"What's the most popular online game? It may just be a game in Korea called Fortress 2, and no, it's not related to Team Fortress in any way. During a slow news weekend, we did some digging and found this interesting story posted in a Korean newspaper two weeks ago.

'On one recent Saturday last November one out of every 200 Koreans was logged onto the Internet and was playing Fortress 2, says Cocuryu (CCR), the Internet solution company that created the game. According to CCR's tally, Fortress 2, which hit cyberspace on Oct. 30, has attracted 6 million visitors to its site (www. x2game.com), making it the most popular online game in Korea.'

"Those Koreans are game-crazy, apparently. We're pretty sure that 140,000 users logged in simultaneously rivals anything similar that EverQuest or Ultima Online have done, and Fortress 2 has only been out for a couple of months.

"With that kind of gaming support, is Korea on the verge of becoming a leading supplier of computer games? Kingdom Under Fire from Korea will be out soon. Is this just the drop before we get a torrential downpour of Korean games?"

Comments? Also, what other Korean games have been released in the US and Europe? I know there are more, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.

This is where the game press departs from real journalism. If this were some significant trend in another industry, that press (or the general business press) would investigate. Reporters would talk to their colleagues in the Korean press, talk to Korean gamers, get the obligatory comment from an American academic who studies Korea at Kennedy or Fletcher, and write it up. Instead, the press rehashes the same old issues, like when Tribes 2 will come out and if the screens "look really cool." I suppose this is due to the fact that a large part of the audience just wants hype about upcoming games, but it's depressing nonetheless.

I read a discussion somewhere that talked a little about the Korean games phenomenon and dismissed the idea of that happening in the US for various "cultural reasons." The only one that was named, though, was that most Koreans don't entertain in their homes because their homes are so small. This was never followed up (sounds sort of like a non-sequitur to me) and the line of questioning was dropped in favor of some completely boring thing about what makes FPS games fun or something.

This is prime fodder for a Wall Street Journal "middle column" piece, btw.

"This is where the game press departs from real journalism. If this were some significant trend in another industry, that press (or the general business press) would investigate. Reporters would talk to their colleagues in the Korean press, talk to Korean gamers, get the obligatory comment from an American academic who studies Korea at Kennedy or Fletcher, and write it up. Instead, the press rehashes the same old issues, like when Tribes 2 will come out and if the screens "look really cool." I suppose this is due to the fact that a large part of the audience just wants hype about upcoming games, but it's depressing nonetheless."

Yeah, I agree. Most of the game press tends to be people like me who are hobbyists who have turned pro, so to speak.

I do know that CGW recently sent a writer to Korea, so they may have an article in an upcoming issue. I actually had an invitation to go to Korea a little over a year ago. A Korean game company said they'd fly me out if I could prearrange a story. I couldn't interest anyone in it though. I guess CGW changed their mind.

"Most of the game press tends to be people like me who are hobbyists who have turned pro, so to speak."

That's not what I mean. I'm a hobbyist, and I'm really, really curious about Korean computer gaming and why it's such a phenomenon. I don't see what being a hobbyist has to do with anything.

"I do know that CGW recently sent a writer to Korea, so they may have an article in an upcoming issue."

That was Ken Brown. His writeup of the "Gaming Olympics" appeared in a recent issue.

"I couldn't interest anyone in it though. I guess CGW changed their mind."

That's my point. If something "culturallly interesting" happened in some country and it didn't involve gaming, there would likely be an article somewhere. The Economist does a great job of picking up things like this. Or Atlantic Monthly, or The New Republic, or someone. But the people who read the game press either don't care about anything, or they don't want to read about this in a gaming magazine. Either way, it's el sucko. That's journalism-ese for "it sux0rz."

"I'm a hobbyist, and I'm really, really curious about Korean computer gaming and why it's such a phenomenon. I don't see what being a hobbyist has to do with anything."

What I meant was that a lot of the people writing for the magazines and websites don't really have the kind of experience and training that the people writing for the mainstream press have.

But I think your assessment of what people want to read is probably correct. I remember Steve Bauman posting a few years ago that they could put up a good industry piece and it would get minimal traffic. Then they'd put up some new screenshots of Quake 2 and it would do 10 times the traffic.

"What I meant was that a lot of the people writing for the magazines and websites don't really have the kind of experience and training that the people writing for the mainstream press have."

While I agree that this is true, I don't think your lack of "formal journalistic training" would at all prevent you from writing an excellent on the subject if you were asked to do so.

The issue is definitely readership. I think we agree on that. Got any Tribes 2 screenshots?

---

Quote:

While I agree that this is true, I don't think your lack of "formal journalistic training" would at all prevent you from writing an excellent on the subject if you were asked to do so.

---

"You're assuming that said person is actually a decent writer. Based on most of the website writing I've seen to date, that's just not a safe assumption."

Absolutely. But the point is that if the demand were there, readers would seek out the quality publications and those pubs would send their good writers to cover and comment on these topics. The fact that so many awful sites exist and that content is so uniform is, I suppose, due to bother the low barriers to entry and the lack of any real demand for quality by the readers. Or by enough readers, anyway.

I don't think you need to apologize for your own writing ability before criticizing the level of stuff you read. By this logic, I couldn't say Squad Leader was a bad game because I couldn't even begin to program a similar game. But I know SL was awful and I sure as hell am going to say so. The alternative is to have games reviewed only by developers.

And I agree that Old Man Murray is outstanding and that Adrenaline Vault is abysmal.

"And I agree that Old Man Murray is outstanding and that Adrenaline Vault is abysmal."

OMM needs to remember to update more often, and AV needs to remember that they're not writing term papers. I like AV, but they're writing about games and not medical research. Adopt the proper tone and style.

"I would characterize gaming web site articles as 75% painful, 15% college level, and 10% excellent."

Isn't that the truth? I wonder how these guys made it out of school, much less convinced anyone they could write. The OMM/AV comparison is dead on. Other sites just need some good editing. I love PvP, but if Scott Kurtz puts another spelling error into a strip, I'm going to scream.

"I would characterize gaming web site articles as 75% painful, 15% college level, and 10% excellent."

Yep, they are painful. If you really want to feel the pain, go to Gone Gold's Gold Guide and pick a big name game and click on the links and read the multitude of reviews for it. It's absolutely mind-numbing. So many of them just drone on and on.

I chafe at the word counts I have to deal with in the print mags at times, but a lot of the web writers would do well to impose a word count limit on themselves. I think they'd be better writers for it.

What really gets me is that I often see people mark Adrenaline Vault as a well-written site. I just want to scream when I see that. I think they're fooled by the quantity of words instead of the quality.

Adrenaline Vault has piss poor reviews that rarely have any concept of the subject matter. I can't believe people are snowballed by their nonsense.

--Dave

Just saw this at Gamecenter:

"Sony says that on January 1, EverQuest hit a peak of 81,858 players online at the same time. That's approximately 1/4 of the 330,000 EverQuest subscribers."

Ok, this Fortress 2 nearly doubled that with 140,000 users logged on at once, and that's in a smaller country.

There is also the other online game i heard of from Korea called Lineage (which i tried out alittle), though im not too sure on the numbers coming from Korea (last i heard 3 millions ubscribers) i wouldn't be surprised by them either

. . . not to sound so informed on the subject but one of my best friends who happens to be korean says that Starcraft is the most popular game there. . . he himself has no explanation why gaming is so big there . . .just that they like to GAME there. . . even moreso than in Japan he says. . .and alot of it is on PC's instead of consoles!!!!

etc