Internet addiction driving SKoreans into fantasy world
SEOUL – As dusk descends on the Sinchon neighbourhood of Seoul, a wave of shoppers melts away into restaurants and bars. But in a windowless room several floors above the throng, Ji Yu-tae is steeling himself for a very different night’s entertainment.
His only companions are a bottle of vitamin drink, cigarettes and a monitor displaying a scene from Aion, one of South Korea’s most popular online games. When the hunger pangs become irresistible, he will click a box in the corner of his PC screen and order instant noodles.
By Monday morning, after two days of almost non-stop gaming, Ji will make his way to work, pale and sleep-deprived, but content that he has progressed in the virtual world that has been his second home for two years.
Seated next to him among rows of screens at this PC bang, an internet cafe in the South Korean capital, are scores of fellow obsessives whose attachment to online gaming is fast becoming a problem in the world’s most advanced internet society.
According to the government, about two million South Koreans – nearly one in 10 online users – are addicted to the internet. Many spend every waking moment immersed in role-playing games, in which players form alliances to guide their characters through mythical worlds, collecting extra powers and other items as they go.
“I’ve been playing this for about two years and won’t stop until I get to the end,” says Ji, a 27-year-old mobile content developer. “In my line of work I spend a lot of time in front of a computer, so this is where I feel most comfortable.”
But he denies that his obsession could be turning into an addiction. “It’s my way of relieving stress. I could drink or go to the cinema, but this is how I want to spend my spare time. I don’t have a girlfriend, and I’m not likely to meet one here.”
The government has responded to juvenile web addiction by spending millions of dollars on counselling centres and awareness classes for children.
From September, gamers aged under 18 will be unable to access 19 popular online titles, such as Maple Story and Dragon Nest, from midnight to 8am. Those who play outside the curfew will find their characters growing weaker the longer they play.
Now the government must reconcile its support for online activity with the emergence of an older generation of web addicts. While the number of teenage addicts has fallen from more than one million to 938,000 in the past two years, those in their 20s and 30s have risen to 975,000, with the unemployed and university students considered at greatest risk.
South Korea’s status as the world’s most wired nation gives them the technical wherewithal to fuel their addiction. The country boasts the fastest and most developed broadband network on the planet, and more than 90 percent of homes have high-speed internet connections.
There are almost 22,000 PC bangs – online havens where the real world gives way to a virtual one. They are the driving force behind a gaming industry worth an estimated US$2.44 billion and involving 30 million people.
The popularity of StarCraft, a military-sci-fi game, has given rise to professional gamers who have been elevated to the status of national e-sports icons. The best are said to make up to $300,000 a year in televised contests watched online by tens of thousands of adoring fans.
Eo Gee-jun, president of the Korea Computer Life Institute, says South Korea is simply going through the growing pains of becoming the world’s first fully fledged information society. And the authorities, he adds, are reluctant to stifle the county’s thriving online culture.
“The government is in charge of promoting gaming, so although it has established regulations, there are no penalties if they are broken.”
Attempts to wean adult gamers off their addiction have been frustrated by the arrival of a $1.2 billion illicit market in cyber-weapons, costumes and other items that can be traded online for real money.
The gravity of the problem was underlined in May, when a man was sentenced to two years in prison after he and his wife allowed their three-month-old daughter to starve to death while they raised a virtual child, for up to half a day at a time, at a 24-hour internet cafe.
“In South Korea it is easier for citizens to play online games than to invest in their offline personal relations through face-to-face conversations,” said Dr Kim Tae-hoon, a psychiatrist. “People are becoming numb to human interaction.”
In another Sinchon PC bang, Kim Dong-ju and his new girlfriend, Kim Saet-byul, are bonding against a backdrop of extreme virtual violence. When the 20-year-olds met a month ago Ms Kim had no interest in games; now, her fingers zip across the keys with the speed and accuracy of a seasoned pro.
She screeches and thumps her boyfriend on the arm.
He has let the side down in Sudden Attack, a game of military conquest that draws them into PC bangs for at least five hours at a time, several times a week.
Having blasted her way thorough a disused warehouse, Ms Kim pauses: “I never thought gaming would be this exciting. But to be honest, I am worried that I am a little too into it.”
– The Guardian
