WoW! Massively Big Business
Two million subs as game addiction in Korea hits new low.
Blizzard are buoyant today with news that its massively multiplayer online RPG World of Warcraft has notched up two million subscribers. That such a large slice of the game-buying public are willing to pay a monthly subscription fee is testament to what big business MMORPGs have become. But fans of the games are discerning as to how they wile away extremely lengthy periods in their lives. While WoW lured many of them away from EverQuest, the more cynical, less polished Star Wars Galaxies has fallen by the wayside.
But on the very day that Blizzard published its figures, the game gets another mention in a sad story from Korea, reporting that while a young couple played WoW in an internet café, their unattended baby suffocated to death. The Yus left their house in the afternoon with the intention of playing a quick game, but got carried away and returned home at 9PM to find their daughter dead. MMORPGs are more popular in Korea than anywhere else, where the addiction to the games has given rise to real problems. So lucrative is the market for characters and items that real-life crime can be generated by the demand. And in 2002 a 17 year-old gamer died after playing Diablo II for 22 hours straight.
But on the very day that Blizzard published its figures, the game gets another mention in a sad story from Korea, reporting that while a young couple played WoW in an internet café, their unattended baby suffocated to death. The Yus left their house in the afternoon with the intention of playing a quick game, but got carried away and returned home at 9PM to find their daughter dead. MMORPGs are more popular in Korea than anywhere else, where the addiction to the games has given rise to real problems. So lucrative is the market for characters and items that real-life crime can be generated by the demand. And in 2002 a 17 year-old gamer died after playing Diablo II for 22 hours straight.
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Comments
Joji 15 Jun 2005 11:27
1/2
Yes, this is indeed a case of extreme gaming addiction. While I'm happy to see the enthusiasm of the Sth Koreans for MMORPGs, when it comes at the high price of a childs life it not worth it. Perhaps they need to push more home online gaming next to such cyber/gaming cafes.
Remember kids/adults, it always important to take food, water and rest breaks between gaming, otherwise stuff like this can happen.
I suppose the problem with MMORPGs is because it's online which means lack of a pause button like offline games. Games like FF etc are great when you can pause it, take 30mins rest while you stuff your face and then later return, refreshed and ready to kick arse.
I like the idea of these types of online games but you shouldn't have to pay monthly. When they are free to play online like Guild Wars (which is a pretty good game) that is when more people are likely to play them IMO. I suppose the other problem is keeping interest in current MMORPGs when new ones are due. This is why so many of these games get dumped and after a while fail and servers close down.
How much longer will SW Galaxies last I wonder?
Remember kids/adults, it always important to take food, water and rest breaks between gaming, otherwise stuff like this can happen.
I suppose the problem with MMORPGs is because it's online which means lack of a pause button like offline games. Games like FF etc are great when you can pause it, take 30mins rest while you stuff your face and then later return, refreshed and ready to kick arse.
I like the idea of these types of online games but you shouldn't have to pay monthly. When they are free to play online like Guild Wars (which is a pretty good game) that is when more people are likely to play them IMO. I suppose the other problem is keeping interest in current MMORPGs when new ones are due. This is why so many of these games get dumped and after a while fail and servers close down.
How much longer will SW Galaxies last I wonder?
Ditto 15 Jun 2005 11:42
2/2
Joji wrote:
I like the idea of these types of online games but you shouldn't have to pay monthly. When they are free to play online like Guild Wars (which is a pretty good game) that is when more people are likely to play them IMO. I suppose the other problem is keeping interest in current MMORPGs when new ones are due. This is why so many of these games get dumped and after a while fail and servers close down.
A la Nintendo :).
I'm on dial-up so haven't managed to experience the pleasure of these kind of online games yet.
What I find interesting is games such as UT that have been around for year and years yet still have a very active scene, primarily because the resource-consuming servers are not concentrated within a single company. Obviously, it would be hard to distribute MMORPGs, but it's interesting the way some games appear to keep going and others have a life-span of just a few years.