South Korea: Gaming The Future
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South Korea is the most wired country in the world and online computer gaming is a national pastime, shaping the nation's culture and causing new problems. Jim Rossignol visits Seoul to see Korea's obsession with internet gaming for himself
PC Gamer journalist Jim Rossignol has written a fascinating, in-depth article about a recent trip to Seoul where he sees first-hand the impact of online gaming on Korean culture for himself. South Korea is extremely advanced in terms of both internet and cellphone usage and acts as an indication for what might be coming next to the rest of us:
"I found it hard to know whether to perhaps, in some obscure way, the Koreans were simply tasting the future before the rest of us can catch up with them. Perhaps their adventures in the extremes of online gaming simply serve as an echo of a world that other cultures could one day find themselves immersed in, once broadband access is as common in our other countries as it is in Korea."
Internet cafes full of kids playing online games is a common scene across all of Asia - I've seen it first hand in China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam, usually while I've been cursing the triggerhappy mayhem around me under my breath as I try and compose an email home. Despite hefty government restrictions on internet usage in some of these countries, teenagers and tweeners are spending an increasing amount of their time online. Quite what the fallout will be is unclear, but gaming is definitely shaping Asian culture to a significant degree.
Previously: Teaching English in Korea, Darjeon, South Korea
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