The sights and sounds of GStar

It has been an interesting week visiting the Korean city of Busan for the GStar show and to speak at the ICON development convention.

Korean gamers don't just like gaming, they have a genuine passion for it that is undeniable and obvious when you attend a show like this. Gaming is much more a part of their popular culture, and in particular online gaming. Online gaming is more established and the choices of available titles for the Korean gamers is wider. It is a very competitive market and it will be really interesting to see if we can make some inroads into that market with our own game. It's definitely a daunting challenge, but an enjoyable one all the same. We make games for the people that play them, and one thing that a trip like the one this week confirms for me is that there is definitely the appetite for good online games there!

They also know how to put on a great show! It is all very professional, slick, and well presented with an abundance of hostesses (and possibly an even greater number of men with very high end cameras taking pictures of the hostesses)

They also took the prevention of swine flu seriously, with elaborate 'Flugun' gates set up around the convention center so you ad to walk through a device that sprayed some kind of a disinfectant mist as you walked through. It came complete with girls in white coats and thermometers who tested your temperature as you entered.

Speaking at ICON was an enjoyable, albeit slightly strange experience. When 99% of the audience in the room is listening to the translator in their earpiece and not actually to me it can be a little hard to keep pace with your presentation. Usually you get at least some reaction and interaction with the audience for a presentation like that, but when there was only one or two other English speakers in the room it can be a little disconcerting. It was a great experience though, and it is always good to get to practice in different situations and with different audiences. It was an honor to be invited to speak and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

It seemed to be well received, no-one feel asleep or left halfway through, so I'll take that as a good sign!

Now to say goodbye to Korea and the long trip back to Oslo!