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Transculturation of Global Play-Scape Video Games in East Asia

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Transculturation of Global Play-Scape Video Games in East Asia Lineage of Line Age: Transculturation of Global Play-scape Video Games in East Asia Hui Wang Graduate Student Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg RASAALA, Volume 7: “Recreating Recreation” (2019) 39 Lineage of Line Age: Transculturation of Global Play-scape Video Games in East Asia Abstract This essay sets to explore the significance, mode, and complexity of videogame-playing in processes of social reconfiguration and cultural transmutation under conditions of further globalization, digitalization, and multinational capitalism through the online game Lineage in the context of video gaming in East Asia. Growing together with the gaming industry, there are the increased collective zests for the consumption of image, symbolic meaning, sensory spectacles and simulacra, as well as the global enthusiasm for cultural soft power and culture- creative industry. Eventually, these all constitute and transform the political-economic environment of multinational information-capitalism in the so-called post-industrial era, where video gaming is considered an ideal-type commodity and powerful form of cultural statement and participation mechanism. It also expects to shed some light upon the East Asian agencies within this transcultural dynamism, providing a counterargument and third path to those opinions, which consider globalization and contemporary popular culture as either homogeneous techno-oriented pan-Americanization or self-enclosed multiculturalism. Key words: transculturation, video game, gaming, media culture, East Asia RASAALA, Volume 7: “Recreating Recreation” (2019) 40 … when I was a schoolboy, I always played the Nethack1 game. That’s a text-based Unix game. I loved that, and my dream was to make a game based on that sort of virtual world - so when I encountered the Internet, I was very excited, because this could be a reality! That’s why I created a company to make online games. Tack Jin Kim, founder, president and CEO of NCsoft, 20052 The scene slowly moves along some ruins of an Acropolis-like Greek-style temple. A narration in English with a female voice tells about deeds of heroes in an epic tone. In the dim light through dancing dusts, a headless statue of the remains of a winged goddess that resembles the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre could be seen in front of a Hellenistic-style arch. On the steps toward the altar, against pieces of some broken columns, sleeps a young girl, who is dressed in European medieval armor that is reminiscent of a Joan- of-Arc-like female knight in popular Hollywood films - the metal plate perfectly outlines her humpy chest and reflects the glamour of her fine-textured pale skin. The plate around her waist is exquisitely hollowed out to expose her compact flat belly, below which a mini-skirt is delicately assembled with same metal plates that gracefully curves around her thigh. Apart from that, her straight hair glows blond, her eyelashes match the artificial length of a doll, and her figure is ideally slim, like that of a Barbie. Her face shows characteristics of neither a European nor Asian, but more of the combined features of both, to find the most accurate description, like the idealized cute blond girls found in Japanese comics. Her identity of a medieval European knight is further symbolized by a sword in leather-stripped sheath that she carries on the side, upon which hangs a sophisticatedly decorated pendant of a shining blue gem and gold-casted vine patterns that render the elfish elegance in the films of the Lord of the Rings, glittering a mysterious blue light. The pendant drops on the floor during her sudden waking when, at the same time, the whole temple goes dark, overshadowed by some giant creatures that sweep over from above and cause the ruins to dismantle. The girl runs out to see a huge dragon land on top of the Hellenistic façade. Upon encountering the eyes of the dragon, she is suddenly dragged into flashbacks of war, scenes of massacre and vengeance. The dragon roars and flies away, leaving the girl alone watching its flight afar into the thick clouds above the cliff. The scene dims and reveals the logo of NCsoft, South Korea’s3, also acknowledged as the world’s, leading online game company. Such is the cinematic CGI4 trailer the company has created for the promotion of the second episode of its flagship online game - Lineage II, first released in 2003.5 1 Nethack was an American Dragons&Dungeons role play PC game released in 1987. To play the game, players choose an avatar character among knight, wizard, priest, barbarian, etc., and go on virtual adventures to the “dungeons” and fight various “monsters” such as dragons. The “dungeons” contain multiple layers and are randomly generated by computer algorithms. Lineage cloned this prototype of “dungeons” from Nethack. 2 Tack Jin Kim, interviewed by Rob Fahey, “Interview: NCsoft's TJ Kim builds an online giant,” 2005. 3 In this essay, Korea refers only to the country of Republic of Korea, or South Korea, if not specified otherwise. 4 CGI: Computer Generated Image. 5 Refer to 2002 Lineage 2 official trailer. RASAALA, Volume 7: “Recreating Recreation” (2019) 41 More than twenty years have passed since Lineage I was first released in 1998. It might not sound a long time, but, to any standard, Lineage represents a rare longevity in the ever-changing world of video games. Despite its antiquity, this major MMORPG6 title still generates a revenue of 313,793 million KRW (approximately $269 million) collectively in the first three seasons of 2016, according to the company’s income reports.7 The game design of Lineage has cast visible influence on many other games. It established the unshakable Korean status in the market and contributed a prototype for game design and business model in the whole industry. The game-industry research company Superdata ranked Lineage the second top P2P MMO8 game after the video game tycoon Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft (released in 2004),9 above the much newer games on the list, including blockbuster IPs10 like Star Wars: The Old Republic11 and TERA: Online,12 despite the fact that, in the world of video games, only a few months’ difference is enough to generate massive gaps in technology, visual style, communication, market share, and user preference. It is a fast- changing and highly competitive market, but Lineage not only managed to survive as the only 2D13 game with isometric-overhead graphic of 1998’s technology, but also over competed games of the 21st-century’s frontier solutions. Other games of similar technical level with Lineage, such as Blizzard’s Diablo II (2000)14 and Electronic Arts’ Ultima Online (1997),15 have for long faded into history. As a “myth of online game market,” Lineage stands to proof that it is not only technology and capital that matters. A game could be played for its cultural contents alone, and, like in old times, gaming is not always about consumption of the audiovisual spectacles. There is something of the original “fun” of playing in it, which varies according to different cultural and social contexts, and it is this “fun” that matters.16 In any case, there is no doubt that video gaming is a Western invention. The RPG17 game was born from tabletop war games, sandbox, and card games that have long traditions in Europe and later the United States as hobby activities. The emergence and development of video games are based on home computer industry and R&D in service for the military-space complex during the Cold War period.18 Euro-American cultural elements and narratives, most commonly European Medieval culture, have always dominated and set the industrial 6 MMORPG: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. 7 The number slightly dropped in the 2018 financial year with a $182 million generated by Lineage I and II PC platform, not counting the newly released Lineage mobile game Lineage M. In 2018, to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Lineage, NCsoft announced the releasing of Lineage: Remastered – a remaking of Lineage I, using improved visual techniques. Lineage remains number one among the top most influential and profitable titles with rare longevity of online games. NCsoft Earnings Report, 3rd Season, 2016. 8 P2P MMO: Pay to Play Massively Multiplayer Online Game. 9 World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, Warcraft series, MMORPG, 2004. 10 IP: Intellectual Property. 11 Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare, Star Wars series, MMORPG, 2011. 12 See Superdata online game revenues, TERA: Online, Huizinga Inc., MMORPG, 2011. 13 2D: two-dimensional. 14 Diablo II, Blizzard North, Diablo series, Action role-playing video game, Single or multiple player, 2000. 15 Ultima Online, Electronic Arts, MMORPG, Ultima series, 1997. 16 Johan H. Huizinga, Homo Ludens (New York: Routledge, 1980). 17 RPG: Role Playing Game. 18 S. Kline, N. Dyer-Witheford, & G. de Peuter, Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing (Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003). RASAALA, Volume 7: “Recreating Recreation” (2019) 42 standard. But the arena of video gaming was not unfamiliar to East Asia - after the 1983’s North American video game crash,19 Nintendo (Japan) has single handedly revived home console game market and since then dominated in both the East and the West.20 In 2016, the video game market of mainland China was estimated to be $24.4 billion,21 making it the fastest growing region in games. The fast expansion of East Asian game industry started in the 1980s in Japan, and, by the late 1990s, South Korea already came to lead the global market of online games. Although East Asia (South Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan) still contributes the largest share of revenue for Lineage, this game is also feverishly played in places like Latin America and Russia.
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