When I went to korea, I was surprised how crazy these people were on about SC, they have it on some ch like 24/7 and it was quite exciting. Don't we all wish to have a job like that, except the 8hr pratice...>_>
It's a cultural thing; they live under the gun so even their games favor martial conflict under a total war perspective. -shock
lol i'm sure you know the reason as to why they still use CRTs. They still provide much higher quality than current LCD (not counting HD lcds and HDTVs) Read this for a little background on Korea's Starcraft Progaming scene. This was part of a research I did. Being a former Korean Pro Starcraft scene follower, the reason for Starcraft being the game of choice is not due to the war aspect, but rather, the Korean economic depression. In a time of depression for Korea, which coincided with the release of Starcraft, they found that avid gamers would often go to PC Bangs (a term coined for Internet cafes) to play the game. The sudden boom in Starcraft fandom has demanded the opening of more PC bangs. Now South Korea is filled with PC bangs everywhere. That, surprisingly, actually contributed to the rise out of Korea's economic depression. There's a lot more, but that's the summary of it. Here is an essay my partner for the assignment wrote. It is one of many collection of essays we had to write. It is a brief history to the esports scene. Spoiler A History of Korean e-Sports To the average North American, all of this may seem shocking, and even looked down upon, but truly in South Korea, professional gaming, or e-Sports an important cultural aspect. In terms of history, South Korea currently is in a state of technological advancement, all thanks to the cyber gaming. Early in the decade, politically South Korea was suffering due to tensions with the North, and as a result was in a stage of depression. StarCraft, recently surfacing as an extremely competitive game at the time, had much of the strong competition centered in South Korea. “ “It follows a macroeconomic reason too because it follows around of the 1990s when the Asian financial crisis took place it was also a time when broadband was subsidized, cheap PCs as well and being rolled out across the country. A lot of people out of work and with a lot of broadband, PCs and free time on their hands. That was a factor too.”- CNN Reporter Kristie Lu Stout In fact, one such StarCraft programer known as Lim Yo Hwan a.k.a. BoxeR (SlayerS_’BoxeR’) is known as the richest and most influential professional gamer worldwide. BoxeR, nicknamed “The Emperor” by his fans, possesses a fan club exceeding 600 000. To the South Korean government, BoxeR represents a great promoter of South Korean culture, and so due, to BoxeR approaching the age where he must be conscripted due to the laws, the government installed a new team on the South Korean Air Force known as ACe – Air Force Challenges e-Sports. BoxeR was allowed to lead the team and at the same time; serve out his time, as long as all the earnings from the teams were given to the Air Force. From this, we can conclude that the e-Sport culture exists beyond that of the entertainment sector of the media and has roots even in political affairs. A domino effect has been created, and now recently the South Korean Navy is considering generating their own team as well, greatly domino (read more about it: http://kotaku.com/gaming/south-korea/south-korean-navy-starting-pro-gaming-team-275953.php ). Internationally known for its competition, many foreign players began to migrate to South Korea to play in tournaments. Players usually played in Internet Cafes, more commonly known as PC Bangs in S. Korea, due to the lag in internet connections, and affordability of computers initially. It is estimated that in 2001, in S. Korea, 28% of the population had internet connections, and 1/5th of the users played online games. KeSPA – Korean e-Sports Progaming Association played extremely important role in Korea’s progaming development. Established in 2000 with the approval of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, KeSPA began doing research and organizing several key points into the success of e-Sports. Korean television shortly started televising tournaments, and games, and was shockingly successful. WCG – The World Cyber Games was hosted in South Korea in 2001, and was extremely successful in drawing tens of thousands of fans to the stage. Korea entered into gaming craze as thousands of PC Bangs began to open, and players around the world wanted to migrate to Korea for the competition. The number of Internet users grew to 34 120 000, and 55% of the entire population were playing online, in just 5 years! South Korea’s economy grew with the success of the game. Culturally, the nation began to change - children and adults together, aspired to be like these progamers. All not without difficulty, The North American mentality that kids should put finishing school and studies to ultimately achieving a steady job before playing games. In comparison, South Korea is very much similar in that regards, however with the phenomena of e-Sports, we are beginning to see a radical change, pushing the fact that gaming can lead to somewhere. Stories, like Xellos’ inspire fans across the world to aspire to succeed as a progamer. Unfortunately, the cultural distinction causes many difficulties. With cases like Brandon Crisp – (explain) depicted by the media against gaming, North America’s view of professional gaming become incredibly biased. For fans and for gamers, the media pits culture, and social values against them. In a nation like Korea, where e-Sports are accepted, one experiences the vividness of the e-Sport culture. The fan’s gathering and cheering, the sport of competition to the tear’s of coaches and parent’s of players, e-Sports brings hope and joy to the nation. Something that is considered a counterculture in North America is so much enriching the culture of another. Why is there so much difficulty in saying here in North America, “I’m proud that I am a professional gamer”? “I have never regretted what I do. I think my job is the best job because more than anything else I get to do what I like” StarCraft Progamer, Kang Min A.K.A Nal_ra – “The Dreamer”. If there are grammatical mistakes, this is due to the fact that I have an older version of the final copy.
^ normally, i would say dota is homo, and starcraft is win, but currently, i'm sick of starcraft, and i want it to die.
