한국 온라인게임 산업의 출현: 기술의 공생 발생

Abstract

This study analyzes the process of the formation of the game industry in Korea during the 1990s and the 2000s. By the 1990s, the Korean society managed to form adequate human resources for the game industry by developing PC and text-MUD based games. Despite their passion and high level of technological capabilities, game developers in the 1990s failed mainly due to illegal copying, chaotic circulation, and distorted profit structure. Nevertheless, their experience provided the basis on which to develop the technology and personnel for the online game industry in the 2000s. By the end of the 1990s, the Korean game industry successfully expanded into the new field of graphic online games, by combining technology and human resources cultivated during the previous decade. In particular, this study will utilize an evolutionary metaphor known as symbiogenesis in order to shed new light on this process. The concept of symbiogenesis sheds positive light on the technologically innovative leaps led by heterogeneous engineers, and also embraces the continuities in technological change. This study will show that the evolutionary metaphor will be an important perspective from which to understand the essence of technology.