Chapter 99: Rebirth of the Korean Game Industry
Arma had a simple request.
“MD will not be allowed for game companies that target the players’ wallets.”
It was hard to find a game that did not include gacha elements these days.
The monetization elements that started with DLCs were now included in most games.
Console games were less affected, but PC and smartphone games sold experience and equipment for money, which was considered a joke.
The game companies knew that it made money.
What was the point of spending billions to create a story, sophisticated graphics and a system?
They could not compete with the mass-produced gacha games that only had decent illustrations.
People complained that full-price games were expensive at 70,000 won, but they spent over 700,000 won to get one character illustration.
The recent trend was not as bad as the worst period in the early 2020s, but it did not improve much.
Many game companies still chose to target the players’ wallets rather than care about the game content.
Who would refuse money?
Of course, Arma was not saying that this behavior was wrong.
It was her master’s job to reshape the landscape of the Korean game industry.
He was a busy person who had no interest in games, so he might just leave it alone.
The game industry started to voice their dissatisfaction with Arma’s policy.
―Where can you find a game without gacha elements these days···
―If they use the fantasy survival game as an example, their sales would skyrocket if they put the sprint skill in a gacha form.
―Isn’t it a waste to make all kinds of content and not let everyone enjoy it?
―We should petition this to the Blue House.
The game company officials tried to file a petition without thinking, but they hesitated.
They wondered how President Yu Ji-ha would react to this.
If they had to describe him in one word, it would be this:
An extreme efficiencyist.
He would use anything, whether it was androids or whatever, as long as it was efficient.
He might allow games, but he might not understand why people poured huge amounts of money into data fragments.
―Maybe he has some other reason for allowing game development?
―I’m more worried that our industry might be destroyed. Do you think he would understand spending thousands to get one skill?
―Lucia will probably collect all the related data and report it to him. If he hears the users’ complaints···
―It looks like the day of the meeting will be our last day.
The industry people were afraid of being dragged to Terra Island and gave up.
But there were many smart people in Korea.
They were gamers who hated gacha and other things like that.
They filed petitions to the Blue House as much as they could.
―Please get rid of gacha! Games are not gambling!
―These days, games are still free-to-play even if you spend a month’s salary! Please help us low-income people!
―I don’t care about anything else, but manipulating the odds is crossing the line! They don’t even disclose the odds properly on their websites!
As the gamers rose up, the game companies panicked and tried to appease them.
They gave out paid currency or held meetings to communicate with the users.
They also bribed the media to promote their social service or donation activities.
They pretended to make an effort because they knew it would be over once they caught his eye.
―He might destroy and rebuild everything in the game industry. He doesn’t care about anything else.
―It’s best to pretend nothing happened. Just like we’ve always done.
They tried to lobby the Blue House officials, but they refused in fear.
“Do you want to see someone die? Don’t you know that public officials who take money are dragged to Terra Island these days?”
“There’s no such thing as secretly. Drones watch during the day and AI monitors at night. It’s bound to come out somehow.”
“It’s better to stay quiet and behave. Fortunately or unfortunately, the president doesn’t seem very interested in games.”
The game companies were relieved for now.
Yu Ji-ha was very busy with rebuilding North Korea and building Da mae Island.
He wouldn’t care about such trivial things as the game industry···that’s what they all thought.
And that mistake ended when Yu Ji-ha saw the report that Arma submitted.
“They’re cheating on the odds?”
“According to the data I checked, there is a big difference between the announced odds and the actual ones.”
It was an easy task for Arma’s computing unit to simulate all the gachas of domestic game companies.
“Most of the game companies are like that···they’re all the same bastards.”
“Yes.”
“Calculate and collect the excess profits from manipulating the odds.”
The game company representatives turned pale when they received the government’s official document.
…
A bomb dropped on the Korean game industry.
Dozens of game companies received official documents from the government.
These documents contained the data that Arma had collected.
―A company’s game has a different epic transformation gacha rate than what they announced. This is consumer fraud and a scam crime. Return the excess profits immediately and submit the user list to the government.
―B company adjusted the unique equipment gacha rate to 0% for 30 minutes at the launch of their game. Return the sales during that time.
There were so many measures that old game companies received a book-sized document.
The representatives sweated as they saw that all the contents were filled with gacha fraud.
“How can they ask us to return all the profits···”
“If we return everything, we’ll go bankrupt. The Korean game industry will collapse.”
“What do we do?”
“···”
They all remained silent at that question.
They could complain as much as they wanted, but saying that in front of Yu Ji-ha was crazy.
He was a dictator who controlled everything in Korea, and a madman of his time.
He had the ability to push through any policy and make it acceptable by any means necessary.
The drone surveillance system was an example.
The initial backlash was no joke, but now there were many people who couldn’t live without drones.
They became absolute allies as long as they didn’t commit crimes or cause trouble.
He was the one who made such a system.
He wouldn’t care about the situation of the Korean game companies.
They would be thoroughly crushed if they showed any sign of resistance.
Just like his enemies had been.
The representatives racked their brains to gather opinions.
“It doesn’t seem like he’ll let it go. He’s not a person who has no interest in games, judging by the game he released. Let’s appeal our role and suggest lowering the BM level a bit from now on.”
“It looks like the government needs a lot of money, judging by the fact that they asked us to return the excess profits. It would look good if we create a large donation fund.”
But they were all anxious.
It was hard to imagine that he would let it go with just that.
The scale of the odds manipulation by the game companies was at least tens of billions of won over a few years.
Especially since the official documents sent to each company had detailed invoices attached.
The executives were nervous when they saw that they were written down to the 10 won unit.
Some people had this opinion.
“He would have summoned us right away if he was serious, but he didn’t. Maybe he’s saying he’ll compromise if we do?”
“Well, the trend of the government these days is stabilization. He won’t start trouble recklessly.”
“We don’t have much time left to reply. We have to take some action for now.”
So the game company representatives wrote a very humble and earnest statement and sent it to the Blue House.
Yu Ji-ha read the summary out loud.
“We admit our mistake and we’ll create a fund and do volunteer work···and we’ll be careful not to do this again, is that it?”
“That’s correct.”
“Didn’t I clearly tell you to return all the excess profits within a month?”
It was not unreasonable since he had kindly calculated it for them.
“They seem to ignore it even though I emphasized it.”
“I don’t know if they’re stupid or pretending to be stupid.”
His order was no different from cutting off the game companies’ stomachs.
They had already spent the money and some of it had been absorbed into the representatives’ personal assets.
Asking them to return everything was like telling them to die, so they acted like they were dying.
But Yu Ji-ha was a real killer.
“Bring them all here. Right now.”
…
The conference room where dozens of people gathered was so quiet that even a needle dropping could be heard.
The game company representatives sweated nervously.
It was because the person who made this meeting was playing a game.
It was not an ordinary game, but a mobile game made by M company, the representative of Korea.
This company had suffered a big blow from their unfriendliness and odds manipulation controversies and had gone downhill.
But they were still the top in the Korean mobile game industry because they were excellent at BM (business model) management.
In other words, they were good at ripping off the users’ wallets.
But even their representative had to pray the same prayer as many users today.
‘Come out, please come out, please come out!’
“This is hard to get.”
What he was doing was the most vicious BM in game history, called complete gacha.
It was briefly regulated in the early 2020s, but as always, it fizzled out due to the game companies’ lobbying and the users’ lack of interest.
There were nine slots and eight of them were already filled, and only one remained.
But no matter how much Yu Ji-ha pressed the combination button, it did not complete.
“It costs 100,000 won per press···this is quite a lot of money. I should have done this instead of developing AI hard.”
The M company’s representative had to check if his neck was still attached every time he heard his voice.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? The odds are 1/9, but it doesn’t complete like this. I think I’ve been pressing the button for about 30 minutes···”
“Mr. President···”
The representative tried to stand up, but Yu Ji-ha said without lifting his head.
“I warn you in advance, you should give up on talking nonsense in front of me.”
“···”
He had nothing to say and sat back down.
The button-pressing game filled an hour and the last slot was not completed.
Yu Ji-ha went up to M company’s representative and shoved his smartphone in front of him.
“How much money did I spend?”
“Sev, seven million won···”
“I pressed 700 times on the last slot alone, and all failed. Aren’t the odds 1/9? Something’s wrong here?”
“That’s because it’s a variable odds···”
“Then why didn’t I know? Where’s the notice? Look for it.”
The representative searched hard for the game notice, but couldn’t find it.
“Isn’t it also missing from the website? Wasn’t it there in the first place?”
“No, no···Mr. President, the truth is···”
“Don’t drag your words and answer clearly. Is this a game or a gamble? Do you think it’s a game to spend seven million won sitting here and still have to spend more money?”
“···”
“Arma, what’s the exact odds of this complete gacha?”
“The first three slots are 1/9, but one of the middle slots drops to 1/27 and the last slot drops to 1/729.”
It was a perfect example of a complete gacha that pulled and pushed well.
Yu Ji-ha slapped his forehead.
“You lack sincerity. You might have gotten it if you pressed 29 more times, right?”
He was clearly joking, but his eyes and mouth were not smiling at all.
The representatives who realized that the atmosphere had turned bad stood up in a hurry.
“Mr. President, we’ll fix it right away.”
“We’ll return the excess profits and create a fund···”
“That’s enough. Sit down.”
Yu Ji-ha made everyone sit down and declared.
“You seem to be mistaken, but asking you to return the excess profits is not robbery. It’s a legitimate recovery for illegally taking the users’ money. You scammed the users. This is a crime.”
The atmosphere in the conference room, which was already quiet, became chilly.
Yu Ji-ha had made this atmosphere several times after seizing power.
The atmosphere ended when the AI judge delivered the verdict and they were transferred to Terra Island.
Yu Ji-ha’s declaration continued.
“From this moment on, your company is no longer a game company. It will be treated as a gambling business by law, so please be aware of that. And since you seem to like probabilities so much, from now on, the salaries of the employees will also be paid randomly. The upper limit is your current salary, and the lower limit is 10,000 won.”
In other words, they would spin a roulette to pay them anywhere from 10,000 won to their current salary.
It was a crazy and unfunny joke, but no one could laugh because it came from Yu Ji-ha.
He was someone who would do what he said.
“Didn’t I say it’s a crime? Lucia, start the verdict.”
An android entered and announced the charges and sentences one by one.
The people were caught off guard by how quickly the trial ended.
“This is absurd. Mr. President, Mr. President!”
Amidst the commotion in the conference room, the android stood in front of M’s representative.
「Verdict: Life imprisonment」
「Remark: All excess profits from assets will be recovered」
That meant he would be locked up in prison and his assets would be seized.
If he had hidden any assets, they would be tracked down and taken back.
The representative smiled bitterly with resignation.
“Mr. President, may I say a word?”
“Go ahead.”
“Building an industry is very hard, but it can easily collapse. If we collapse now, the Korean game industry will collapse too. It will be irreversible.”
“An industry riddled with fraud can collapse anytime. And I’ll rebuild it, so don’t worry.”
“No matter how advanced artificial intelligence is, it can’t replace what dozens of companies have worked on for over 30 years…”
“How long do you think it took Shilla Entertainment to develop the two games they released?”
“…At least two years under the radar…”
“One week. I can make games like yours in a day. So don’t worry and rest well on Terra Island.”
“What nonsense…”
The representative’s eyes widened and the android took him away.
The Korean game industry was devastated as if it had been hit by a nuclear bomb, as dozens of game company representatives were imprisoned and the government went after their assets.
What calmed the chaos was the announcement of several new games from Shilla Entertainment.
<The carrot and the stick>
Yu Ji-ha started to wield his axe in earnest in the game industry.
From the perspective of those who suffered, his axe looked like a giant chainsaw.
He swung it lightly and dozens of game company representatives were arrested and their assets were recovered.
They had been exposed to have cheated and deceived users for a hundred days, so they had no grounds to defend themselves.
―They deserved it. They claimed it was a mistake, but it’s hard to believe that they made a mistake for almost 20 years.
―They didn’t even disclose the probabilities properly, what are they whining about? The ones they did disclose were hidden in a corner and uploaded as image files.
―The verdict showed that they had manipulated most of the probabilities and deceived users.
―The industry should take this opportunity to rise again, which I’m sure everyone agrees on. But the damage is too great.
―Even if they recover the excess profits, they shouldn’t have sent the representatives to Terra Island… The leaders who could direct new game development are gone.
But most gamers scoffed at these reactions.
―They’re just copying templates and UIs and calling them new games.
―How much did you get paid by the reporter? They should cut off all those who gave such interviews.
―I hope there’s no government subsidy going into those media outlets.
―You don’t know much. There’s no subsidy going into any media or group these days. Yu Ji-ha cut them all off.
―It’s refreshing to see those who were talking nonsense at the national audit get arrested.
―The stock prices are refreshing too. I haven’t seen blue for a long time?
Everyone showed a refreshing reaction while worrying at the same time.
It was a crisis where a huge market was about to disappear entirely, whether it was fraud or not.
It wasn’t impossible to replace it since most of the sales were domestic, but it was expected to take time.
There was also sympathy for the employees who had to quit their jobs unwillingly because of the salary gacha.
―The employees are just following orders from above, they’re pitiful.
―Those bastards are accomplices too. Especially M’s employees here acted like they were the representatives and got screwed by messing with the users.
―Come on, there are thousands of employees at M, do you think they’re all connected by a collar? There were many people who just worked there even if they were dissatisfied with the company policy. Everyone does that.
―They should have thought of a countermeasure before they did it. What’s the point of a few people feeling good? The Korean game industry is dying.
―What game industry? They’re all scammers. Even if we spare them, they’ll just make more BMs to suck our wallets.
―Just wait, guys. President Yu Ji-ha will take care of it.
In fact, it was not something that could be settled with a single punishment, as the pillars of dozens of companies were shaken.
And as if they had been waiting, a follow-up measure was announced.
Silla Entertainment declared that they would absorb game developers without limit.
―Planning, art, server, live… Any career is fine. Except for BM.
The treatment and welfare were quite good.
It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t low either, and most importantly, there was no politics in the company.
That was because Arma, who was practically Silla Group, had a tight grip on the power even at the bottom.
There was no rank either, and the salary increased according to the performance.
―It’s weird that there’s no rank… The direct boss is Chairman Arma.
―Might as well try being a slave to a big house for once.
―I’m a Shilla Group employee from now on.
That’s how Shilla Entertainment quickly interviewed and accepted hundreds of developers.
Artificial intelligence couldn’t solve various creativity yet, so they still had to rely on humans.
That’s how more and more developers left their shaky companies and joined Shilla Entertainment.
The industry welcomed them with confusion.
―They’ve hired over 2,000 people so far, I wonder how they’ll manage them all.
―Surprisingly, they’re immediately put into game development as soon as they enter. Silla Group’s know-how on work division is no joke. As soon as you sit in your chair, you get assigned tasks right away.
―That sounds like a clean hell. Creativity is important in this line of work, after all.
―Creativity, there’s not much to it. And you shouldn’t talk about creativity when you’re developing games in Korea. You’re just making the same games anyway.
―It’s actually better when you come in. No politics, no excuses for not being in charge of something. Just finish your quota and you can go home right away. No one gives you a look.
―There is no rank, but there is. The ones who get paid more and do more work are higher ranked. If you finish your work quickly, artificial intelligence will assign you more work and increase your salary.
―Does the company move by some rules? You should have some meetings and dinners to bond with your co-workers…
―You’re talking about running a company to Silla Group.
―Working here makes me realize what a real part is. You can’t say things like “the company can’t run without me” here.
―That’s what a big company is like. Even though Silla Group is a new business.
Anyway, in terms of absorbing the shock of the market, they were doing their job.
The chaos actually subsided a lot and the developers were satisfied and focused on their work.
The problem was with the owners and executives who had cheated, and the developers and BMs who had no skills.
The former two groups were transferred to Terra Island and forgotten, and the latter two groups wandered around and left the industry.
―Getting paid by gacha in the industry is as bad as making shitty BMs. There’s no reason to use them anymore.
―Is it true that mobile games are so dry… They’ve all been cheating like this?
―There aren’t many decent places left. Now Silla Entertainment has to lead the Korean game industry.
―A company that hasn’t been established for long, with thousands of developers, how can they do anything in this chaotic atmosphere?
―Yu Ji-ha has shut up everyone who said things like that so far. Isn’t the private moon trip starting this month? You were one of those who shouted it was impossible.
―You seem to think artificial intelligence is water, but they can make online games like that in no time. Do you know how big the Silla Metaverse server is?
And so people began to look forward to the games that Shilla Entertainment would release.
Some of them had the view that they had to be at least as good as they had destroyed the industry.
Of course, Silla Entertainment didn’t care about such atmosphere and devoted themselves to development according to artificial intelligence’s instructions.
And it didn’t take long for the results to come out.
…
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