Video games in South Korea
Locally developed role-playing, first-person shooter, MMORPG and mobile games have proven to be very popular in the country.
[4][5] In January 1975, three units of the relabeled Pong machine Computer TV were installed in the Midopa Department Store in Seoul.
The newspaper explained it as a "TV game" and said that big companies such as Samsung and Goldstar (now LG) were producing new machines, most of them Pong clones.
Until the end of the 1970s, "electronic entertainment rooms" quickly spread around the country, despite fierce opposition by conservative parents, media and the regime.
In 2001, a company called GameVision licensed six arcade games from Expotato, Andamiro, SemiCom, and Excellent Soft Design for release in North America.
In March of the same year, companies like Samsung started to offer computers to schools to raise a computer-savvy generation.
This made it easier to import and copy foreign games, as there was no copyright law in Korea at the time for computer programs.
Because of that, domestic game development wasn't seen as necessary until July 1987, when a law protecting copyright ownership of computer programs was enacted.
A group of Japanese companies (including Taito, Konami and Capcom) brought to court cases against Haitai and Young Toys, but failed to win anything because the games in question were released before the enactment of the law.
The Korean company Topia was one of the first to begin producing action role-playing games, one of which was Pungnyu Hyeopgaek, for MS-DOS, in 1989.
Most infringing companies found ways to simply convert MSX games to the Gam*Boy, due to their similar architecture.
The lack of skill, budget, and manpower made it hard for the domestic developers to compete with imported games from Japan and the U.S.
When computers able to display colored graphics became more common, the industry started to produce games that could compete with consoles on the international market.
[7] Two major Korean RPGs released in 1994: Astonishia Story, and an MS-DOS enhanced remake Ys II Special, developed by Mantra.
Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, designed by Jake Song, was commercially released in 1996 and eventually gained over one million subscribers.
Song's next game, Lineage (1998), enjoyed even greater success gaining millions of subscribers in Korea and Taiwan.
Although the initial epileptic seizure was proven not to be related to flashing light sensitivity,[16] the newspapers would report new or old cases, connecting them with video games.
[17] The industry started to slowly recuperate but was slowed down by the decision of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, on July 1, 1993, to revise the censorship regulation, so that video games on CD-ROM or cartridge have to pass an evaluation by the Korea Public Performance Ethics Committee.
[20] 2002 also saw the release of MapleStory, another sprite-based title, which was completely free-to-play - instead of charging a monthly fee, it generated revenue by selling in-game "enhancements".
As of the first half of 2005 Lineage II counted over 2.25 million subscribers worldwide, with servers in Japan, China, North America, Taiwan, and Europe, once the popularity of the game had surged in the West.
[23] Many popular Korean multiplayer games provide players with incentives that encourage them to play from a PC bang.
South Korea is well known for the fact that professional gaming has a very substantial following in the country, with the top players earning big money prizes in competitions, and spending a significant number of hours practicing every day.
[24] Pro-gaming tournaments in South Korea are broadcast, with millions of people tuning in to watch live or catch the results [25] on one of three channels that are exclusively geared toward e-sports.
[26] In South Korea, pro-gaming and e-sports competitions are considered a national past time with approximately 10 million regular viewers.
A Korean study reported that there was a connection between video game addiction and constraints involving recreation participation.
The study also found that video game addictions were associated with experience in recreational activities as well as family environment.
This program was created due to the increasing number of working parents, insufficient space for playgrounds, and a highly competitive educational environment.
The four education activities listed previously are important to prevent or detour behaviours that the internet has, such as providing a mental escape, avoiding problems, and emotional belief, in addition to doing drugs, and gambling.
Researchers have conducted a questionnaire for Korean High school students to better understand video game addiction.
A separate board was established in 2006 following a scandal where the KMRB was allegedly bribed to allow a video slot machine known as Sea Story be put on the market after operators hacked the game to increase its payouts beyond legal limits.
