October 11, 2002
2:18 PM   Subscribe

My mom warned me about this.... A South Korean man dies after a 86-hour computer game binge. What exactly is it about South Korea that makes them so fanatical about their computer games?
posted by hughbot (7 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason:



 
i wonder which game he was playing.... earlier on mefi was mention of the kid who loved his diablo 2 so much.
posted by the aloha at 2:26 PM on October 11, 2002


Please send this link to everyone you know who plays Everquest. I have a roomate who seems to disappear for days at a time....come to think of it, I should probably go check on him now.
posted by jono at 2:31 PM on October 11, 2002


EverCrack
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:34 PM on October 11, 2002


As was pointed out on Slashdot a day or two ago (I'd link but they seem to be experiencing technical difficulties) this sounds an awful lot like an urban legend that's been circulating for months.

What exactly is it about South Korea that makes them so fanatical about their computer games?

Not to generalize or anything....
posted by hyperizer at 2:38 PM on October 11, 2002


I wonder why when it was brought up two days ago by babylon it was deleted but this thread marches on?

Just curious.
posted by geekyguy at 2:46 PM on October 11, 2002


I'm not South Korean but I've played my fair share of Atari / Intellivision / Nintendo / PSX marathon games

And my PS2 is, let's say, well-used

Urban legend or not, you can't help but appreciate the man's dedication. And stamina
posted by matteo at 2:52 PM on October 11, 2002


I've managed 88 hours personally (3 days, 16 hours) of playing a computer game without sleeping without dying from it (Ultima Online, 2.5D predecessor to EverQuest with deeper gameplay in the non-violent aspects). You're honestly delerious at that point, but it's certainly nowhere near fatal. Of course, I was pulling 48-72 hours of Quake nearly every weekend for months before this. I guess the point is: don't cold turkey something like this. You need to kind of build up to it.

Also, Everquest blows incredibly hard - it is so obviously a treadmill designed to keep you playing as long as possible that it really isn't fun anymore. You go out, you slay things, you bring back armor. You go out and do it all over again with slightly better armor. You sit and wait 48-72 hours straight for a good spawn with your guild so that you can get a rare/random drop. This is the adventuring style of MMORPGs and it is purposefully terribly addictive to the 'must win the game' types.

It's all ProgressQuest if you ask me.

Ultima Online, and some similar games, were (are less so after the first year) fantasy medieval setting simulators with mass participation by the players. This model allows you to basically engage in freeform gaming where you decide the what and the why of your adventuring. The fact that it was easy to become ridiculously powerful (one of my friends acumulated 2 castles guarded by perma-tamed dragons, 2 million gold, and tens of thousands of reagents - sold on Ebay for $1500) demonstrated that they were not just trying to keep you playing as long/as much as possible. Later, of course, they decided that the dangerous elements of the game (all the player-killers) were hurting their bottom line, and they were slowly squeezed out through changes in the rules. This is (was) the world simulation model of MMORPGs.

Noticeably, almost all modern MMORPGs, being creatures concerned entirely with economics, have become adventuring-style games (to DAOC's credit, there's a sort of player-vs-player capture the flag tournament always ongoing in the higher levels of the game).
posted by Ryvar at 3:04 PM on October 11, 2002


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