Essay about Online Gaming in South Korea

A great deal of research has focused on the identification of addicted adolescent gamers (Van Rooij, Schoenmakers, Vermulst, Van Den Eijnden, & Van de Mheen, 2011). Van Rooij et al. (2011) assumed to provide empirical data-driven to identify a group of addicted online gamers. The video game industry is among the fastest growing sectors of the US economy (ESA Entertainment Software Association, 2013). Both Korean and western researchers report specifically that Massive

U.S. On-line gaming users have showed a significant increase in the size of its audience during the past year as consumers increasingly opt for cheaper entertainment alternatives. The On-line gaming category attracted 87 million U.S. visitors in May 2009, up 22 percent versus the prior year. Below is a table of On-line gaming sources that shows the change of their total internet audience over a one-year period.

Though gaming has its drawbacks, it also has many benefits to cover them. If controlled, gaming is extremely useful and with the amount of gamers in the world today, it proves that it is not just for children or for teenagers. There are millions of adult gamers that understand the importance of gaming in the under the existing circumstances of the world. Individuals that have studied gamers believe that gaming in today’s

Online gaming is big business these days, with thousands of people connected to each other every

The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "Female gamers spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends, and male gamers spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends" ("Video Game Play Among Adolescents"). What can we understand from this evidence? The fact is that adolescents, male or female, are spending tremendous amounts of time each day sitting in front of

The film Second Skin provided a large coverage of the effects of massive multiplayer online games on the players and the people around them. This film was used to shed light on what actually occurs in a gamers’ life and their perspective on their “hobby”. The point that jumped out the most would be the fact that excessive gaming can be as addictive as drugs and as a result can have mental and social repercussions. The fact is that online gamers find it difficult to draw the fine line when a game is for passing time and when it officially becomes a problem.

From the past till now, video game never loses its popularity, from Gameboy to Wii, and from NDS to LOL, millions and billions of people are obsessed with this imaginary world. Some of the video games are created for educational purpose, however, most are created for the people who wants to escape from reality. “In a national Harris Poll survey of 1,178 American youths (ages 8-18), ISU Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile found nearly one in 10 of the gamers (8.5 percent) to be pathological players.” ("Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) ") Not only the statistic shows the high rate of addiction towards video games, terrible consequences of the addictions are more than enough to be served. For example, an extreme case of an Chinese kid called Xioyi suicide because he lose in one of his game on December 27, 2004; where he left a note that said he wanted “to join the heroes of the game he worshiped.” Video game has the potential to ruin a person’s life, as well as their family, or even the

A gamer is someone who plays video games as a hobby. Gamers are usually quite good at this hobby. Gaming has been around since 1958. It’s ancient. Few people in the United States have gone untouched by video games at some point in their lives. In fact, it is estimated that the number of gamers around the world is about 1.2 billion people. That is a good portion of Earth’s 7.2 billion population. Gaming is huge. Despite that, there are quite a few stereotypes regarding gamers. Some people seem to think that gamers are all a bunch of nerdy losers who do nothing but sit around and waste their lives behind a monitor and with a controller in their hands. No matter how many gamers are not like this, there will always be at least one individual who will fit this stereotype perfectly. But, this paper will bring to light some things that are more typically true of most gamers, regardless of what other stereotypes they may happen to fit. Believe it or not, video games can actually be

Aside from the point of access for online games played, it is important to understand the market segments for online gamers. A study by Park Associates as cited by David Edery, CEO of Spry Fox, outlines a diversification of gamers into six categories: 1. Power gamers who are 11% of the total gamer market but represent 30% of current spending. 2. Social gamers account for 13% of the market. 3. Leisure gamers hold 14% of the market and spend an average of 58 hours per month playing casual titles. This group prefers challenging games and show high interest in new gaming services . 4. Dormant gamers are 26% of the market. They enjoy gaming, but spend very little time playing due to life’s obligations. 5. Incidental gamers are 12% of the market, with an average of 20 hours a month game time. They usually play out of boredom. 6: Occasional gamers comprise 24% of the market and play puzzle, word, and board games (Edery, 2006).

Sam Byford states, “The first time I went to South Korea and saw StarCraft on live TV it really did feel like the future. But the term as it stands today is nowhere close to justifying the potential of electronic sports”. Byford agrees that E-sports may be the way of the future, but questions the legitimacy of the games we are playing now. With ever evolving technology the next big game is right around the corner. For example, there are already three dimensional videogame consoles in development. If the current types of videogames are not enough to justify being called a spot the one that is might be coming out in the near

Research started in 1983 aimed to discover how this addiction starts, the prevalence, as well as the risk factors associated with this behavior. “The studies on Internet gaming addiction in the new millennium reported prevalence estimates which vary significantly and range from 0.2% in Germany25,26 to 50% of Korean teenagers.” (Kuss, D. J.) In fact, South Korea views this addiction as a public health concern. So much so, that up to 24% of children diagnosed with internet addiction are hospitalized. As a growing number of studies appear, the psychological consequences are becoming better defined. These consequences include, “Sacrificing real-life relationships, other pastime activities, sleep, work, education, socializing, and relationships, obsession with gaming and a lack of real-life relationships, lack of attention, aggression and hostility, stress, dysfunctional coping, worse academic achievement, problems with verbal memory, and low well-being and high loneliness.” (Kuss, D.

During its formative years, the computer gaming industry was exclusively associated with the younger generation. According to Blumberg et al. (2013), 58% of Americans play video games while 51% of all households in the United States own at least one dedicated game console (2013). This means that the popularity of the concept of gaming has not waned. However, technological advances have led to the emergence of a new phenomenon characterized by a rapid increase in the use of massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs), virtual worlds, and other gaming technologies many areas, including military training

Internet gaming is one of the most common problem of which many people around the globe are facing in their daily lives. Addiction, one of the serious problems with internet gaming have caused severe changes to their behavior and attitude to life. Majority of teenagers and

Online gaming is one of the widely used leisure activities by many people. Teenagers who are playing these online games said that they are playing these games just for fun, to keep away from the heat of the sun, without knowing that there are a lot of effects of playing these games that are more than what they think.

Online gaming has grown rapidly around the world over the past several years. While many developing countries from the west have initiated much more developed and modern technology to help enhance gaming capabilities and their market, few eastern countries like Korea and China have lead the world in the developments of online games. The fast and high developments of online games in these eastern countries are so broad that it’s even part of their growing culture. Dal Yong Jin states, “Korea’s rapid growth in the online game market has been unique in terms of the growth of its domestic online game industry, the dominance of its local games in the global market, and the degree to which its youth culture is embedded in online gaming.” Not only does the gaming culture and economy in Korea benefit themselves, but also affects the U.S. and many other western countries in terms of the global game market and it’s expected rapid growth in the near future. Around 2006, the online game market was estimated to be valued around 4.98 billion dollars and has grown to as much as 11.88 billion dollars in 2011. Contributing to about half of that value was the Asian market with Korea instituting the largest and most viable market in the world. With such a rich and growing sector in the global market, online gaming has become an expanding form of entertainment that has turned from being just a leisure