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South Korea is playing to death!

For six months after her admission to a top-notch Seoul university in 2000, Kim said, she secluded herself in her room more than 20 hours a day, prowling a virtual world where she morphed into a tank gunner catapulting fireballs at enemy castles inhabited by trolls and elves. She slept only a few hours a day and ate at the keyboard. She was losing weight, relations with her parents got testy, and she was failing nearly all of her classes.

"I occasionally conked out and slept an entire day to refill my energy," Kim said. "What amazed me even then was that there were so many people like me out there. We formed a guild and took turns to keep battles against our foes going around the clock."

Kim knew it was ruining her life and she tried to kick the habit but couldn't. Finally, she thought the only way to salvage herself from the depth of gaming addiction was to leave South Korea, the world's most wired country, where widespread high-speed Internet connectivity makes online games a national pastime. Six out of 10 South Koreans ages 9 to 39 consider themselves frequent online game players, according to a government-funded survey published this year

joemutt6198d ago

Well, the kid in the picture atleast took breaks to eat!

OutLaw6198d ago

MS would make a killing over there with the 360. Especially they would be able to play Online.

greenlynxx6198d ago

While I think that all countries should be concerned about online gaming addiction I wonder if South Korea's problems in this area are more indicative of the culture than of online gaming by itself. It appears that this society is surpressive of indivuality. If this is so it is easy to see how a virtual world that allows people to express their individuality is so attractive. Don't know just wondering.

OutLaw6198d ago

That does make alot of sense what you're saying. So you feel that since it is somewhat kind of suppresive in that country. The only joy of getting away from reality is to go to a cyber world. I guess they would rather die happy in a virtual world then face the one they live in.

PS360PCROCKS6198d ago

wow kinda harsh but you might be right

Say's you6167d ago

I highly doubt that the Koreans would even adapt to the 360 lol you Xbox 360 fans think you can do anything and dominate another foreign country when you guy's can't even dominate the Asian market lol now thats funny even in Korea the PS3 would be a big hit then the 360.