Korean Government Reaches Out To Game Addicts

Joystiq has commentary on a Gamespot article which goes into detail on the Korean Government's response to the country's growing online addiction problem. From the Gamespot article: "When asked why South Korean society has had a more prevalent occurrence of online gaming addiction, Grace offered her own observation, 'There is a lot of stress in Korean society. Going to PC bangs is one way to relieve stress and disconnect themselves from the real world. It's mainly the stress-relieving factor.'"

G.A.

[Praedon]

[Gamers Anonymous] My nickname is Praedon, and I am addicted to gaming..... [Group in perfect stereo] "Hi Praedon".

On a completely related note, I agree.. its a great stress reliever, especially after a long day of trying to DO SUPPORT for the Koreans when you have a English to Korean dictionary in one hand, and a phone in the other...

Re:G.A.

[dshaw858]

I stand by my opinion that 'gaming addiction' is a lot of media and hype for something that's very small.

As an example that I love to use, you don't see 'Television Addicts' being criticised for escaping to another world every Tuesday at 8...

- dshaw

Re:G.A.

[cowscows]

Yeah, I've met a whole lot more people who relieve stress through the use of alcohol. Gaming addiction isn't even on the radar compared to something like that, if you ask me. Then again, I've never been to Korea. Maybe they're weird like that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZONK

[Anonymous Coward]

(Mario too, though)

Since your birthday is coming up, we wanted to wish you a good one, because this will be your last birthday before you get Bonked and replaced by TripMaster Monkey as Games editor. We sure hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and speaking of TMM, we asked him what he was going to do for your birthday and he said ^_^

Love from the Slashdot crowd.

--
Trolling all trolls since 2001.

People have died... In Asia...

[JamesInsomniac]

Man dies from too much Starcraft. [bbc.co.uk]

Gaming addiction is a problem, I don't think there is any dispute over that. But, how big of a problem is it? Not a huge one. In Asia, it's a bigger problem.. As dshaw858 [slashdot.org] said,

" I stand by my opinion that 'gaming addiction' is a lot of media and hype for something that's very small."

The 12 Steps

[TripMaster Monkey]

The 12 steps of Gamers Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over games -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
   
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
   
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Eris as we understood Her.
   
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our boxen.
   
5. Admitted to Eris, to ourselves and to another human being (bots don't count) the exact nature of our lameness.
   
6. Were entirely ready to have Eris remove all these defects of character.
   
7. Humbly asked Her to remove our suckiness.
   
8. Made a list of all screen names we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
   
9. Made direct amends to such screen names wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
   
10. Continued to take hardware and software inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
    
11. Sought through Chaos and hot dogs to improve our conscious contact with Eris, as we understood Her, praying only for knowledge of Her will for us and the power to carry that out.
    
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to gameaholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
    

Re:The 12 Steps

[KDR_11k]

13. Printed this out and used it as toilet paper.

Re:The 12 Steps

[TripMaster Monkey]

Printed this out and used it as toilet paper.

Ahh...but you did print it out.

Re:The 12 Steps

[KDR_11k]

No, that'd be obeying something written.

"PC bangs"?

[Iron Fusion]

I've never done any banging at one :(