1.1 Introduction to E-sports
With the rise of esports since the 1990s, multiplayer gaming has become more and more popular in South Korea. Almost half of South Korea’s 50 million population plays online games, and it has now become a part of their lifestyle. One thing that has a major contribution in the rise of Esports in South Korea is the career opportunities that the esports is now providing. The recent League of Legends tournament in Staples Center, Los Angeles gave $ 1 million dollars to the winner SK T1 Telecom, a South Korean gaming team that is also a part of the SK Telecom wireless communication operator (Gamepedia). Another way of earning for these professional gamers is through streams and sponsorships provided by big gaming companies like Razer.
1.2 PC Bangs in South Korea
With the esports going so big all over the world and specially in South Korea, South Korean gamers have involved themselves into gaming more than anything else. Gaming in South Korea is much different from gaming anywhere else in the world. South Korean gamers prefer playing games outside in Internet Cafes also called “PC Bangs” than playing games in their own houses. These PC Bangs are a huge part of the gaming community of South Korea, there are currently 20,000 PC Bangs all over the country in South Korea which are seen as a crucial part of their culture and social background (Cultural Geography - South Korean Computer Gaming Culture). These PC Bangs provide gamers with all kinds of services like food, drinks, and even smoking areas. With all these services provided some gamers spend more time in PC Bangs then in their own houses, since these PC Bangs are very cost efficient and only cost around $1 per hour allows these gamers to play and not wor...
... middle of paper ...
...omplicated or just seemed irrelevant to the situation while they might have been relevant. With all these PC bangs that basically cover every corner of the streets and a TV show dedicated towards production of gaming, wouldn’t the Internet addiction recreational centers be useless? Being the most wired country in the world, some may even believe that gaming isn’t just a fad but it has become a part of the culture of South Korea. It has gotten so big that there might not be a chance for them to get rid of gaming addiction, so should the government issue strict bans on the gaming TV shows and PC bang gaming? It is not just that gaming is part of these teenagers’ lives but also it is a big part of the South Korean economy. So if the government does plan to take strict steps like issuing bans on gaming houses and TV shows how can they deal with the economical problems?
Smaller amounts of games are found within the premises of many of the convenience stores, especially in the lower socio-economic areas of the city. The larger game rooms are predominantly located in rental business locations and warehouses, with no respect paid to proximity of schools or residential areas. Regardless of location, problems exist with criminal activity and traffic congestion surrounding the areas where the illegal game rooms are located. A large number of persons frequenting the locations come from lower socio-economic groups, and monetary issues can be problematic since the many of the machines are unregulated and may be biased toward the
Ø Greater Baltimore Committee (1997, February) GBC report on gaming: executive summary. Retrieved April 14, 2004, from http://www.gbc.org/reports/gaming/html
Everyone is different in their own unique ways. We are characterized by what we wear, what we look like, how we walk, and how we move. We are also characterized by our likes, dislikes, hobbies, and more. In addition to all of this, each one of us is characterized by what culture we are a part of. We represent that culture and its subcultures in unique and interesting ways. Today, I will share with you what subculture I belong to. I belong to a subculture of gaming, and I will talk about how, when, and why I participate in this culture.
In the declining PC video game market, a League of Legends member base of over 32 million and a conservatively estimated revenue of $25 to $30 million annually are unexpected to say the least (The World 's). Furthermore, League of Legends, created by a very small, and unknown at the time, company called Riot Games is the fourth most played game in the world. This raises the question of how League of Legends has been successful as a PC video game when most other PC video games’ membership and the genre itself are losing ground to video game consoles. The success of League of Legends comes from several sources: the League of Legends business model, the competitive nature of the game a the sense of community, and catering to the growing popularity
The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "Female gamers spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends, and male gamers spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends" ("Video Game Play Among Adolescents"). What can we understand from this evidence? The fact is that adolescents, male or female, are spending tremendous amounts of time each day sitting in front of a screen with a controller in hand.
...r League of Legends careers, the moral economy of League of Legends guide writing culture also illustrates the self promotion and willingness to blur the lines between works, home, and play that a economic environment necessary that acts like a guide posting and play streaming create an example that players strive to emulate. The desire to better one's own League of Legends play only happens if these players do eventually reach the professional level, they will find themselves compelled to contribute in order to build their image as pros and cement their place in the League of Legends professionally and continuing the cycle and paving the way for the next wave of professional players to do the same. This image management builds on the idea of what it means to be a League of Legends professional, and that means building on what it means to be a laborer in an economy.
Sports video games, video games that replicate a real life sport, have been around ever since the first video game console was released . Magnovox Odyssey, one of the first video game consoles, consisted of a table tennis game. Atari’s Pong, another sports video game, one of the very first video games was also a replica of table tennis (Suellentrop 7). As the video games have become more realistic and more popular amongst sports fans, they have created a vast impact on the video gaming industry. FIFA, a soccer video game by EA sports, captured 10% of the 351 million video game playing soccer fans around the world (Consalvo vii). Today, sports are a popular hobby for many people, but
Broadcasted competitive gaming has been around since the beginning of arcade games when people were competing for the highest score on shows like Starcade back in 1982(Bell). However, in the past couple of years the competitive gaming world has exploded in growth with more games, more tournaments, more players, and bigger cash prizes. During this most recent November there were eight major tournaments for a multitude of games including League of Legends, Call of Duty, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive and some less competitive games such as Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, and Street Fighter. With over a five million people watching these tournaments it is clearly visible that there is a passionate and large group of people that want this competitive gaming scene to expand. With all the activity going on in only a month and with smaller tournaments running all the time it is clear to see that competitive gaming or more formally called eSports has become in such a small time. However, the important question is whether or not eSports should be considered an actual sport like Football, Soccer, or Basketball. According to a ruling by the Olympic Committee, League of Legends already is, and will be taking a place in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro with other games being considered for the 2020 Olympics. Although there are those out that would like to dispute this ruling and say that eSports don’t meet the requirements of a traditional sport. A big argument has been conceived from the committee decision, but not all the arguments being used is valid and then there are those that.
As the time passes, technology is expanding and developing many creative ideas. Unlike in the past, nowadays we have computers, TVs, internet, and many inventions that have bad and good effects on us. Children used to interact with society by hanging out and playing sports with each other, but now we can see a big percentage of children who play video games for many hours daily. Addiction controls the lives of people, there is addiction to drugs, cigarettes, alcohol or gambling, and there are some forms of addiction associated with modern life, such as the Internet and video games. Most people think that video games are harmful and a waste of time.
In 1997, the South Korean government, in an attempt to stimulate the growth of its economy, encouraged the development of online gaming software. In order to accommodate gamers, the Internet café, which originated in England, became one of the most profitable businesses in South Korea. According to Business Weekly, there were around four thousand Internet cafés in South Korea in the year 1999, but the number has mushroomed to twenty thousand in the year 2000. Moreover, the estimated revenue for Internet cafés in South Korea by the year 2001 grew to $1.4 billion U.S. dollars. Due to the popularity of this modern business, the Taiwanese gaming industry decided to follow and develop online games. So far, there are around 8 million Internet users in Taiwan, and approximately 40% of them are gamers.
Videos games are no longer played solely for fun, but also turning into a new way to make money. There is a new, up and coming world that many people are not aware of, and that is the world of competitive gaming.
The Web. 18 Feb 2014 Google.com Marquet-Rousse, Jennifer. “Online gaming: An integral part of South Korean culture”. inaglobal.fr. 6 June 2013.
As an avid gamer, I have been intrigued with professional esports for the better part of 4 years and it would always grind my gears when people said it didn’t take any skill or effort like a sport. However in reality it takes just as much skill or effort, if not more to compete in esports. As esports becomes more predominant in our culture and around the world, I believe it deserves the recognition and respect that any other sport would receive. Did you know that some colleges have made esports teams and given out scholarships to students for them? In 2014, Robert Morris University in Chicago became the first U.S. college to make video gaming a varsity sport, even offering scholarship prizes(choices.scholastic.com). I will be explaining
Several years ago, technology and child’s play were not such as extremely developed as today. Thousands of teenagers have video game as their primary form of entertainment at home. The disagreement about violent video games is because they focus on several subjects such as violence scenes, pornographic content, racism and other resources. For many years, researchers have been debating if video games can cause dependence or not. However, an expert, Jack Flanagan believes video games have a really negative effect on a person’s life and even for children. Jack states that video game addiction exists, and can have the same effects as drugs and alcohol (Netzley 36-37). This shows that video game addiction can be like other addictions
The advantage of playing online game is that it allows people to communicate to numerous numbers of others from different cultural backgrounds and countries. In the game, a gamer may want to exchange his item with someone. Therefore, he/she has to negotiate with others. Repetition of this negotiation can develop a gamer’s social skills. The disadvantage of online gaming is that spending most of free time in front of a monitor wills remove teenagers from their friends and society. Online games are not for entertainment purpose only.