Hello, this is Jaesung Park, the lecturer of the advancement and future of game technology
Before going into the lecture
Let's look into a quote by Sid Meier
Sid Meier said the game is
a series of interesting choices
The more game technology advances
The more this element of interest will increase
Game technology is ultimately
The nature of the game that can provide interest to the users
We can see that its role is to strengthen that
The relationship between this quote by Sid Meier and technology
We'll keep it in mind as we begin this lecture
First, we'll think about what you need to learn
through this lecture
First, we'll analyze the influence that game has on the society and culture
And through this, the meaning of game production
The social and cultural meanings
are what we'll look into
Next, we'll grasp the trend of recent new technology
And based on this, how games will be produced from now on
We'll take the time to think about the future
And about the current global game companies
What strategies they're competing with and what the trend is
And if we understand this trend
and produce games
What strategies do we need to use to produce games?
These are the things that we will think about
The influence of games on society and culture
First, in the advancement and future of game technology
we'll look into the influence that game has on the society and culture
First, the positive influence and negative influence
We'll look into these two types in societal influence
We'll first look into the positive influence of games
Games provide comfort to us, psychologically and emotionally
And it gives a chance to interact socially
It has been proven that there's education that's much more immersive than other contents
and there's also learning effect
Actually, the psychological and emotional pros
giving comfort, these kind of aspects
can be found in how the game sets its tone, what kind of experience it makes
and what results it brings
Those are the things where it can be found
Games being violent and being immersive through addiction
it isn't all about that
In games, there can actually be various stories inside
In these various stories, gaining new experience
and in there, the anxiety and depression felt in reality
can be relieved, according to research
And as for societal interactions
the users in the game I made
met within the game and even got married
These days, they meet like this
have similar interests, form new relationships
and eventually, it often leads to real-life relationships
When I participated in one of the weddings
the encounter of two people through a game
can actually lead to happiness in the real world as well
After seeing that with my own eyes
the societal role of games
were now thought to be very meaningful
And recently in educational aspects
Games are used very actively
The device elements that add to the immersiveness of games
are effective in increasing learning effect and memory
according to analysis
So in order for more game contents to be utilized in education
many more are being developed
Next are the negative influences of games
Actually, many negative influences
have been a bigger issue because they were on the news
They become addicted and over-immersed
They show violence and aggressive behaviors
Societal isolation occurs
These are the negative influences of games
As people who make games, when we make games
we need to keep in mind that it can affect the users this way
We need to consider it while making it
In a way, just addiction and immersion
shouldn't be the focus here
During the immersive process, how can it lead to better emotions
or as a result, for the things that this person has
like stress, how can we solve those?
Think about these things
and changing the negative influence into more positive ones
These efforts, as game producers
need to be cared about
This is because for most people
this negative influence may not be big
but people vary greatly
The weaker they are, the more comfort they want to gain from games
and these tendencies are strong
The problems that weak individuals may have
are something we need to consider while making
That way, it won't cause social problems
as what you should know
We'll also learn about the influence of games on the culture
Games become the media of culture expression
It contributes to global cultural interaction
It may reflect social values and issues
It may also reinterpret cultural beliefs
These days, because the game industry has grown
it's also contributing to the economic aspects
as what you should know
Let's first look into the media of cultural expression
These days, in open markets
games from various countries and various cultures can be encountered
Based on the history, mythology, and tradition of different cultures
the created stories and characters
can be found easily
So the mythology, culture, and values that we didn't know
can be found through games in many instances
Services used to be conducted by each country and locally
but these days, the services are often provided in one server globally
Within that server, based on various countries and various cultures
people meet together and interact
So through games, many people
often interact with those who are in new cultures
So in a way, culturally
The people in each area become more abundant
as a result
Actually, media can't deal with
certain social values and issues
but games can publicly debate them and allow them to experience
and it's a good way to do this
It can apply social values and issues, and discuss about them
it may even deliver educational messages
and increase social awareness
And it can also be a reinterpretation of cultural beliefs
Cultural beliefs, in a way
can be seen as stereotypes
But settings that break those stereotypes can be implemented into the games
and players can solve conflicts that arise in the process of breaking stereotypes
By providing them with that role
in the center of the process of reinterpreting cultural beliefs
by placing a player there
those cultural beliefs can be thought about once again
and these opportunities can be made
Other than social and cultural effects
games actually create new experience
and allow users to encounter a new world
So setting certain rules in that world
and setting the directionality
makes the people form consciousness about the new society
Thus, through rules and directionality that cannot be encountered in real life
imagining living in that society
and thinking about the thoughts they should have
These thoughts can be expanded more
So in the real society, the problems of the real society
can be thought of in a deeper way
The role of giving new social consciousness
is what games do
In giving more social consciousness
and bringing up the problems
there are 4 main games that do these
When you have time
since these are games that cannot be easily encountered
it will be good to try playing these
This War of Mine / Papers, Please
Life is Strange / Hellblade : Senua's Sacrifice
These four games are the examples
First, in the case of This War of Mine
Actually normal people just see the news
and feel the tragedy indirectly, time to time
But it goes into the war deeply and within the actual war
allows users to actually experiencing surviving in the war
This makes them think about war again
and through this, after understanding it completely
they can discuss about it together
It's a game that provides these opportunities
Next is Papers, Please
This is a game that experiences the worker of borderline checkpoint
Actually, normal people can't experience
the life of a borderline checkpoint worker
especially in Asian countries
But in Europe
there's a social problem about immigration
so by becoming the borderline checkpoint worker
and understanding why people are immigrating
and seeing how the real world is working out
The immigration laws in the real world
can be seen on how it's influcing their own life
Papers, Please is the game that does this
Next, there's a game called Life is Strange
In teenage years
teenagers experience such a variety of problems
So one's own experience may not be experienced by others
and one may forget their own problems of the past
There are various views on the teenage years
The life of a teenager happening in reality
their identity, and the social issues are dealt with inside the game
By publicly debating about the teenager problems that's becoming a social problem
allowing the public to recognize this more
is what the game Life is Strange does
Next is a game called Hellblade : Senua's Sacrifice
Actually, normal people
can't really understand mentally ill people
The circumstances or the mental conditions of a person
and why they're doing these things
cannot be experienced
But in this game, the inner side of a mentally-ill person
can be directly experienced
Through realistic depiction of mental illness
it brings problem awareness
and broadens the understanding on things that couldn't be understood before
These are what this game contributes to
The trend of new technology and the future of games
Next, we'll look into the trend of new technology and the future of technology
We'll first look into the history of game technology
In 1958, the very first computer game was released
In 1972, arcade games were a major hit
In 1985, household nintendo, NES
began its business in console games
In 1996, in Nintendo 64, the artistic advancement
of 3D graphics were selected
In 2004, well before in 1998 of Korea
Lineage was already released and was successful
but it was just within Korea
Globally, the technology called MMORPG has been selected for games
and the successful game was WoW
That happened in 2004
In 2007, the size of the game industry increased greatly
through the emergence of mobile app stores
And in 2016, VR devices like Oculus
began their market emergence in earnest
You can probably tell, but in the history of games
the groundbreaking event that changed the size of the game industry
was mostly because of emergence of new technology
and their application on games
as you can see here
The technology itself isn't important, but as I mentioned before
technology amplifies interesting experience
and increases the width of experience
as much as it expands, new fun and new value appear
So the advancement of these technologies
contribute to the game industry this way
Then recently, what new technologies there are
and I mean the technologies that are applied on games
and what their trends are
will be talked about today
Mainly, the A.I., VR/AR, and cloud streaming
These three technologies
are what global companies are putting their focus on
as new technologies
In the case of A.I., in a way
the NPC that has been decided in a cookie-cutting way
have their own personalities and their own identities
and approach the users within the game
And through this approach, the experience in the game
personalizes to each person
So one person's experience cannot be the same as mine
and the things I experience cannot be experienced by others
Games like these, through A.I.,
will continuously be produced
And these games are being developed right now as well
Recently, for large game companies in Pangyo
applying the A.I. of NPCs more deeply
has been set as their big company goal
Of course, there are cost-related burdens, but those burdens
are judged to be solved once time passes
To those who are producing games, trends
are element that has to be considered more
Especially in the A.I. area
when you guys actually go into game production
art, programming, system planning
will be the segmented work that you will be completing
Through A.I., development process
are being automated in today's trend
In the case of programming, in the past
the programming that has been done by tens of people
now a few core developers, like 3 or 4
can complete the tasks of 30 to 40 people
The planner, in a detailed way
makes according to the set rules
and the A.I. can do this too, so just 2-3 can people can perform the planning task as well
And now for you guys, since A.I. emerged
you may think that the jobs you can do
may decrease
But rather than thinking like that
as performing a core role as a game designer yourself
letting the detailed tasks to be done by A.I.
will allow you to reach your goal more easily
in this aspect
So think about it more creatively
When designing a game
think more actively
since these technologies have appeared
That's a better way to think about it
And in the case of VR/AR
these were being developed in the past as well
and it's continuing to be developed right now
This technology amplifies the immersiveness
For now, the level of graphics of VR
in terms of the best games, I mean the games of PC and consoles
they may not match up to the level of those best games
But internally, those experiences
are almost coming up to level
So when you play the game
in a way, the interaction is becoming closer to reality
so the immersiveness is amplified
and new experiences can be made
And those are continuing to be developed
Especially, something to focus on is in the VR part
this amplifies immersiveness
So in education, training, health care
and other areas, through the application of VR
the other areas tend to be gamified
Education increases effect through games that use VR
Even in areas such as military training
the effect is increased through VR
Health care as well, through VR
rather than seeing it through videos or books
experiencing directly
will bring more effects
so in these areas, gamification is increasing
as you should know
And especially in console games
this technology is being applied a lot
For console games, the more the level of the game increases
there's the problem of the devices having to advance as well
But now, through the advancement of cloud technology
the game play practically occurs within the server
and the results of streaming the game play in the server
are being shown on the console, as an advancement
Since this technology is continuing to advance
the games with better qualities, in a way
are being conditioned in ways they can be performed in various environments
Then what is the future of games with these new technologies applied?
Let's think about that
As A.I. advances, actually
the characters inside the A.I.
will become realistic
Think that you're creating a new world
and considering that it's different from the real world
the NPC in the new world that's not reality
follows the rules of that world
when it thinks and acts
When the person that thinks and acts like that is met in the new world
the experience about the new world become more vivid
and becomes more immersive
and there will be more immersion than the current game
And these experience are not just
decided on everyone
and don't provide just one kind of experience
A.I. are all personalized
and communicate with each of their players
So everyone has different experience
and having these different experiences
in a way, becomes so normal
in this game environment
One thing you need to consider more is
game design, game development, tests
these parts will actually become automated
A.I. will take many parts that humans used to do
and be able to perform them
So for game designs in the future
creatively have more of your color
think about what kind of games you will make
to give certain experience to users
The famous quotes by game designers
have all the answers
Games give continuous interesting choices
as Kojima Hideo said
it makes people's experience more abundant
Understanding humans accurately
and thinking for the humans
will allow these things to happen
As a game designer, as the person making a game
if the directionality is chosen with these thoughts in mind
the generation that can acquire those worlds more conveniently
will come soon
Next, we'll look into the VR/AR area
In the VR/AR, the immersion
is directionalized to be amplified
And in the process of amplifying the immersion
the UX innovation occurs
Right now, the devices, in a way
interact with things like sensors
but for the normal actions of a person
to be interacted within the game as well
I think the devices for this will be developed
And especially, when A.I. is integrated
the immersive new world that can experienced by VR
will have a more abundant experience
Then the examples of games with new technology applied
is what we will look into
It will be good to try playing them as well
Half-Life Alyx, which involves VR
Pokemon GO, which involves AR
The Last of Us Part 2, where AI is applied on NPC
These three are the examples
In the case of Half-Life Alyx, it's a horror game
As I said before
the level of graphics of VR
can't really match up to the level of consoles
But because of this unique device characteristics of VR
the immersiveness of play is very deep
The graphic elements will continue to develop in the future
so the immersiveness of VR will probably overcome the console
For Pokemon GO, through continuous updates
it's developing into a game that can be enjoyed in daily lives
In the case of The Last of Us Part 2
AI is applied on NPC
to what level it's being applied on current games
is what you can observe
Actually, since AI is developing very quickly
all the technologies that are being developed quickly
cannot be implemented into the games right away, as of now
So this technology
may be different from the current AI that you're thinking of
But observing how it's being applied on games
will have no problems at all
Competition strategies and trends of global game industries
Lastly, the competition strategies of global game companies
and trends will be observed
I chose 5 main global games
Actually, there are so many companies that make games
There are many domestic companies and many large companies
but the standard for choosing these
was based on companies that lead the trend of the game industry
as I chose this
There are companies with high sales and size
but these 5 companies are the ones
that lead the trend
Tencent, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Blizzard
These are the 5 companies
Tencent possesses various portfolio such as mobile and PC
and it is famous for its investment in aggressive games
The riot games and epic games that you know well
Supercell, Blizzard, Ubisoft
It invested in a majority of companies
And through active investment
there are instances when it takes dominance
but even in instances when it doesn't
Blizzard is the instance for this
Even with a small share
they do strategical collaboration
Next is Sony
Sony occupies the market with powerful console games
and high quality and monopoly
are its strategies
Microsoft is strengthening its investment in the game industry these days
The Xbox series, the cloud system for consoles
and aggressive assumption of studios are being carried out
For Nintendo, the game console itself is original
Consoles such as Switch and Wii
are being made originally
Using Nintendo's own IP
efforts are being made into maintaining itself as a strong company
Blizzard, as many of you know
Call of Duty, WoW, Overwatch
they conduct business with their own franchise
As a North America company, they prioritize competition
so they have a lot of interest
on E-Sports
The strategies and trends of these companies
will be observed overall
The competition strategy of Tencent is expanding its investment in global game companies
and leading the market of mobile games
and actively choosing new technology AI and clouds
Those were their strategies
For the trend, it's continuing to expand the global market even now
and to do that, it's actively continuing to invest
And the mobile games take up
the biggest pie of the sales
So in this area as well, the technological performance
is to be increased through investments and efforts
continuously
For Microsoft, its current competition strategies
are assumption of game studio and expansion
strengthening of cloud gaming for consoles
They're participating in active business of consoles
So for console games to support cross platforms
they're making these efforts
For trends, the expansion of global market for the expansion of partnership
and selection of new technology are being actively made
Those are it
For Sony, its competition strategy is strong hardware
and monopoly
Within the Playstation network
it's making efforts to create many businesses
These days, as mentioned before, immersion with more realistic feeling
They also prioritize quality
so they're actively investing in VR
For trends, something mentioned often about consoles these days is
about the environment
With the motto of gaming that can be continued
the trend is headed towards high interest in energy efficiency and the environment
and it's expanding its streaming service
So it collides with Microsoft sometimes
Recently, there was a trend in collaborating on cloud
but these two companies cannot move together
so I'm expecting a collision in streaming service as well
Next is Nintendo
The competition strategy of Nintendo is developing an original game platform
and having a strong franchise
And Nintendo has an inner motto of
creating games for family
For trends, mobile game market
is where they're expanding their franchise
They're utilizing many popular franchises
in this mobile game market expansion
Next, we'll look at Blizzard
Blizzard also has variou game portfolios
as their competition strategy
Especially for Blizzard, as a North American company
actively invests in E-Sports
and expands its competitive gaming community
The current trend is strengthening its mobile game market entrance
Microsoft assumes this Blizzard
and in a way, is actively trying to collaborate with the console area
as its trend
Lastly, what I want to tell you guys is
no matter how much the new technology advances
and even if the required cost for game production increases
games have to continue to be toward humans
The quotes by famous game designers
contain all of these
Making people's experience more abundant
Providing continuous, interesting choices to people
All these, only when they're targeted toward humans
have meaning
You will now begin making games
When making games, these approach strategies centered around humans
need to be maintained
during the advancement of new technology and small game development
in order to make meaningful games
Ultimately, competition comes from how much you understand humans
and how much affection you have toward humans
as what you should know
We'll end the lecture here
The influence of games on the society and culture
Positive influence Psychology, societal interaction, education
Negative influence Addiction, violence, societal isolation
Influence on culture Plays the role of handling societal problems and providing a place for public opinion
Example: This War of Mine, Paper, Please, Life is Strange, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Trend of new technology and the future of games
New technology AI, VR/AR, and cloud/streaming contribute to making the users' experience more abundant
AI technology Utilized for realistic NPC creation, personalized experience, automation of production process, real-time reaction to user's play
VR/AR technology Amplifies immersion of users and is actively used for other areas such as education to increase immersiveness
Competition strategies and trends of global game companies Competition of global game companies is increasing
Expansion of mobile market, application of new technology, and strengthening of cloud gaming are emerged as major strategies