Essay about Online Gaming in South Korea - 1629 Words

Online Gaming in South Korea The rise of online gaming in South Korea has brought improved economic prospects and notoriety, but at what price? Beginning in the late 1990’s South Korea has quickly become the undisputed king of the online gaming world. Gaming and the culture that has grown up around it are now the defining aspects of the lives of many South Korea youths. While this eruption of online gaming has created revenue for the country and made South Korea a global hotspot for international gamers it has also been a cause of concern in much the same way excessive television viewing and game playing has in the U.S. A number of factors contribute to the huge percentage of online-gamers in South Korea. A fast internet connection is†¦show more content†¦There are reportedly over 25,000 bangs in the country, open all hours of the day and inexpensive (Gluck 1). Game playing in South Korean is a much more social experience than it is in the U.S. Going to a bang, whether to play online or simply go to a chat room, has become the social activity for many young Koreans. It is what they do when they go â€Å"out†, how they escape the apartment complexes in which 50 percent of South Koreans reside (Herz 2). The choice of games that the South Koreans play also reflects their more social nature. Star Craft, a real time strategy (RTS) game by U.S.-based Blizzard Inc. was the first extremely popular game in South Korea in the late 1990s. RTS games can be cooperative team-based or simple head-head battles. At that time there was not a lot of choice in online games, particularly in Korea as they had limited or no access to U.S.-based massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as Ultima Online or Everquest. That changed when Seoul-based NCsoft released Lineage, an MMORPG for South Koreans. Now, as of March 2003, Lineage has 3.2 million active users – 2.2 million in South Korea -- whereas Everquest, the most popular game of its type in the U.S. and often dubbed â€Å"Evercrack† by both fans and critics, only has 430,000 users (Kim 1). Lineage is the most popular online game in the world (Levander 2). Games of this type require extensive social interaction. However, Lineage differs from itsShow MoreRelatedThe Internet Addiction Disorder1152 Words   |  5 Pages An increasing problem streaming throughout the global society today is IAD or Internet Addiction Disorder. Our culture along with many others has been consumed with the ease and pleasure of shopping, gaming, and social networking through online portals to the point that it has become an overwhelming problem for some people. What Internet Addiction Disorder is exactly has been the topic of much debate and so has what makes internet addiction so addicting. 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