Chapter 372 |
Although there was still much opposition and controversy, Assemblyman Nam Seong-gwi pushed forward resolutely. This was a completely different approach from other politicians who play it safe to get votes during general elections.
Many men, regardless of party affiliation, sent their support for his stance. Even hardcore supporters of the Liberty Korea Party said they would vote for Assemblyman Nam Seong-gwi if he ran in their district.
As a result, other politicians began to jump on the bandwagon one by one, and thanks to this, it led to the splendid achievement of pornography legalization.
The Adult Content Regulatory Review Committee created review guidelines for pornography and sent them to overseas pornography companies preparing to enter the domestic market.
A single company might have hundreds of thousands of works. Since there wasn't the budget or manpower to review all of them, companies were asked to select only videos that complied with the regulations and submit them for review.
Except for allowing depictions of penetrative intercourse, there wasn't much difference from the existing review standards for erotic films.
Ellie asked.
"What are they, specifically?"
"Outfits that could be mistaken for minors, depicting incestuous relationships, or threesomes... well, things like that aren't allowed."
"Ah! Three..."
I quickly nodded.
"Yes. That's absolutely not allowed."
Ellie tilted her head.
"Isn't not allowing that a violation of freedom of expression?"
"Isn't it better than not allowing anything at all?"
There's great significance in having taken the first step.
Whether legal or illegal, foreign pornography was already being distributed indiscriminately, so not much would change. The biggest change is that pornography can now be officially produced in Korea.
Quick-moving companies were already making their moves.
Ellie asked, as if joking.
"If Korean porn comes out, will you watch it too, Jin-hoo?"
"Well..."
Even if I don't actively try to watch it, couldn't I happen to see some? As a major shareholder, I feel like I should check how the industry is operating.
Ellie said with a bright smile.
"It's okay if you watch."
"Really?"
"However, you have to watch it with me."
"..."
Does this mean I'm not supposed to watch it?
***
I came to work and was about to start when Taek-gyu spoke to me.
"Actually, I started a side job a while ago."
"A side job?"
I placed my hand on Taek-gyu's shoulder.
"Are you short on money? Should we increase our dividends a bit?"
"I'm just doing it because I'm bored. But a problem came up."
"What kind of problem?"
Taek-gyu needlessly looked out the window.
"The beginning of this story goes back several months."
"I'm already getting a whiff of an 'explainer-bug'."
"Anyone else can say that, but not you. The explanations I've heard from you so far would fill several books."
"..."
I have nothing to say to that.
"I'll explain it briefly, so listen carefully."
***
The most famous content companies in the world are Disney and Netplay.
Originally, these two companies had completely different identities. Disney was a content production company, while Netplay was a platform company that gathered paid subscribers for internet streaming.
Initially, the atmosphere was good, with Disney supplying content to Netplay. However, as Netplay grew rapidly and dominated the market, things changed.
Realizing they could be devoured by the platform, Disney responded by, among other things, creating its own platform.
It's interesting when you think about it.
Disney, a content company, is jumping into the OTT market, and Netplay, which started as an OTT, is pouring money into producing its own content.
Their starting points were different, but are their goals the same?
Disney established a policy to grow its own platform, including stopping content support for Netplay, but made an exception to supply content to CarOS vehicles.
After all, Disney isn't going to make cars, and CarOS isn't going to produce animation. CarOS needs diverse content for drivers who aren't driving, and Disney wants to dominate this newly opening market. Their interests aligned in the 'carfotainment' field, so they joined hands.
In addition to this, collaboration in the gaming sector was also discussed.
Disney encompasses all aspects of cultural content like animation, movies, characters, and theme parks, but it's particularly weak in the gaming sector.
Disney also recognizes the importance of games and is active in producing games using its characters. For this, they created a subsidiary called Disney Interactive Studios and started producing games using their content, but they haven't seen much success.
In this situation, when OTK Games announced it would create a VRMMORPG, Disney showed great interest. For reference, Shigeru Ichikawa, during his Pentagon days, had a hit game featuring both Disney characters and his company's characters.
Anyway, in the process of this collaboration, Disney sent a few gifts to the company, and among them was an Iron Man mask used in the movies.
I wasn't particularly interested, so Taek-gyu took it.
"So, what does Disney have to do with this story?"
"I started broadcasting on A-Tube wearing the Iron Man mask I received then."
"...Huh? A-Tube?"
Taek-gyu shrugged.
"I'd done game broadcasts a few times before. Since it only shows the game screen, I didn't have to reveal my face. Well, I didn't have many subscribers either."
So, I did it for a bit and then quit.
I started again this time because I was too bored sitting around at the company. Besides, I had a top-of-the-line computer and all sorts of equipment, so I felt the urge to try game broadcasting again.
"And I wanted to show off the Iron Man mask."
"..."
While I was busy running around with all sorts of things, this guy was in the COO's office wearing a mask and doing internet broadcasts.
At first, I started small, like before. Just broadcasting myself playing online games.
"Then I started doing gacha content."
"What's that?"
"Probability-based items. Also called random boxes or 'ppopgi' (Lottery)."
Gacha content is showing viewers, in real-time, yourself spending real money until you get the character or item you want.
"You keep spending until you get what you want; sometimes it's hundreds of thousands of won, other times it's over ten million won."
"Why do you do that?"
"Because people like it. Watching someone spend money until they get it is quite entertaining. Seeing their despair from constant failures and then their joy when they finally hit the jackpot is also worth watching."
"I'm not the one doing it, so what's fun about that?"
"You're not the one eating, so what's fun about watching mukbang?"
"That's why I don't watch mukbang either."
"Then, you're not the one doing it, so what's fun about watching porn?"
"Ah! I completely understand now."
Taek-gyu continued.
"The channel name is Super L-Rich."
"Are you bragging about having a lot of money?"
"It's with an L, not an R."
"..."
Let's just move on.
Anyway, A-Tube was already full of people doing gacha content. But Super L-Rich's method was a bit different.
It was the same in that he'd spend recklessly until he got what he wanted, but the big difference was that after repeating the same thing several times to calculate the probability, if he thought there was a problem, he would complain to the game company and get them to take corrective action.
But surprisingly, when he actually complained like that, corrective measures were indeed taken. Some game companies even posted apologies or gave out items.
If it happened once or twice, it could be dismissed as a coincidence, but as it continued, viewers became suspicious. Moreover, Super L-Rich knew various unreleased game information, and it all turned out to be true.
Gamers with doubts began to deduce on their own.
The hypothesis that gained the most traction was that Super L-Rich was close to or related to the Vice President of OTK Company.
Currently, the most influential entity in the game industry is OTK Games, and it's a well-known fact that OTK Games was established with the support of OTK Company's Vice President. And thanks to incidents like negotiating with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family over game regulations, he had long been a celebrity in the subculture and gaming communities.
Super L-Rich didn't particularly deny this hypothesis either.
"Why don't you deny it?"
"Actually, he is. Who wouldn't be close to themselves?" (Taek-gyu, as Super L-Rich, referring to his connection to the VP, who is also him.)
"Then what about someone who's fallen into self-loathing?"
"That's because they're too close, so they fight."
Anyway, the fact that he was close to the OTK Company Vice President became a big issue among gamers, and his channel's subscriber count exploded.
"How many subscribers do you have now?"
"I hit 500,000 recently."
"Is that a lot?"
"It's not a few."
Besides, the growth rate was incredible.
A-Tubers who made a living from gacha content were bewildered when some guy in an Iron Man mask appeared out of nowhere and gathered subscribers in an instant.
The bigger problem was that the Game Association initiated self-regulation regarding probability-based items.
The gist of the regulation was twofold. First, to accurately state and notify the probability of items appearing, and second, to abolish independent trials.
"Originally, 'gacha' came from drawing balls from a container, right? If there are 100 balls inside, even if 99 are blanks, one should be a winner after 100 draws, shouldn't it? But game companies treat this as independent trials, applying a 1/100 chance each time. This way, you can pour in millions or tens of millions of won and still not get what you want."
However, with the implementation of the regulation, it changed so that if you perform it a certain number of times, it's guaranteed to appear at least once. This was welcome news for most gamers, but from the perspective of viewers of gacha content, it inevitably became less interesting.
As a result, A-Tubers who broadcasted gacha content needlessly attacked Super L-Rich. Of course, he didn't pay much attention...
"This is where a guy called Gacha Hunter appears."
"Who's he now?"
"He's the most famous among those who broadcast gacha content. He also broadcasts wearing a mask, and the interesting fact is that he claims to be close to the OTK Company Vice President."
There are more than a few guys in the world who claim to be close to chaebols. Some use it to commit fraud, others just to brag.
Among them, those claiming to be close to the OTK Company Vice President are overwhelmingly numerous because the Vice President's identity hasn't been revealed.
Since his identity is unknown, there's no way to verify if it's true or not.
After the Assemblyman Myeong Jin-wook incident, the number of guys claiming to be close to the Vice President drastically decreased, but Gacha Hunter continued to insist he had a connection.
However, when Super L-Rich became famous for being close to the Vice President, Gacha Hunter claimed it was a blatant lie and even made a supposed phone call to the Vice President on his broadcast.
"Did he really call?"
"He called a fake, not the real one."
Super L-Rich retorted that Gacha Hunter's claim of being close to the Vice President was the real lie. Gacha Hunter refuted this again, proposing that the one whose claim was proven false should delete their account and permanently leave A-Tube. This escalated into an issue for all of A-Tube.
***
Having finished his explanation, Taek-gyu said.
"And so, we ended up with this 'account deletion bet'."
"..."
I wondered what on earth he was doing at the company these days, and it turns out he was running an A-Tube broadcast. Isn't he enjoying life too much?
Gacha Hunter was notorious for constantly stirring up trouble (drawing aggro) and harshly attacking other channels. This might be partly because he has a terrible personality... but it's also because doing so greatly helps in increasing views and subscribers.
"Well. The internet is vast, and there are many attention seekers."
It's a world where being famous alone can make you money. That's why there are more than a few guys trying to make it big somehow.
He probably thought there was no way to prove it, so he confidently challenged him, even staking his account deletion.
"Can't you just take off your mask and reveal yourself as the OTK Company Vice President?"
Taek-gyu shook his head firmly.
"No way. The main character must hide their identity."
"If that's the case, you shouldn't have started broadcasting in the first place. Why is someone who wants to hide their identity on A-Tube?"
"It was for the establishment of a proper gaming culture."
"Then just accept defeat and delete your account. You weren't planning to do it for long anyway, right?"
Taek-gyu shook his head firmly.
"Even if I quit eventually, I can't let my account be deleted!"
"Why not?"
"My pride as a keyboard warrior won't allow it."
He really lives a tiring life.
Taek-gyu placed his hand on my shoulder and said.
"You just have to appear on Super L-Rich's broadcast and say that the OTK Company Vice President is close to Super L-Rich and not close to Gacha Hunter. How about it? Simple, right?"
I was flustered.
"Why are you dragging me into this?"
"Then who else would I drag into it?"
Taek-gyu fumbled around and pulled something out.
"I contacted DC for you and got a Batman mask. Wear this and come on."
"..."
If I wear this and hide my identity, wouldn't that be meaningless?