Video Gaming in South Korea: A National Obsession

Stories about the popularity of video gaming in South Korea have been circulating throughout the United States for the last couple of years now. Rumored accounts of high broadband penetration leading to incredible sales numbers for American games and whispered tales of outlandish salaries for professional gamers and internet cafes where young Koreans take their dates have piqued the curiosity of many an American gamer, leaving many wondering: just how popular is gaming in South Korea?

Statistics seem to indicate that it is amazingly popular. There are more than 17 million gamers in South Korea (Aleksandar, 1). A 2005 estimate placed the country's population at nearly 50 million people. This means that 35% of Korea's population plays video games. Certain games have achieved unbelievable levels of popularity. Kart Rider, an online racing game, is a good example. Nearly a third of the country's population has tried it at least once, with many playing almost obsessively (Ihlwan, 42). It is estimated that there are more than four million Koreans playing online games at any given moment (Aleksandar, 1).

As a country, South Korea spends roughly $5 billion annually on video games. The average of nearly $100 per resident is three times what Americans spend (Schiesel, 2).

Perhaps the most popular game of all time in South Korea is the PC real-time strategy game "Starcraft." In Starcraft, players compete in a sci-fi setting to gather resources and build bases and armies. The armies battle one another until only one player remains. The game requires quick reflexes and a lot of practice for those who want to become very good. Professional Starcraft players train for 10-12 hours daily to maintain their competitive edge (Schiesel, 4).

Starcraft was released in 1998 and is still one of the most popular games in the world. At the game's 10 year anniversary this March, Starcraft's developer Blizzard Entertainment announced that it had sold over 9.5 million copies worldwide. Of these 9.5 million, more than one third were sold in South Korea. A true testament to the popularity of games in the country considering that Starcraft is mostly played in local PC gaming salons (called PC Bangs) and individual players don't need to purchase it. Ten years is a lifetime in the world of video games, but Starcraft's popularity shows no signs of waning. (Aleksandar, 6). The announcement last May that a sequel was in development threw the entire country into a frenzy (Schiesel, 1).

In South Korea, PC bangs are incredibly common. Today, more than 26,000 of these internet cafes exist in the country. In Seoul, for example, there is a PC bang on nearly every block. The bangs attract more than a million people a day (Schiesel, 2).

These PC bangs have become very important places in the social lives of South Korea's young adults. So pervasive, in fact, that they have become known as "third places," or places along with home and work where individuals spend the majority of their time. Young people in Korea go to PC bangs the way young adults in America might go to a movie or out to a bar (Aleksandar, 16). In South Korea, gaming is seen as a social activity, unlike in the U.S. where gamers are often labeled as anti-social and gaming usually takes place behind closed doors.

"Of course we come to PC bangs, like everyone else," said Kim Myung-Ki, a 25-year-old South Korean man interviewed by New York Times writer Seth Schiesel. "Here we can play together and with friends. Why would I want to play alone at home?" (2)

Many PC bangs are equipped with so-called "love seat" stations. These cubicles are outfitted with a pair of computers and a double-wide seat. Young couples enter these "love seats" and play games together. The young men will typically play Lineage (an incredibly-popular massively-multiplayer online game) or Starcraft while the young woman plays a different game or video chats with friends.

Young Korean singles also flock to PC bangs for the opportunity to meet other singles. They can interact with others by video chatting at one of the bang's many stations. If a young man or woman meets someone interesting in a chat, they can then invite them to meet them at a "love seat" location in a specific PC bang. Most locations in central Seoul are less than 20 minutes away from one another, so this kind of spontaneous meeting is easily accomplished. Hookups like this happen quite often in PC bangs, similar to the way people meet one another in bars in America (Aleksandar, 16).

There is practically nobody in the country between the ages of 20 and 30 who hasn't spent a significant amount of time in PC bangs. Playing games with friends is a good way to exercise the brain and relieve the stress of school and studying for the country's tough university entrance exams. The cost is also relatively minimal. Most PC bangs provide an ergonomic chair, a powerful computer, and fast internet access for around $1.50 an hour (Schiesel, 3).

Despite the low cost of access, these PC bangs are incredibly profitable. Analysts estimate that they generate about $6 billion in revenue each year (Aleksandar, 17). Bang owners, many of whom are former mid-level managers laid off in the IMS economic crisis of the late 90's (Aleksandar, 15), hope that now-mandatory internet training in the country's schools will lead to even greater profits in the coming years.

Professional video gaming is another huge part of South Korean culture. For example, the country now has two television channels that cover video gaming full time (Schiesel, 1).

Professional video gamers are among the biggest celebrities in the country. Some fan clubs of South Korea's top gamers have more than 700,000 members. By comparison, the fan club for South Korea's most famous singer has approximately 510,000 members (Aleksandar, 12). Gaming competitions are so popular that the finals of top Starcraft tournaments are held in stadiums, often with tens of thousands of screaming fans in attendance (Schiesel, 2).

The salaries these gamers can earn are astronomical. In 1999, for example, a Canadian Starcraft champion took a job as a professional player in South Korea and was offered a $100,000 initial salary. Several years later he was a star making an estimated $500,000 per year. The average annual salary in Korea is $16,291 (Hua, 1). In 2004, Lee Yun Yeol, a respected video game champion, signed a three-year, 600 million won contract. By comparison, the average salary for a Korean professional baseball player is 71 million won (Aleksandar, 10).

The darker side of this national obsession with gaming is the growing problem of addiction. More than one million South Koreans were estimated to be "addicted" to video games in 2005, according to government figures (Hua, 7). Countless horror stories of people losing touch with reality or dying at their computers have begun to surface. For example, some of the more extreme examples include:

The parents of a four-month-old infant left her in a car while they went into a PC bang to play games online. They apparently became so absorbed in their gaming that they lost track of time and played for five hours. Outside, the baby turned over onto her stomach and suffocated. The parents have since been charged with Involuntary Manslaughter (Aleksandar, 14).

A South Korean man collapsed and died after playing Starcraft for 50 hours with almost no breaks. He only left the game for short rest periods and to go to the bathroom. He was taken to the hospital following his collapse and died. Korean police stated that his death was most likely caused by heart failure stemming from exhaustion (BBC, 2).

In 2005, at least seven South Koreans died from deep vein thrombosis, heart failure, or exhaustion associated with marathon gaming sessions (Ihlwan, 42).

Given this information, it is safe to say that the stories of gaming's popularity in South Korea are actually fairly accurate. The overwhelming popularity of specific games such as Starcraft and Kart Rider combined with the popularity and profitability of PC bangs paints a convincing picture of the industry's influence on South Korean culture and the daily lives of its citizens. The gargantuan salaries and incredible popularity of professional gamers is a testament to the level of obsession with games in the country, while the horror stories associated with gaming addiction illustrate just how far some Koreans are willing to go for that obsession.

Gaming is not just popular in South Korea, it's a national obsession. No other country takes gaming so seriously. It's hard for an American to imagine, but in Korea, professional gaming is more popular than the NFL is here in America. "The total number of people who go spectate pro basketball, baseball, and soccer put together," said Mr. Woo, of the South Korean Federal Game Institute, "is the same as the number of people who go watch pro game leagues" (Schiesel, 4).

Personally, there are parts of the gaming situation in South Korea that I can totally understand and identify with and others that I completely fail to understand. A large part of this is cultural differences. I certainly understand the level of addiction that can come with gaming, particularly when playing massively-multiplayer online games. I'm no stranger to long stretches at the computer, completely engrossed in a game, but I also know when to say when. I sleep when I'm tired, eat when I'm hungry, and take a break when I feel like I should. I cannot even fathom spending 50 straight hours playing a game. I have a decent attention span, but not that decent.

The social aspect of gaming is a completely foreign concept to me. The Korean group mentality is something we don't really have here in America. Consequently, I spend most of my time gaming alone. I play with friends online, of course, but they're rarely in the same room with me. I have tried gaming that way, and it's actually pretty fun, but it's just not a common practice here in the U.S.

Korean gamers are also far better at coordinating in a group setting within a game. If there is an objective that a group wants to achieve, individual players are perfectly willing to accept subordinate roles in pursuit of it. This leads to far greater coordination and success than is possible with American gamers who all think they should be the group leader. Few American players are willing to take orders from another player, and consequently large group activities are almost always an organizational nightmare.

It is possible that gaming may reach the level of popularity in America that it enjoys in South Korea, but a fundamental shift in ideology will be necessary beforehand. Until gaming is able to emerge as a social activity and shed the anti-social stigma most often associated with it in this country, it will most likely remain behind closed doors.

Works Cited:

Aleksandar, Dragojevic, Nevena, Vratonjic, and Zarko, Milosevic. Video Games in South Korea. 2007. Ecole Polytechnique Federale De LauSanne. 22 August 2008.

BBC News. S. Korean Dies After Games Session. 10 August 2005. BBC News Online. 22 August 2008

Hua, Vanessa. Video Game Players Score Big Money in South Korea. 18 December 2006. The San Francisco Chronicle Online. 22 August 2008 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/18/GAMERS.TMP

Ihlwan, Moon. "Online Gaming, Korea's Gotta Have it." Business Week 9 September 2006. p. 42.

Schiesel, Seth. The Land of the Video Geek. 8 October 2006. The New York Times Online. 22 August 2008.