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So how’s this for coincidences.

I just finished eating with one of my Korean coworkers. He also got a hold of Spore last night (like me). He is dating a girl from Canada (like I used to). He just moved back from Shanghai, where he taught (and where I’ll be moving to in a couple months to do the same thing). He recently watched the screener of Mummy 3 (as did I) and didn’t like it (as did I).

And the drum roll: he also keeps up with financial trends through Peter Schiff’s website.

Okay, I made up that last part, but during the conversation it turns out he does read a wide-array of literature to keep up with the various global securities markets — because he invests throughout the world. And he is perhaps the first guy I’ve met overseas that actually understood what a subprime mortgage technically is (usually, I explain it in 30 seconds with: no shirt, no shoes, no job, no problem!).

This last part is important because he lived in Korea during the Asian Financial crisis back in the late ’90s. Whenever that topic comes up in a conversation with Koreans, they usually become ghosts because of how relatively hard the conditions were. Stock market performance was non-existent, dozens of large companies went bankrupt. The currency was crapola (they ended up floating it, which is actually a good thing, but hurt in the process).

One of the stories of that time was that Koreans were told not to push the “close door” button in an elevator because it was seen as wasting money.

Another story - and a true one - was that after pleadings from government officials and corporate executives - to stave off complete collapse - thousands of Koreans were asked to donate their personal stashes of gold. Wedding rings, family heirlooms, sport awards, the whole nine yards (that should give you an idea of how “nationalistic” Koreans can be) were all given to the state and it actually propped up their system.

My students usually refer to those years as “IMF.”

Seriously, they just say “IMF.” It was during this time that the IMF “helped” restructure the fundamentals of the Korean economy (although, as I and others have noted, nothing was really fixed).

Well, the hushed tones are back. Many of the Koreans that I work with speak of nothing else but another IMF event on a daily basis . A number of them have tried to close their pensions and exchange all of their Won to another currency. Financial analysts in this country expect the caca to hit the fan by the end of the year (at the latest) and even as early as October.

Foreign capital is literally leaving by the car load and the Korean government is trying to sell off bonds in an effort to prop up the Won which has been getting killed in FOREX markets.

The way this ties into a small world is that as a foreign holder Korea is sitting on about $36 billion in US treasuries and recently purchased $550 million in Freddie and Fannie debt.

And because that money percolates throughout the financial markets and down through federally subsidized housing and student-loan backed securities, I’m fairly certain that statistically speaking, I know someone in the US whose lifestyle is being financed by a Korean taxpayer. Taxpayers like my coworkers.

So the next time you see an Korean national walking through the street, give them a hug for helping you and ask them if they also played Spore.

[About the pictures: they were taken last week on an island near Incheon called Muido, great people, great sand, great activities]

Note: some have argued that Korea’s central bank will come out unscathed in the Freddie/Fannie bailout because US taxpayers will foot the bill (lucky them, right?) but this still does not bode well for brilliant investments like KDB purchasing large shares of Lehman Brothers. Isn’t there a really big possibility that performance will still be poor, like other SWF investments?

See also:
No Silver in the Silver Lining
Updating Your Holiday Card Address Book
Who is ultimately financing the injections by the Treasury?

After all the hype surrounding the previews, I got a copy of the full version and played it for 4-5 hours today.

In that amount of time I nearly finished the entire game (got the space ship and flew to a couple of planets, beamed up spices, fought drones, etc.).

The only two stages I found relatively entertaining was the cell stage where you have to run away most of the time and the space stage, where you get a cool tractor beam that allows you to throw stuff around like a rag doll.

The other stages were monotonous grinds and I don’t see too much replay value if the objectives never change.

The music and sound effects were good. The visuals were okay, certainly not breath taking (at least on my laptop). I even liked the names of some of the vehicle weapons (e.g., “war criminal”).

I’m sure that some of the bonus online content (e.g., sharing your customized characters) will help create a long lasting community, but I probably won’t mount the image again after today. The middle stages, the ones that involve real-time strategy are just mind numbingly boring. The micromanagement is tedious, especially since the path-finding AI seems stuck in 1999. And annoyingly, all the actions zooms by too quickly.

For instance, the creature stage starts off in an interesting direction as you upgrade and modify the character as if it is the lead character of an RPG (better claws, faster legs). And just as you’re getting the hang of things, you hit the next era. For example, advancement hump in a nutshell:

1) Grow older
2) Collect DNA points
3) Reach the next era
4) Create a new muppet
5) Grow older

In retrospect, it could be five games in one, but none of the games is fully fleshed out. I think Maxis left a lot on the table and with any luck, a [non-existent] mod community will be able to hack the civilization & space stages and somehow allow players to duke it out over a LAN (like a normal RTS).

But then again, the game is expected to sell 2 million copies this month alone. Somehow I doubt my lack of enthusiasm will undermine their bottom line or force them to elongate the core game play.

Verdict: 2.5 out of 5. Grab a demo if you can, but I’d stick to a traditional RPG or something like AoE III for replay value.

[Note: is it bad that I named all of the widgets after Paulson and Bernanke?]

Addendum: here are two reviews, one from Ars, the other from ze Germans