Online Gaming in South Korea

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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 a necessity and South Korea is, per capita, the most wired country in the world. Over 60% of households have broadband – compared to 20% in the United States (Kim 2). South Korea’s small geographical size and high population density make running the required cabling an easier task than it would be in the U.S. Broadband access in South Korea is, furthermore, the cheapest in the world at $25 per month (Kim 2). Additionally, in South Korea console gaming isn’t nearly as popular as it is in the U.S. and elsewhere. Console systems – Playstation, Nintendo, Sega – are by and large of Japanese origin. Due to past discord between the two countries – Korean being a colony under the rather, at the time, iron-fisted Japanese – Japanese imports have been both officially and culturally unpopular (Herz 3). Without consoles to take away from the base of game players, in South Korea unlike the U.S., online computer gaming is the dominant form of electronic gaming.

Though more than half the homes in South Korea a...

... middle of paper ...

...bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2499957.stm)

Fulford, Benjamin. “Korea’s Weird Wired World” Forbes Online 21 July 2003. October 28, 2003. (http://www.forbes.com/technology/free_forbes/2003/0721/092.html?partner=newscom)

Kim, Jin David. “Lucrative Lessons from Online Game Players” International Herald Tribune 12 March 2002. October 28, 2003.
(http://www.iht.com/articles/89432.html)

Ihlwan, Moon. “The Champs in Online Games” Business Week Online 23 July 2001. October 28, 2003. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_30/b3742142.htm)

Electro Lobby. “E-Sport: Gaming Goes Pro – Interview.” Unknown. October 28, 2003
(http://www.tnc.net/el/el01/progaming.html)

Related Links:

http://www.worldcybergames.com/ - home site of the World Cyber Games

http://www.ncsoft.net/ - NCsoft, makers of Lineage

http://www.blizzard.com/ - Blizzard Inc., makers of Starcraft

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