‘Path of Exile’ is a great game, but its developer, Grinding Gear Games, is located quite far away—New Zealand. Positioned east of Australia, this small island nation is a place gamers rarely step foot in. Even gaming journalists, who travel to the US and Japan multiple times a year, hardly ever have cause to visit, making it a rather unique business destination.
Because of this, very few Koreans come to attend ExileCon. How many people satisfy the rare intersection of traveling to New Zealand and playing Path of Exile? Even when I visited New Zealand three years ago for the first ExileCon, I didn’t see any Koreans at the venue other than official staff.
However, while preparing for this year’s trip, I heard an interesting piece of news: Shindong—a singer and entertainer first, and currently a very active tech reviewer and gamer on YouTube—would be attending ExileCon. Come to think of it, Shindong had also attended BlizzCon two months earlier, and although I was there too, our paths crossed without a chance to speak.
I really wanted to meet and chat with him at least once. After all, gamers are friends to other gamers. Isn’t it true that a single sentence like “I love games” can turn us into friends within 10 minutes? Even if we’re too shy to express it outwardly, the simple fact that someone enjoys gaming creates an instant sense of internal camaraderie that shoots up like bamboo.
And so, amid the excitement of ExileCon in Auckland, New Zealand, I had a brief chat with Shindong.
This is your first time attending ExileCon. Looking at your YouTube channel, you’ve played the ‘Path of Exile’ series quite a bit. How did you first get into the game?
“To be honest, I first found out about it through an editor at our company. He was already a huge fan of the game. I was originally a big Blizzard fan, so I played a lot of Diablo back in the day, and I also loved MMORPGs like Aion and World of Warcraft. Because of that, even though there are so many games these days, I found it hard to find one that hit just the right spot for me.
That was when my editor suggested, “Director, there’s a game like this—would you like to try it?” At first, I thought, “Isn’t it just like all the others?”, but he said the combat impact felt amazing and that it was an incredibly difficult game. So I confidently started with, “How hard could it be? I’m good at games,” but it turned out to be really hard. (Laughs)
I was shocked from the moment I first saw the skill tree. I wondered what on earth they were thinking when they made this game. But since I’ve always loved games—to the point of having run an internet cafe business—I thought, no matter how old I get, surely I can handle one game. So I deliberately started with the difficult Warrior class. But man, it really was tough.
I uploaded videos of myself playing from a beginner’s perspective, and surprisingly, the Path of Exile community really loved it. Some said it was their first time seeing a celebrity play this game, and I heard that many other public figures gave up after trying it.
With all that interest and support, I got even more motivated to work hard. I couldn’t just quit after gaining fans, right? That’s how I ended up coming all the way here.
Did you decide to attend ExileCon yourself? With your extremely busy schedule, traveling all the way to New Zealand couldn’t have been easy.
“I even rescheduled my commitments to be here. I had a schedule related to ‘The Devil’s Plan’ that overlapped with ExileCon. I rearranged things so that I finished everything in the morning—which was originally scheduled into the evening—and immediately caught a flight.
Honestly, I wanted to come a day early to sightsee around New Zealand, but I had another schedule right on the day I return, so it was tough to manage the timing. Still, I changed my flight schedule no matter what and said I was definitely going.
When I attended BlizzCon in the past, I was deeply moved. Just being at an event for Blizzard, a developer I’ve loved since I was young, felt incredible. That’s why I really wanted to attend ExileCon at least once as well.
Hearing how moved you were at BlizzCon is impressive. As a gamer who has loved games for a long time, it seems like you felt a special emotion.
“That’s right. Honestly, I even shed tears back then. It was separate from whatever opinions other people had about the games, whether they said they were good or bad.
The games I played when I first touched a computer as a kid connected all the way from ‘StarCraft’ to ‘Diablo’, and later to ‘Overwatch’. Being at an event for the games I’ve enjoyed for so long was truly overwhelming.
Regardless of how the games themselves were, just being there as someone who has loved those games since childhood was a deeply special experience.
We know you enjoy a wide variety of games. Among all the titles you’ve played so far, is there any game you would consider your ‘game of a lifetime’?
“Even these days, so many new games come out—like ‘GTA’ or ‘Call of Duty’. But with recent games, I often just sample them a little bit. It’s not easy for me to dedicate a long time to a single game.
Many modern games require long play sessions before you get to the real fun. So I sometimes enjoy them vicariously by watching our editors or producers play, while also trying to play a bit myself whenever I have free time.
However, if I had to pick the game of my life, I’d actually point to arcade games. When I was a kid, my dream was to own an arcade. Later as I got older, I thought about opening a PC cafe—and I actually ran one—but my very first dream was owning an arcade.
I especially loved ‘The King of Fighters’. That was back when I played in arcades while taking beatings from older guys. (Laughs) In those days, arcade cabinets were placed facing each other, so you could tell who your opponent was. Sometimes opponents would walk around to find you while playing, or give you a stare as they passed by.
Back then, we didn’t have online matchmaking like now, so we played games by bumping shoulders with people directly at the arcade. I played a ton from ‘Street Fighter’ to ‘The King of Fighters’ and ‘Tekken’—I practically lived in the arcades.
So my game of a lifetime is ‘The King of Fighters’.
‘The King of Fighters’ series has many entries. Is there a specific numbered title you like most?
“For me, it’s ’97’. At first, I wondered if it was ’96’, but no, it’s definitely ’97’. It had plenty of glitches and a huge variety of combos, so it was super fun.
That said, if you ask me which entry I could play best right now, I’m also confident in ’94’ or ’95’. Those are so classic and old that not as many people are great at them nowadays. Classic titles like those are really fun too.
Besides gaming, you’re very interested in tech devices and run your own tech review YouTube channel. Given how busy you are with entertainment activities alone, what made you choose professional tech reviews over a typical vlog?
“When I first started YouTube, I put a lot of thought into it. I had so many thoughts about what content to make and what direction to take.
One piece of advice I received was that I should do something I genuinely love—that I needed to pick something I could keep doing consistently for a long time.
So I asked myself what I loved most, and in the end, it was tech gadgets. Most of the websites or videos I enjoyed watching in my free time were tech reviews. That’s why I decided to create content around what I naturally loved.
Of course, I couldn’t do everything on my own from the start. I received a lot of help from people around me. I learned and received advice while connecting with creators like SEOULiAN, ITSub, Gajeon Jubu, and Bangguseok Reviewroom.
Ultimately, because it’s a field I truly love, I’ve been able to keep going until now. Rather than just being a celebrity doing YouTube, I genuinely enjoy hands-on testing and talking about the machines and technology I love.
You work across various fields as a singer, entertainer, and YouTuber. What does gaming mean to you? It feels like it has become something more than just a simple hobby.
“Wow, that’s a tough question. (Laughs)
At first, I think gaming was just a way to relieve stress. Finding joy while playing games when I was tired or exhausted.
But nowadays, it’s changed a bit. I don’t know if this is the right expression, but I think the ultimate pinnacle of a hobby is making money from it. And right now, it feels like I’m living that life.
So it feels like it has already transcended the realm of simply liking or disliking games.
If my work as ‘Shindong’ is performing as a singer and entertainer as a Super Junior member, my work as ‘Shin Dong-hee’ has become making money through gaming.
Of course, my starting line might have been a bit different from others. Even so, I’m living what I consider the ultimate hobby experience while doing work I truly love. That’s why I engage with it even more passionately, and it has naturally become a crucial part of my life.
And when it comes to relieving stress, nothing beats gaming.
Some people relieve stress through shopping, right? Well, in games, there’s microtransactions and in-game purchases. (Laughs) That works surprisingly well. After all, I’m buying things I like, so it feels good and makes the game even more enjoyable.
There must be many people in the entertainment industry who love games. Are there colleagues you regularly play games with?
“There are so many. First off, among Super Junior members, there’s Kyuhyun and Heechul. Both are well known for loving games.
Lately, I’ve also been talking a lot about games with Soo-geun hyung. Lee Soo-geun has been playing ‘Diablo II: Resurrected’ really passionately these days, and he even streams it.
Among celebrities, a lot of people play ‘League of Legends’, though it’s been a while since I quit that game. Back when I was playing ‘Overwatch’ heavily, I used to play with guys from EXO and BTS. I also played with Jungkook and V.
There are far more celebrities who love games than people might think. However, because everyone is busy with their own schedules and rarely gets the chance to attend gaming events like this in person, it’s difficult to find common ground to meet up.
One final question. This time, I’d like to ask Shin Dong-hee the gamer, rather than Shindong the entertainer. Is there a goal you definitely want to achieve or an experience you want to try through gaming in the future?
“My dream is to live to 150 years old. (Laughs)
I really want to live a long time. The reason is that I’m so curious about what amazing technology and civilization will emerge in the future, and I want to experience it firsthand.
Even now, autonomous driving tech like Tesla’s FSD is advancing, and we’ve entered an era where AI like Claude or ChatGPT handles various tasks. It makes me wonder how we ever lived before these technologies existed.
So how far will gaming evolve in the future? I’m genuinely curious about that.
Right now, we play with controllers, but VR has emerged, and tech for wearing equipment to play games keeps advancing. Someday, wouldn’t we be able to step inside a game world and live there, just like in the movie ‘Ready Player One’?
I definitely want to see the day a game like that actually comes out, and I want to play it myself.
So my goal is to experience as many games as possible before I die.
Taking first place in a game or completely mastering a specific title isn’t that important to me. For me, just experiencing a new game itself is immensely fun.
I’m so excited to see how fun future games will be and what new ways we’ll be able to play them. I want to live as long as possible and experience as much of that as I can.
[Read Original]
