Nowadays, the game industry, which is the main industry in Korea, has a crisis because of tight regulations from the government, lack of creativity, and the inducement of additional fees. Globally, the game industry is considered to have a lot of growth potential opportunity due to its endless development possibilities. Google also has entered the game industry with the game company Niantik.
  In Korea, the game industry is on a large scale. The statistics from Korea Creative Contents Agency show that, in the first quarter of 2016, the export of cultural contents was 53% in Korea. According to a report called the 2015 Game White Book, Korea’s game industry occupied 19.1% of online games and 14.3% of mobile games of the world gaming industry. That shows the size of the gaming industry in Korea is really large. Nevertheless, a number of news outlets have highlighted the negative aspects of Korean games and stirred up a crisis theory of the Korean gaming industry. The typical reason is the government’s regulations on gaming.  The Ministry of Health and Welfare included games as one of 4 addictions which cause violence. The government enforced a shut-down system, a cooling off system, and a game addiction rule, and they took 6% of the incomes from game companies as a tax. According to the Korean Economic Research Institute, after the regulations by the government in 2011, the domestic gaming market diminished by 16.6 trillion won in 2012.
  One of the obstacles that disturbs the development of the Korean gaming industry is requiring extra money while playing the game. Riot Games’ League of Legend and Blizzard Entertainment’s Over Watch, which are on the rise in internet cafes, don’t need additional money requirements, so there is no problem playing the games. However, Korean games need additional money. For example, if you want to use female characters, you should pay additional money. In the mobile games, which is one of the important areas of the gaming industry, when people want to level up their character, additional money is needed.
  Kim Se-ryeon(’14, Dept. of Biology) said, “The nickname of Korea’s representative games company, Nexon, is ‘Donson’(‘Don’ means money) because they always require additional fees. Foreign games don’t need any additional payment when I play them. In Korean games, I always feel a hierarchy classified by money.”
  Recently, the gaming industry has been expanding and its importance was spotlighted more than before, so the government is relaxing some regulations. The government has kept the shutdown, which limits providing internet games at late hours to teenagers under 16, but it abolished the cooling off system, which turns off games after 2 hours of play. Also, the government announced the transformation of the shutdown system into the parents elective system, so if teenagers’ parents allow their children to play games at late hours(0a.m.-6a.m.), the government allows them to do so. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said, “We will propose the parents elective system in November, but we aren’t sure if the law will be passed. We proposed that law in 2014, but this law was such a controversial issue. That is why we say the bill could be difficult to approve.”
  Kim Gi-hong, who posts games and IT on Naver, points out that Korean games have a lack of originality and impose additional fees. He said, “These two things decrease user awareness and trust, and that is why the Korean gaming industry is in trouble.” He pointed out that a lack of originality is the worst factor, and he added, “It is urgent for game companies to put forth enormous exertion to change those two things.”

By Kim Soo-min
sm36@cbnu.ac.kr
By Eo Joon-seok
js37@cbnu.ac.kr