Game Rating Board decision
Korean indie developers protest against decision to ban all unrated games.
Seoul, South Korea, Sep. 12th. 2010 - Korean Indie Game makers team up to do online performance against GRB, Game Rating Board in Korea.
Early of September 2010, there happened 2 cases by Korean Game Rating Board(GRB). 1 of them is 'banning Steam from Korea' rumor, and another is 'All games must be rated including Freeware Indie Game'. 2 small RPG maker community had to close game upload forum, because they got official documents from GRB, 'to get rated or punished by law'. This rating is for every single games in that forum, over 100 games / 10,000$ rating fee. There was no choice but to close upload forum.
We Pig-Min Agency think it's too much, decided to do online performance 'NOT rated by GRB, so you can't play'. This performance is for spreading non-game software which shows message against GRB. This software looks like usual games, which shows opening & menu. But if user clicks to play, "NOT rated by GRB, so you can't play" screen appears & exit. This means, not only indie game makers are restricted, but also Players got limited.
This performance is started by Pig-Min Agency & 2 attached teams Turtle Cream & Arcshock. Got some volunteers from Korean local scene, including some Web Strategy Games / Doujin game style / Flash Game makers. Some other Indie Game creators do it as their own way, even if not joined us officially.
It will be done at 17th. 2010 21:00 in Korean time, uploading all Software & announcements link to each other as "Size doesn't matter day" performance. We also hope to get assist from abroad, not sure how to do that. If you are interested, please contact us.
Contact :
e-mail mrkwang@pig-min.com (Pig-Min Agency)
MSN mrkwang5@hotmail.com
Source :
TIG source article (English) http://www.tigsource.com/2010/09/05/south-korean-game-rating-board-cracks-down-on-indies/
TIG source thread (English) http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=14677.0
reddit article, which became source of foreign news (English) http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/d9639/korean_indie_game_making_scene_got_fatal_blow_by/
Detailed Summary of this situation (Korean only) http://areca.egloos.com/5346581
Announcement of closing game uploading board, by RPG maker community nioty, including scan of official documents from GRB (Korean only) : http://niotsoft.com/zbxe/183142
Performance announcement (Korean only) http://pig-min.com/tt/3116
T-shirt for this performance (Korean only) http://pig-min.com/tt/3119
GRB homepage (English) http://www.grb.or.kr/english/default.html
GRB forum flooded by by Korean protest (Korean. Must be logged in to write, and join is very difficult for foreigners.) http://grb.or.kr/Board/GameQna.aspx
Images for 'NOT rated by GRB, so you can't play'. :
http://pig-min.com/en/entry/Images-for-NOT-rated-by-GRB-so-you-cant-play
More information :
Will be posted at http://pig-min.com/en (English),
Already posted at http://pig-min.com/tt/category/%EC%B9%BC%EB%9F%BC/%EA%B2%8C%EC%9E%84%EC%9C%84(%EA%B2%8C%EB%93%B1%EC%9C%84)%20%EB%8C%80%EC%B1%85 (Korean language only)
About Turtle Cream:
"Tuttle Cream" is a studio founded around students of the Sogang Univ. Game education center in Korea. It strives to create small but unique games. The team showed its potential with its first production, "Cut & Paste," which was also highlighted by various media including GameSpot and GameSetWatch. "Sugar Cube" is their latest work, unique puzzle platformer.
About Arcshock :
Husband(moonyeom) & Wife(komagi) team in Korea, with over combined 20 years of Korean game development experience. Always wanted to make game, but Korean gaming scene is too online-based, so had hard time to make what then wanted. With Indie project Arcshock, their dream come true. Released 1st. game [Sand Castle - Prelude : The Faded Memories] at Apr 2010, around 2,000 downloads happened around 1 month.
About Pig-Min Agency :
Pig-Min was 4-years-old Indie Game blog webzine for Korean, and decided to support Korean Indie Games to go abroad from 1 year ago, under the name of Pig-Min Agency. [Sugar Cube] done by Turtle Cream is latest & 3rd. [Sand castle - Prelude : The Faded Memories] is 2nd., and 1st. work was [Cut & Paste] by Turtle Cream.