The life of a Pro Gemer

[W_L]

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/08/tech/gaming.series/korea.html?hpt=hp_c2

 

This was a great series from CNN, I seriously related to the kid, not only as an Asian Gamer and StarCraft player for years , but also the serious issues of gaming and sometimes societal problems of accepting gamers (Heck, it's like being a gay with homophobic parents, right down to the conversion...I mean "meditation centers"). I also seriously disagree with the Psychologist at the end of the series when presented with this case about Marineking's background and life, calling his actions "borderline" non-addiction, but not calling him an addict just because he's "High functioning" in the gaming world with his recent victories. When the kid was younger people thought of him as an addict, trying to "Convert" him off gaming.

 

Is that not a Catch-22? If a kid like to play video games zealously, he's an addict, but when he wins against other players in tounaments, he's "high functioning" and only "borderline addict".

 

This section really got to me:

 

 

MarineKing's parents succeeded at first by cutting off the power in their apartment to stop their son from playing "StarCraft II." Eventually, however, he found ways to circumvent their ban.

So his mother and father decided to try another tactic: Against his will, they sent their son to a meditation center near Seoul, several hours by bus to the north. There were no games at the center; no Internet, television or cell phone use either. The goal was to yank out the cords that connected MarineKing to the digital world.

It wasn't the most extreme treatment choice available. The Korean government spends about $10 million (11.5 billion won) per year on a network of Internet and gaming addiction treatment centers, according to officials.

At some of the counseling centers, kids do arts and crafts and talk about the perils of gaming too long or too hard. At others, suspected addicts are sent away to 10-day Internet-free camps where they're forced to quit the habit cold turkey. In place of games, they do physical exercise, since both of those activities have been shown to produce a release of the pleasure hormone dopamine, said Dr. Han Doug-hyun, a psychiatrist and researcher at Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul.

 

Han's hospital also is home to an experimental "virtual-reality" treatment that forces players to confront recordings of their loved ones yelling at them and saying how the games have ruined their lives, too. The treatment also puts players face-to-face with 3-D videos of the games they play. The screen suddenly cuts to a dark hallway and screams emit from the televisions.

The idea is to pair negative experiences with the games, he said. The result feels like something out of the dystopian movie "A Clockwork Orange."

There are prevention programs, too. In November, South Korea imposed a national curfew on online gaming for people younger than 16. They're no longer allowed to play online games from midnight to 6 a.m., although the law is being challenged in court. And in school, kids are taught not only to be wary of drug and alcohol addiction, but digital addiction as well.

Other countries, including China, have tried to treat gaming addiction. South Korea, however, is regarded as the world's leader in combating addiction. It's unclear how well the treatment programs are working, if at all, but the government reports a drop in the number of young addicts over the past few years.

It could be a window into what other less technologically developed countries will face. Or, as critics say, it could be a waste of energy and money.

Some psychologists, both in South Korea and abroad, question the legitimacy of gaming and Internet addiction as diseases. And treatment, of course, has mixed results.

 

MarineKing's non-clinical treatment at the meditation center didn't work as planned. It kept him away from "StarCraft," sure, but he spent much of his time there visualizing the game -- wishing he could play. When he came home, MarineKing's parents once again heard the familiar rattle of his keyboard through the night.

Their feud came to a head in October 2008, when MarineKing was 15.

After a heated shouting match, MarineKing's parents decided to throw their son out of the home.

Lee Hang-jae, his father, pushed him out of the door and locked it behind him. His mom, somewhat remorseful, peeked out to see where her son would go. She watched in horror as the elevator climbed to the top floor of their building.

She worried he would jump to his death.

"I was freaked out," she said through a translator. "But a few minutes later, he went down to first floor and went to security office."

MarineKing spent several hours in that office, not sure where else to go. He never considered committing suicide, he later told me. He needed to get some air.

His parents let him come back into their home later that night.

But after that, MarineKing would make a secret promise to himself: He decided to give himself one chance -- one tournament -- to see if he could become a professional gamer.

If he won, conquering a field of several hundred "StarCraft II" players, he would follow that path as far as it would lead. If he lost, he would try to give up "StarCraft" and become a lawyer or a judge, like his parents wanted.

He boarded a bus to Seoul. This time, it would be all or nothing.

The next morning, MarineKing's mom walked into her son's room empty.

She didn't know where he could be. She panicked.

She remained in a state of distress until her son returned to the apartment several days later with a certificate in hand. He'd won a major tournament, he told them. That win, in April 2009, made it official: He was a pro gamer, whether they liked it or not.

At first, they didn't accept this new reality. But they softened over a long, tearful conversation in MarineKing's bedroom the night he returned. They agreed to let him pursue this career -- moving to Seoul so he could train.

"I never realized how good he was," his mom later told me.

But his father put one condition on this agreement.

If you're going to be a gamer, he told his son, you have to be the best in the world.

Don't know if this article link belongs in gaming section, sports section, or Soapbox, because it's a complex story with links into video games, competition, and also issues with societal acceptance of gamers.

[Y_B]

In 2010, a 32-year-old man played the first version of "StarCraft" for so long that he keeled over dead.

 

Good.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Y_B

[Gene Splicer PHD]

 

It's not gaming that's the problem.

 

People who are broken will play games in broken ways. Also, ridiculously overhyped attention to the wrong factors helps portray professional gamers as "sick". Which is a shame.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Gene Splicer PHD

[Y_B]

Boy hospitalized after a 4-day Xbox marathon

 

Natural selection's way of weeding out idiots in this world.

I say play on.

[W_L]

Boy hospitalized after a 4-day Xbox marathon

 

Natural selection's way of weeding out idiots in this world.

I say play on.

 

How can you play CoD MW 3 for four days straight?

 

Seriously, I've done crazy things with video games, but CoD is not something to put your life on the line for. Halo championships, sure, Madden Challenge, for a million dollars and fame; I don't know what he was thinking.

 

Also, there's an option in games, it's called the easy mode, play on it first to learn the levels, then progress up.

Edited August 9, 2012 by W_L

[Y_B]

How can you play CoD MW 3 for four days straight?

 

It's called I've-never-gotten-laid-and-I-don't-plan-on-it-ever.

[W_L]

It's called I've-never-gotten-laid-and-I-don't-plan-on-it-ever.

 

Sounds almost like it's a religious vow of chastity

 

I remember the south park episode about what will happen:

 

 

Does making "Wohoos!" on the Sims count as getting laid for these guys?

 

96 hours of gaming is just too much.

[Gene Splicer PHD]

It's also called texting your mom with MOM MAKE ME A CHICKEN SANDWICH AND THIS TIME TAKE OFF THE SKIN. YOU KNOW I HATE THE SKIN YOU ALWAYS FORGET. EVEN WHEN I TURNED 25 YOU FORGOT GOD I HATE YOU SOMETIMES

[W_L]

XOXO GENE-POOH XOXO - Gene's mom

 

I know what you mean, but not all gamers who go through the challenge are like that. Even doing the Madden Challenge, I was more or less the same except, I cooked my dinner around my assigned match ups.

[Y_B]

How dare she leave on the chicken skin, the sandwich crust, and pulp in my glass of OJ.

The nerve of moms these days.

[Solus Magus]

I used to be a gamer until I broke two PS2s half a decade ago from too much playing. Dad decided never to buy me another console nor upgrade the family Pac with amazing graphics because he knows I will be installing games again. Plus I kind of beat that kid and I was only 11 years old at that time. Here was my everyday sched:

5am wake up

School til 4pm

Play til 7pm

Dinner

Play again til 4am

Sleep for an hour.

Do the same everyday then sleep like a sloth for the rest of the weekend. Homeworks and projects are crammed in school. This went on for like 3 years which killed my social life. I still had close frends though, fellow gamer. I may not have done the 4 day marathon like that kid but I was damn consistent for three years trying to attain all the achievements and kept breaking my own records. And not brag it off but I my lowest grade is always at least 85% in all subjects. I still do well despite the cramming. Makes me wonder what would I have achieved if I wasn't a video game addict.

 

In my senior year, I lost both of memory cards. I cried as if I lost the Homecoming Queen title to some ugly girl that day. I haven't touched a console for years so I have the tendency to freak out when I see one.

 

True story. I don't care if you tell me that I have no life. I know I still managed my grades well because I am now studying in one of the best Universities here in my country.

[Y_B]

One of the proudest moments of my life....as Kirby.

 

 

 

A friend of mine laid out a challenge a couple of years ago - anyone who can beat him in SSB best 2 outta 3 gets to pick and keep one item of his personal belonging, minus his car. The whole time we were in school, it never happened mostly because after a while people just lost interest and his circle of friends wasn't unbounded by any means...some dudes are just inexplicably talented at random things like this. He's really not that good at anything else. Anyways I was one of the few who managed 1 outta 3 after i dont even know how many attempts. Still, it was so f*cking glorious, it was the closest I've ever come to jizzing my pants from a video game. It got him to pick up my tab that night.

[W_L]

Hey don't worry, we're all Gaymers here

 

As a teen, I freely admit that Medal of Honor gave me a hard on as a kid .

 

When I was even younger, I was addicted to Vectorman 1/2 and my Sega Genesis. It's old news now, but I still remember timing myself with shots and grabbing stars.

[Solus Magus]

I get hard ons from Roxas of KH2.

[Zachary McGinness]

[/font][/color]

 

Good.

 

I swear these people are like rats in experiments who keep pushing the hypothalamic stimulator button and ignore the food until they die. And we like to think we're so evolutionarily removed from such animalistic behavior?