Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- About the Author -- Chapter 1 Innovations in the Game Industry: Online Games Versus Offline Games -- 1. The impact of online games: Turnover of Korean game industry against American and Japanese competition -- 2. The potential of online games -- 3. Innovations of online games -- 1) Revenue model -- 2) Product attributes -- 3) Development process -- 4) Distribution channel -- 5) Communication -- 6) Game style -- 7) Immersion -- Chapter 2 Business Models and Corporate Strategy -- 1. Revenue models of online games -- 1) Individual Set-Amount plan () -- 2) Individual Set-Volume plan () -- 3) Partial pay plan (③) -- 4) Set-Amount plan for Internet cafes (④) -- 5) Set-Volume plan for Internet cafes (⑤) -- (1) World of Warcraft -- (2) NCsoft (Lineage/Lineage 2/Guild Wars) -- (3) Nexon (including Kart Rider, Maple Story and Mabinogi) -- 6) Combined price plans -- 2. Pricing plans of various online games -- 1) ROSE Online -- 2) Lineage, Lineage 2 -- 3) Mabinogi (Nexon) -- 4) World of Warcraft (WoW) -- 5) Kart Rider -- 6) Freestyle -- 7) Goonzu -- 3. The feasibility of item sales in the U.S. -- 1) Gender -- 2) Ethnicity -- 3) Type of Internet connection -- 4) Primary purpose of Internet use -- 5) Preferred game genres -- 6) Game selection criteria -- 7) Information channels -- 8) Primary times of Gameplay -- 9) Reason for playing online games -- 10) MMORPG genres played -- 11) Degree of LAN party participation -- 12) Payment status -- Chapter 3 Virtual Societies and Economies of Online Games -- 1. Generation of online economic activity -- 2. Development and evolution of the item trade industry -- 3. Degree of item trades and player conception of Korean users -- 4. Cyber economy growth model -- 5. Issues to be considered in item transactions -- 1) Item ownership -- 2) Credibility in item trades.

3) Game system and item trade -- 6. Conclusion -- Chapter 4 The Formation Process of the Korean Online Game Industry -- 1. The precursor to the modern online game: Text MUDs -- 2. MUG (Multi User Graphic) game development and the spread of users -- 3. The emergence of Lineage and industry expansion -- 4. The emergence of game portals -- 5. The emergence of casual games -- 6. Formation of the innovative human resources: Online game development workforce -- Chapter 5 Factors Promoting Growth of the Online Game Industry -- 1. User's path dependency: Absence of the console game market -- 2. Software piracy -- 3. Supporting infrastructure -- 1) Spread of Internet cafés -- 2) Spread of ADSL -- 3) Mobile small-amount billing system -- 4. The support of governmental policy -- (1) High-speed communication network policy (Ministry of Information and Communication) -- (2) Adapted military service system (Ministry of Culture and Tourism) -- Chapter 6 Global Development and Marketing Strategies of Korean Online Games -- 1. Factors affecting global online gaming growth -- 1) Server operations -- 2) Publishing method -- 3) Distribution method -- 2. The Chinese market and its distinguishing characteristics -- 1) Growth potential -- 2) Risk factors -- 3) Internet cafés as online gaming strongholds -- 4) The expansion of Korean gaming in China -- 5) Cases of Korean expansion into China -- 3. The Japanese market and its distinguishing characteristics -- 1) Distinguishing attributes of the Japanese online game market -- 2) Development efforts of Japanese game firms -- 3) The strategies of Japanese game developers -- 4) Strategies for approaching the Japanese market -- 5) The Japanese market and its distinguishing characteristics -- (1) Primarily MMORPG-based expansion -- (2) Introduction of the partial pay revenue model.

(3) Types of publishing and distribution for Korean online games in Japan -- 4. The U.S. market and its distinguishing characteristics -- 1) Purpose of Internet use -- 2) U.S. market penetration of Korean game developers -- (1) Yedang online (Global server - direct publishing - online download) -- (2) NCsoft (Local server - direct publishing package sales) -- 3) Gravity (Local server - direct publishing - online download) -- (4) MGame (Local server - outsourced publishing - online download) -- Chapter 7 International Comparison of Online Game Users -- 1. Community identity -- 2. Game information acquisition channels -- 3. PK preference -- 4. Game styles -- 5. Online game selection criteria -- References -- Index.