Video Games causing a rift in South Korea?

Video games have had a bigger impact than they ever wanted

Video games have been a part of korean culture and history for a relatively small time. The country wasn’t even considered a realistic market by most video game corporations until the release of StarCraft in 1998. It wasn’t just a hit; it was an awakening.  Out of 11 million copies sold worldwide, 4.5 million were in South Korea. National media crowned it the “game of the people.”

The game which changed the people

Starcraft impacted the culture and lives of the people of South Korea in a way that nobody could have predicted. It was directly responsible for “ PC bangs”; cafes where consumers could play video games and have snacks and drinks for less than a dollar an hour. Bangs got so popular that they went from 201 stores in 1998 to 23,000 stores in 2001. That means they increased by 100 times their original number in just 3 years. 

One of the primary reasons for the boom in popularity was that PC bangs were the only places where teenagers and young adults could relax. For students, schools and cram schools led to a stressed existence, and for adults it was the hectic work schedule with no work-life balance.

Video game addiction

The problem began when gamers forgot that they had a life beyond video games; when they fell into video game addiction. Incidents across the globe raised concerns in Korea about the boom in gaming. In October 2002, an unemployed 24-year-old man died in a PC bang in the southwestern city of Gwangju after playing for 86 hours straight. It was the world’s first reported case of death by gaming. In 2005, a 28-year-old man in the southwestern city of Daegu had a heart attack in his seat after a 50-hour StarCraft binge. Another death occurred just months later in Incheon, at the opposite end of the country.

Politicians and citizens are divided on wether to classify video game addiction  as an actual mental health disorder. This is due to the fact that video games don’t seem as addicting as other vices, such as alcohol and drugs. Secondly, tragic as the deaths are, they pale in comparison to the deaths caused due to the aforementioned intoxicants. 

Still, everything considered, the government of Korea would be wise to listen to the complaints of its people and consider serious changes in its policies. The changes shouldn’t be limited to video game regulations; perhaps Korea needs to look at the reasons why people were pushed into video game addiction in the first place.