Gaming In Korea Essay

Video games in Korea play a central role in not only the culture, but also in the development of the country. Gaming in Korea is seen as being a very normal and integral part of their society. In Korea it is seen as a sport, and has a very big audience of not just young people but also many adults as well. Video games helped to increase the pace in which the technological infrastructure in Korea would grow. South Korea has a broadband subscription rate of 25.4 per 100 compared to that of U.S. which has only 16.8. Because of such technological advancements more than half of South Korea’s population plays online games. This results in the gaming industry making tons of money and is able to expand onto an international platform. South Korea is quite reliant on their pro-gaming culture to continue growth in the economy and to increase their reputation among the West.

Gaming in Korea played a very important role in the growth of their technological infrastructure and is one of the reasons why Korea became so well-known to the West. Gaming started to first evolve in Korea during the late 1990’s at the time of the Asian Financial Crisis. During this time many people in Korea were unemployed and the general mood at this time was not so great. Because of this people looked toward entertainment to help cheer themselves up and to pass time. But because many Japanese gaming products were banned in Korea, they had to look toward games made from other countries. The most popular game at this time was StarCraft, a game made in the U.S. that was playable only on computers. At this time, StarCraft was a game that was not only very fun to play, but it was also a very cheap game. The game could be easily pirated and played either solo or with othe...

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...lled as a “disease” by many because of how extreme many cases of video game addiction are and how fast it is spreading. Parents have been seen to stop caring for children because of how addicted they are to their games. Children have murdered their parents who have tried desperately to cure their children of such addictions. It has gone to such an extreme now that Korea had to open up clinics and rehabilitation centers to cure people of video game addiction. But it does not seem as though gaming will end up stopping any time soon in Korea. On the contrary, their eSports culture seems to be growing exponentially and is projected to become even bigger not just in Korea but around the world. Perhaps Koreans enjoy the fact that they are much better than any other people at gaming and strategizing. It is without a doubt one of the most interesting parts of Korea culture.