My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 24

“I heard that overseas, when making political judgments, they mobilize profilers and psychologists to analyze the situation. I’m thinking of introducing such a system here.”

This didn’t happen before the regression.

‘Did I spark their interest?’

They probably had no interest in the profession of profiler until they saw what Park Do-joon accomplished.

“Of course, it would be a pilot project….”

The problem is that there is no such thing as a private profiler in the market. All profilers belong to the police.

“That’s quite a job for just sending a secretary for a day, isn’t it?”

Bae Deok-gi chuckled at that. It is indeed a pricey job for just sending a secretary for a day. Of course, there would be benefits to match.

“I’ll increase the amount of work for Haneul Industries. Your brother seems capable, so shouldn’t he think about growing the company? How long are you going to stay at just 100 employees? Isn’t it because you’re too small that the directors look down on you and try to take advantage?”

“That’s true. But I don’t want to steal other people’s work….”

If they take the work, someone will go bankrupt. Park Do-joon didn’t want to make money that way.

“Don’t worry, the ones who go bankrupt probably aren’t as good as you think.”

“You’re targeting the former directors, I presume.”

“How did you know?”

“What happened to us probably wasn’t a one-time occurrence.”

Perhaps while Chairman Bae Deok-gi wasn’t paying attention, those directors were taking down companies one by one and taking their place.

“That’s right. They took an enormous amount. I told them to give a fair price, not to give extra money.”

In reality, they bankrupted subcontractors and swallowed them up. When they joined the company, they used their connections to secure deals at rates that were 30% higher than the normal rate, sometimes even three times as much.

Of course, Chairman Bae Deok-gi wouldn’t let that slide.

“If that’s the case, I’ll accept.”

If they acquire companies that are going to fail anyway, the benefits are clear. Moreover, thanks to receiving the overdue payments in a lump sum, the company isn’t short on funds.

“For now, what we’re thinking about is acquiring a game company and releasing a great game. I think we can do it with our capabilities. So, we’re planning to acquire a game company, but they’re asking for a high price. That’s why I’m thinking of mobilizing profilers and psychologists to analyze their psychology….”

Before Bae Deok-gi could finish, Park Do-joon drew a line.

“That’s not a good idea.”

“What? Why?”

“Profilers are technicians. Professional technicians. In fact, profilers’ skills are based on criminology.”

“What does that mean?”

“Using profiler techniques on ordinary businessmen or politicians is confidential [unethical or inappropriate].”

It’s not non-existent. In the United States, for example, profilers are used to analyze the strategies of opposing countries.

The same goes for companies. However, most profilers learn based on crime.

“Just as criminals have different behavioral principles from ordinary people, businessmen and politicians have different behavioral principles. They are the same people, but the way they move is in a way that ordinary people cannot agree with.”

“So, if we use profilers?”

“You’ll probably all fail.”

Profiling in Korea is basically specialized in catching criminals. Even the police in Korea don’t like profilers, so would the National Assembly or the government like them?

“They’d probably say, ‘How dare a profiler interfere in politics?’”

That’s why there are very few people in Korea who can analyze their behavior patterns.

“What about you?”

“I said rare, not non-existent.”

“It sounds like you’re saying it’s possible for you.”

“It is possible.”

He had honed his profiler skills until the regression. Now, he has learned numerous techniques that are still classified and has also learned how to apply them.

‘I’m probably the only one who can profile politicians or businessmen.’

At least in Korea.

“Well, then I’ll have to go with you.”

“That’s a good decision.”

Even though they had a bad relationship before the regression, there’s no reason to do so this time. Moreover, it was the directors who caused it. If he has the chance this time, it’s advantageous to build a good relationship.

“Seeing that it’s a game company, it seems like you’re serious about this.”

“Isn’t the market growing every day? There are companies overseas whose market capitalization exceeds that of our Hyunsung with just one game. There’s no reason we can’t do it too. Hyunsung Games has been content with just the domestic market, which is why that kind of situation happened. So, I’m thinking of seriously growing it.”

That reminded Park Do-joon of something. Hyunsung certainly acquired a game company and ambitiously challenged the global game market.

If successful, they could make enormous profits. But the conclusion is that it failed. It failed miserably.

“You’re targeting Jiwoonsoft, I presume.”

“How did you know that? It’s a secret.”

“The rumor of Jiwoonsoft’s sale isn’t a secret. The secret is who will buy it.”

Jiwoonsoft is the company that Hyunsung acquired before the regression. Hyunsung was more interested in the cultural industry than other companies.

In fact, Korea’s game culture is quite outdated. Korea is said to be the best gaming powerhouse, but that’s only in terms of playing. Game development is almost limited to gambling-level games.

‘And they took the hit.’

Jiwoonsoft was one of the companies known for its good technology within Korea and was also a fairly large company. Hyunsung ambitiously challenged the global game market after acquiring Jiwoonsoft, but it failed miserably. Coinciding with a match-fixing scandal, they ended up withdrawing from the game industry altogether.

“Why? The executives see it as a company with good potential.”

Park Do-joon nodded at that. It’s certainly a company with good potential.

To be exact, it’s a company with only good potential and no future.

These two are completely different.

“The profit rate is also stable, and it’s a company that has made profits of over 10 billion won [approximately $7.5 million USD] every year for the past 10 years without a single deficit, so it’s natural to see it that way. But based on the current Jiwoonsoft, entering the game ecosystem that the chairman is thinking of is impossible.”

“Why?”

“Because that game company is a Korean game company.”

“Isn’t that obvious? You didn’t think we’d acquire an overseas game company, did you?”

“That’s not it. That itself is the problem.”

Bae Deok-gi tilted his head at Park Do-joon’s words.

“Explain it more simply.”

“The people who judged the investigation of the current game company are the directors, aren’t they?”

At that, Chairman Bae Deok-gi nodded. That’s a natural thing to do when doing business. You need to know the past sales and profits to judge its value.

“In that respect, Jiwoonsoft is a good company. But do the people who judge that play games?”

“Who? Are you talking about the executives?”

“Yes. The chairman and the chairman’s closest aides probably don’t play games. Am I wrong?”

“That’s true.”

“That’s the problem. To give you a simple example, right now, the chairman is holding a pansori [traditional Korean narrative song] contest and putting a trot [Korean pop music] singer in the judge’s seat.”

“You’re saying it’s completely irrelevant?”

“That’s right. Unlike other businesses, games are a business where creativity is important.”

Turning the factory and selling goods is something the executives can decide based on the past methods. But games are not. No matter how much money you pour in, if the game isn’t fun, it will fail. Even if you spend only a little money, if the game is fun, it will succeed.

“The foundation of the current Korean game industry is gambling. That’s the same for Jiwoonsoft.”

Gacha [a monetization system where players spend in-game currency or real money to receive a random virtual item], a form of gambling, is the main source of income for Korean game companies. In fact, most of the games operated by Jiwoonsoft are making profits based on such gacha.

“From what I see, the game market that the chairman wants to enter isn’t a gambling-type game in Korea, but a single-player-oriented console or computer game, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Jiwoonsoft is a company that has never developed such a game in the first place.”

They don’t even have any ideas in that direction, and even the executives have never even thought about it.

‘That’s why they failed.’

They bought Jiwoonsoft for a whopping 1 trillion won [approximately $750 million USD], but all the games they released were flops.

Poor storytelling. Graphics that aren’t particularly outstanding. An uncomfortable control system that can’t be seen as a large-scale project worth hundreds of billions, and so on.

“Jiwoonsoft is basically a company that is used to forcing gambling-oriented play.”

“Hmm….”

As a result, every game they release is bound to fail.

“Is that also profiling?”

“Yes. You can see the values that the company pursues by looking at the game. As I’ve said many times, profiling is a technique of looking around and reading the person’s psychology.”

Of course, that goes for companies as well.

The games and play-inducing methods that come out of Jiwoonsoft are thoroughly designed to run on a pay-to-win system. The game itself is structured to be played as an almost infinite grind.

“Minimal investment of personnel. Maximum profit.”

“Isn’t that a bad thing?”

“That’s right. But this form blocks the limitations of creators who need to be creative.”

As a result, all the games that come out of Jiwoonsoft are just probability tricks.

Single-player-oriented games will inevitably have an ending someday.

The problem is that there is a high possibility that the content will end at that moment.

Of course, the drop of game items is subject to probability. However, they lowered that probability to an absurd level, so that the game is not fun to play, but in order to see the ending, they made it operate in a way that requires an absurdly long time to grind in single-player.

The time that a normal storyline has in the game is about 11 hours, but in order to break that, they made it so that you can’t see the ending unless you grind for more than three months probabilistically.

“And what they’re asking for is clearly the maintenance of the existing executives’ management rights.”

“Did you hear about our contract terms in advance?”

“No. It’s obvious. Demanding management rights of a company is a kind of negotiation tactic.”

Even the guys who are going out of business because the company is failing often demand management rights, so there’s no way that the head of a company that’s making a profit wouldn’t ask for management rights.

“Demanding management rights means that one more card is added to this side, and it means that they can get even one more thing from that side.”

Unless it’s someone who’s really thinking about retiring, it’s human nature to want to get something more.