUNDATION

1. Please briefly introduce yourself.

I am a game researcher and designer as well as an assistant professor at the College of Media Labs of Soon Chun Hyang University. I have strived to build the grounds for the domestic development of indie games, and as part of such efforts, I launched the Busan Indie Connect Festival in 2015. I also chair the festival’s jury. As an indie game developer while teaching at Seoul National University, I created with my students 21 Days, a simulation game of a Syrian refugee’s settlement in Germany, and distributed it on Steam, the world’s largest PC game platform.

2. What do you teach at the College of Media Labs?

I teach both Korean culture and cultural content. I give instructions on theory related to games, videos, virtual and augmented reality, and the metaverse, and offer production training in those fields. I also educate students on Korean cultural archetypes and storytelling, covering classical and contemporary times that can be developed as content.

3. Your focus is largely storytelling in and design research on games. What is your opinion of the domestic gaming market?

The market has grown to the world’s fourth largest with KRW 19 trillion in sales. Such outstanding performance owes much to the shift from online PC games to mobile games with the smartphone revolution that began in the latter half of the 2000s. Exports account for over half of gaming sales. According to government statistics on 11 content categories, an estimated 66 percent of the exports were from games. Movies, music, and broadcast programs have received the global spotlight because of the Hallyu boom, but their combined exports in the 10 categories are only half of those of games.

4. What do you think is the global standing of Korean games?

The Korean game market has expanded quantitatively but the overseas standing of domestic games falls short of expectations. This is because Korean games are based on profit-oriented business models like those of the game elements of stochastic and P2E [play-to-earn] games. Players abroad don’t think highly of games centered on profitability rather than game elements.

5. What do Korean games need to boost their growth and progress on the global market?

Contemplation of the fundamentals of game design is a must. Players are drawn to games for fun, which should be based on visual and other intrinsic game elements. Yet, recent Korean games are forcing users to develop through fees and increasingly have turned their backs on users. This tendency was evidenced recently by the truck demonstrations of users against game companies.

6. How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the game community? How has its ecology changed?

As people stayed home longer for work or other reasons in the wake of the pandemic, game-playing time increased. In the past, games were popular with certain groups but the pandemic brought games into daily life. In the beginning, games like Nintendo’s Ring Fit combining gaming and home fitness were popular. As time went by, players were drawn to Animal Crossing and others that provided social simulation in virtual reality. The recent metaverse boom is apparently connected with the desire for encounters in virtual space. Recently, with the pandemic seemingly abating in some countries, casual players have tended to move out. Thus, securing a user pool is needed by promoting game elements that make players feel as if games are part of daily life.

7. Compared to other countries, Korea has relatively few “inspiration games,” or those with socio-cultural messages. Why are such games necessary and what are benchmarks among them?

Inspiration games show how games are not simply for fun but may contribute to the society. Many media artists and game companies realize that games are an effective means of delivering messages. Movies are no longer confined to the entertainment industry and have emerged as works of art that diagnose social problems and soothe the pain they incur. Games need to keep exploring such possibilities, too. A benchmark of an inspiration game is This War of Mine, which was inspired by the Balkan Wars. War games used to evolve around a hero protagonist, but the genre later pursued survival of an ordinary person in a harsh reality. To survive, characters have to steal or kill, and players come to experience how extremely difficult it is for civilians to survive a war. The game was also commercial success, selling an estimated 7 million copies worth over KRW 100 billion.

8. What global gaming trends have you noticed recently?

The global game market tends to combine games with Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies like the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and P2E games. Roblox and Minecraft, two user-centered games that can be created by users themselves, have garnered hype in the name of the metaverse. Gaming is a type of platform industry, so it will attract more companies eager to occupy platforms equipped with new technologies.

9. As a game expert, what are your plans and hopes for the sector? What advice do you have for the development of Korea’s gaming industry?

I am working on a book on the history of gaming since the 1950s. I have a hectic schedule with my classes and research at the university, thesis writing, and government assignments, but I keep on gathering and arranging materials. Korean gaming’s growth has been tremendously fast, a trend that usually incurs side effects. I am quite concerned over the industry’s tendency to obsessively seek profits by concentrating only on the continuous development of business models. I hope that the global game element market eventually recognizes the Korean sector for adopting standard business models based on intellectual property that Korean players can take pride in.