Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Online gaming is South Korea's most popular drug...

Last month, South Korea's parliament started considering a new law that would put online gaming on the same legal footing as vices like gambling, booze and drugs. One bill, if passed, would put limits on how game companies could advertise, and another would take one percent of the industry's earnings and put the money toward anti–gaming addiction efforts – essentially, the government would start treating video game companies in a way not unlike how the UK treats cigarette manufacturers.

I wasn't surprised by news of this bill. In Seoul, where I live, there’s a PC Bang (gaming cafe) on every block, and two TV networks dedicated to Starcraft. To young Koreans, pro gaming offers the same appeal professional sports offer in many other countries. Elite gamers, who often practice up to 12 hours a day, are treated like rock stars, drawing massive audiences to their matches and earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. For a lot of young people here, gaming is both an aspirational activity as well as the most common form of entertainment.

It's unclear how many South Koreans are addicted, but it's a serious enough problem that the government subsidises treatment programmes for game addiction across the country. There have been a number of high-profile instances of addictions that lead to horrible consequences – from Starcraft marathons ending in death to Trainspotting-esque infant neglect.

 What strikes me about the campaign against gaming is the parallel it draws between online gaming and drugs, despite the latter's impact on South Korea being fairly negligible. In a nation that has largely succeeded in the fight against narcotics, keyboards have filled the void. Everything that recreational drugs represent in the UK – escapism, socialising, a means of becoming an axe-wielding dwarf – is embodied here in gaming.  Full story...

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