The article is pretty long...to read the whole thing click on the link. New York Times Link Slideshow version of story The Land of the Video Geek AT first glance, the sprawling COEX mall here seems like any other urban shopping destination. On a late-summer Thursday, there were the bustling stores and lively restaurants, couples on dates and colleagues mingling after work. But then there were the screams. Frantic, piercing, the shrieks echoed down the corridors from one corner of the vast underground complex. There hundreds of young people, mostly women and girls, waved signs and sang slogans as they swirled in the glare of klieg lights. It was the kind of fan frenzy that anywhere else would be reserved for rockers or movie legends. Or sports stars. In fact the objects of the throng’s adoration were a dozen of the nation’s most famous athletes, South Korea’s Derek Jeters and Peyton Mannings. But their sport is something almost unimaginable in the United States. These were professional video gamers, idolized for their mastery of the science-fiction strategy game StarCraft. With a panel of commentators at their side, protected from the throbbing crowd by a glass wall, players like Lim Yo-Hwan, Lee Yoon Yeol and Suh Ji Hoon lounged in logo-spangled track suits and oozed the laconic bravado of athletes the world over. And they were not even competing. They were gathered for the bracket selection for a coming tournament season on MBC Game, one of the country’s two full-time video game television networks. And while audiences watched eagerly at home, fans lucky enough to be there in person waved hand-lettered signs like “Go for it, Kang Min” and “The winner will be Yo-Hwan {oheart}.” All in all it was a typical night in South Korea, a country of almost 50 million people and home to the world’s most advanced video game culture: Where more than 20,000 public PC gaming rooms, or “bangs,” attract more than a million people a day. Where competitive gaming is one of the top televised sports. Where some parents actually encourage their children to play as a release from unrelenting academic pressure. Where the federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism has established a game development institute, and where not having heard of StarCraft is like not having heard of the Dallas Cowboys. The finals of top StarCraft tournaments are held in stadiums, with tens of thousands of fans in attendance. [continue]
Wow, that sure is something. I'm not sure what to make of it. I don't want to look down on it just because it's a phenomena I don't quite understand. But I guess it's not that different that watching sports. If you like it you like it. Some people don't like to watch sports but rather play it. It's not for everybody. I like to play games but haven't really cared much for watching. But more power to anyone who can get paid doing it though.
I sometimes would catch this show on G4 called Arena where gamers would compete for cash and prizes. Basically, they would have like 3 or 4 rounds of them playing different games on console and the last would be a PC game like Call of Duty or Unreal Tournament. I think all the pro gaming is PC based and that was the most boring thing to watch.
What the hell are they doing still playing Starcraft? isn't that game almost 10 years old by now? Are they using 486's or something?
I remember the story about the #1 US player getting destroyed in the first round in one of those tournaments.
I played starcraft once this summer. I'm terrible at it now but I played. I also still have a 386 in my closet at home with Windows 3.1 I even used to have an old IBM 8080 machine and an Apple II but I'm not sure where those went.
