is the internet a safe gaming zone?
March 15th 2007 09:28
i managed to stumble across this article today by the bbc seoul correspondant, caroline gluck. basically it is an article about a 24 south korean gamer that died in 2002 after an 86 hour bender of virtually non-stop internet gaming.
as south korea is one of the most wired countries in the world, it stands to reason that it is a gamers paradise and gamers come from all over the world to embrace the chaos of the fastest access to their favourite games like 'starcraft' or 'fifa online 2007'. it is rare to walk into any of the internet rooms, or pc bangs as they are called here that number over the 20 000 in seoul alone, and for them to be empty. and that can be at any time of the day or night.
they are quite cheap to use, with most of them costing around 1000 won per hour (approx $1.50 aud), and this is for a connection speed that completely blew me away!! the speed that they average at is roughly around 300kb/sec, and coming from around 52 kb/sec, you could imagine my delight. if you aren't an internet geek, this is really, really fast.
every pc bang that i have been into always reminds me of entering a casino. there are no windows so there is no natural light that comes in, and you loose all sense of what time of day it is outside. they are always full of smoke, although most are quite clean, and they also have fully functioning snack, orl sometimes meal, facilities that are accessed by dinging a bell from your terminal. the attendent will then bring you whatever it is that you require, on demand.
so it goes without saying that you can loose all concept of time when you enter into one of these places. i have to admit that i have done some exceptionally long sessions since i have been in seoul - to the point where i felt like i had to scrape my eyelids off the monitor in front of me. but this is not that unfamiliar with my internet habbits of normal. i of all people understand that when you are involved in something of importance(?), how easily it is to loose track of all time. but is placing some kind of law on it the solution? does it even require mandatory action and policing of this nature?
surely this death is an extreme case and the average person wouldn't come anywhere near real world death from their internet sessions. i could compare it to deaths from other drugs, but that is pretty obvious, and would take an entire other blog entry to explain. i think it takes a tiny amount of common sense for one to realise that 'shit! i've been gaming for 85 hours, i should probably stop now before i ..... damn it. too late' i mean really, i can understand the mother's distress that her son had died, and that there is a problem with youths exiting from real world and tapping into cyber world far too often, but who should have the power to stop them? if someone wants to kill themselves gaming, good for them. they should be able to without having to feel like a law breaker. and besides, when you can't have something, don't you want it more?
so i feel as though the situation should remain as it is, and maybe the arbitrary makers should stop making ridiculous laws that make the real world seem that boring that one has to escape into cyber land for a bit of fun... for 4 days....straight with no breaks....reminds me of this party i went to once....
nestled in amongst the usual lotterias and clothes shops, you will see all of the pc bangs
they are quite cheap to use, with most of them costing around 1000 won per hour (approx $1.50 aud), and this is for a connection speed that completely blew me away!! the speed that they average at is roughly around 300kb/sec, and coming from around 52 kb/sec, you could imagine my delight. if you aren't an internet geek, this is really, really fast.
every pc bang that i have been into always reminds me of entering a casino. there are no windows so there is no natural light that comes in, and you loose all sense of what time of day it is outside. they are always full of smoke, although most are quite clean, and they also have fully functioning snack, orl sometimes meal, facilities that are accessed by dinging a bell from your terminal. the attendent will then bring you whatever it is that you require, on demand.
gaming teams practicing in the droves
surely this death is an extreme case and the average person wouldn't come anywhere near real world death from their internet sessions. i could compare it to deaths from other drugs, but that is pretty obvious, and would take an entire other blog entry to explain. i think it takes a tiny amount of common sense for one to realise that 'shit! i've been gaming for 85 hours, i should probably stop now before i ..... damn it. too late' i mean really, i can understand the mother's distress that her son had died, and that there is a problem with youths exiting from real world and tapping into cyber world far too often, but who should have the power to stop them? if someone wants to kill themselves gaming, good for them. they should be able to without having to feel like a law breaker. and besides, when you can't have something, don't you want it more?
so i feel as though the situation should remain as it is, and maybe the arbitrary makers should stop making ridiculous laws that make the real world seem that boring that one has to escape into cyber land for a bit of fun... for 4 days....straight with no breaks....reminds me of this party i went to once....
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