Korea, was [MUD-Dev] [News] NCSoft + Richard Garriott

[SavantKnowsAll at cs.com]

In a message dated 5/23/01 2:54:39 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
jonric at vaultnetwork.com writes:

> From another, it seems more important to ask "Why is Lineage as big
> as it is, no matter what the exact size may be, in a market that's
> far smaller?"

Having been dealing with Korea pretty extensively for the past several
months...

Lineage in Korea is a trend, a fad.  Everyone is doing it.  The Market
may be much smaller, but in a high-density country like Korea, when
something takes off, it takes off -- and literally everyone is doing
it.  Much like EverQuest's success here as being the top dog for being
the first of its kind (a well-done 3D MMOG), Lineage is no different
if you really think about it.

The real difference, from my limited experience, is the rate of
expansion.  If I understand it clearly, the Korean government is
literally backing Online Gaming companies in Korea now - in forms of
loans, grants, etc.  They have an amazing infrastructure for
high-bandwidth within the country -- One of our part-time employees
there has a 30 meg pipe for 30 dollars a month, according to him.
There are dozens upon dozens of games in development there, many being
cookie-cutters of Lineage (much like with EQ here).

Will we ever see a blending of the two markets?  In my opinion, not
for another decade.  The markets are far too different, and the only
real effort I've seen with true "blending" has come very recently with
Jake being in Austin.

Daniel "Savant" Manachi
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