Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Enigma]

I realize that I'm totally out of the loop here, but I'm curious if anyone could tell me how Angry Birds got to be so popular here in Korea?
I teach mainly adults, but at the start of the day I teach 4 elementary school kids. Over the last month or two they've all spent a lot of time talking about Angry Birds.
Before class one day one of them was playing the game on his smart phone, and I watched briefly but it looked quite repetitive to me. Now the Birds themselves, I get why kids would like them, but I'm still curious how they got so popular here in Korea so quickly. The 4 kids I teach all have the stickers/pencil cases/erasers and one of them came in yesterday wearing the gloves.
Is there an Angry Birds cartoon or something similar, or is this all from hype around the phone game?
Any ideas?

Thanks

[Carbon]

It was popular everywhere, probably in the US first.

Why?

People are simple-minded and like meaningless distractions is my guess. I played it too for a few days, but that was the first (and only, after a return; I am a self-confessed Luddite in this matter) week of having a smartphone and I was gripped by App Fever.

Angry Birds is just a cute, vacuous fad on a device that people long to just use.

Seems folks are still amazed by tactile interaction.

[zappadelta]

[DIsbell]

There's no TV show or comic book or novel or anything but the damn game. There is, however, merchandise. Character stuff has been popular with Koreans for quite some time (Hello Kitty, Nintendo characters, Pokemon, Pororo, Rillakumma, etc) but I feel this is a some kind of low: the Angry Birds don't even have goddam names. There's no trace of a story outside of "pigs stole eggs, birds are angry, so they fight." But you'll be goddamned if you don't hear about that not-so-epic tale 20 times a day if you teach elementary school students.

The game was (and still is?) popular in the States a couple years ago. When it finally came to Korea (officially, as AppStore and Market games were heavily restricted by the K. Gov), it was sort of a perfect storm: smartphones had reached massive proliferation to the point that kids had them, there was enough established merch ideas to churn it out in Korea on a huge level, and there wasn't anything else Character-wise that was really hot. The crap spread like wildfire early this summer.

[SMOE NSET]

There are three Angry Birds games actually (Original, Rio, and Seasons).

Rovio (the company that made Angry Birds) came out with a full length animated movie named Rio and the game itself follows the movie plot line. The movie made over $143 million in the USA alone. It is not just Korea that is addicted to the Angry Birds craze. China is even "worse" and Rovio is even opening an Angry Birds store there soon, if not all ready. There is soon to be a TV show on Nickelodeon.

My students are all addicted to it too so I compete with them for high scores and achieving all three stars for each level. It is an easy conversation starter especially with shy students. Ask them how to beat a level, where the secret items are, etc. The shyness instantly melts away and the English starts flowing.

It is a casual game that you can play for a few minutes while you wait for the bus or subway and then easily stop and put away. That is probably its biggest appeal besides kids love the characters.

[Carbon]

[crisdean]

[SMOE NSET]

[zappadelta]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I remember when it was big back home, yet nearly unknown here. I asked my Korean friend what the most popular game was. She said it was a game where you had to find the cat.

[thrylos]

Here's an interview with one of the founders

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2091589_2092033_2100693,00.html

Not that it will necessarily answer your question, OP, but gives some info into the obsession and how well they market it.

[Steelrails]

When this came out and I didn't know, care, nor want to know, and held everyone who did care in contempt, I knew I had fully crossed over into cantankerous crusty bitter old manhood.

[ThingsComeAround]

Its simple. They followed the rule to get people to follow them (KISS)

[zdrav]

The Angry Birds characters are cute, and cute sells in Korea.

I'm morally opposed to the game, however, because of its blatant endorsement of suicide attacks. Probably funded by al-Qaeda.

[Carbon]