Linage [I] and II: The Adventure of Local Online Games Towards Globalization.

The success of local online games as a genre in the global market has become a unique contra-cultural flow. This new phenomenon has raised a fundamental question whether non-Western countries are able to expand their cultural penetration, not only in the same region but also in the global cultural market. It is also questionable whether this contra-cultural flow has to be claimed that an asymmetrical cultural flow in favor of the West, in particular, the U.S.'s dominance has diminished. Using Linage games, in conjunction with the Korean online games, as a case, this study attempts to discuss the way in which the local online game industry has produced a global phenomenon. In other words, the goal of this study is to trace the production dynamics to identify the conditions that have rendered contra cultural flow possible. It discusses the process by which a local culture is appropriated for the global audience. The task this paper sets out to accomplish is to understand the critical dialogue played by the global-local paradigm in transnationalizing local culture for the global cultural market. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]