[The Editors' Verdict] The Essence of Games Is 'Fun'

These days, due to COVID-19, opportunities to meet relatives during holidays have decreased, but in the past, relatives used to gather and enjoy Yutnori during holidays. Yutnori is a game that can be easily enjoyed with just four yut sticks, a few Go stones to use as pieces, and a yut board. Yutnori gives us the joy of chatting with relatives we haven't seen in a while, the fun of thinking about the order and strategy of moving the pieces, and the excitement brought by the randomness of the yut sticks. However, above all, I believe the greatest fun of Yutnori lies in 'imagination.' When you imagine the small yut board and pieces as a vast playground and yourself moving around in it, you become more focused and enjoy it even more. Although it is different from the dazzling computer graphics of online games, it provides the author with a fun that is by no means inferior.

The enjoyment of Yutnori may not resonate with everyone. In a situation where there are various games to enjoy during leisure time, some people may not find fun in simple visual stimuli and straightforward rules alone. For them, games with flashy graphics where they become the protagonist of the story might be more enjoyable. Although games played by people can vary, their essence is 'fun.' It is no exaggeration to say that humans play games to experience their own sense of fun.

That is precisely why games need to be diverse. Because each individual’s preferred game cannot be the same. With the advancement of information and communication technology, humanity now enjoys games boasting more realistic graphics than before, can easily play games anytime through mobile devices, and can always stay connected to games. However, games with flashy graphics or games that can be accessed anytime are not always the most popular or the ones that users find fun. Rather, well-designed game rules paired with appropriate graphics can be more popular. Examples of such games are easy to find. The puzzle game ‘Anipang,’ which swept the nation with a gaming craze, had a simple gameplay of matching three identical characters to score points, but that simplicity became a fun element for people of all ages and genders.

Considering that the essence of games is fun, the government and the National Assembly also need to move away from viewing games merely as technical products. At the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee’s audit last October, there was a scene where the virtual reality (VR) game ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ developed by the American company Valve was compared and demonstrated against NCSoft’s ‘Lineage W’ under the premise that the former was a superior game. This scene revealed a lack of understanding of the essence of games. Of course, new technologies such as VR and augmented reality (AR), as well as graphics, will undoubtedly be driving forces to further expand the gaming base. But games are not completed by technology alone. The essence of games is to provide fun to users.

One of the fundamental principles of the constitution, the principle of a cultural state, derives the principle of impartiality, where the state does not show preference or favoritism toward any cultural phenomenon. This characteristic is linked to the openness and pluralism of culture, and the state’s role in fostering culture fundamentally includes providing everyone with opportunities for cultural creation, meaning all cultures are included. Games are also a cultural product. Therefore, the role of the state should be to support the growth of diverse games. Under the perception that one cultural product is superior to others, K-pop, K-drama, and K-games would have been difficult to emerge.

Hwang Seong-gi, Professor, Hanyang University School of Law