I believe the game has it's own style depend on where game developers' culture from. Koreans tend to boast their wealth and rank by wearing nice suits or riding luxury cars. Such cultural aspect can be seen in the game. For a long time, since Lineage, game developers in Korea are more focused on graphical issue than others such as quests or stories. On the other hand, western game developers are more story and quest sided.

For instance, Tera, which will go alive soon, has phenomenal graphics. It is powered by Unreal engine and the details of character appearance is truely remarkable. However, I found little interest on quests and storylines. SWTOR and WOW have great storylines and quests but lack of graphics.

So why Korean developed games are lack of stories? I believe it is an influence of the culture. Scientific fiction or fantasy novels are quite rarely written in Korea. Unlike western culture, not many teenagers in 1980-1990s had chance to encounter imaginative novels. Most of their readings were more focused on subtle human nature. And for the most, the system of Korean education affected lack of their creativity. Every class had more than 40 students. Because teachers couldn't look after individual students, they were taught by rote. Without interaction, there is no creativity or reason of thinking. After Korean War, ancestors were seeking the way to build the society upon rubble in man power - the education. Because they were in haste, simple cramming education was their choice. Indeed it managed the escape of poverty but it came up with side effect, lacking creativity. In these days, people know cramming education is not effective as mid 90s, and many younsters are studying under different circumstances.

Among all fantasy novel writers, I admire J. R. R. Tolkien, the creator of The Lord of The Rings. His novel inspired so many game developers not just in West culture but also Korean's. Dragon Raja, the Korean fantasy novel written by Kang Do Kyung, has opened an era of fantasy in Korea. I hope one day Korean games melt both graphics and mature storylines that can be prised by gamers around the world.

Korea is one of the most active game developing countries in the world, and most of titles are PC based MMORPG. People around the world tend to surprise at high internet speed in Korea. Most residences now use 100Mbps upload/download connectivity and two game titles aggravated this incidence. StarCraft and Lineage. Because of two games, thousands of PC cafe sprung all over the places in Korea, and opened a gold age of game development in Korea.

Everything is going around fast in Korea. Whenever you take a taxi, most likely, driver shoots fast and furious. People finish their lunch in 10-15 mins even though they have 1 hour break. StarCraft, which requires speed and tactics to win the round, fit perfectly with Korean's nature. Blizzard sold more than half of StarCraft copies in Korea than rest of the world. It became seed money for developing WOW and also triggered an era of e-sport.

Korean people are competitive because they had hard time in history. Korea was constantly threatened by foreign countries for long time, and ancestors grew up in bitter conditions without comfort. After Korean War, most of people were poor, and did everything to live hand to mouth. People were eager for power and success. The color of Korean society melt in Lineage. Though it's a game, people were looking for an escape from harsh reality, and dreamed to be successful in their second life. Some items in Lineage requires agonizing farming and dedication to craft weapons which cost up to one hundred thousand dollars. For some gamers, Lineage is more than a game. Because the stake is so high, people who PvPed in game shed blood on offline for revenge. Even gangs were related some issues.

In game marketing aspect, Lineage was a great success but left bad ideas about MMORPG. People tend not to find fun but power and success on every other game. Most of Korean game developers these days tend to follow the trend of Lineage which led failure in western market. Ten years have past since the release of Lineage and there are two main groups of MMORPG gamers in Korea - Old gamers who still seek power and success in games and young gamers who's looking for the nature of RPG.

It is a miracle that Korea is placed 10th economic advanced country in the world despite the last war in Korea has ended just 60 years ago. Everyday was a challenge of survival for them. Being competitive is in blood of Koreans, but hey it's 21st century and time to think of how consumers outside Korea would react to your product. There are many ways to be competitive in the game beside enchanting and endless grinding. Game should be built under fundamental element, the joy. I anticipate to see what product that they will bring to foreigners in the future.