StarCraft: A South Korean Obsession

One of the key attributes you need to be a lord of StarCraft is laser quick fingers. They measure this in actions per minute – APM. A good player can do more than 300 APM, so that’s more than 5 a second. And these aren’t pointless spacky finger spasms, these are properly directed, meaningful movements that thrust you on your way to the top. Watch their fingers go in this clip:

‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpCLqryN-Q’]

There are two whole TV channels dedicated to covering the game full-time. To put that into perspective though, South Korea has 5 channels dedicated solely to computer games. They do like their gaming.

So why has the game got so disproportionately big in South Korea? Well, it seems like there’s a few main reasons. Firstly the timing of the game’s release was fortuitous. South Korea was always well ahead of the internet connectivity race and in the late 90’s it was having a boom time. By 2008 60% of houses had broadband, compared to just 17% of households in the UK. This boom in internet access spurned a plague of internet cafes called ‘PC baangs’ like these:

These outlets were a place for youths to hang out, drink fizzy drinks and play games. They didn’t have to pay for the games like we do, the cafe would deal with the licensing and the kids just paid the equivalent of about 50p per hour to play their little hearts out. They also look substantially cleaner than any internet cafe I have ever frequented.

Secondly the release in 1998 coincided with the first ever pro gaming league’s inception. StarCraft was a clear favourite from then on in. So the game was released at the right time, into a nation that was newly connected and already obsessing about computer games.

The third main reason why the game took off so big is simply that it’s good. By all accounts it’s a well made, addictive, complicated yet playable game.

I still haven’t had a go at it because I’ve got literally no hand to eye coordination. But I am sorely tempted.