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The Media Entertainment Games

Gaming Addiction In The Media Again 23

Posted by Zonk from the nothing-else-to-talk-about-i'm-sure dept.
RexDart writes "'Gamers camped out at Internet cafes typically live on instant cup noodles and cigarettes, barely sleeping and seldom washing,' declares a CNN.com article on gaming addiction in Korea. The story reports on aberrant behavior sometimes fatility linked to obsessive gaming, and is sure to add fuel to the various videogame legislation fights going on." From the article: "Many of South Korea's 17 million gamers -- some 35 percent of the population, principally males in their teens and twenties -- are obsessive. At the 1,000 won-per-hour ($1) Internet cafes popular among young South Koreans, they'll sit eyes glued to monitors for hours on end. Sometimes play will extend for days."
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Gaming Addiction In The Media Again More

Gaming Addiction In The Media Again

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  • Extreamly sad.

  • Change the rates (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Night Goat ( 18437 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @07:31PM (#13743952) Homepage Journal
    They're only charging 1,000 won ($1) per hour? Well, I have a way to cut down on game addiction. Raise the rates! I'd have been addicted to arcade games if they were that cheap back in the day, too! It worked out to $5/$10 per hour the way I used to play. That just doesn't lend itself to compulsive play when you're a kid with a paper route.
    • Yeah what is up with arcade games nowadays. $1 for a fucking steer on a racing game. I can understand the good games, but Daytona USA still charges $1 for a few laps. Every console racing game at home is already better than Daytona. Why not lower the price.

      • Re:Change the rates (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Ayaress ( 662020 ) on Saturday October 08, 2005 @09:43PM (#13748886) Journal
        This is the same thing I discovered a few years ago. I went to Washington DC with a group of seven or eight other students at my school. We just had to visit the ESPN zone's immense basement arcade. They sell you a card rather than just putting money into the machines. It's great until your card comes up "Insufficient credit" and you realize you just blew $25 on 15 minutes of fun.
    • On top of that, they'd probably make a bigger profit. The fact that they don't make such an obvious move just goes to show you that they don't want to cut down on game addiction. We shouldn't assume that the people of that country share the beliefs of the people that wrote this article.

      Maybe they don't consider it a problem. Maybe they like playing a lot of games.
    • I've been to arcades in California where a game of Time Crisis costs $2 USD per game with the difficulty cranked up to max. The fact that some games no longer rely on pure skill (fighting games are a great way to lose money fast if you don't spend hours studying the moves at home) doesn't help either. And then of course, there are the games which are extremely alien in their designs (Virtual-On's dual sticks control? Golf games that use a trackball?).
  • ...Is that the media would be bitching if they threw people out if they stayed too long.
    Media craves conflict to prey on these days...
  • Video games are a North Korean Plot! South Koreans will be so busy playing them that they won't even notice the North rushing across the DMZ and conquering them.

    • Re:North Korean Plot (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well doubt that they will be successful as most South Koreans should know the standard counters to a Zergling rush.
  • Isn't it better that all these people who (it would seem) have nothing better to do are doing something harmless and out of the way, as opposed to roaming the streets looking for something, anything, to do?

    And how is this different from the mass TV culture the West has, where people are glued to Teleboxes all day?
  • What ever happened to the concept of something just plain being enjoyable? Just because something is fun enough that one is inclined to do it to excess does not make the activity an addiction.
  • It seems at least one person a year dies of video games in Korea. While the family that left the infant at home seems real, the others seem a little off. Its hard to believe that 50 hours of gameplay would kill you. Remember this is also the country that thinks that fallin asleep with a fan on in the room will kill you. Makes you think of 1850-1910 newspapers.

    Fan death [wikipedia.org]
    Infant Death [gamespot.com]

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