NY Times artice: pro gamers in Korea

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PristineSteam
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NY Times artice: pro gamers in Korea

Post by PristineSteam » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:52 am

Today's New York Times has an article in the Arts & Leisure section called The Land of the Video Geek, about pro video gamers in Korea. (NYT site requires free registration to read most articles) Quote:
All in all it was a typical night in South Korea, a country of almost 50 million people and home to the world’s most advanced video game culture: Where more than 20,000 public PC gaming rooms, or “bangs,” attract more than a million people a day. Where competitive gaming is one of the top televised sports. Where some parents actually encourage their children to play as a release from unrelenting academic pressure. Where the federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism has established a game development institute, and where not having heard of StarCraft is like not having heard of the Dallas Cowboys. The finals of top StarCraft tournaments are held in stadiums, with tens of thousands of fans in attendance.
The article mentions that there are fan clubs for top pro gamers that have over 700,000 members, and top players have to disguise themselves when going out in public to prevent being swarmed by fans. It also says:
“The total number of people who go spectate pro basketball, baseball and soccer put together is the same as the number of people who go watch pro game leagues.”
All in all, it sounds like a much bigger gaming culture than we have here in America.

iamsjn
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Post by iamsjn » Sun Oct 08, 2006 4:11 pm

WOW - I had no idea that Korea was that addicted to online gaming! That is really cool. Someone has to spearhead the gaming community. It might as well be them.

This blows me away-
"top players have to disguise themselves when going out in public to prevent being swarmed by fans."
It's kind of hard to imagine that throngs of people swarm gamers in public. It's almost something worth seeing on YouTube.

Next thing you know, there will be Quake Tournaments during the Summer Olympic Games.

Awesome find PristineSteam
God I love technology....

--SjN
"Death & Dreck You Curse!!!"
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The Brass
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Post by The Brass » Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:15 am

i wish my mom would think like the japanes do
OL' DIRTY BASTARD

The Brass
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Post by The Brass » Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:16 am

yo and sjn i herd that when the olypics go to japan there fighting for a video game tournament to be on it im serious there trying to get it started
OL' DIRTY BASTARD

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