[Mania] The Whole Family Enjoys Games... 'Game Culture Festival' Unfolds at Everland

Everland and Korea Creative Content Agency Host Event
Diverse Game Experience Zones Set Up at Everland

Receive Game Career Counseling and Try VR Roller Coaster
"Aiming to Spread Game Culture Enjoyed by the Whole Family"

On the afternoon of the 8th, at Everland in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where the reporter visited, people were cheering as they experienced games here and there, enjoying the '2023 Game Culture Festival.'

After passing through the Everland main gate while listening to lively music, an outdoor event booth that is not usually seen appeared shortly. It was the base camp of the '2023 Game Culture Festival.' Here, children, parents, and students in school uniforms were all deeply engaged in something, wearing very joyful expressions. At one spot, middle school boys surrounded a monitor, attentively listening to someone's explanation. With expressions more excited than riding amusement rides, they focused on the game explanation given by a man who looked like a teacher.

Entrance of the '2023 Game Culture Festival' Base Camp held at Everland, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do /
[Photo by Everland]

The Game Culture Festival is hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and jointly organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency and Samsung C&T Resort Division (Everland). Its purpose is to convey the cultural value of games and provide a place where all generations can communicate through games. This year’s event started on the 3rd and is ongoing for ten days until the 12th.

At the base camp, which featured game exhibitions and experience zones, there were booths from domestic game companies such as Kakao Games, Smilegate, and Nimble Neuron, as well as game-related organizations like Gen.G Global Academy and the Elementary Computing Teachers Association. The reporter visited a booth where a coach from Gen.G Global Academy was providing career counseling and one-point lessons for those dreaming of becoming e-sports players. Upon closer look, coaching related to Valorant (a shooting game) was in full swing. Watching the students concentrate on the coach’s words as if receiving private tutoring felt like meeting future national e-sports representatives in advance. Jeong Ji-yoon (14), who received coaching, said, “I came here while on a school trip to Everland and stopped by this place. It’s my first time experiencing this kind of coaching, and it’s fascinating and fun.”

Students consulting with game coaches about career paths at the base camp of the '2023 Game Culture Festival' /
Photo by Kim Pyeonghwa

At a booth on the opposite side, a child let out a high-pitched sound as if surprised. The child was enjoying a 4-dimensional (4D) virtual reality (VR) experience space prepared by Kakao Games, wearing a VR device and riding a virtual roller coaster. Experiencing it firsthand, although it lasted just over a minute, the chair moved, wind blew, and the VR video was vivid, making it feel like riding a real amusement ride. This was why not only the child but also the accompanying parents had faces full of joy.

The Game Culture Festival has been held at Everland since last year. Last year, the festival was held in a part of Everland, but this year the scale has been significantly expanded. The event is being held across a total of seven spaces, including both online and offline experience zones. Kim So-yeon, a manager at the Korea Creative Content Agency, said, “With the revision of the Cultural Arts Promotion Act, games have been included as cultural arts. We have worked hard to improve the perception of domestic games and establish games as a culture enjoyed by the whole family.”

Children experiencing a virtual roller coaster in 4D VR at the base camp of the '2023 Game Culture Festival' / Photo by Everland

This year’s festival theme is 'Hotam’s Exploration Team.' Following Hotam, the tiger explorer character, participants transform into brave explorers and embark on a quest to find hidden treasures in Everland by participating in various games. To this end, the Korea Creative Content Agency upgraded the Hotam character, which was introduced once last year, to a cuter version. They also designed several game stories to be interesting so that participants could gain not only fun but also lessons.

Everland was a suitable place to unfold this worldview. One of the mission games available at the Game Culture Festival was an outdoor escape room game where participants solved quizzes step by step. It was held at the existing Everland escape room game venue (Raptor Ranger), enhancing participant immersion and interest. Raptor Ranger is a spacious area designed like the Jurassic Park movie set, and thanks to the elaborate set design, participants felt like protagonists in a science fiction (SF) movie.

Participants of the Game Culture Festival solving quizzes at Everland's outdoor escape room game area (Raptor Ranger) / Photo by Everland

Another area in Everland featured an 'Arcade Zone' where parents and children could enjoy games together. Upon visiting, the space was decorated like an old arcade, giving off a strong retro vibe. There were games like StarCraft, which the parent generation played a lot, as well as Friends Popcorn and Nintendo games, showing families enjoying games together. An Everland official said, “We hope this becomes a place of communication where all generations participate in games.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.