june gloom on 8/9/2010 at 23:58
Anyway. addink, the problem isn't that the selection hasn't been localized. (Many of them are, anyway.) The problem is that SK demands that every last game sold in SK be licensed and that costs money. Most games on Steam are not licensed, and the myriad developers typically aren't willing to pony up the cash, especially indie devs because it could cripple them. So SK is considering blocking Steam outright as a blanket solution.
Did you read the article at all?
Zygoptera on 9/9/2010 at 01:04
Ho boy, you really aren't going to stop digging until you reach China South Korea, are you?
If Steam fails to comply with local laws then diddums, band, as with anything else, including presumably other DD services which fail to comply. It's the same just about everywhere- want to sell a game in NZ/ Aus/ UK/ Europe/ US? It has to be rated. Some places will accept ratings from other jurisdictions, some won't. It's not some huge anti dethtoll Steam conspiracy of despicable Starcraft worshipers and Bobby Kotick on the grassy knoll with Lord Lucan.
No epeen waving, trying not to cause any more aftershocks down south, if you know what I mean.
june gloom on 9/9/2010 at 01:37
The Blizzard thing was a joke. One that apparently went NYAARRRREEEEOOOWWWWWMMMM over your head (as well as Eva's.) Drop it.
I was simply pointing out that South Korea's licensing law is fucking stupid. No conspiracy theories, no tinfoil hat. Try actually reading the post, instead of just reading Eva's and drawing conclusions about what I said from his post.
Queue on 9/9/2010 at 02:01
So if I'm getting this right, there's a blizzard of steam in Korea that's actually a conspiracy to remove tinfoil hats? What about the 38th, does it still stand or should we brace ourselves against the Chinese?
Shakey-Lo on 9/9/2010 at 02:22
Quote Posted by Zygoptera
It's the same just about everywhere- want to sell a game in NZ/ Aus/ UK/ Europe/ US? It has to be rated.
Except that I'm able to buy things like Sleep Is Death, Auditorium, and other such games despite them not being rated. In South Korea you can't even give them away for free.
Steam is hardly the most "chilling effect" of this legislation.
Zygoptera on 9/9/2010 at 02:24
Quote Posted by dethtoll
The Blizzard thing was a
joke. One that apparently went NYAARRRREEEEOOOWWWWWMMMM over your head (as well as Eva's.) Drop it.
Heh, whereas Bobby Kotick on the grassy knoll with Lord Lucan is, of course, 100% serious business.
It was a spectacularly bad 'joke' on your part not just because it obfuscated your supposed point, but because Blizzard's only relevance is having apparently
complied with the law.
Quote:
I was simply pointing out that South Korea's licensing law is fucking stupid. No conspiracy theories, no tinfoil hat. Try actually reading the post, instead of just reading Eva's and drawing conclusions about what I said from his post.
It's effectively the same as many others. (
http://www.censorship.govt.nz/pdfword/Info-sheet-3-08_web.pdf) Example from New Zealand
Quote Posted by OFLCNZ
Game (any platform) $1,400 for the first 5 hours plus $100 per extra hour or part thereof
june gloom on 9/9/2010 at 02:32
I concede that it wasn't really a very good joke, if only because Blizzard is too easy a target.
As to SK's law being similar to other countries'... yeah, and? Doesn't make it any less shitty. Government should have no business running a rating system on entertainment.
Phatose on 9/9/2010 at 04:01
They wouldn't be trotting out a total ban as a possibility if that was the actual goal, they'd just be going for the jugular. Probably pushing for a regional lockdown. Protectionist measure for their own electronic gaming industry seems most likely.
june gloom on 9/9/2010 at 04:09
I can buy that. For a while they had an almost complete ban on everything Japanese, and they built an entertainment industry around ripping off Japanese works and changing everything to Korean in the name of protecting Korean culture, nevermind that all that Korean manga and shit is just a reconstituted Japanese product.
Briareos H on 9/9/2010 at 04:42
Quote Posted by Phatose
Probably pushing for a regional lockdown. Protectionist measure for their own electronic gaming industry seems most likely.
Exactly. They're ensuring that their shitty MMOs and CS clones generate micropayment/hello kitty fursuit revenue locally. That's actually an understandable (but short-sighted) point of view, blame the Korean gamers' awful tastes instead.
