Craig Beers PC Video Editor	Recent Favorites: Shattered Galaxy, Grand Theft Auto III, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Most Wanted:Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood in Arms, Battlefield 1942

The Land of Starcraft Potato Chips

I recently got back from an amazing trip to South Korea and Japan. Those are two places that I'd never imagined myself visiting even a couple of months ago. I didn't have any reason for not imagining it, but the thought of going just never crossed my mind. But then I was invited to attend a conference being hosted by GameSpot Korea in Seoul on August 9. I was immediately excited about the trip. Besides having the honor of being able to moderate a discussion panel, I was getting a rare opportunity to visit an interesting country. After my stop in Korea, I decided to fly over to Tokyo for a little vacation. Amer also went to Tokyo at the same time because he loves the city. But you'll hear more about that stop in my column next week, and from Amer. Let me talk about Korea first.

The view from outside my hotel window.

I have to admit that I certainly wasn't looking forward to the flight over there. The last time I flew, my plane literally caught on fire, so spending 12 hours on a nonstop flight to Korea wasn't exactly the part of the trip that I was most looking forward to. Obviously, my flight arrived safely, but I still had some traveling fun ahead of me. It had been raining heavily before I arrived, so there was massive flooding in Seoul. It took me three hours to get to my hotel when it normally should have taken just one. I guess I can look on the bright side--I did get the chance to stare out my window for a long time and see the surroundings. It was really the only chance I had to see the city. That's because I ended up with a full schedule for the three days I stayed in Seoul.

The first day I spent visiting a few Korean game companies. I stopped by to see NCSoft, Nexon, and Phantagram. Aside from some cultural differences, their offices looked like the offices of any other game publisher in the US. Everyone had toys on their desks, lots of pictures of women, and, of course, lots of games. I got to see a lot of their upcoming games, most of which will be released only in Korea. It's disappointing, since many of them looked cool, but it's also understandable--the gaming culture is so much different over there.

The conference itself was very fun. Its purpose was to discuss how new companies could create games for both the domestic market in Korea and for foreign markets. It's an interesting moment for Korea's games industry, because consoles are being introduced for the very first time. The PlayStation 2 went on sale in March, and the Xbox and GameCube will follow soon.

I want one of these ice sculptures for our office.

Who knows how the introduction of consoles will impact PC gaming in South Korea? As I mentioned before, that country's gaming culture is so much different than ours. People are more social in games. If you start playing an online RPG, you'll see just as many people sitting around chatting as out fighting. People also like to meet and play in person. The things you've probably heard about the popularity of game rooms in Korea are true--pay-to-play gaming cafes are everywhere over there. While I can think of three of these in San Francisco, I heard that there are more than 30,000 game rooms in Seoul alone. I certainly don't doubt that, because I was walking down a street one evening and saw that every building had a game room. And each one I went into had a good number of people playing games. It only costs about $1 an hour to play, so it's not that expensive.

Of course, I have to end by saying something about the GameSpot Korea guys. They are just as intense about gaming as we are here at the US site. I'm no slouch at Warcraft III, but I played them in some matches and got demolished. Next time I'll give them a better fight!