Video #13 - South Korea: Online Gaming
Monday, January 09, 2006BACKGROUND INFORMATION
"In Seoul, the broadband age is in full swing - online games have become a national sport, and cybercafes are the new singles bars." J.C. Herz, Wired Magazine. The writer adds: "Burrow a bit...down the alleys, up flights of stairs, or into the corners of malls, and you find something that sets Seoul apart and fosters its passion for broadband: online game rooms, or PC baangs, as they are called here. There are 26,000 of them, tucked into every spare sliver of real estate. Filled with late-model PCs packed tightly into rows, these rabbit warrens of high-bandwidth connectivity are where young adults gather to play games, video-chat, hang out, and hook up." These Internet cafes are so pervasive that they are known as "third places"- ranking just behind home and work.
Experts claim that South Korea has the highest per-capita broadband hookup rate in the world. Slightly more than half of its households have high-bandwidth connections, compared to less than 10 percent in the U.S. Over the last three years, broadband subscribers have grown from a few hundred thousand to 8.5 million. The degree of population density in South Korea has helped that growth-- since 70% of its citizens live in the seven largest cities, and 25% in Seoul, the nation's capital. Consequently, the national communications backbone consists of just 13,670 miles of optical fiber. (Last year, Verizon laid down 20,500 miles of optical fiber in West Virginia alone).
Another characteristic favoring the unprecedented growth of this industry in South Korea is that Kepco, the public power utility, developed a network of fiber-optic cables for its own use years ago. In 1996, South Korea allowed Kepco to lease the unused 90 percent of its capacity, giving upstart providers a cheap, instant solution. The competition with Korea Telecom has driven broadband prices down to the world's lowest levels, $25 a month. Additionally, the government has set up a certification program to rate buildings based on the quality of their data lines. Developers who install "fatter pipes" get the opportunity to bump up their prices, an important incentive since 50 percent of the nation's population lives in apartment buildings.
Another aspect of South Korean culture seems to nurture the unprecedented success of the PC baang: the gregariousness of the population. Consequently, PC baangs are great small-business opportunities, with low overhead and high profit margins. South Korea's cybercafes made $6 billion two years ago. Many got start as a result of the business crisis of 1997, which caused thousands of middle managers to be unemployed. Access to moderate amounts of capital from relatives made it possible for them to open PC baangs. Their unemployed peers also needed inexpensive ways to spend their time.
According to Herz, South Korea's animosity toward Japan and its products caused the Starcraft game to become the most popular game in the market in 1998. The result is that PC bangs use computer game tournaments to draw people in groups, keep them paying a buck an hour and extra cash for sodas and instant noodles. Currently, Starcraft is a national sport in South Korea. Five milion people play. Another three million players are involved in Lineage, a homegrown online world. Herz dscribes that as "a testament to the overlay of virtual and physical environments. On any given night, 150,000 of them are signed on simultaneously. Most play from PC baangs, which buy Lineage access for 20 cents and hour and sell it for a dollar, but an increasing number - those with wives and families - pay $25 a month to subscribe from home."
This industry has grown to the point that the 2nd World Cyber Games are being held in November in South Korea. Participants will compete with over 500 players from 45 countries worldwide to win $50,000 in price money per each game event, a total of $300,000! This event is so important to South Korea that the Department of Culture and Tourism as well as the Korea Game Promotion Centre are partner hosts of the event. Furthermore, South Korean President Jung is the honorary chairman of the WCG organizing committee.
SOURCES
"The 2nd world cyber Games Fever Hits Singapore." Lycos Asia Info, July 12, 2002.
Herz, J.C., "The Bandwidth Capital of the World." Wired Magazine, August, 2002.
Ihlwan, Moon, "South Korea: High-Speed Profits Ahead." BusinessWeek online, March 18, 2002.
LESSON PLAN
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 10-12/Economics, International Relations, World History, Geography, International Baccalaureate Programs(IB), Current Events.
PURPOSE:
To present activities to be used in a variety of classroom situations in order to enhance student understanding of the Asian economy and its significance globally.
OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to:
- Locate South Korea on a World map.
- Describe the development of the online gaming industry in South Korea.
- Compare the development of the online gaming industry in the U.S. and South Korea.
- Evaluate the impact of this industry on the South Korean economy.
- Forecast the future of the industry.
MATERIALS:
- Background information provided.
- Resources on South Korea available at your school's Media Center and the Public Library System in your area.
- Background information available through Internet "search engines."
- http://sg.worldcybergames.org
ACTIVITIES:
May be assigned as group activities or as individual tasks. They may also be designed as preparation for related presentations either by individuals or groups.
- Illustrate South Korea on a World map.
- Create a time line of events leading to the development of the online gaming industry in South Korea.
- Use charts and graphs to compare and contrast the growth of online gaming in South Korea, Japan, China and the United States.
- Create an advertising pamphlet to promote a PC bang.
- Write a newspaper article on the events surrounding the 2nd World Cyber Games competition held in South Korea in November of 2002.
- Write an editorial expressing your views about the future of cyber games and the industries surrounding them.
EVALUATION:
Individual assignments should be graded by the teacher using established criteria.
Group activities, presentations and projects may be evaluated by teachers and students using the following criteria and scale:
Content Creativity Clarity
1 = Superior (A) 2 = Excellent (B) 3 = Good (C) 4 = Fair (D) 5 = Poor (F)
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