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Korea Gets MMORPG Success, Xbox Antipathy
Thanks to GameSpot for their story revealing Korean MMORPG Lineage II has racked up significant amounts of initial subscribers in its native country. According to the article about the Unreal-engine PC sequel, "in the game's first five days in release, publisher NCsoft has tallied more than 130,000 paid users." However, SirBruce's subscription page points out that many subscribers to the initial, 4-million subscriber Lineage: The Blood Pledge "play in 'PC baangs', Internet cybercafes in [South] Korea that buy Lineage access from the company and then sell it at hourly rates to customers", making subscriber comparisons with games like Star Wars Galaxies more difficult. Elsewhere, GI.Biz reveals the PlayStation 2 is the most popular console in Korea, although only 600,000 strong, with 92.5 percent preferring it over the 60,000-selling Xbox, as "...players cited the lack of Korean language software and poor customer service as their key problems with the Xbox."
There are two nations called "Korea". The article is sloppy when it refers to events in Korea without saying which one. Of course we know they don't have Xbox in North Korea, so it must mean South Korea. But next time, don't leave off half of the country's name. It is like an article about the United Kingdom referring to just "The Kingdom".
Yes, but the names are paraphrased as South Korea and North Korea.
Just like there are two China's: the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. One is just called China, typically (or rarely Red China or Mainland China) and the other is called Taiwan.
No home advantage in Korea compared to Microsoft? I know (South) Korea and Japan are totally different countries but theres bound to be some kind of pre-set friendly relationship between the two country's culture. That'd be like saying Microsoft doesn't have a home advantage in Canada or Mexico.
only a moron would think this article refers to "North" Korea...
" Well let's put it this way. In the US, we refer to South Korea as Korea. And North Korea as North Korea."
No, in the US, South Korea is almost always called "South Korea": in news, on maps, in media, and conversation. The use of "Korea" to mean just half of the Korean peninsula happens, but it is the exception not the rule.
"So if you ever just see Korea from a US publication, then it's South Korea"
Such a reference is more likely to mean pre-division Korea.
This is the same reason that Hangul Word Processor is far, far more popular than Word over there. The Korean language support in Word sucks.
The biggest is I can use a 56k modem and not worry about major slowdowns, it runs with such a low bandwith that I have had my gf's connection drop to 30k and still have it run great.
Likewise while its graphics aren't cutting edge, but it works for the game (its graphics can be likened to Diablo 1) it helps with slower computers and is not so hardware dependant as a lot of these other games which practically force you to buy a better computer
Plus the whole blood pledge aspect really works well for the game, and forces you to talk and be active, not some lone gamer which I have noticed has statrted to be the case with other games with companies forcing to get more people playing.
OK enough being a fan boy, what I would like to know is how is nintendo doing in the market? I dont find it too bias since I can see why people would be oppose to xBox with it being a US system that doesnt have much history in Asia, no mater how good it is. Honestly anyone who has read the book "The Complete History of Video Games," can see how gamers have likes and dislikes that go far from just being whats better. It can be also how much the public likes the company, how many good games there are (one is never enough) and even as wierd as how it looks. Honestly my first impression of the Xbox (aside from the oh great heres Microsoft buying the video gamming world since no one is insain enough to code for it) was that it looks like a peice of shit. The gamecube wasnt great, but I can get it in a color I like and likewise matched my decore, and the Playstation 2 had a upscale look that while a gaming system, also didnt call too much attention to its self next to my TV and VCR eespecially when I had a date over and decided to pop in a DVD..
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i dont know if i really dig on the reasons sirbruce uses for dismissing lineage from his tracking service. first he says that it shouldnt be counted because the market in South Korea is "artificial" in that it only has limited console penetration and a reliance on internet access through cafes. this isnt really fair since you are basically chosing one market (the north american) as the "natural" one and the south korean one as the "unnatural". also, why should it matter if it is cafes acting as a middle man in the puchasing of player accounts versus individuals? they are still counting accounts, are they not? and if you are concerned about teh discrepancy between "players" and "accounts", each Lineage account gets four characters. so if you want to be conservative, take the NCSoft number of "4 million subscribers", divide it by 4, and you get a minimal number of 1 million actual paying subscribers. second, teh charge that poor lineage adoption in the north american market only proves the "artificiality" of the demand for lineage in south korea is a statement of correlation without any necessary causation. the limited adoption of lineage in north america is almost certainly because its initial release was long after diablo I graphics were considered dead. when it was released in korea however, the graphics would have been contemporary. and as we all know, no matter how grotesquely a MMORPG ages, people will continue to subscribe to it because they are addicted, or have made friends, or whatever else.
I want to play this game. I'm in Canada. Where can I buy it?
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That explains why you were so confused
none at all