Essay #2 - David Speidel - Online Gaming in Asia

Spread of Online Gaming in Asia

            Interactive gaming over the internet is not a new trend or technology that has developed recently.  Even in Asia, there has been a large population playing online role playing games and other interactive models that allow for people to interact with others around the world simultaneously.  Yet, until recently, the spread of these online atmospheres has been centered mostly in Japan and Korea, but has now seen a large increase in China.  The spread of this type of gaming has roots simply with the ability to access these online environments and the fervent drive for profit.

            It is important to understand that when discussing online games, it is intended as the many gaming environments that connect through the internet.  They allow interaction between users which can take form of communication or competition.  They often take the form of online role playing games, World of Warcraft the largest of this type, but there are also environments, such as Second Life, that are much more communication tools where the creation and interaction process takes precedent. 

            When discussing any creation that is reliant on the internet, the availability of access is always an issue.  Areas such as Japan and South Korea have had a large influx of western influence and financial support which created strong infrastructures.  In the case of Japan, where global corporations like Sony originated, their economy is strong enough that many Japanese have access to their own personal computers that connect to the internet.  In 2002, the percentage of their populations that used the internet was 44.6% and growing (Miyata, 2005, p. 147).  China on the other hand, has grown much more recently into an economic force.  As such their internet use is much less common, only around 3%, or 22.5 million (Chen, 2002, p. 5).  While they have the largest population in the world, the percentage of people that have access is a good barometer of how casual their use can be.  Just as Wresch discussed, those people with access to technology and education are more easily connected globally (Wresch, 1996a).  Those that are able connect to the internet through their own computers are much more likely to use it in their spare time.  As that availability increases, their use of it for leisure will most likely continue to grow.

            Yet just as the media, the quest for profit in online entertainment is a driving force for expansion.  The companies yearn to gain advantage in markets that could be profitable.  As their availability has increased China?s population becomes targeted because of the immense amount of spending power.  The previously mentioned World of Warcraft, has over six million users worldwide, at least 1.4 million of which are Asian (Woodcock, 2006).  Sony, also a large contributor in the online gaming community, is also one of the 7 largest media companies and as such drives their markets based on profit margins as they do in all their business (McChesney, 2001).   This big business is easily able to spread their product globally.  The ability to sell games and subscriptions to billions of people is impossible to ignore and creates a sort of feeding frenzy trying to gain dominance in one more global market.

            The immersion of these markets grows more each year and should continue on this trend.  Both their growth in internet users and the profits they are capable of, make them an irresistible target for the gaming industry intent on users interacting globally.  Much like any other forms of globalization this is good for those wishing to interact with new countries, and should provide interesting dynamics in the future.

Chen, W., Boase, J., & Wellman, B. (2002). The global villagers: Comparing Internet users and uses around the world. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in everyday life Oxford: Blackwell.

McChesney, R. W. (2001). Global Media, neoliberalism, and imperialism. Monthly

Review 52(10). http://www.monthlyreview.org/301rwm.htm.

Miyata, K., Boase, J., Wellman, B., & Ikeda, K. (2005) The mobile-izing Japanese: Connecting to the Internet by PC and Webphone in Yamanashi [part 1] [part 2]. In M. Ito, D. Okabe, & M. Matsuda, (Eds.), Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile phones in japanese life (pp. 143-164). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Woodcock, Bruce, S. (2006). Asian Market Peak Concurrent Users. Retrieved May 31, 2007, from MMOCHART.COM Web site: http://www.mmogchart.com/

Wresch, W. (1996a). Information rich, information poor. In Disconnected: Haves and

Have-Nots in the Information Age (chap. 1).  Retrieved May 27, 2007, from

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu:2083/Details.aspx

Posted at 11:56AM Jun 01, 2007 by SPEIDEL, DAVID in General  |  Comments[6]