In our columns section we ask various local gamers for their opinions on certain topics. These articles are meant to create lively debate, and the opinions expressed therein do not necessarily reflect those of MyGaming. Are you a decent writer with a cool idea for a column? Let us know in the comments section.
A few of you may have seen mentioned around MyGaming every so often that, while I am of course South African, I do not currently live in South Africa. For the last year and a half, I’ve been teaching English in South Korea, as a means of saving money, traveling, and becoming a professional gamer. That last bit isn’t working out so well, apparently I’m missing a key element (skill).
Nevertheless, it’s been fascinating to observe firsthand the intense gaming culture that exists in Korea. Unlike South Africa, where almost all “LAN Cafés” have been a monumental failure, in South Korea it’s the preferred way to play. You can normally find at least 2 or 3 within a couple of blocks of you at all times – throw a rock in Seoul and you’ll likely hit one.
They’re nice too – computers up to date, all the games you could want, air-conditioned, smoking and non-smoking. They even have various food and drinks.
It’s also a bit like a casino, with no clocks and no windows – they don’t want you to know how long you’ve been there. It also helps that they’re dirt cheap, you’re usually spending about R10 an hour, and things are generally a little pricier in Korea than they are in South Africa.
Looks nice, doesn’t it? Maybe we’ll just stay for one game…
I mean the idea certainly appeals to me – imagine going with a whole bunch of your friends to an awesome environment and playing games together, it’s like being able to LAN anytime without any inconvenience. Unfortunately in Korea, it’s become a little bit too appealing. Gaming, particularly online gaming, has become a real problem in Korea, and even other parts of Asia such as China. Schoolchildren have been the worst affected, staying in these places late into the night and underperforming academically. It’s not just kids though; this has become a real problem for adults as well – showing up late for work or not at all because they’ve been up all night gaming.
There are of course plenty of horror stories that go with this. Not long ago, a Korean couple’s infant child died due to starvation and neglect because its parents were in these PC rooms day and night. Ironically, the game they had become addicted to was one in which you raise a virtual child. A couple in China recently sold their daughter in order to pay for the costs of playing an MMO – which they did almost non-stop. And of course there are the usual stories of people dying at the computers after 4-day long gaming marathons – their bodies simply give up due to lack of rest, water, and food.
A lot like this, except less funny and more terrifying.
Korea is obviously not in the same situation as the West – they have a multi-billion dollar gaming industry, hugely successful gaming-devoted television networks, and pro-gamers that are treated like national icons. These players have lucrative contracts, rock star status, and even groupies.
In this way, the industry is clearly feeding the problems Korea is having with video game addiction. I don’t mean addiction in a Fox News “my son plays Halo instead of doing his homework” flurry of sensationalism, I mean real addiction, the kind that ruins relationships and gets you fired.
The Korean government has taken action, however, and has passed a law which restricts the amount of time a child can play games. Children 16 and under are locked out of online games between the hours of midnight and 6am. Known as the Cinderella Law, it has come under a lot of fire, although mostly by game developers, who are of course not in a position to be particularly objective. While this does not address the problem with adults, the hope is that it will prevent addiction in later life.
This is made possible by the fact that the internet in Korea is not particularly anonymous – registering for forums or online games, almost anything you “sign up” for, requires your social security number. This is done in an effort to prevent, amongst other things, cyber-bullying, which has been responsible for many high-profile celebrity suicides.
South Korean supermodel Kim Daul committed suicide after receiving harsh criticism for taking nude photographs. She is one of many high-profile suicides that have caused Korea’s strict online identity policies.
This law and the problems of addiction have been all over the Korean news in recent months, and it has me wondering if we might ever see a similar kind of law implemented in the West. To be frank, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Few could argue that no 16 year old (on a weeknight at least) has any business playing World of Warcraft at 2am. I know personally that gaming has always presented to me a more enticing means of procrastination than anything else. Nothing else has the power to suck away hours of productivity from me quite like gaming, particularly gaming with friends. I think most people reading this can relate to that on some level.
I turned out fine in the end, making it through school and University without any major hiccups, but there are plenty who don’t. There are plenty of people, right now, whose academic grades, relationships and even friendships may be suffering due to gaming. I’ve known plenty of people like this personally; people who have had gaming become a really negative force in their lives. With the growth of the video game industry globally, it’s not hard to imagine this becoming a real problem. I would argue, in fact, that it is already a problem. It’s not on the same level as it is in Asia, but it could conceivably get there in the near future. It wouldn’t be hard for me to make a convincing case that gaming can be just as addictive as alcohol or gambling.
The American media and the Australian government love to make waves about violence or sex in video games, and until recently a lot of games were just outright banned down under (unless the developers could create a less gory equivalent). Sensationalist journalism is in love with video game violence, and every time somebody insane does something, well, insane, there’s always a pack of media vultures just waiting to blame it on a video game. The Columbine kids played Doom, the Norwegian shooter “trained” on the “ultra-realistic” Modern Warfare 2. The Columbine kids played Doom, and so did 90% of the boys in their school I’m sure, and I can’t quite fathom what exactly is “ultra-realistic” about recovering from 6 bullet wounds by hiding behind a barrel for 7 seconds.
Pictured above: Ultra-realism
While everybody is chasing their tails when it comes to video game violence, nobody seems overly concerned about just how much time is spent playing these games. I would argue that playing Super Mario Galaxy for ten hours a day is a lot more damaging to a youth than playing Modern Warfare 2 for two hours – but a sociable, straight-A student getting D’s and losing friends doesn’t exactly sell newspapers.
I feel that video game addiction is a lot like gambling addiction – the same desire to win money that addicts people to gambling is responsible for people hungering for success in their game, be it achievements, levels, power, in-game currency, reputation or notoriety. Within a video game addict’s game is an entire community, an entire world, in which he/she strives to be somebody in. And that desire can be very powerful, and thus very dangerous.
What do you think? Do you think video game addiction is real, or do you think it’s just the next thing oversensitive conservatives are going to make a fuss about? Do you have any experience with it, even mildly? Do you feel gaming sometimes has a power over you other things do not?
Share your experiences and thoughts in the forums, or comment below.
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