Invaders from the land of broadband

摘要

In a country better known for its heavy industry and manufactured exports, some young South Koreans are working hard on software products and services with potentially world-beating characteristics. They beaver away on computers, but their desks are piled high with comic books, animated videos and plastic action figures. They are giving mythical characters new looks, creating surreal landscapes and building a fearsome arsenal of lethal weapons. Welcome to the world of MMORPG, or massively multi-player online role-playing games. The companies that employ these game designers, most of them based in Seoul, account for only a tiny share of the world's computer-games industry, which is worth some $32 billion once games and hardware are added together. But steadily their online fantasies are increasing in popularity, and in the process the firms are pioneering new ways to make money on the internet. What the South Koreans have begun to do is take online gaming beyond hard-core gamers and to a far wider audience. They are also trying to export their games to other countries.