South Korea Computer Gaming Culture

Ping Zhou states, “South Korea is a country infatuated with video games. It is a place where professional gamers earn six-figure contracts, date supermodels, and are treated as A-list celebrities. Cyber competitions are nationally televised and they fill-up stadiums. In this country, gaming is not just a hobby; it’s a way of life.

Most Koreans play their games outside of their homes in local gaming rooms called “PC bangs”. A bang is a local area network gaming center were players pay an hourly fee to play multiplayer games. Most bangs are cheap anywhere from $1.00 to $1.50. South Korea currently has over 20,000 active PC bangs.  They compared going to a bang like going to the movies or the bar.

For people in South Korea video gaming truly is a way of life. It’s considered a national sport. There are currently 10 professional gaming leagues in the country. The rewards for winning a league were enormous. Some of South Koreas most famous gamers could earn up to $400,000 a year from gaming and sponsorships.

I decided to do more research on this after my class shared the idea of how intense video gaming can be in other countries. This came as a shock, I didn't realize how big of a deal video games could be. I see video games as being more of a leisure activity something people do for fun. Never did I ever think about it being a competition.

But with so many people in South Korea involved with video gaming, gaming addiction is now one of the major problems South Koreans face. Video gaming has become a life-threatening epidemic.

“In 2005, a 28-year-old man died from cardiac arrest after playing for 50 hours straight. In 2009, a married couple got so immersed in a game where they took care of a virtual infant that they neglected to feed their real life infant, which eventually died of starvation. The parents received a two-year prison sentence”.

The country has tried to bring a stop to the heavy addiction. The government has spent money on clinics, campaigns, and programs to minimize the problem. In 2011, the government imposed a “Cinderella Law” which was a law that prevents anyone under 16 from playing online games from midnight to 6 a.m.

This was something new for me I knew nothing about competitive video gaming and the consequences it could have. But all I can say is they must be hard-core gamers in South Korea.

http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/South-Korea-Computer-Gaming-Culture.htm