This is a vital discussion, and now that I've had a much-needed nap and am thinking more clearly, let's look things over.
"Any kind of cultural stereotyping really turns me off"
Fair enough, Tony. That argument has merit. We are working in a vacuum, though. NCSoft has said so little, and what they have said has been... all wrong. It sounds to me that Srmalloy knows what he's talking about. (For my part I do not. My brief time in Korea only let me know how very different the place is.) Perhaps it would be productive if he, and others here with real cultural experience, could come together and teach us all about what is true and not true about Korean culture, and what it reveals about Mr. Kim and the way he does business. Naturally, that thread would need to be especially heavily regulated. (I applaud the care y'all put into moderating these boards.)
"Not idiots. Sociopaths."
Love'ya V.V., and heaven knows I'm furious at NCSoft too. But having seriously ruminated over what Srmalloy wrote, I think I may have isolated something important.
I believe Mr. Kim and company, as producers of "grind" MMOs, see these programs as fungible cookie-cutter product, much as, say. many film producers see their movies as widgets and never actually read the scripts. Therefore, our reaction is completely incomprehensible to them.
We on the other hand, recognise CoH as a unique cultural artifact. I understand it is the only MMO that features costume contests where people create and exhibit their creations, and the only MMO where one may create and share their own stories. (Y'all feel free to correct me, I'm hardly an expert on MMOs.)
Do we, the players do that for a profit? No. We do those things for self expression. In a word: art. When CoH came out, perhaps it was mere commercial art at best. But after eight years of growth and accumulation, I believe it is -- culturally relevant and worthy of preservation.
Suppose that Mr. Kim purchased a Goya or a Van Gogh. (Probably could.) He owns it, he can secure it, exhibit it, charge money for it... but even he would almost certainly recoil at the thought of wantonly setting a Goya on fire! That would make him a barbarian, a vandal no better than those awful Taliban who dynamited those Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.
But if he doesn't
recognise CoH as art, then indeed his actions would appear to us, as you put it, "sociopathic," without actually being so. You see? And he would fail to understand why he's suddenly being called a brutish, uncultured barbarian.
I'm not trying to defend NCSoft. God knows Srmalloy's description viscerally repels me (but then, so does kimchi.
) But I would like to
understand NCSoft. Perhaps then we could formulate a better, more effective approach.
Oh, Gangrel? I don't think I'm following your argument. My sympathies in advance, but what is this awful thing you're talking about?
