Gaming in South Korea : A National Sport

South Korea is one of the countries I would like to live in, most probably because of its high living standard, but also because of its ‘technology culture’. They became first in problem solving, third in mathematics and eleventh in science worldwide. Everything there is very different from other countries including the strange laws concerning properties. The Republic of Korea has among the best gamers among the world and the gaming industry there is quite amazing with about $4 billions spent on games annually. A third of the population are gamers.

Gaming became popular with the advent of broadband in the country. Huge investments were made in that field and around 70% of the population now have broadband at home. The internet services they have are impressive with wires that can transfer data up to 50 mbps and they are still upgrading their services. Their gaming culture is interesting due to the fact that most of the gamers spend their time in ‘pc bangs’, most commonly known as internet cafes. They are able to socialise, eat, drink or smoke and at the same time they are playing with their friends. Those places are crowded with chicks and many pc bangs are equipped with ‘love seats’ where couples can play games together. PC Bangs charge only about $1.5/ hour, but they are highly profitable.

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Koreans are known to be addicts of MMORPG such as World of Warcraft. Some other games they play are Warcraft 3, Counter-Strike, Fifa, Kart Rider, Maple Story, Diablo and Lineage. They are enjoyed both by males and females. However the game that changed their life is definitely Starcraft and its expansion pack Brood War.  It was released in the late 1990′s and is still widely played today. Korea is considered as a home to Starcraft where major leagues are held involving lots of money and rewards. It is played on a professional level and enjoyed by spectators as well. It is the first game to have been accepted by the World Cyber Games and it is shown on cable tv. The country has now 2 TV channels exclusively for video gaming.

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As such Starcraft II : Wings of Liberty is THE most anticipated game in South Korea. It will be released on 27 July 2010 and is expected to have a huge impact. Yet many people think that it won’t last as long as the original game due to lack of LAN feature that contributed greatly to Starcraft’s success. Gamers have been waiting for this game for about 10 years and hope not to be disappointed by it. Blizzard also entered in a c0-marketting agreement with Korean Air that will last 6 months. Two of their airlines will display Starcraft 2 advertising.

However, online gaming brought also the problem of addiction. Korea is actually the first country to impose curfews and limits on gaming in order to fight game addiction.  There are many cases where gamers collapsed due to playing continuously for long hours. In other cases some people even died or children died because they were neglected by their parents who were addicted to gaming.  They take gaming very seriously and this is why their culture is so different from others.

Advice : If you encounter a Korean gamer online, don’t bother playing against him You’ll get pwned!

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