Comparative Analysis of Game Character Fashion Images in Korea and China - Focused on Online Rhythm Action Games

Transcription

1 Comparative Analysis of Game Character Fashion Images in Korea and China - Focused on Online Rhythm Action Games 1 Mi-Ra Seo, 2 Sang-Jin Park 1 First Author, Tongmyong University, seomr@tu.ac.kr *2 Corresponding Author, Konyang University, sjp@konyang.ac.kr Abstract Rhythm action games 'Love Beat' and QQ HyunMu are popular among game users of Korea and china. This study classified fashion images those two game users select into 8 styles of image, and compared proportions of users of the two countries preferring each of the styles. The first-ranked fashion image of 'Love Beat' was the active image 51.4%, and the feminine image was the secondranked preference image 30.9%. In the case of China's QQ HyunMu as well, the active image which took up 46.6% was the first-ranked fashion image. The second one was the feminine image 21.9%. Game users of both countries, though there are some numerical differences between two groups of them, showed little difference in preference/non-preference in fashion styles. On the other hand, the mannish image which demonstrates sense of a strong woman by matching fashion item having masculine feel was not chosen either by Korean users or chinese users. Keywords: Fashion image, Rhythm action game, Chinese character fashion, Music Game 1. Preface Online rhythm action games in Korea began to be launched in full scale in As of 2013, the following rhythm action games are in the market: EZ2on, Club audition, Love Beat, R2Beat, Club M Star online, Audition 2, Super Star King, Debut, Music Shake, Band Master, Club day Online, Astro ranger, QQ HyunMu, and DJMAX online. Recently in Korea, there is a trend in which, with the development of smart phone technology, rhythm action games released through online platform are expanded to be used in other platforms. DJMAX TECHNIKA Q for Kakao developed and served by Neowiz is the first smart phone version of DJMAX online', and is ready to be released through Apple App Store and Google Play Store simultaneously. 'Rhythm N Joy', rhythm game for smart phone, developed by Ninebud, Co., Ltd. and served by Neksen Co., Ltd. was released on T Store on May 29, Immediately after the release, it became very popular among users, recording Number 1 popular game and number 2 free application. It is well-known that chinese economy has developed enormously. For about 30 years from 1978 when it adopted reform and opening up to 2010, China's GDP had grown from billion yuan to 33 trillion billion yuan, and, in 2020, it is expected to go beyond 96 trillion 300 billion yuan [1]. Continuous economic growth of China has led to the change of fashion consciousness among the Chinese, which will also influence the fashion consumption in online game market to a great extent [2]. According to an article in Chosun.com on March 29, 2013, 2PM, a Korean group singers, was selected as models for 'QQ HyunMu 2', the rhythm action game of China the largest number of Chinese users play. 'QQ HyunMu 2' is the main game of QQ, the biggest online game company in China. The game has the membership of over 200 million users, and is played by more than 10 million players a day. Leading 'fashion dance' trend in China, the game is loved enormously by mainly Chinese youngsters. The Korean and Chinese games introduced above are fashion-related games for youngsters, and get fee for service in some parts of it. The reasons why those games adopt the charged service system in some parts is to use it as a solution for such problems as dumping war among competitors, illegal duplication, and illegal download, etc. But, the most important reason for it is to remove obstacle in inviting customers. That is, those game companies allow customers to install and run the games without charge, but ask customers to pay whenever they use additional services represented by cash items. Profits those companies earn from fashion items related with characters of rhythm action games have continued to increase. In the sense that the user can express his or her taste and identity through Advances in information Sciences and Service Sciences(AISS) Volume5, Number15, October

2 characters and that the company can use a character as profit model regardless of games, fashion items which allow users to decorate characters have become very important [3]. Thus, this study wants to compare preferences of Korean and Chinese youngsters in rhythm action game, the genre where players can express themselves through character fashion items, and draw fashion images users in two countries prefer. 2. Theoretical examination 2.1. Kinds and characteristics of fashion image Fashion images representing the characteristics of time, gender, activity, and locality vary in their expression forms and combining methods depending on the vogue of each year. Cross-over trend in fashion causes combination of mutually contrasting images, appearing as styles of complex forms such as Bohemian Chic, Neoclassic, and Androgynous, etc [4]. Many researchers have classified kinds of fashion image on the basis of common characteristics and mutual relationship of colors, materials, details, and forms of different fashions. Hyeon-suk Lee (2002), considering mutual relationship between fashion and accessories, divided them into five images: elegant image, classic image, Avantgarde image, natural image, and ethnic image [5]. Gyeong-hwa Oh (2009), excluding mannish image, sorted them into 7 types: elegant image, romantic image, sports image, modern/sophisticated image, exotic image, Avant-garde image, and classic image [6]. Suk-hyeon Park (2004) divided them more in detail than those mentioned above into 10 images: modern image, classic image, elegant image, romantic image, natural image, casual image, Avant-garde image, sexy image, ethnic image, vintage image [7]. Based on previous studies mentioned above, this study classified them into 8 types which includes common types all the researchers have used and other types which are contrary to common types using the concept of image axle [4][8]. And, characteristics of each image is as follows. Type Classic Image Feminine Image Active Image Elegant Image Table 1. Type and characteristics of fashion images Characteristics Timeless value and generality Classic and traditional fashion image Material: tweed, wool, velvet, etc. Pattern: mainly checkerboard pattern, organic figurative pattern Color: With brown as basic color, wine, dark green, mustard color, or black is added for natural match with brown Item: Chanel suit, cardigan, jeans, tailored jacket, and trench coat, etc. Womanlike, warm, soft image Frill, lace, embroidery, ribbon, or gem decoration is a key point of design Material: jersey, Angora, chiffon, cotton, velvet Pattern: small flower pattern, organic figurative pattern Color: pastel tone, bright and warm color Accessories: ring, earring, small color stone, small handbag, one point shoes To cheerful and active look, functionality is added Sportswear, pop art Material: cotton, wool, elastic material Pattern: geometric pattern, abstract pattern Color: bright, clear blue color and colorful other colors Elegant, neat and decent image Stressing round shoulder lines, inflated breast lines, and wasp waist, etc. Expressing femininity with lace, frill, and ribbon, etc. as well as curve line beauty of body Material: elastic and soft materials like silk and rayon, etc. Color: Expressing elegant looks with soft greyish tone, pale tone, or light tone using red, violet, purple colors 258

3 Sophisticated modern Image Ethnic Image Avant-garde Image Mannish Image Modern, sophisticated, elaborate image Intelligent beauty-added simple design Future-oriented sense Pattern: straight line pattern, geometric pattern Color: mainly achromatic colors, contrasting colors Accessories: silver color accessories, glass and plastic materials Image from traditional clothing of peoples outside the Western Christian countries folk costumes of Asia and Africa They are characterized by rough and heavy looks caused by natural dye Progressive design containing strong experimental elements Trials transcending common sense, lacking popularity Favored by a small number of people Ignoring coordination and wearing Sensitivity independent woman has Matching sensitively mannish jacket, pants, shirt, necktie, and shoes, etc. Material: wool, thick cotton, etc. Color: dark tone like grey, green, brown, and olive green, etc. Accessories: necktie, Western boots, and boyish hat, etc. While the classic image is a classical and traditional image that has time transcending values and universality and uses many natural colors of brown color family, Avant-garde Image mostly has antiform designs which are lacking of popularity and have many experimental factors due to the trials that surpass the common sense. Feminine Image is feminine and soft image and has design points of frill, lace, embroidery and bead and reel. While it has diverse pastel tone warm color expression, mannish image is a masculine image and mostly has dark images like grey and brown colors. Elegant Image mostly gives elegant expressions and Active Image has various light and active expressions. Sophisticated modern Image is mostly colorless, modern and intelligent and future-oriented senses are well expressed. Finally, Ethnic Image is defined as a fashion image which has brown color family, light tone and dull ton folk costumes as the materials Character fashion customizing function Jakob Nielsen defines customization as environment set by direct behavior of the user, and personalization as what is changeable fitting individual wants. But in Korea, there is no consensus in definition of 'customizing'. The scopes allowable in defining customization and personalization vary depending on researchers and specialists. And, the scopes of those terms in game are not fixed [9]. Generally, the game character customizing system is a comprehensive concept which can cover both customization and personalization. And components of customizing are divided into physical elements (face, body), non-physical elements (fashion, defense tools), and other elements (enchant and smelting which are the combination for improving functions of techniques and weapons in some game genres) [10]. Figure 1 shows customizing functions in the fashion part, non-physical element. This study restricts customizing to fashion-related area, non-physical element, and categorizes fashion images of characters. Figure 1. Character customization games 1.Pirates of the Burning Sea(MMORPG, Flying Lab Software) / 2.Guitar Hero: World Tour(Music & Rhythm, Neversoft) / 3.Infinity Online(Action, Windysoft) 259

4 3. Fashion image analysis of rhythm action games 3.1. Analytical targets and methods This study is to provide practical help in fashion item design of rhythm action games in Korea and China. It did the literature review and empirical research. The subjects of empirical research were Love Beat game of Korea and QQ HyunMu game of China. Love Beat of NCsoft corp. introduced cute and slender characters, fashion items developed by suggestion of a fashion specialist, various emotional expressions, and community service surrounding 'pam', and it is very popular among youngsters. QQ HyunMu has taken up over 6% of games PC room users play, the 5th most popular game among PC room games. It takes up over 80% of the dance game market. This study dealt with character fashion images users favor from March 2013 to October Data were collected from image search of Google.com, Naver.com, and Baidu.com. The 269 images related with Love Beat and the 210 images related with QQ HyunMu were classified into 8 fashion images. Table 2. Fashion Image in QQ HyunMu & Love Beat Game Type QQ HyunMu Love Beat Classic Image Feminine Image Active Image Elegant Image Sophisticated modern Image Ethnic Image Avant-garde Image 260

5 3.2. Analytical findings The most favored image among the users of Love Beat was found to be active image (51.4%), and feminine image was the second most favored image (30.9%), followed by classic image (8.1%), elegant image (4.9%), sophisticated modern image (3.7%), ethnic image (0.7%), Avant-garde Image (0.3%), and mannish image (0%). For the users of QQ HyunMu, The most favored image was found to be active image (46.6%), and feminine image was the second most favored image (21.9%). Both elegant Image and sophisticated modern image were equally ranked as the third most favored image (9.6%) followed by the fifth one (Avant-garde image, 5.2%), the sixth one (classic image, 3.8%), the seventh one (ethnic image, 3.3%), and the last one (mannish one, 0%). Table 3. Result of Fashion Image QQ HyunMu Love Beat Type n % n % Classic Image 8 3.8% % Feminine Image % % Active Image % % Elegant Image % % Sophisticated modern Image % % Ethnic Image 7 3.3% 2 0.7% Avant-garde Image % 1 0.3% Mannish Image 0 0% 0 0% Total % % 4. Conclusion According to the 2012 Korean Games White Book recently published by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Korea Creative Contents Agency, export volume of the Korean game industry reached 2 trillion 640 billion won last year, 48.1% increase compared with the previous year. Such a huge export volume is due to the fact that as game companies have gone out of the small Korean market and entered big markets like North America and China, etc., they have earned huge profits through hallyu, "Korean Wave." At the time when Korean game companies establish hallyu in foreign markets, it seems necessary to analyze preferences of users in different countries. The analysis on fashion styles Korean and Chinese users favor showed that there were little difference in preference of fashion item consumption between the tro groups of people. The findings from the classification of fashion image preferences among users of Love Beat and QQ HyunMu, representative rhythm action games of Korea and China are as follows. First, the active image represented by cheerful and active feeling and clear and distinctive coloring was overwhelmingly favored by users of both countries. More than half of the Love Beat users favored the image, and 46.6% of QQ HyunMu users did, much larger proportion than the feminine image, the second most favored image. Second, the mannish image expressing the sensitivity independence-oriented women possess was not favored because of the game conditions where users are placed: users of the two games are asked to procure fashion items to decorate game characters, and femininity rather than masculinity is pursued in those games. Third, Though both of the games pursue feminine atmosphere, they belong to dance genre, which may have led the users of both countries to prefer the classic image and the elegant image much less than the feminine image. In the case of Love Beat, the classic image was favored by 8.1%, and the elegant image by 4.9%. Similarly, among the users of QQ HyunMu, 3.8% favored the classic image, and 9.6% did the elegant image. 261

6 Forth, since the games were expressed by colorful images, the achromatic sophisticated modern image was not favored highly. On the other hand, the Avant-garde image based on various colors was favored by a extremely small number of people even in online game, the virtual space, probably because of grotesque expression of it. In conclusion, this study confirmed that fashion images the Korean and Chinese game users prefer are not different. It is expected that, by developing fashion items satisfying needs of users based on the findings of this study, game companies can increase their item sale. 5. References [1] Ji Sung Song, Na Ri Jung, A Study and Proposal Activation Plan of T-shirt Design through the Application of Graphic Design-Focusing 20 Women s China Shanghai Fashion Market, Journal of the Korean Society of Design Culture, Vol.18, No.2, pp , [2] Mi Ra Seo, Sang Jin Park, Analysis of preferred Character Fashion Image through Chinese Rhythm Action Games, The 3rd International Conference on Convergence Technology (ICCT) 2013, Vol.2, No.1, pp , [3] Ji Hyun Kim, A Study on Online Game Character Fashion Style, 2009 Conference of Korea Fashion & Costume Design Association, Vol.2009, No.12, pp , 2009 [4] Kyung Hi Lee, Yun Kyoung Kim, Ae Kyoung Kim, Fashion & Imagemaking, Kyomunsa, Korea, [5] Hyun Sook Lee, Jung Sook Lee, Fashion & Accessory, Sinjung, Korea, [6] Kyoung Wha Oh, Jung Eun Kim, Mi Ji Gu, Yeon Sun Sung, Se Na Kim, Fashion Image Up, Kyomunsa, Korea, [7] Sook Hyun Park, Theory of Fashion Design, Aehaksa, Korea, [8] Hyun Won Park, Modern Fashion Design, Kyomunsa, Korea, [9] Su Hyun Song, An analysis on the relation between MMORPG [Aion] player types and character customizing- Focusing on Richard Bartle s Player Type, Hongik University, Korea, [10] Eun Ji Kim, Soo Jin Park, A Study on GUI Design of Online Game Character Customizing, Journal of Korea Multimedia Society, Vol.14, No.2, pp ,