Oh give me a home, where the pro-gamers roam...

Super good article in the New York Times today titled, "The Land of the Video Geek," which manages to capture the heightened sensationalism with respect to the professional video game culture that is in Korea. The author brought back very vivid memories of my fieldwork in Korea, especially when he talked about the goings ons with progamers at COEX Mall in Seoul (where you can hang out, shop, eat, see movies, and progamers!).

Rich Wickham of Microsoft had a particularly interesting quote:
“Too often I hear people say ‘South Korea’ and ‘emerging market’ in the same sentence,” said Rich Wickham, the global head of Microsoft’s Windows games business. “When it comes to gaming, Korea is the developed market, and it’s the rest of the world that’s playing catch-up. When you look at gaming around the world, Korea is the leader in many ways. It just occupies a different place in the culture there than anywhere else.”

I totally recommend this article for a read. It journalistically covers many bases, including the societal pressures on Korean youth to succeed in schooling, the probable reasons for dominance of PC over console in that environment, and other cultural factors that mesh with gaming.

Thanks to my super-duper Anthro prof for the quick eyes and presence of mind to send me this.