In late July, a 21-year-old online-gaming addict was found dead in his home in Inchon, South Korea. He’d played intensely since graduating from high school, rarely sleeping or leaving his room, according to family members. Two months prior to his death, he’d begun complaining of difficulty breathing but had refused to seek medical attention.
The Inchon death hasn’t been the only sensational gaming case to scare South Korea. In 2005 a 28-year-old man collapsed and died from organ failure after playing for 50 hours straight. He had apparently just lost his job because of his online-gaming habit. The most high-profile case happened in 2009. A married couple from Suwon immersed themselves in a game where they took care of a virtual infant while their real baby starved to death. The couple was charged with negligent homicide and sentenced to two years in prison. (The wife’s sentence was suspended due to her being pregnant again.)
South Korean authorities think that these fatalities are part of a much larger national problem: gaming addiction. Over the past year, two big surveys—one by Seoul’s National Information Society Agency, the other by Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family—found that more than one in 10 Korean adolescents are at high risk for Internet addiction and that one in 20 are already seriously addicted.
Even though fans have been clamoring for a StarCraft 3 for years now, it seems like Blizzard really has no reason to spend time making one.
They sort of ran the story as far as it could go.
Also, it seems like blizzard is more busy with mediocrity at this point in time.
The problem with Blizzard is they have franchises that don't need sequels. People are happy playing the games that they previously made. What they need is new games, none of this business of trying to transport the old audience into a new version of an old game which only ends up nickle and dime'ing users.
Jason Hall, currently an indie developer and former Blizzard employee, has been sharing some really interesting stories from his long career in the industry for a while now. Some of them are truly insightful, while others may seem depressing.
I’m a little shocked that StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty sold only around 6 million copies. The original StarCraft did over 11 million. Maybe Blizzard was too leisurely in releasing StarCraft 2? Starcraft 2 came out 12 years after it’s predecessor.
Im surprised too. Starcraft was still a huge name in 2010. It was kinda the only new RTS around and other genres like MOBAs hadn't really kicked off yet. I do remember at the time sentiment around the game was
pretty angry the game was being split into 3 but I doubt that would have impacted sales to that degree
For a long time I believed StarCraft II sold on par or better than its predecessor. There was so much hype for the game. Plus it had a pretty strong E-Sports scene for a few years.
Myself and half a dozen friends all bought StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and played it religiously for a full year. While I bought the expansions, most of my friends did not. RPGs seem to be a generally low selling genre.
I'm not shocked at all. This was an early example of Blizzard being greedy. Instead of releasing a complete experience, splitting Starcraft 2 in 3 parts so it could make us purchase it 3 times if we wanted to know the whole story and play story mode with the other races.
I originally had that stance. However, Wings of Liberty, was just as long, if not longer than StarCraft 1. The expansions were of decent length too and added a good amount of additional content.
and people wonder why we are having mtx in everything. i blame the people who actual buy them.
It's interesting he used Brazil as an example of the importance of regional pricing. Nowadays many companies on Steam are setting their prices in Brazil as high as, if not more than, their price in USA. I simply refused to buy a few games when I noticed that's the case.
Illogical Games has just announced the official release of Star Discord, the one-man indie dev's charming StarCraft lookalike on mobile.
"Adults work late and are often unable to take the necessary steps to control their children’s Internet or online-gaming behavior."
Well there's one of the problems right there. South Korea is one of the world's most industrialized countries, with a great emphasis on work and secular pursuits. Suicide rates are high for a reason.
Same problem exists in Finland, really, so I wouldn't be so quick to blame video games quite so much as I would be willing to blame a lack of importance being given to human beings.
I blame all those grindfest games with those high lvl caps(yes I'm joking obviously)
It's not just that, i have lived in South Korea for 4 years now. Gaming is different here. The competition is harsh. Koreans don't play many games. They play a few and get crazy good at them. Examples- Tekken, Starcraft, Counter Strike. On top of that South Korea is one of the only places you can get famous, and rich playing games on a pro level. Its just Korean society in general. Not that its a bad thing, just that's their culture and nature. But beside this being labelled South Korean game addiction, there are more reasons for that then the title shows.
I love video games like crazy but DAM! take a break and Go outside, get drunk and Tee Pee someone's house. S. Korea may need to invest in social clubs to get people to hang out away from the video games.
But S.Korea is the only country i know that has Gamers rehab clinics so something is a little Off in that society.
I blame that super duper fast broadband they have....just kidding! Very sad story though!
I think we should blame the homosexuals! I don't know how, or why, but it's surely their fault. I wish I could explain it more rationally and scientifically. Where's a tea party member when you need one?
On a more serious not then, it's such a waste for such a young person to die like that. How utterly unworthy...death by computer game. But the problem must be something much more deeply rooted than parents working late really. There must exist values or structures in their society that turns so many people into gaming addicts. I sometimes turn in somewhat sub-optimal exams an university because I play games so much. I consider that to be quite dangerous and bad and try to change my ways. But to die from gaming? I can't even theoretically grasp what kind of process could lead a 20-something years young person to die of that.