Topic 1.4: Games: At Work, No One Knows I am a Wizard: Portfolio

Is it fair to say online gaming is more a part of everyday life in Korea then,say, Australia? Discuss reasons for the unique aspects of Korea’s gaming. Classify the reasons presented by others in both comments and the blogs, e.g. technological infrastructure, cultural, etc.

The short answer to this question is yes. If you Google ” Gaming in Korea” , the number of resulting references is 18,800,000. A quick scroll through revealed the headline “Korea to invest $242million in Games” (Virtual Worlds News ,Dec 2008). This is a massive amount of money in anybody’s language. My question after reading this was “Why?”

Korea has a population of around 49 million people (OECD, 2007) and broadband penetration exceeds 30 subscriptions per 100 household as compared to the OECD average of 21.3. (OECD 2008). Especially notable is the number of subscription on a fibre network. One other important point to note is that the population is very concentrated. Seoul (the capital) contains around half of the country’s population.

In essence to understand this investment we need to understand some of the Korean Culture. This is a subject in itself, but an important element of Korean society is education. According to Park Youngmok, Communications Director at Blizzard, quoted by Schiesel (2006), “In Korea its all study, study,l earn, learn, learn.” This is a reason for the domination of personal computers over game consoles. Families, are willing to purchase computers , because they can be used for study and research, whereas a game console is seen as an expensive toy. The fact that games can be played on them is an “added extra”. According to a father in the same article (ibid 2006) The playing of games helps to relieve the stress of studying.

According to Fife ((n.d) one of the cultural drivers is a desire for collaboration and group communication through networked games and the use of games as a social activity. Despite the penetration of home computers, Koreans “flock to PC Bangs to get their games on” (Schiesel, 2006). A PC Bang being a gaming room where players can play together, in my mind not dissimilar to the arcade parlour in the mid 1970s that I used to frequent. It seems that gaming is a more social activity than in other countries where players play mainly from home (Parker, 2008).

Gaming in Korea is also accepted as a mainstream sport. In Korea there are national bodies for professional game players . According to Parker (2008) competitive gaming is televised on two game channels and the actual tournaments are played in stadiums. These players are sponsored and treated with the same esteem we reserve for our footballers, cricketers and swimmers in Australia.

In comparison Australia has a population of around 21million people (OECD, 2009) and our population is spread out. As can be seen from the broadband statistics, penetration is just above the OECD average . According to recent report in The Age (9/4/2009), during discussions for the National Broadband Network, the speed of our current connections is rated at 12.13Mbps. However this is advertised speed, it would appear that the actual speed is considerably less than this. Whereas in Korea the average speeds are 45.6Mbps (The Age,2009 )

Gaming in Australia does not have the same level of community acceptance as it does in Korea. Anecdotally, the average gamer is a young male, who plays alone in a room and tends to be anti social. There does not appear to be a lot of research into this, but The Australian experience is probably not that different to the American situation as reported in Fife (page 6, n.d) where American gamers seemed to be indifferent to the role of social interaction.

Parker (2008) reports that Australia does have several competitive gamers, but like many of our sportsman and women, they need to have jobs to pay to attend tournaments. Parker (ibid) writes that “Competitive gaming is something that we are beginning to see on the increase as technology pushes forward and improvements in inetrnet infrastructure and speeds allow more and more people to play form the comfort of their own homes. However, when compared to other countries, Australia has a long way to go.”

References:
Australian Statistical Profile (2007) Rettrieved April 2009 from OECD Stat Extracts

Barker,G. (2009, April 9) Changing Bit by Bit. The Age, p.15

Brookes,G. (2008). Counting Rupees:Korea bangs. Retrieved April 2009 from http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/08/counting-rupees-korea-bangs

Fife,E.,Hillebrandt,M. & Pereira,F. (n.d). The Diffusion of Networked Gaming in the united States and Korea. Retrieved April 2009 from http://project.hkkk.fi/helsinkimobility/papers/Mobile%20Applications_1_1.pdf

Hyatt,N (2008). What Makes Gaming Social? Retrieved April 2009 from http://gigaom.com/2008/05/23/what-makes-gaming-social/

Ihlwan,M.Online Gaming: Korea’s Gotta Have It. (2006) Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_37/b4000070.htm

Korea to invest $242M in Games. (2008). Retrieved April 2009 from http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/12/korea-to-invest-242m-in-games.html

Korean Statistical Profile. (2007.) Retrieved April 2009 from OECD Stat Extracts

OECD Broadband statistics. (2008) Retrieved April 2009 from OECD Broadband Portal

Parker,L. (2008). Paid to Play?The state of pro-gaming in Australia. Retrieved April 2009 from http://www.cnet.com.au/paid-to-play-the-state-of-pro-gaming-in-australia-339291476.htm

Schiesel,S. (2006). The Land of the Video Geek. Retrieved April 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/arts/08schi.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print