"There are some high school, elementary, and junior high school students. It's usually packed on the weekend and after school. It's really hard to find a café that has open spots during those times," Moses said.
A local law prohibits minors from entering Internet cafés between the hours of 10 p.m. and 9 a.m.
When asked why South Korean society has had a more prevalent occurrence of online gaming addiction, Grace offered her own observation, "There is a lot of stress in Korean society. Going to PC bangs is one way to relieve stress and disconnect themselves from the real world. It's mainly the stress-relieving factor."
Relieving stress by spending time in an Internet café to play online games may seem harmless to some. However, it is apparent that the lengthy hours spent playing online games directly contributed to the deaths of Lee and the 4-month-old infant. Both incidents share one thing in common: Addiction to time-consuming online games can potentially interfere with normal everyday responsibilities and result in tragic consequences.
According to the Korea Times, the neglect of everyday responsibilities stemming from online game addiction is nothing new to the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO), a government-funded agency that has witnessed an increase in addicted online gamers contacting it for help.
KADO provided counseling to 2,243 people seeking help in 2003. That number more than quadrupled to 8,978 in 2004. So far this year, KADO has provided counseling to 6,271 people, according to the Times. Most clients are male adults and teenagers, and the agency estimates that number will dramatically increase to 12,500 people by the end of this year.
The counseling sessions consist of alternative recreation programs and group therapy to ease addictive compulsions. KADO plans to open more local counseling agencies across the country (in addition to its 40 established counseling agencies already in operation) by expanding its financial support to local counselors, according to the Korea Herald.
Plans are already under way for Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication to build centers that aim to prevent online gaming and Internet addiction, as well as offer anti-addiction courses to local universities.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that KADO has already begun to send psychologists into South Korean Internet cafés this month to conduct user surveys, make further analysis, and even personally warn customers about the dangers of online gaming addiction. One visiting psychologist, Son Eun Suk, feels that online gaming could be a bigger social dilemma than drugs or alcohol because society is naive of its addictiveness.
"Parents and teachers lecture against drugs and alcohol, but they are very open to the Internet. They think their children are learning something about computers, and they allow them to play from a very young age," Son commented.
This thinking may explain why South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world. Three-quarters of all households have high-speed broadband Internet connections (in addition to its 25,000 Internet cafés), compared to one-third of US households. South Korea's online gaming industry has grown 25 percent on an annual basis, with revenue of $1.2 billion during 2004. Two cable TV channels cover online gaming activities. The channels also profile professional players who garner celebrity-like status and make livings of up to $100,000 yearly by winning tournaments and even gaining corporate sponsorship.
A number of reasons are blamed for the rise of online gaming addiction in South Korea. They range from the longer amount of time needed to finish extensive gaming objectives or storylines, to inexpensive Internet access (averaging $30.00 a month for household high-speed Internet services), to a society used to living in small apartments or homes trying to escape unfulfilling daily lifestyles.
Whatever the reason, South Koreans are slowly but surely coming to terms with a social problem that could be a fair warning to the rest of the international online gaming community. It also sets a benchmark in the area of how far local government agencies might reach out to those who manifest a once-unheard-of addiction, before it potentially gets out of control.
Edward Castranova, the author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, which is set to be released November 1, 2005, by the University of Chicago Press, offered his own simple opinion to the Los Angeles Times.
"I think people recognize at least at a subconscious level that there is something subversive about these games," he says. "After all, wouldn't you rather be a spaceship captain than pouring lattes at Starbucks?"
By John Andersen -- GameSpot
