The State of Korean PC Gaming

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday August 1, 2007 @06:12AM from the where-starcraft-reigns dept.

Gamasutra has up a feature on the world of PC gaming in South Korea, a country well-known for their love of online play. Nick Rumas, the author of the piece, takes us further behind the scenes of a country stereotyped by swarms of screaming StarCraft fans. He looks at what is hot on store shelves, discusses the reality of illegal game downloading there, and walks through the ten most popular online games in the country (StarCraft isn't even #1). From the article: "That, in a nutshell, is where the PC gaming industry in Korea currently finds itself. Physical retail is dead, and while that isn't going to change any time soon, it's a rather insignificant issue, because the online market is the only one that really matters here ... The world of PC gaming in Korea may massively dwarf that of consoles, but Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are engaged in their own little war on the peninsula, as well."

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Re:Micropayments by MMaestro · 2007-08-01 06:58 · Score: 4, Interesting

The reason why people in the U.S. frown upon paying more for in-game content is simply the fact that they recognize the fact that the content is either, A) for appearances only and therefore have no valve towards gameplay or B) gives an unfair advantage towards players who spend more money than other gamers.
Take a look at games like Gunbound and Maple Story. Both sell in-game content but they only alter your character's appearance. Neat, but nothing the mass market (of MMO players) are willing to pay for.