What's this thing about Koreans?

[Raan_Amano]

I had read somewhere that they actually have a college course dedicated to StarCraft. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[werepossum]

South Korea also has an extremely successful, high-tech capitalist economy, giving them a high standard of living and disposable income. That's something that is required to make a passtime like video games a nationwide phenomenon. I look for products made there; sometimes you can find Korean-made products in place of Chicom.

North Korea has only two video games - try not to attract the attention of the secret police, and try not to starve. They are both quite challenging and hard to beat. The graphics look just like real life. (Unfortunately real life sucks in North Korea.)

Let's all pray that before too much longer Korea is united as one, prosperous free nation.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Well, from my experience from playing a number of shooters, and from playing Gunbound and Soldierfront BEFORE they came to American ownership, Korean gamers used to play them a lot. I would play a game on Soldierfront, and almost every guy who's name wasn't legible was able to snipe with headshots while jumping through the air, and this pissed me off to no end. Though I had to work a lot harder, and eventually made me way better, and own on American servers =).

 

[General Ma Chao]

Gaming is a bigger part of their mainstream culture than it is here in the West. Going to the gaming cafe is to them what going to the bar/pub is for us. So if you do meet a Korean, there's a good chance he/she is at least a moderate gamer. I read in an interview with one of their champion Starcraft players that it developed due to the lack of real estate available for public spaces like parks and such.

 

[Prons]

Hey guys, this is kind of offtopic but I really want to know, how exactly is "ke ke ke" pronounced? Is it like Hah but like Kah, or is it like Heh but with a Keh?

 

[i_am_undead]

I've heard of those "gaming cafes," where there booths people can rent for PC gaming. It's not a bad idea, someone could probably cash in on that in the U.S. The place would just have to serve alcohol or something..

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

Hey guys, this is kind of offtopic but I really want to know, how exactly is "ke ke ke" pronounced? Is it like Hah but like Kah, or is it like Heh but with a Keh?

It's pronounced like "ki ki ki" but pronounced shorter than English speakers normally pronounce vowel sounds.

Some other useless netspeak: "Huk" is the surprised sound, sort of like "OMG" might be used in English. You'll also see a lot of Korean emoticons, most can't be done in English, the one you will commonly see that can be is T.T which is someone crying.

 

[Kikosemmek]

Watch a SlayerS_Boxer Starcraft replay on YouTube and you'll have your answer. As stated before, they have taken gaming to another level; though the statement that all Koreans are video game fiends is a stereotype, it is becoming a well-backed stereotype.

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

Watch a SlayerS_Boxer Starcraft replay on YouTube and you'll have your answer. As stated before, they have taken gaming to another level; though the statement that all Koreans are video game fiends is a stereotype, it is becoming a well-backed stereotype.

Did you know Koreans animate almost all of the western cartoons (including The Simpsons), and they have the worlds biggest ship building industry? Korea hauled itself out of poverty and decided it was never going to look back. Many Korean children go to school for 12 hours a day 6 days a week sometimes even on Sunday. People still remember what it was like to be poor, they don't want to go there again. Korea is a country of extremes. Koreans don't mess around when they decide to do something. That includes gaming, but there is so much more that they excel at.

I am not sure if I find a stereotype about Koreans being some sort of gosu (expert) game-playing nation insulting, but I despise the line of thinking that a race of people can be summed up so simply. It's that kind of rhetoric that make hate groups so powerful.

 

[Terramax]

South Korea also has an extremely successful, high-tech capitalist economy, giving them a high standard of living and disposable income. That's something that is required to make a passtime like video games a nationwide phenomenon. I look for products made there; sometimes you can find Korean-made products in place of Chicom.

North Korea has only two video games - try not to attract the attention of the secret police, and try not to starve. They are both quite challenging and hard to beat. The graphics look just like real life. (Unfortunately real life sucks in North Korea.)

Let's all pray that before too much longer Korea is united as one, prosperous free nation.

Look, I said NO RASCISM. That includes no slanderous behaviour. If you want to start making fun of other countries, do it to a brick wall, not on a thread I've created.

 

[Raan_Amano]

I've heard of those "gaming cafes," where there booths people can rent for PC gaming. It's not a bad idea, someone could probably cash in on that in the U.S. The place would just have to serve alcohol or something..

My home town here in the States had something like that. Problem was, it dropped that part of the business and is now trying to set itself up as a ISP. It might work, but it'll have to be in a place that demand is high.

 

[werepossum]

South Korea also has an extremely successful, high-tech capitalist economy, giving them a high standard of living and disposable income. That's something that is required to make a passtime like video games a nationwide phenomenon. I look for products made there; sometimes you can find Korean-made products in place of Chicom.

North Korea has only two video games - try not to attract the attention of the secret police, and try not to starve. They are both quite challenging and hard to beat. The graphics look just like real life. (Unfortunately real life sucks in North Korea.)

Let's all pray that before too much longer Korea is united as one, prosperous free nation.

Look, I said NO RASCISM. That includes no slanderous behaviour. If you want to start making fun of other countries, do it to a brick wall, not on a thread I've created.

Not to upset your tender sensibilities, but North Koreans and South Koreans are not different races. When the country was seized from Japanese control after World War 2, it was divided into two spheres of influence, one half (North) for the Communist Soviet Union and China, and one half (South) for the democratic UK/US/France. Together with the USA and to a lesser extent the UK, France, Australia, Canada, and Turkey, South Korea faught a war in the 50s when North Korea invaded; perhaps you've heard of it? The USA alone lost almost 40,000 killed to keep South Korea from the hideous fate communism has given North Korea, and we have troops there today. (North Korean refused to sign a peace treaty; the two countries are still officially at war today, they agreed only to stop the actual fighting, not to make peace. Hostilities were ended by an armistice. Even today North Korean hopes to reunite Korea under the enlightened rule of Dear Leader, allowing the prosperous South Koreans to experience the sublime blessings of starving to death while dodging spies for the secret police.) South Korea lost half again as many if I remember correctly. So yeah, I'm pretty glad to see South Korea make the most of the freedom G-d intended for all men and which our soldiers died to protect.

The same can be said of communist China and Taiwan, except the free Chinese in Taiwan lost in a civil war and were driven off the mainland.

Communism is a system of government; it does not change one's race. I support free countries allied to mine; I do not support countries which are not free, to the extent that is possible. While asking why Koreans are super gamers could conceivably be considered racist if one is hyper-sensitive, differentiating between two racially homogenous groups based solely upon their system of government cannot possibly be considered racist unless you're a perfect idiot - and perfect things are rare.

By the way, slander is spoken. The correct term for such statements in written form would be libel. Both assume I made an incorrect statement of fact. If I say you are a moron and I can prove it, it's not slander. If I write that the People's Republic of China is a communist country and I can prove it, it's not libel. If you are going to level an idiotic charge at least have the decency to choose an idiotic charge that is theoretically possible.

 

[EittilDratsab]

South Korea also has an extremely successful, high-tech capitalist economy, giving them a high standard of living and disposable income. That's something that is required to make a passtime like video games a nationwide phenomenon. I look for products made there; sometimes you can find Korean-made products in place of Chicom.

North Korea has only two video games - try not to attract the attention of the secret police, and try not to starve. They are both quite challenging and hard to beat. The graphics look just like real life. (Unfortunately real life sucks in North Korea.)

Let's all pray that before too much longer Korea is united as one, prosperous free nation.

Look, I said NO RASCISM. That includes no slanderous behaviour. If you want to start making fun of other countries, do it to a brick wall, not on a thread I've created.

Not to upset your tender sensibilities, but North Koreans and South Koreans are not different races. When the country was seized from Japanese control after World War 2, it was divided into two spheres of influence, one half (North) for the Communist Soviet Union and China, and one half (South) for the democratic UK/US/France. Together with the USA and to a lesser extent the UK, France, Australia, Canada, and Turkey, South Korea faught a war in the 50s when North Korea invaded; perhaps you've heard of it? The USA alone lost almost 40,000 killed to keep South Korea from the hideous fate communism has given North Korea, and we have troops there today. (North Korean refused to sign a peace treaty; the two countries are still officially at war today, they agreed only to stop the actual fighting, not to make peace. Hostilities were ended by an armistice. Even today North Korean hopes to reunite Korea under the enlightened rule of Dear Leader, allowing the prosperous South Koreans to experience the sublime blessings of starving to death while dodging spies for the secret police.) South Korea lost half again as many if I remember correctly. So yeah, I'm pretty glad to see South Korea make the most of the freedom G-d intended for all men and which our soldiers died to protect.

The same can be said of communist China and Taiwan, except the free Chinese in Taiwan lost in a civil war and were driven off the mainland.

Communism is a system of government; it does not change one's race. I support free countries allied to mine; I do not support countries which are not free, to the extent that is possible. While asking why Koreans are super gamers could conceivably be considered racist if one is hyper-sensitive, differentiating between two racially homogenous groups based solely upon their system of government cannot possibly be considered racist unless you're a perfect idiot - and perfect things are rare.

By the way, slander is spoken. The correct term for such statements in written form would be libel. Both assume I made an incorrect statement of fact. If I say you are a moron and I can prove it, it's not slander. If I write that the People's Republic of China is a communist country and I can prove it, it's not libel. If you are going to level an idiotic charge at least have the decency to choose an idiotic charge that is theoretically possible.

Wow, I learned something today.

 

[werepossum]

Wow, I learned something today.

I live to serve.

 

[Altair-Ego]

Damn Maple Story and Gunbound.


Play Crysis and exact your revenge.

Otherwise, they're just a near-Japan

 

[werepossum]

Did you know Koreans animate almost all of the western cartoons (including The Simpsons), and they have the worlds biggest ship building industry? Korea hauled itself out of poverty and decided it was never going to look back. Many Korean children go to school for 12 hours a day 6 days a week sometimes even on Sunday. People still remember what it was like to be poor, they don't want to go there again. Korea is a country of extremes. Koreans don't mess around when they decide to do something. That includes gaming, but there is so much more that they excel at.

Korea is indeed a country of driven, hard-working people, valuing education and hard work. If the original country ever reunites as a free country, give them a generation to bring the North up to speed and they will be an economic superpower. Some of the world's bleeding edge high tech research is conducted in South Korea today. They were also the UN forces most feared by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army in the second Viet Nam war (the first being Viet Min versus France.) They weren't particularly well-equipped or particularly large, but were absolutely the bravest and the toughest. Probably the most committed to the war as well, since they had experienced communism's gentle touch a generation ago, and Viet Nam was in the neighborhood so to speak.

As a race (in so far as humans really have races, at best an arbitrary classification to satisfy our innate need to classify things), the Koreans have excelled at war and at peace. South Korea is a good ally and a good competitor. Too many people still think of South Korea as some sort of rice paddy nation kept free by the might of the USA. Today South Korea is as advanced as any nation in the world, and more advanced than us (the USA) in some ways. Its too bad more people aren't aware of its real status today. Just as Japan, Germany, and France are the shining successs of World War II, South Korea is the shining success of the Cold War.

It does make me sad for the USA sometimes, where college graduates are often ignorant of basic science and very few children have any interest in math, science, or history. Although I have to admit I wouldn't have been too keen on 12-hour school days!

 

[rapidoud]

Saw a news report on this once about how South Koreans "worship" games. The TV reporter called the zerg larva maggots and said the game is just an outlet of loneliness.

But considering so many people reckon they play so much then how come they're not better than they are? I know some guys in halo3 that play an insane amount (Met a guy once who topped 4000games...) and they're above a bit better than me. Then there's the Americans I know (being Austrlaian) who have pristine internet (hurry up rudd) and they can beat me half the time mainly coz they have t1 while i have teeny weeny broadband... with bigpond.

But anyway it'd be nice to see aussies with good itnernet go against Americans, in most matches its just an unfair advantage that stops me from being top in lone wolf.

 

[werepossum]

Saw a news report on this once about how South Koreans "worship" games. The TV reporter called the zerg larva maggots and said the game is just an outlet of loneliness.

But considering so many people reckon they play so much then how come they're not better than they are? I know some guys in halo3 that play an insane amount (Met a guy once who topped 4000games...) and they're above a bit better than me. Then there's the Americans I know (being Austrlaian) who have pristine internet (hurry up rudd) and they can beat me half the time mainly coz they have t1 while i have teeny weeny broadband... with bigpond.

But anyway it'd be nice to see aussies with good itnernet go against Americans, in most matches its just an unfair advantage that stops me from being top in lone wolf.

News reporters are largely uninformed idiots. Think about how many subjects you really know in detail. Now think about how many subjects a reporter must cover. The sharpest reporter is going to spend most of his time covering subjects about which he knows little or nothing. Add in a big ego and the dual need to save the world and get ratings and it ain't pretty.

You'd be surprised how much of America has poor or no broadband service. My daughter lives where there is no broadband beyond ISDN (128k maximum.) I can't speak to your situation or the gamers who are spanking you, of course, but the USA is not exactly top dog in broadband.

You know, the funniest thing about that newscast is that it would make us (USA) worship watching sports and reality TV. Like that's some kind of improvement, it's a video game without the thinking part.

 

[Terramax]

South Korea also has an extremely successful, high-tech capitalist economy, giving them a high standard of living and disposable income... blah blah blah, I think I'm so clever

I don't care about your political views. This is a computer games thread. If you want to celebrate your political views, do it in another section.

Now all I need to do is find a way of closing this thread as it seems some of us are too arrogant, childish and patriotic about our own countries to respect the ideologies of others.

 

[werepossum]

South Korea also has an extremely successful, high-tech capitalist economy, giving them a high standard of living and disposable income... blah blah blah, I think I'm so clever

I don't care about your political views. This is a computer games thread. If you want to celebrate your political views, do it in another section.

Now all I need to do is find a way of closing this thread as it seems some of us are too arrogant, childish and patriotic about our own countries to respect the ideologies of others.

Dude, we ALL think we're clever when you post.

If you want to understand the intensity of the Koreans, you need to know something about their history. It's not that Koreans are particularly gifted at gaming - it's a mindset that honors achievement and hard work, education and technology, together with a culture that simply doesn't discourage gaming or computers. Korea was a small, extremely backwards nation that paid a terrible price in a global struggle between freedom and oppression. That's not unusual in and of itself, but it's rise since then is unusual. It's not like they discovered oil deposits; the country made a collective decision to leave its traditions and pull itself into the twentieth century through hard work. If you don't understand the juxtaposition of freedom and Communism, you'll never understand why such a small nation can excel in this and many other fields.