Recharge Yourself!

May 24th, 2006 Jun Sok Huhh

Let's see this commercial of a Korean sports drink for national TV networks! This is living proof on the powerful cultural code that online games have in this country. The code that the commercial used would be very specific to the game itself. This commercial shows that the wide popularity of the game covers all of weakness for its narrow specificity as the TV-networks commericial.

If you are not familiar with the game that appeared in the commercial, visit this site. The game, Kart Rider, is one of most popular games in south Korea. The game is comparable to the games like StarCraft, Lineage.

To see the clip, click this youtube link

Following is translation of the Korean language text in the commercial.

All of Youth,
It is time for taking "Enerzen."
While your competitors are sleeping,
You, brave new worker(!), should recharge your energy for the win.

Could you take a hidden hint of the commercial? See the place where the youth are enjoying. It is so-called 'PC-bang' that has been unique part for Korean gaming. I think PC-bang is really different from Internet Cafe while those two appear to be similar. PC bang has evolved from a simple convenient place for accessing internet to the common playground for online game enthusiasts. The commercial has this kind of sense for PC-bang.

At the end of commercial, the players transform themselves into the characters of the Kart Rider. Wow!

Posted in news | No Comments »

Virtual World or Virtual Vegas?

May 3rd, 2006 Jun Sok Huhh

Gambling is a hard business to do in Korea, for the law about gambling is very strict. Nation-widely, only one place called 'KangWon Land' is allowed for lawful gambling activities for the domestic. Undoubtedly, Online gambling is also under square prohibition. The real face of the business, however, is somewhat different with clean-cut world of law. For latest two years, many ill-legal or half-legal places for gambling are thriving vigorously with various forms.

RMT in MMOGs is one of most interesting and stormy areas that are connected with real world. We could find many kind of motives for RMT, but it is generally true that online game designs/mechanics could facilitate or disturb RMT. What the inner objectives are is not to be dealt with here. I'm to introduce a weird case that a small ticking in game design make a scandalous swing in RMT.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in articles | 2 Comments »

Price Watch for Item Trading

May 2nd, 2006 Jun Sok Huhh

Recently, I've found an interesting site for item trading. As you know, there has been several major intermediaries for RMT in Korea. If you had experienced transactions, you might have been curious about price differentials among these mediators.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in news | No Comments »