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MMOGs in South Korea And The Future For Us?
Opusthepenguin writes "There's an interesting article from the AP via Excite about the popularity of massively multiplayer games in Korea. There are 2.2 million people in S. Korea playing MMOGs in a country of 48 million, versus 700,000 in a country of 300 million for the US. Are the social ills discussed in the piece specific to Korea, or is this something other regions of the world should be concerned about as MMOGs grow in popularity?" We also recently ran a story on how far ahead Korea is in terms of broadband infrastructure compared to the US.
I lost three years of my life to MUDding, and two more to post-addiction depression. MMORPGs seem to be the same thing but far worse. Yes, they will be a HUGE problem, there's nothing special about South Koreans that makes them susceptible (I'm Dutch).
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
I'm all for games when it comes to entertainment and having a good time when there's nothigng else to do, but when the Matrix/MMOGs becomes more important than the people in your real life,(including yourself) it will likely lead to depression and isolation.
"I only speak the truth"
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Kind of interesting in terms of cross-cultural cross-pollination, too. The fantasy world so gripping the Koreans in the article rests upon a fantastic European feudal mythology -- not something more "homegrown."
-- Apparently, some people are calling me 'Maurice' merely because I said something about the pompitus of love.
Just based on my own experiences, I would have to agree that there's nothing inherently wrong with MMORPGs aside from being yet another thing for addictive personalities to latch on to.
Case in point--my college roommate and I both played the same MUD for three years. We leveled together, formed clans together, all that stuff. Last year, when I graduated and had money to do other things, I stopped. He, OTOH, can't even seem to hold down a job--his most successful job to date was working nights at the mail desk where he basically got paid to mud for 8 hrs. Once they killed 'net access for worker drones, he quit and stayed home to mud all night.
"America has done some terrible things. But I know that Americans don't cheer when innocents die." -Dave Barry
As geeky as it sounds, this touches upon the idea that was featured in a Star Trek (TNG?) episode awhile ago. In it, some guy was addicted to the holo-deck. Being able to be in a fantasy world seemed more appealing to him than being in the real world. Personally, I've always thought they didn't explain well enough how people resisted the holo-deck appeal.
I think a lot of the attraction of these types of games comes from how close they mimic real life. If you can be a smith and sit in a shop, it's more realistic than everyone being forced to be a warrior. If you can chat with people, have relationships, need to eat, etc etc.. all of these things make the game more immersive/addictive.
It's simply that technology can convince your mind that you're not just sitting in a tiny room, waiting to go to work the next day, but instead you're a warrior out on the open plains, looking for the next evil creature to slay. It's similar to how some people can sit for 8 hours at a time reading some book.. in their head they've entered the book's world.
As technology improves, I think that we'll need to worry more & more about this type of problem. If we ever do get to the holodeck type style of games, I can imagine plenty of people will be incredibly addicted to that type of experience.. a life without the boring parts.
Kinky.
There was a story on slashdot here about the decay of Saturday morning cartoon viewership. I do not know about the current generation of gamers, but hopefully he next will not be a olave to such things due to this trend. There are so many other things to do with a sunny afternoon. Now, at 1:00 AM, Star Wars Galaxies sounds perfect.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
...when people starting dying on the can after marathon gaming sessions. Then we know that the 'social ills' of MMOGS have gone too far in north america.
That's not a soda... it's a caffeine delivery device!
Everything that exists in this world has an addiction potential, and videogames are no different. I think escapism such as the cases mentioned in the article may not indicate a fundamental problem with games themselves, but instead a dissatisfaction with quality of life that is creating the NEED to escape. Regardless of other psychological causes, you will find people that take ANY activity to the extreme; this does not mean that the activity in-and-of-itself is harmful or dangerous. The media, and possibly the public at large, have lost sight of this.
I've lived in South Korea for more than three years. My wife is a Korean. Let me explain why these MMORPGs are so popular.
When a kid comes home from school, he doesn't go straight home. He has to go to after school classes. Sometimes, he has some spare time, and he spends these few hours in the game rooms. Today, that means he is spending his time in a "PC Bang" which literally means a "PC Room". A decade ago it was a video game room.
What are these places? They are a small part in a building with anywhere from 10 to 50 complete PC systems. It costs about a buck an hour, depending on the quality of the system, and the cost of living of the neighborhood, so it is pretty cheap.
The games that are available are pretty much what's available here, with quite a few home-brew one. Starcraft and Diablo are pretty popular. However, the most popular games are the ones where you interact with other people online. Since these rooms have excellent internet connections, these games run flawlessly, compared to your average AOL user.
The most popular game for a long time was a Korean-made one that was pretty much like Ultima Online, but far more cheesier. It was something like "Land of the Wind" -- in Korean, "Param ae Nara" -- or something like that.
Why do these games get so popular? Because the kids have nothing better to do, and they certainly don't want to spend the time doing homework. You got to admit, if you had a couple hours every day you had to kill, and you had limited options and a couple of bucks, you would waste it on something like Everquest or Ultima Online if it were available. That's what I did when I was waiting for a train or an airplane when I was there.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
I had a brother who lost 2 jobs and many friends from a gaming addiction. He kept taking time off work until he just got fired. In the end, he barely left the house. He had pretty much all the symptoms of addiction - similar to alcohol, drugs or gambling. He is still unemployed and not doing much of anything (apart from gaming, of course) 2 years on.
I remember when one of the main desirable attributes of a game was how addictive it was. Some of the geeks I know still use the term in this context.
The only difference between this type of gaming and gambling at the "pokies" is that the rewards are social and not monetary. This also makes them infinitely more difficult to legislate for.
Everquest, being an example I know well, is a classic example of a variable interval reward schedule that I have used on pigeons during my psychology classes. (the pokies use this also) This form of pavlovian conditioning even has an associated jingling sound when money is recieved from killing a monster and a ringing noise when you level up.
All other MMOG games I have looked at have been based on exactly this model. (being a graphical version of the MUDs I used to play) You click buttons, intangible rewards are given to you.
It should be no surprise to anyone with half a brain that these games are addictive, their technique is straight out of a 1st year behavioural psychology textbook.
PS:
I recently investigated an MMOG that is part of a new trend (read business model) in online gaming. In this model, you do not pay a flat rate per month, but convert real money in "game money". You then spend this game money on items that enable you to be able to play. (NB: you cannot do anything worthwhile in this game without buying equipment)
One of the things you can do is mine for precious metals. You buy various mining implements and these disposable items are used up as you mine. You have a small chance of getting ore. You can sell this ore directly or use it (plus other equipment you must also buy) to make things.
One of the premises of the game is that if you are lucky, you will earn more than you spend and you can withdraw that cash back from your account. (and the forums are obviously stuffed with posts from people who can't get their monty back due to "admin delays")
This can easily be legislated for, I believe, since it is blatant online gambling. (of course the return ratios for customers is FAR lower than a casino is allowed to give by law!)
The future of online gaming is online gambling, until the government steps in.
I was a rabid MUD/MMORPG player from '92 to '97. I never got so bad as to blow off classes/appointments to play, but damn near every minute I spent at home was spent in front of an online RPG.
Then I took a look at myself and figured out how much of a loser I was. Toward the end I spent much of my online time pissed off. Games were buggy, the dev team kept changing the rules, griefers were everywhere, everybody was powergaming and not role-playing. I just kept thinking "the next new game won't have these problems". So I became an online RPG hobo. Hopping trains from one game to the next in hopes of a better game. Well, that game never came. I realized that game would never come and that I was an idiot for wasting my time on this crap. So I muttered quite a few choice words at the MMORPG industry and promised that they'd never take my money again. And they haven't...
I'm a gamer deep down and always will be, so this left a void in my life. I still wanted to role-play in a large group, in a fantasy setting. So I took up fantasy LARPing. We run around in the woods for the weekend with padded swords, going on quests, having festivals, playing our characters, and beating the crap out of trolls, skeletons, and each other.
Now, a lot of people look at LARPing as the ultimate stupid geek-fest. Bunch of Tolkien nerds who really think they're wizards or something. All I can say is at least we're outside, socializing with real people (even if they are playing a character), learning real survival skills, and getting real exercise. If it came down to LARPers vs. MMORPG players in the end, the LARPers would inherit the Earth.
I'm hoping as the social ills and false promises of MMORPG's become more clear, the real role-players will join us at LARP and leave the powergamers to their anti-social leveling.
RAGNAROK: FRIEND OR FOE?
The game is re-invigorating the Net Cafe sector, increasing computer literacy, and scaring adults who are on the other side of the generation gap. Oh, and some irresposible kinds are playing the game instead of concentrating on their studies.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Oh ho... you think YOU have it bad Mr. Anonymous Coward! Look at me!
I have to deal with reading your Slashdot Troll Post (TM)
I think it reads better like this...
I had a brother who lost 2 jobs and many friends from a slashdot trolling addiction. He kept taking time off work until he just got fired. In the end, he barely left the house. He had pretty much all the symptoms of addiction - similar to alcohol, drugs or gambling. He is still unemployed and not doing much of anything (apart from slashdot trolling, of course) 2 years on. I remember when one of the main desirable attributes of a slashdot troll post was how addictive it was. Some of the geeks I know still use the term in this context.
The only difference between this type of trolling and gambling at the "pokies" is that the rewards are social and not monetary. This also makes them infinitely more difficult to legislate for.
Comparing MMORPGs and Gambling, being an example I know well, is a classic example of a variable interval reward schedule that I have used on pigeons during my psychology classes. (the pokies use this also) This form of pavlovian conditioning even has an associated growling sound when jollies are recieved from trolling a post and a bzzt noise when you are modded down. All other Slashdot troll posts I have looked at have been based on exactly this model. (being a web version of the Usenet forums I used to troll) You click buttons, intangible rewards are given to you for each troll post.
It should be no surprise to anyone with half a brain that these troll posts are addictive, their technique is straight out of a 1st year behavioural psychology textbook.
PS:
I recently investigated a web board that is part of a new trend (read business model) in online posting. In this model, you do not pay a flat rate per month, but convert real karma in "troll karma". You then spend this troll karma on posts that enable you to be able to troll. (NB: you cannot do anything worthwhile in this board without buying karma) One of the things you can do is troll for precious karma. You buy various trolling implements and these disposable items are used up as you troll. You have a small chance of getting modded up. You can sell this karma directly or use it (plus other equipment you must also buy) to make posts. One of the premises of the game is that if you are lucky, you will earn more than you spend and you can withdraw that karma back from your account. (and the forums are obviously stuffed with posts from people who can't get their karma back due to "mod delays")
This can easily be legislated for, I believe, since it is blatant online trolling. (of course the return ratios for customers is FAR lower than a casino is allowed to give by law!) The future of online posting is online trolling, until the moderators steps in.
So it's not all games now, it's just MMOGs? ok sure... does anybody else feel like it's just some more panic inspiring journalism? here's an example:
"The Korea Game Promotion and Development Institute said about 10 percent of teenagers who play online games show signs of addiction, including a tendency to shun contact with families and friends, become easily frustrated and, in extreme cases, confuse reality with their gaming experiences."
Don't 95% of teenagers act this way anyhow? From what I remember, life in high school seemed more like an alternate reality and I _still_ dont realy want to talk to my parents. I just dont see the problem... sure there are some extreme cases but there are extreme cases everywhere. I'm sure more than one person worked himself to death but I still don't see any work-is-bad-rest-more articles all over the net.
Games are an art form. Playing them is fun and develops important abilities. MMOGs are great (well some are...) and can be a wonderful social experience. Didn't they always complain that people playing games become loners and have no social interaction? Well now we have social interaction INSIDE the games. Give us a break!!
By the way, I simply could not remember my password as I hardly EVER post on slashdot. I do not troll. I mainly just read the stories and comments when I think the masses might have an interesting insight. If that is so important to you, then HERE IS MY USER NAME. You are obviously one of these people who sees a post you do not like and calls it a troll, in an effort to undermine what it says. What a cheap way to achieve your goal. What an unoriginal tactic to use on an interent forum. The irony is that your post is almost definitely reverse-trollism in this case. You post is pointless, rude, arrogant and has not a shred of fact to back it up. (thus fitting all categories of troll I know of) If you have a valid counter argument to what I have said, then let us here it!! Rather than this extremely childish parady of my post. The only valid problem that I can possibly see you have with my post is that you think that what I said is either untrue or that I do not believe what I have said. I can assure you that I have much experience with the MMOG phenomenon for some time, as a player and as an interested body. All facts in the above article are very true and the opinions stated are my own, which I have held for some time. I expect that you were just posting to try and annoy me, so this post is probably a waste of my time. Nevertheless, some things have to be said.