Deepening Conditions of Precarity in the Korean Game Industry and Collaborative Strategies to Overcome Constraints

Sangkyu  Lee

doi:http://doi.org/

Abstract

This paper examines how Korean game developers have been experiencing deepening conditions of precarity and makes a few suggestions regarding how they could overcome their structural limitations. Despite the remarkable growth in the Korean game industry, many underlying problems overshadow its success, such as labor exploitation, low wages, employment instability, and alienated labor. This paper uses a qualitative methodology to investigate the implications of the game industry market’s transition from PC online to the mobile game platform since the 2010s, which contributed to the industry’s deteriorating working condition and production system. Given this context, this study explores how the game developers experienced deepening conditions of precarity. This paper offers a few suggestions about overcoming these structural constraints. First, game developers can appropriate their know-how and resources then integrate them into a new form of “digital creative labor,” which refers to networked and collaborative cultural practices of game developers. Secondly, this paper argues that the intervention at the institutional and policy level is necessary to protect the rights and interests of workers.

Keywords

digital creative work, game developer, Korean game industry, networked creative collaboration, precarity

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

Deepening Conditions of Precarity in the Korean Game Industry and Collaborative Strategies to Overcome Constraints

Sangkyu Lee: Korea Culture & Tourism Institute

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