Obsessed Internet gamers in South Korea now have a league of their own

[debjani86.livejournal.com]

By Chico Harlan

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA -- One Saturday this month, roughly 10,000 South Koreans interrupted their usual weekend activity of playing Internet games for something else: to watch professionals play Internet games.

They gathered in plastic chairs on a beach just before sunset, paying the equivalent of $3 per ticket. Advertisements hung from the stage, the speakers and the overhead lights. The players for the two teams wore uniforms, distinguished by sponsorship logos of competing telecommunications companies.

While South Korea's Internet game industry has grown into an entertainment force on par with television and film, Internet addiction has become a national social problem. Elite Korean professional gamers have loyal fans, lucrative salaries and signature celebration moves. A typical high school student, meanwhile, spends 23 hours a week playing Internet games.

 

In the world's most wired country, the government faces a collision of interests concerning Internet game-playing. Some lawmakers say South Korea must fight Internet addiction by targeting the gaming industry, limiting the hours at which their games are available. Others see the industry as a still-growing moneymaker -- even a hallmark of Korean culture -- and they want it left alone.

For at least five years, the government has tried to combat Internet addiction through education for parents, counseling, discussions about alternative activities.

"But these policies haven't been effective so far," said Kim Sung Byuk, an official at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. "So now the government is putting more force into the issue."

The National Assembly is debating a bill that would block underage gamers from playing online between midnight and 6 a.m. The potential for such regulation has set off a chaotic go-round of proposals and counterproposals involving at least four government ministries, one of which refuses to use the term "Internet addiction." Officials at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who oppose regulating the gaming industry, prefer "Internet overindulgence."

South Korea's professional gaming league has charged into mainstream culture. Matches -- competitions in a game called Starcraft, the most popular in Korea -- are televised. Corporations such as Samsung sponsor teams. The league was hit this year by a gambling scandal that involved some of its highest-profile players.

In the hours before the Starcraft championship, a generation of gamers -- most ages 15 to 30, officials said -- descended on Busan's Gwangalli beach. One player waited backstage, stretching his wrists. Television broadcaster Kim Tae Hyung, famous for his overcaffeinated Starcraft commentary, emerged from his makeup room and headed on stage, emceeing a pregame show that included smoke and fireworks. Coaches, dressed in suits, gathered their teams, issuing strategy and calming words.

Then two players, one from each side, ducked into penalty-box-like booths positioned on stage, and the match was on.

Three jumbo scoreboards showed the action: an emerald land with icy orbs, vaguely insectlike predators and plenty of gunfire. When one player clinched his first-round victory, he bounced from the booth, performing a dance step and was soon surrounded by three beautiful women carrying sponsor posters.

"Before, it was recognized as a game for kids," said Kim Tae Hyung, the broadcaster. "It has become a legitimate e-sport. We've had this now for 10 years, and people now are growing up with it. Korea being the originating country for e-sports, it's very important for the government to support that."

Opponents of the late-night ban argue that nobody has proved that Internet game-playing is dangerous. Neither the American Psychiatric Association nor DSM-IV (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) classifies Internet addiction as a disorder.

"When people are addicted to a substance, you call it addiction," said Jaehyun Kim, director of the game content industry division at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. "But this is a behavior, so we call it overindulgence."

Other government officials disagree. "Yes, games are different from drugs; they don't immediately affect people," said Kim Sung Byuk, from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. "But it does make people unhealthy. We consider it as serious as a mental illness."

Various governments are trying to determine how to regulate the newest worldwide leisure activity. The Supreme Court plans to review a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. China instituted a law this month that requires game companies to build anti- addiction mechanisms: For instance, after three hours of consecutive playing, a user could no longer earn points or tokens.

Even so, South Koreans feel like trailblazers, in good ways and bad. About 95 percent of households have broadband access, the highest penetration rate in the world. Last month, the popular game Maple Story reported a record 416,000 concurrent users. That meant that, at least for a moment, about one in every 115 South Koreans was playing the same game.

At a recent session of an Internet "rest camp," 30 kids spent 2 1/2 days learning the fun of alternative activities, such as canoeing and tomato-picking. At night, they filed into a classroom for group counseling sessions. The boys, between 13 and 15, slept six to a dorm. Many want to become professional gamers. Several admitted they were very much looking forward to the end of camp, so they could return home by Saturday and watch the Starcraft championship game.

"We're at a test period, and we are trying to prevent big problems that no other generation has experienced," said Nam Kung Jea Jeung, who helped instruct the camp. "So the government shouldn't just stand by idly."

Source: The Washington Post

Comments

[lilykt7.livejournal.com]

wish i could say something but i can't judge since i am clearly an internet addict myself.

Prayer Circle for the fallen

[lilykt7.livejournal.com]

Hi my screen name is lilykt7, and im addicted to the internet.

Re: Prayer Circle for the fallen

[hazelbeans.livejournal.com]

/applauds

Hi, I am currently known as hazelbeans. I am addicted to the internet.

Re: Prayer Circle for the fallen

[lilykt7.livejournal.com]

/snaps

first step is acceptance

Re: Prayer Circle for the fallen

[murderis.livejournal.com]

So um, I'm known as murderis or many other names elsewhere... I am addicted to the internet.

Re: Prayer Circle for the fallen

[lilykt7.livejournal.com]

Re: Prayer Circle for the fallen

[hazelbeans.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

We should plan and go tomato-picking next.

Re: Prayer Circle for the fallen

[kms012.livejournal.com]

LOL, yes! Tomato-picking is a "fun alternate activity"! I'm sure we would all much rather be doing that :P
I like your icon by the way :)

Re: Prayer Circle for the fallen

[diligentsesame.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm diligentsesame but my friends call me Vampire. Some of you may have seen me before, I may have even friended you.

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

(http://tinypic.com?ref=154ditc)

[whore-ish.livejournal.com]

I was waiting for this XD

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

I expected t see this posted before me, but I guess I was early xD

[pranavi.livejournal.com]

obligatory

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

(http://tinypic.com?ref=2ldvwoz)

[hazelbeans.livejournal.com]

I expected this gif to be attached to the article, as it usually is in other Omona posts about gaming.

He is so totally absorbed, jfc. I would not be able to do that in a waiting room with all that noise.

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

right? I was surprised it wasnt!

[debjani86.livejournal.com]

Oops. Sorry, my first post here.

[teukster.livejournal.com]

LMAO. That was the first thing that came into mind while reading this article. xD

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

lol xD that was the first thing that came in my mind when I read the title xD

[obeytheempress.livejournal.com]

the look on his face is just.... lol

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

what video is this from?

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

it was from a show that captured them backdtage. Dont really remember which one, but

[doumyoujitsukas.livejournal.com]

I'm here for the inevitable Kyuhyun gifs.

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

first thing that came to mind xD
(http://tinypic.com?ref=e3gp3)

[murderis.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too.

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

(http://tinypic.com?ref=dbmsk9)

[murderis.livejournal.com]

Lol, that doesn't look like Starcraft. 8D Or maybe it's just that I don't know what Starcraft looks like. :D

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

its not starcraft. but its from Kyu's CY. and such posts in omona mean gamekyu xD

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

hahaha well it IS an old photo. Kyu had it uploaded in his CY and said something about playing this game when he was in his 3rd year, and he reached quite a top place in the game, but by now he doesnt know why it had to be that year. So he said to all his fans to study and not be like him xD

[queefing.livejournal.com]

when will they have the balls to address the source of the problem of why so many people rather spend their lives in a virtual world rather than the real world?.

fuck this shit makes me angry.

[fuuism.livejournal.com]

lucrative salaries

[fuuism.livejournal.com]

But seriously, too much of anything is always a bad idea. I love gaming and doing crap on the internet but gone are the times where I'd spend a whole day (or night) only doing those.

Anti-addiction mechanisms in games are useless, they'll either be cracked or anyone interested will just play something else after that session is over. The "rest camp" is an interesting idea but hm, forcing the kids to NOT play at all will just leave them jonesing. They have to try to slowly motivate them into doing different things instead of going after a short-term solution. If someone's life is so uninteresting and/or stressful that they feel the need to stay wired 24/7, them the problem lies elsewhere.

[kms012.livejournal.com]

LOL, *flies to Korea with you*
Top progamers over there can usually make anything between $200,000 to $300,000 per year!

[naruel.livejournal.com]

Starcraft = real life

[audiograms.livejournal.com]

never played starcraft but I had to stop playing WoW shit was getting expensive and life consuming, RuneScape is the way forward is totally gonna start playing tho since it's highly reccomended

[plantbottle.livejournal.com]

needs more kyu gifs

But anyways, yeah, obsessive gaming really takes a toll. Same for everything else, too. Kpop kinda made my grades drop like whoa. I stopped going outside too. :|

[little-dingo.livejournal.com]

Ahhh obsessive gaming, how I miss thee. The internet distracts me from gaming nowadays. That and I still need to get round to fixing my xbox...

Though it is unhealty =/ I'll admit that seeing how I've played for 32 hours straight before. Fortunately for me I get distracted by other things easily. And then obsess over that for a bit instead \o/

[uchuu-kita.livejournal.com]

'They gathered in plastic chairs on a beach just before sunset, paying the equivalent of $3 per ticket. '

This is actually false. No live Esports events in Korea charge admission or seating fees. They tried it way back when, but people protested so Kespa (the governing body) doesn't impose ticketing costs upon fans for anything. Not even team fan meetings held at outside locations (I attended the Samsung Khan one in 2008) cost anything.

Also the title is misleading. The players for the teams in Proleague (Khan, OZ, Sparkyz, We Made, Ace, Soul, SKT1 etc.) are not 'obscessed internet gamers' They are paid professionals who work their asses off in the practice rooms and training houses. They're just regular young men (plus one active female player) who don't deserve to be labeled pejoratively like that. Also there have been three regular leagues plus seasonal things like Gyeongnam STX Soul Cup for years now so I don't know why the Washington Post is acting as if this is some dangerous new trend.

The gambling scandal sucked. I'd worked with almost all the players involved and considered one to be a friend. I wanted to kick his ass when I found out he'd been involved in the illegal gambling and match rigging.

The scandal was part of the reason I retired from my work in Esports journalism for StarCraft in Korea plus other smaller leagues like Dungeon and Fighter/Kart Rider etc.

[fuuism.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info, I remember some of your pictures of the players. A shame about the gambling stuff though, it sounded like a fun time otherwise.

[kms012.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that gambling scandal was pretty terrible :/
It's a shame you retired because of it though. Does this mean that we won't be seeing any more pictures of cute Korean progamers *coughBisuLomocough* from you anymore?

[uchuu-kita.livejournal.com]

I'm still covering finals as long as they're in Seoul as well as selection night for MSL. Sadly my body just packed up on me in some respects from doing it seven days a week almost for 2.5 years so I had to quit :/

[kms012.livejournal.com]

Ahh, that's cool then :)
But wow, seven days a week? That would be hella tiring! It's a shame you can't continue because of health reasons though :/
I'm guessing after a while photography would get quite physically straining with all the kneeling and what not, especially after such a long time :(
LOL, I hope you don't mind me asking, but are all the progamers as shy and socially awkward as they seem in interviews. They all seem really reserved, well, except for maybe Firebathero and his pelvic thrusts of death!

[uchuu-kita.livejournal.com]

It was pretty exhausting since I'm a bit of a perfectionist and so I'd spend the whole day on a single event or do two back-to-back without much of a break. That was what screwed me up sadly, all the crouching.

Well it depends upon the individual. I tended to find that the rookies and younger players were all pretty shy and introverted with a couple of exceptions. Namely the boys from eSTRO including Hyvaa, Sangho etc. However, most of the veterans are more chilled out and relaxed. The most extroverted ones I've worked with were as you said Sungeun (FBH) who was my first ever shoot. Also Canata, Chalrenge and Jaedong are pretty out-going and chatty. Canata is a loopy guy, but I love working with him because he always gives a really fresh energy to his photos.

[kms012.livejournal.com]

Being a perfectionist paid off though because all of your photos are just awesome! But yes, crouching is a bitch :/

LOL, FBH was your first ever shoot? Lucky you! I didn't really expect Jaedong to be out-going and chatty. LOL, it amuses me how everyone still thinks he's really scary and intimidating even while he's sitting next to Lomo, holding his hand. They've got a cute bromance going on there. I loved their Best Friends Note interview, it was hilarious xD
Canata sounds like fun too! LOL, i'm a Bisu fangirl, so what is he really like? (I'm sorry, I promise i'll stop annoying you with questions now :p)

[jibegajima.livejournal.com]

I saw the picture and knew it was Starcraft, haha.

[dbil.livejournal.com]

I want to become a popular eSports figure in North America like the SK.Ladies. However, I don't play Source or 1.6. COD4 T_T

[episkia.livejournal.com]

computer games, stalking korean celebrities ... meh it's all the same in my books. :/