Internet Economy of the Online Game Business in South Korea: The Case of NCsoft's Lineage

Abstract

This chapter attempts to lay the groundwork for in-depth discussions on the economic, social and cultural dimensions of the online game business as one of the most successful forms of the contemporary digital contents industry using the Internet. As a form of the digital economy, the online game has evolved both “through” and “within” the space of the Internet. I suggest that the broadband Internet infrastructure and the construction of the game users’ community in cyberspace constitute two necessary conditions for the economic success of the online game business. Conceptualizing such a socio-cultural economy of the Internet business as the economy of a “third space,” I argue that the online game business contains emerging forms of new economic space not only in-between the real space and the virtual space, but also between the production and the consumption of those games produced.