Posted October 10, 200519 yr SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Jun Mung-gyu remembers the throbbing pain in his head and shoulder aches from spending as many as 15 hours a day hunched over a computer keyboard battling his online foes. "You have no life, you only focus on gaming, putting off everything, like getting a haircut," recalled the 27-year-old Jun, who was able to kick the habit earlier this year though he remains in the milieu, running an Internet cafe in southeastern Seoul. For others, the addiction has become all-consuming, raising concerns about the health of the millions of gamers in the world's most wired country. The habit has even been deadly: In August, a 28-year-old man died after nearly 50 straight hours of playing online computer games. The man, whom police refused to identify by name, was moved to a hospital after he collapsed while gaming and died three hours later. 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. "I've seen people who play games for months, just briefly going home for a change of clothing, taking care of all their eating and sleeping here," Jun said. Gamers camped out at Internet cafes typically live on instant cup noodles and cigarettes, barely sleeping and seldom washing. In this country of 48 million people with the world's highest per-capita rate of broadband connectivity at 70 percent, the rise in addiction to multiplayer online gaming is alarming psychologists. The number of counseling sessions for game addiction quadrupled last year, the government says. There were 8,978 sessions in 2004 compared with 2,243 cases the previous year, and the first seven months of this year saw 7,649 sessions. This year's gaming death wasn't the first such case of someone dying at a computer terminal in this game-crazed nation: In 2002, a man died in Kwangju after 86 hours of marathon gaming. The latest casualty collapsed August 5 in the southern city of Daegu after having eaten minimally and not sleeping. Doctors said they presumed he died of heart failure; no autopsy was performed. So obsessed by gaming was the man that he was reported to have lost his office worker job due to absenteeism. "Such an addiction upsets the foundation of your life," said Kim Kyung-bin, a Seoul psychiatrist who counsels gaming addicts. 'I do it to win' Players stake out computers at an Internet cafe. One of Kim's patients, a high school student, would leave his house and not come back for weeks, practically living in Internet cafes playing games, Kim said. Computer games can also be a path to big rewards. Three cable channels are devoted to broadcasting game matches and a total of 4.5 billion won ($4.4 million) is given out as prize money in competitions each year. Even the government is embracing electronic sports, or "E-sports," funding construction of the world's first e-sports stadium, to be completed by 2008, where online competitions will be displayed on huge screens. Hong Jin-ho, a 24-year-old professional gamer, earns more than 133 million won ($130,000) a year, living and training with his fellow game team members in an apartment in central Seoul. Hong, who specializes in Starcraft, a science-fiction strategy game, says he has never thought of video games as an addiction. He admitted, however, that the seven to eight hours of daily training -- which sometimes drags on for nearly 24 hours before competitions -- can be physically challenging. "My body doesn't welcome it, but I do it to win," Hong said. Physicians working with professional e-sports teams recommend gamers rest 10 minutes with their eyes closed after every five matches, and never play in the same posture for more than two hours. "The energy you consume (while playing) is immense. The degree of concentration and absorption is so great that you lose yourself," said Han Hye-won, 30, a university lecturer who says she plays four hours a day. Han said she went through a phase when her mother had to pull the plug to get her to stop playing the battle simulation game Starcraft. She teaches "digital storytelling," the craft of writing scenarios for computer games. Even Han's interaction with her students has gone virtual. She sets a certain time at which the class meets inside the game world, each in their virtual persona. "You can play games like that because others are involved," Han said of serious game addiction. "It's not a game problem, it's people who had difficulty communicating with others resolving that difficulty through online games." Most shocking number to me was the fact that one-fourth of the population plays video games daily.
October 10, 200519 yr SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Jun Mung-gyu remembers the throbbing pain in his head and shoulder aches from spending as many as 15 hours a day hunched over a computer keyboard battling his online foes. "You have no life, you only focus on gaming, putting off everything, like getting a haircut," recalled the 27-year-old Jun, who was able to kick the habit earlier this year though he remains in the milieu, running an Internet cafe in southeastern Seoul. For others, the addiction has become all-consuming, raising concerns about the health of the millions of gamers in the world's most wired country. The habit has even been deadly: In August, a 28-year-old man died after nearly 50 straight hours of playing online computer games. The man, whom police refused to identify by name, was moved to a hospital after he collapsed while gaming and died three hours later. 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. "I've seen people who play games for months, just briefly going home for a change of clothing, taking care of all their eating and sleeping here," Jun said. Gamers camped out at Internet cafes typically live on instant cup noodles and cigarettes, barely sleeping and seldom washing. In this country of 48 million people with the world's highest per-capita rate of broadband connectivity at 70 percent, the rise in addiction to multiplayer online gaming is alarming psychologists. The number of counseling sessions for game addiction quadrupled last year, the government says. There were 8,978 sessions in 2004 compared with 2,243 cases the previous year, and the first seven months of this year saw 7,649 sessions. This year's gaming death wasn't the first such case of someone dying at a computer terminal in this game-crazed nation: In 2002, a man died in Kwangju after 86 hours of marathon gaming. The latest casualty collapsed August 5 in the southern city of Daegu after having eaten minimally and not sleeping. Doctors said they presumed he died of heart failure; no autopsy was performed. So obsessed by gaming was the man that he was reported to have lost his office worker job due to absenteeism. "Such an addiction upsets the foundation of your life," said Kim Kyung-bin, a Seoul psychiatrist who counsels gaming addicts. 'I do it to win' Players stake out computers at an Internet cafe. One of Kim's patients, a high school student, would leave his house and not come back for weeks, practically living in Internet cafes playing games, Kim said. Computer games can also be a path to big rewards. Three cable channels are devoted to broadcasting game matches and a total of 4.5 billion won ($4.4 million) is given out as prize money in competitions each year. Even the government is embracing electronic sports, or "E-sports," funding construction of the world's first e-sports stadium, to be completed by 2008, where online competitions will be displayed on huge screens. Hong Jin-ho, a 24-year-old professional gamer, earns more than 133 million won ($130,000) a year, living and training with his fellow game team members in an apartment in central Seoul. Hong, who specializes in Starcraft, a science-fiction strategy game, says he has never thought of video games as an addiction. He admitted, however, that the seven to eight hours of daily training -- which sometimes drags on for nearly 24 hours before competitions -- can be physically challenging. "My body doesn't welcome it, but I do it to win," Hong said. Physicians working with professional e-sports teams recommend gamers rest 10 minutes with their eyes closed after every five matches, and never play in the same posture for more than two hours. "The energy you consume (while playing) is immense. The degree of concentration and absorption is so great that you lose yourself," said Han Hye-won, 30, a university lecturer who says she plays four hours a day. Han said she went through a phase when her mother had to pull the plug to get her to stop playing the battle simulation game Starcraft. She teaches "digital storytelling," the craft of writing scenarios for computer games. Even Han's interaction with her students has gone virtual. She sets a certain time at which the class meets inside the game world, each in their virtual persona. "You can play games like that because others are involved," Han said of serious game addiction. "It's not a game problem, it's people who had difficulty communicating with others resolving that difficulty through online games." Most shocking number to me was the fact that one-fourth of the population plays video games daily. At boarding school, all the Koreans I knew played Starcraft, Diablo and WarCraft. And they are so f*cking good at it, too. They can move so fast on a keyboard
October 10, 200519 yr I really think that country has some issues they need to work out. I'll admit that I play games, but I never let them get in the way of everything else. Especially to this crazy extent.
October 10, 200519 yr The worst is when the Koreans leave and come here and ruin StarCraft. :lol I hate those people that ruin fun games like Starcraft or Halo because they spend every waking minute of their lives playing.
October 10, 200519 yr Yeah they have problems. I mean, god if they cut down on sleep with more caffine they could squeeze in 2-3 more hours of gaming time.
October 10, 200519 yr The worst is when the Koreans leave and come here and ruin StarCraft. :lol I hate those people that ruin fun games like Starcraft or Halo because they spend every waking minute of their lives playing. Yea, it's VERY scary. Some of my freinds bought Xbox Live with Halo 2 and they were alwys playing it when I came over, they spent like 6 hours playing it a day. Finally they got over it though, but it was sickening to me to see how much better they got, I used to be abe to beat them, now I will play them 1 on 1 and they reach the 20 kill peice when I have only killed them like once or twice. :thumbdown Online Halo 2 is the worst, me and one of my freinds went ao a freinds house with XBL to try it out, the 2nd the game was up, we were getting shot at in a free for all game with like 8 kids. We even tryed to team up but got as far as walking up to each other and strategizing before getting blown by a Rocket Lanucher :lol
October 10, 200519 yr same thing was going on with Everquest. *can't wait for Star Wars Battlefront 2* [/addict]
October 11, 200519 yr I really think that country has some issues they need to work out. I'll admit that I play games, but I never let them get in the way of everything else. Especially to this crazy extent. I've actually read elsewhere how there are problems just as bad in Japan that could lead to the eventual collapse of their economy (at least the elder Japan business owners fear this). It was awhile ago, but the article was all about how the average Japanese teen spends watching anime and playing arcade and home video games. I believe the answer the business owners came up with was earlier retirement after those 14 hour work days. :lol
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