The Broadband Revolution In Korea

from the it's-all-about-proximity dept

For a while now, everytime people talk about a world where almost everyone has access to broadband, they bring up the situation in Korea as an example. More than 50% of households have broadband there, and a huge percentage of the population is involved in online gaming. Wired has a very interesting look at broadband in Korea. While so many homes do have broadband access, it's much more interesting to look at the local cyber gaming cafes called baangs which appear to be the social activity center where young people go to meet. It's a combination entertainment center/pickup joint for many people. The article also talks about the draw of online gaming, where groups of people take over one of these baangs and play a game until they achieve some goal. One of the most interesting things is that it's not just the high speed access that has made these things take off, but the community aspect of people gathering at these baangs, and playing the games together. Even though they're online, they still meet up with each other to play together.

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