Korea Wins: flawless victory, fatality

[El Gallo]

In the battle of American catasses and Korean catasses, we never really had a chance, did we?
http://www.h-anime.net/onykill.jpg

Lots of entertaining anti-Korean sentiment in the official forums thread, with North America's finest assuming the Koreans either hacked the game or faked the pictures:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-general&T=1075694&P=1

[Pineapple]

In the battle of American catasses and Korean catasses, we never really had a chance, did we?


Lots of entertaining anti-Korean sentiment in the official forums thread, with North America's finest assuming the Koreans either hacked the game or faked the pictures:

Well that one guy is right in that Koreans are great at finding "tricks" to help them accomplish a goal. Sometimes it ends up being a flat out exploit. They dont care, the objective rules above all.

However that doesnt mean they did in this case. They are also extremely good at catassing an impossibility into a possibility. It helps when most of the participants are all in the same big room. Communication is critical. Koreans are the Borg when it comes to online gaming.

However it was US players that took down the infamous Sleeper in EQ, taking over 3 hours and an estimated 1400 deaths (with cleric chain ressing teams and many layers of people). We can catass too.

[Nija]

40 people in a raid group sitting in an internet cafe + one LEADER giving orders via a bullhorn.

It'll be awhile before the US does it.

[Toast]

40 people in a raid group sitting in an internet cafe + one LEADER giving orders via a bullhorn

Say what you will about catassing and the pointlessness of MMORPG gaming, but high level "raiding" require a tremendous amount of coordination and team work. Successful guilds are actually pretty amazing examples of team-building and team work considering the barriers to communication and the lack of face-to-face.

It would be cool to be a consultant teaching businesses lessons learned from successful catass guilds. I'm sure they would love it if their employees catassed on work stuff.

[Avatard]

40 people in a raid group sitting in an internet cafe + one LEADER giving orders via a bullhorn.



It'll be awhile before the US does it.

I'd imagine that room smelled a lot like Detroit in the summer.

[AlteredOne]

It would be cool to be a consultant teaching businesses lessons learned from successful catass guilds. I'm sure they would love it if their employees catassed on work stuff.

The whole "wage" and "salary" system interferes with the catassisization of the workplace :(  Here's how it would work, in an ideal catass world.  
-Manager assigns project, announces reward
-Team busts ass to get it done
-Team wins pay check, and gets to roll on who receives it
-Winner is still eligible for further loot rolls, because otherwise he'd slack off
-Company could just adjust the loot drop rate, to motivate or punish employees.  Rather than layoffs, the drop rate could be severely reduced, and some low-rollers would sleep in their cubes and beg for snacks.

Similar concepts could fix many problems, including education and social security.

[Nebu]

The whole "wage" and "salary" system interferes with the catassisization of the workplace :(  Here's how it would work, in an ideal catass world.  
-Manager assigns project, announces reward
-Team busts ass to get it done
-Team wins pay check, and gets to roll on who receives it
-Winner is still eligible for further loot rolls, because otherwise he'd slack off
-Company could just adjust the loot drop rate, to motivate or punish employees.  Rather than layoffs, the drop rate could be severely reduced, and some low-rollers would sleep in their cubes and beg for snacks.

Similar concepts could fix many problems, including education and social security.

This system exists.  They're called "commissioned sales people".

[Jayce]

I think the message here is:  if you really love gaming and want to be a REAL catass, learn Korean and get thee to a PC Baang.

[HaemishM]

I thought the message was gamers smell like moldy cheese.

[AcidCat]

Koreans are the Borg when it comes to online gaming.

.

Nice.

[sidereal]

I like how the Koreans executing the formula better than everyone else is a reason to look down on them.  Them grapes, they smell sour.

[Threash]

The only reason Koreans took down Onyxia before their american catass counterparts is because their beta accounts weren't wiped.  Game went live like a week ago over there, but they had a good year head start on their characters at least.

[Pineapple]

I like how the Koreans executing the formula better than everyone else is a reason to look down on them.  Them grapes, they smell sour.

The WOW forums do look down on them. I dont, however.

I think their ability to think and act collectively in battle is admirable. They love tactics and battle discipline, and I am sure that they enjoy a night of intense gaming as much as anyone else.

The most fun I have ever felt in an online game was being in a well organized raid that was successful because everyone did their duties and performed like a well oiled machine. This is par for the course for Koreans, so it must feel good to them.

They are master tacticians. Imagine if you logged in each night to glorious tactical battle royales, instead of people whining and playing guild politics and acting disorganized and being self centered. Would be a much more fun experience. I envy that.

[schild]

They are master tacticians. Imagine if you logged in each night to glorious tactical battle royales, instead of people whining and playing guild politics and acting disorganized and being self centered. Would be a much more fun experience. I envy that.

And then one day you don't wake up. Because you forgot to eat while playing Everquest.

You see, we don't make fun of Koreans for their tactical strategy - we make fun of them because they'll play through any treadmill with the proficiency of 77 american catassers and keep playing until they keel over.

They're a sick type of gamer, and must be stopped at any cost.

[El Gallo]

The only reason Koreans took down Onyxia before their american catass counterparts is because their beta accounts weren't wiped.  Game went live like a week ago over there, but they had a good year head start on their characters at least.

My understanding is that they have only had the characters since early December.  They had a month long free trial period, which is typical of Korean games, and started paying monthly fees in January.  US people have been saying that it is unfair that they kept "open beta" characters, but really a Korean open beta is the same thing as an American free first month, because Korean MMOGs don't require you to buy the box.

I could be wrong on the dates, but I am pretty sure that current Korean characters are not significantly older than current American ones.

I'm with Jayce on the underlying reason.  I think playing in the same room in a bang is a huge factor in the success of Korean guilds.  It was the difference between night and day when my guild started using teamspeak, and teamspeak sucks with that many people.  Playing live where you can hear everyone else and see some of their screens must make raiding so much more effective.

[Evil Elvis]

Koreans schmoreans.  40+ people to kill it (wild guesstimate), and it dropped 3 epic items.

My decision to quit playing was well founded.

[Nebu]

I'm dumbfounded that anyone even cares about who killed megafoozle_0846 first.  Please tell me that all this ranting is a joke.

[HaemishM]

There are links to the WoW official forums, and you think it's a joke?

Well, maybe a cosmic joke on the worthlessness of the lives of most Blizzard fanbois, but other than that, no I don't think it was a joke.

[Jayce]

I'm dumbfounded that anyone even cares about who killed megafoozle_0846 first.  Please tell me that all this ranting is a joke.

Yeah, Heaven forfend that we talk about a big event in a game on a forum dedicated to that game.

[Avatard]

Anyone who sees this as a "big event" needs to be taken out back and shot. Yes HRose I'm looking at you.

[Nebu]

Haemish: I knew it was serious... I was hinting that some people need to take a good hard look at their life and what upsets them.

Yeah, Heaven forfend that we talk about a big event in a game on a forum dedicated to that game.

Let me see if I can clear things up.  I wasn't commenting about the event itself, but rather the reaction of people to the fact that Korea beat them to it.  Getting upset because someone beat megafoozle_0643 before someone else kind of goes beyond the scope of intelligent gaming discourse.  Don't you think?

[murdoc]

I really wonder how many of the people complaining will actually ever FIGHT whatisdragonname.

[Azhrarn]

their beta accounts weren't wiped

What the fuck?

[toma levine]

their beta accounts weren't wiped

What the fuck?

They don't pay a monthly fee either. Korea is a different place. Blizzard apparently has a good handle on what the Korean market is all about. I imagine most other Korean MMOG's work about the same way, Lineage most notably.

[schild]

They don't pay a monthly fee? Fuck Korea.

[Trippy]

They don't pay a monthly fee? Fuck Korea.

Yeah and in Korea Blizzard provides people to come over to your house (or PC-Bang) to play your character when you have other stuff to do...

WTF are you guys talking about of course they pay a monthly fee, and it's higher than what it is in the US (~$24 US a month).

[schild]

I figured they did. Though, not having them pay a monthly fee would decimate NCSoft's stranglehold on the MMORPG world.

[Avatard]

I figured they did. Though, not having them pay a monthly fee would decimate NCSoft's stranglehold on the MMORPG world.

I seriously doubt that. They would need to add more grind to compete with Lineage.

[Raging Turtle]

As has been said, a big majority of the people who play this game in Korea play it in PC Bangs - but the owners pay the monthly fee.  There are, of course, big discounts for owners when they put WoW on all 50 computers in the PC Bang.  The people who play pay 1-2 bucks an hour to play.  Blizzard Korea has got their gameplan down perfectly.

Two reasons the Koreans did this before the Americans:
1.  When 95 percent of the population lives packed together in giant apartment complexes where the only open spaces are the rice fields nearby, you don't have shit to do in your free time if you're a minor.  PC bangs are a cheap safe way to get the kids out of the fucking house for a while.  
2.  Winter break is two months over here, from the beginning of January to the end of February.  As a public school teacher, I love this, and it means that there are plenty of days when the kids can sit in the PC Bang from open to close, if they want.  It also means they've had a month straight to catass (and no, they haven't been working on their beta characters for a year).  If this was any other time of year, they would have been in school 12 hours a day.

[schild]

If I was in school 12 hours a day, I'd play Everquest til I passed out also.

[Righ]

You'd play Lineage and you'd like it.

[Trippy]

As has been said, a big majority of the people who play this game in Korea play it in PC Bangs - but the owners pay the monthly fee.  There are, of course, big discounts for owners when they put WoW on all 50 computers in the PC Bang.  The people who play pay 1-2 bucks an hour to play.  Blizzard Korea has got their gameplan down perfectly.

My understanding is that WoW in Korea is one of those games that has a monthly subscription fee on top of anything you have to pay to play at a PC Bang. Hence when you signup for an account on the Korean WoW site it asks if you want a one month or three month subscription. I could be wrong, though.

[schild]

Uhm, Raging Turtle lives and works in Korea. I'm pretty sure he'd know.

[Trippy]

Uhm, Raging Turtle lives and works in Korea. I'm pretty sure he'd know.

Does he play Wow? I'm going by what the Google/Altavista translated Korean WoW site is saying and what the press release said:

IRVINE, Calif. - January 17, 2005 - Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that World of Warcraft® will officially launch in Korea on January 18, 2005. Following a highly successful beta-testing period, the game is now being prepared for availability throughout the country. Once released, players can sign up for various subscription plans and experience the epic adventure of the Warcraft® series in an immersive and continually evolving online environment.

The line about subscription plans matches what is on the Korean WoW site (it asks if you want a one month or three month subscription). I don't read Korean so I could be totally wrong but like I said, that's my understanding.

[toma levine]

OK I had it backwards. They pay a monthly fee but didn't have to buy the box. Got confused with other Korean games that seem to charge nothing for their games.