South Korea Loves Gaming: Death Ensues

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Written by Conrad Yu

Imagine being paid $300,000 a year.  Now, imagine being paid that much for playing a video game.  Most people have not heard of the computer game Starcraft, but to the South Koreans, it is a national phenomenon.  There are professional players, leagues, competitions and even television broadcasts.

Developed by Blizzard Entertainment, the same infamous creators of World of Warcraft, Starcraft is a sci-fi real time strategy (RTS) in which players choose between three races to play, each with their own distinct civilizations. The objective is simple: annihilate the opposing force.  Players mine for minerals and harvest gas in order to research technology and build their armies.

Although the game was first released in 1998, almost 12 years ago, it still maintains an enormous fan base in South Korea.  Games are broadcasted online as well as on television from e-sports stadiums, where thousands of spectators enjoy matches between professional players.

Sure, they may not be as charismatic as Lebron James, and most likely not as “social” as Tiger Woods, but these professional gamers indeed enjoy celebrity status.

Lim Yo-Hwan, or more commonly known as Boxer, or “The Terran Emperor”, epitomizes the degree which South Koreans adore their professional gamers.  The “Emperor” has a fan club of more than one million members and a DVD compilation of his most popular and successful matches.  Though the DVD was released only in South Korea, it has gained recognition throughout the international gaming community.

However, for some, the game can be a dangerous obsession.  Back in 2005, a twenty-eight year old man died from exhaustion as a result of marathon gaming. The police presumed that the cause of death was “heart failure stemming from exhaustion”. The man had neither slept nor eaten properly in the fifty hours that he spent at a local cyber café in the city of Taegu, South Korea.  Apparently, the only breaks he took were for “calls of nature and cat naps”. Prior to his death, it was reported that the man had repeatedly skipped work to play video games, and was fired as a result.

Photo taken from:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Esportstadium.jpg

1. Barbara Starling Says:
   August 18th, 2010 at 8:47 pm

   This is exactly what I’ve been looking for all day. I should have found your post sooner.

   [Reply]