Korean government seeks to reach out to game addicts

Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication plans to "build centers that aim to prevent online gaming and Internet addiction, as well as offer anti-addiction courses to local universities." This follows the enormous rise in requests for help from online-game addicts to the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO) in recent years.

Korea has become a leader in a number of categories related to international gaming recently, whether with regards to professional gaming events, gaming's status in the culture, or the sheer number of people playing at any given time. Unfortunately, Korea has also become a leader of sorts in terms of not only potentially offensive reference apps and settings for war games (as well as the resultant ban of those games), but also well-publicized cases of game addiction and related neglect. The number of addicted online gamers KADO counsels has grown from 2,243 in 2003 to 8,978 in 2004, and is projected to increase again to 12,500 by the end of this year.

While it's doubtful that the citizens of democratic South Korea will stand for strict limitations on play time or violent content, this move towards addiction clinics similar to the ones established in China may be a needed one for one of the most wired and game-crazed nations in the world. As for isolationist North Korea, we're pretty sure that any gamers there who can actually play Guild Wars will stop when they're told to. [Author's disclaimer: I'm Korean, and I'm an addict. Sort of. Maybe I'm addicted to game news?]