South Korea, Gamification and Enabling Technologies

There are occasions in your life where everything seems to fall into place at the same time. My

current trip to South Korea is one of those times and I feel compelled to share that experience and

my interpretation of its significance in my vision of the potential of Gamification and Enabling

Technologies and their impact on business and society. I am very fortunate to have travel

opportunities that take me to different parts of the world and different cultures but this trip to

South Korea to speak about Gamification, Enabling Technologies and Global Health Challenges has

been a revelation, thanks to the organisers of the International Simulation and Serious Games

Symposium 2014 and my Korean colleagues Dr Youngsung Lee, Chungwon Cho and Byung-Moon

Suh.

I travelled to Korea from my temporary base in Kuala Lumpur to be met early morning at Incheon

airport by Heesun Yang with whom I had breakfast before she put me on the bus for the 90 minute

journey to Cheongju City where Professor Eung Do Kim met me to drive me to the Buddhist temple

where I would be sharing my Gamification ideas in an online webinar organised by Dr Lee.

Korean Hospitality and a chance to practice chopsticks again

After a more than adequate lunch and a re-acquaintance with Korean food we transferred to the

temple to be met by Dr Lee and his family, shown my room and given a temple guest uniform to

wear.

Temple Guest Uniform with Dr Lee, his family and students

Dr Lee had organised the online seminar using the Vidyo application that allows multi-site video

conferencing and presentation sharing over the internet and we were joined with 3 other sites in

Korea and another Korean colleague, Professor Kane Kim, presenting from the Netherlands. Dr Lee’s

objectives were to test the technology in a variety of settings and to incorporate online

interpretation so that participants could have real-time translation from Korean to English and vice-

versa. The technology worked perfectly and it was good to learn about serious games for health

applications in Korea focused on the elderly and disabled population. I shared my own experience of

using lifestyle wearable technologies to solve my obesity problem.

With Dr Lee, Professor Jeongeun Kim and friendly Monk

The unfamiliar and stereotypically low-tech surroundings of the temple were no barrier to sharing

experiences over the internet and Professor Jeongeun Kim’s presentation included project examples

that were new to me, such as the use of exercise bikes in a public space where ladies pedalled away

to activate a cartoon simulation of a male stripper projected on a large building and a project to

support the emotional wellbeing of elderly people through the use of an interactive virtual pet on a

smartphone.

My Temple stay accommodation

After a nice walk to a local restaurant for more practice with the chopsticks and some delicious

Korean dishes, we returned to the temple and I settled down for an early night on the floor of my

room and woke early to hear the monks performing their rituals at 3:30 and found myself at 5:00 am

in a communal shower room shared with another Buddhist monk. My life has a very rich tapestry of

experiences.

At around 5:40 Dr Lee and his son drove me to his city to catch the KTX train into the centre of Seoul.

I was very impressed by Dr Lee’s satellite Navigation system which even showed the exact location

of speed bumps to a high degree of precision. On this high speed bullet train, he explained that the

objective of all the new city developments around Seoul is to provide transport access that gets you

into the centre of Seoul in 30 minutes.

We parted company at the main station at Seoul and I found my way to the metro station and, with

the help of a friendly local, managed to buy a “T-Ticket” which looks like a USB stick and acts like an

Oyster card with additional functionality to allow you to use it to pay taxis and even buy goods from

vending machines. The T-Ticket itself costs 5,000 Won (less than £3.00) and most journeys cost less

than 1500 Won (under £1.00) and you top up your T-Ticket in the same way you top up your Oyster

card.

Since I had about 6 hours before my next scheduled meeting, I took the opportunity to take my case

and check in at the MVL hotel near the Kintex Exhibition Centre (equivalent to the NEC in the UK).

The Korean Metro system is very easy to navigate with English translations of station

announcements and numbered stations.

Seoul Commuters on the Metro

I checked in to my hotel which was a 15 minute walk from the subway and it was here that I began

to form some new impressions about Korea. The Juyeop metro station is almost at the end of Line 3

and a good hour’s journey from Seoul main station. I had stored a local map on my iPad and found

myself walking through a park area in the middle of very tall blocks of flats, all of which were

numbered.

Goyang City flats next to suburban park

The walk to the hotel took me through the park and past a large retail and leisure development that

combined restaurants, retail and more than one theme park. I noticed that there were people

walking in this park everywhere and, unlike the main roads which were virtually empty, the public

park spaces and leisure areas were constantly busy.

Park walkers in Goyang City

After checking in to the hotel and the welcome luxury of a soft bed, en-suite shower and electric

toilet, I made my way back the subway for the journey to City Hall and my appointment with Andrew

Dalgleish at the British Embassy.

Temple Guards near the British Embassy in Seoul

With Andrew Dalgleish at the Embassy

Andrew explained that on his last visit to the UK he was impressed by how many UK companies were

interested in working with Korea, especially in areas like the Environment.

Ivan Boo with myself, David Crookall, Jungmin Kwon and Shin Hong-Joon.

Back at the hotel we met the driving force behind Serious Games Conferences in Asia, Ivan Boo and

local co-organiser Jungmin Kwon and her husband and together with Professor David Crookall we

had dinner at a healthfood restaurant in the retail/leisure complex.

With Chungwon Cho

The following morning it was another early start for a two hour metro journey for a breakfast

meeting with my good friend Chungwon Cho whom I first met on a trade mission visit to the

National Science Museum where he was Director. After breakfast, Chungwon took me to walk round

the local park where, once again, it was noticeable how well used the park was compared to some of

the facilities I have seen in other urban settings. We passed many parties of very young schoolkids

exploring the park. I talked to Chungwon about my aspirations to establish centres of excellence for

Gamification and Enabling Technologies in the Asia region and he was especially interested in the

Parkrun concept that has engaged so many people in the UK in meeting up for exercise in their local

park every Saturday morning.

Chungwon drove me to my next appointment for a keynote presentation on Gamification and

Enabling Technologies for health at Dankook University. Here we were hosted by the Director of the

Institute of Media Content, Byun-Moon Suh for yet more chopstick practice and delicious food,

including an on-table barbecue to cook your own steak.

Dr Byung-Moon Suh and Chungwon Cho

The focus of my presentation was the impact of Gamification and Enabling Technologies for Health

Applications on the mobile content industry and my fellow presenter David Crookall focused on the

importance of Debriefing in Serious Games whilst the third presenter was from India, Prof Srikanta

Patnaik, speaking about the games industry and culture in India. His presentation introduced me to

some Indian ancient mathematical concepts which can solve complex calculations very quickly.

The Kintex Convention Centre Goyang City

The following morning was the start of the Serious Games Conference and the opening ceremony of

the “Good Game Show” which is a re-branded version of the Korea Serious Games Festival which I

had the privilege of being the very first keynote speaker at their first conference when I was Director

of the Serious Games Institute. The re-branding as the “Good Game Show” is most probably in

response to some bad publicity from a murder case that was blamed on addiction to computer

games. As a consequence, the Koreans are very keen to present games in a positive light and

highlight only those game activities that are good for individuals and society.

Whon Namkoong – Opening Keynote Presenter on “Future of Good Game Gamification”

After the initial welcoming speeches from representatives of the Korean Game Society, the first

keynote presentation was from Whon Namkoong, Executive Director of the Gamers Foundation in

Korea. He outlined a vision of the future that was the closest match to my thoughts on the future

importance of gamification and enabling technologies. One of his examples was exactly the use of

lifestyle technology that I employed to gamify my own health by using devices like the Withings

Wireless Weigh scale.

The subsequent plenary presentations were notable for their focus on the psychology and taxonomy

of games rather than on presenting examples of serious games. Gamification was a common theme

of many of the presentations with one of the keynote presentations from Dr Scott Nicholson from

Syracuse University entitled “Exploring the Endgame of Gamification”. In this presentation Scott

discussed his views on how to prolong motivation once a video game has been mastered. He used

examples from Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) such as “World of Warcraft” as

examples to illustrate his argument.

Dr Scott Nicholson of Syracuse University New York

My own keynote presentation in the afternoon was on Gamification, Enabling Technologies and

Global Health Challenges. A copy of this presentation has been posted on Slideshare at :-

http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/serious-games-gamification-and-enabling-technologies-for-

global-health-challenges-korea-serious-games-conference-goyang-city-2014

My argument for this presentation was that technology is shifting society from a hierarchical to a

networked structure leaving a “leadership vacuum” and a trend towards what I describe as a

“Spectator Society” in which there is a need to develop Gamification skills and build “Win-win”

strategic relationship ecosystems through enabling technologies for a sustainable future.

My turn on the soapbox !!

That evening there was the conference dinner at the award ceremony for the winners of the “Aqua

Republica” challenge for teams from schools throughout Asia. Ivan Boo explained how the

competition had grown to 400 entries for 2014 across several Asian countries. The competition is

supported by UNEP and helps to teach how to manage Water Resources. It is based on real data

from a region in Asia and competitors have to build a community whilst balancing the needs of

business and society with water resources. The winners of the competition came from a school in

Hong Kong and their prize included $500 and a fully paid trip to the conference.

Winners of the UNEP Aqua Republica Challenge

Whilst walking from the conference hall to the restaurant where the dinner was being held, I had a

conversation with a PhD Candidate called Kiseul Suh whose work is around Gamification. He asked

me about the conflicting challenges of personalised games and universal motivational factors in

games design. He wanted my views on how to design games which could be personalised yet

appealed to the basic human factors common to all of us. I told him the story of how I had been

inspired by the story of Thomas Cook who had been living in Market Harborough in the UK when he

first had the inspiration that largely led to the travel industry we know today.

Thomas Cook

My interest in Thomas Cook came about through my involvement in a Professional/Amateur

production at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the very first

package excursion, a train trip from Leicester to Loughborough for a temperance meeting, speeches,

entertainment, food and a party. 600 people travelled in open top carriages by train and it was the

start of many such tours that led to the expression “Follow the Man from Cooks”. Thomas Cook

invented the Travellers Cheque and many other innovations that still exist in package holidays. Since

Market Harborough was my nearest town at the time, I had a special interest in learning how his

idea for travel for social benefit came from the combination of his passion for the temperance

movement and the enabling technology of his day, the railways. He believed that the railway

network could enable people to broaden their horizons, improve their lives and reduce their

inclination to get drunk. The secret of his success in building the travel empire through the enabling

technology of his day was to make travel ATTRACTIVE, ACCESSIBLE and AFFORDABLE.

This very simple formula inspired me to enter a Government funded competition in 1998. It was

called the “Multimedia Demonstrator Program” (MMDP) and provided funds to encourage small

businesses (SMEs) to adopt multimedia and the internet for competitive advantage. My project was

called ComKnet (Community Commerce and Knowledge Network) and the consortium I formed

worked together for 2 years to build a community technology project that acted as a hub for

knowledge sharing, collaboration and trading. I used the cultural heritage of Thomas Cook to engage

the community by drawing the parallel between the growing rail network of the 1840s and the

growing internet of the new millennium. Like Thomas Cook I tried to make the Comknet proposition

ATTRACTIVE, ACCESSIBLE and AFFORDABLE.

Today’s attention economy is very demanding on attracting and retaining customers but the

fundamental principles of Thomas Cooks still apply today whatever business you are in because

these factors are universally effective in engaging, building and retaining relationships of any kind.

The Embedded Fitness Ice Skating Game at the Good Game Show

On the final day of the conference, after the presentations were over, we visited the Good Games

Show on the ground floor. Apart from the Embedded Fitness stand showcasing video games from

the Netherlands there was very little evidence of any international presence the show but what was

very noticeable was how popular some of the traditional board games were on some of the stands.

Traditional Board Games at the Good Game Show

I mentioned at the beginning of this article that this trip to Korea has been a revelation. In speaking

to my good friend Chungwon Cho about my own experiences around Gamification and Enabling

Technologies for improving health and tackling obesity, it was clear that although there is a growing

worry about obesity in children in Korea, the general population in Korea, along with Japan has the

lowest incidence of obesity in Asia. It led me to reflect on the reasons why this might be so.

Adult Obesity Statistics showing Korea’s strong position

Malaysia’s Obesity problem

My motivation for trying to understand why these two countries perform so differently on obesity

and associated health problems such as diabetes 2 is to establish Gamification strategies that are

effective for both populations, taking into account their cultural and climatic differences. A lot of the

blame for Malaysia’s poor performance is illustrated in the chart and ascribed to factors like diet and

the impact of technology on a sedentary lifestyle but Korea has an even more advanced technology

infrastructure and general population usage than Malaysia. I am not a nutritional expert so I cannot

comment with any authority on the diets but one difference has become very, very clear to me over

the last few days.

As part of my daily exercise routine which involves walking an average of 20,000+ steps a day, I have

spent some time exploring both the Kuala Lumpur Heritage Park in the centre of the city and the

Goyang City Park near the conference hotel and, whilst both parks are wonderful places to relax and

enjoy nature and seem very similar in the pictures, there are some fundamental differences that to

me are critical and explain why the Korean park is vibrant and always busy with people walking

whilst the Heritage Park in Kuala Lumpur is invariably empty and absent of people.

In Goyang City, the park is intentionally right in the heart of the residential blocks of apartments so

that residents can walk straight out of their doors into a very relaxing environment with wide paths,

lots of trees, frequent exercise and sitting facilities. In the centre of Kuala Lumpur city, the Heritage

Park is not near any residential accommodation and has little public transport access.

The Korean facility has been designed to be ATTRACTIVE, ACCESSIBLE and AFFORDABLE whilst in

Kuala Lumpur, whilst the park is very attractive, it is relatively inaccessible and, because of this

inaccessibility, it becomes less affordable, especially in terms of the time needed to travel to it.

I have no doubt in my mind that the Gamification strategies and enabling technologies I use to

improve and maintain my health and wellbeing are appropriate for both countries but my instinct

tells me that Malaysia has barriers arising from urban layout that Korea does not have and that the

integration of leisure facilities and parks into residential areas should also be a priority for Malaysia.