Zerg Rush

From the good people at Slashdot, a fascinating almost Jane Goodall-esque profile of video gaming in South Korea, especially the phenomena of StarCraft tournaments.

A brief snip:

Impossible, because the man on the stage is on Korean television almost every day. He is about to sit down and play what is close to becoming Korea’s national sport: Starcraft. His name is Lee Yunyeol, or in game [RED]NaDa Terran. He is The Champion. Last year his reported earnings were around $200,000. He plays a seven year-old RTS for fame and fortune and to many Koreans he is an idol. Every night over half a million Koreans log on to Battlenet and make war in space, many of them with dreams of becoming like Yunyeol. But his skill is almost supernatural. Few people who play all day long will be able to claim a fraction of his split-second timing and pitiless concentration. Practicing eight hours a day, Yunyeol’s methods and tactics are peerless. Well, almost peerless. In fact there are two or three other players who command similar salaries. They might not hold the crown now, and one of them will probably take it from him soon, but for now at least, Yunyeol is king.

While the article goes on to dissect why South Korea is a growing gaming hotspot (and how they built a Sony-Sega-Nintendo free zone), they never answered the obvious: why Starcraft? The only reasonable answer I could think of is the climate with their northern neighbors. Growing up with the DMZ and thousands of short-range missiles pointed at them, I imagine SoKorean youth find some sort of release in a RTS where you have to defend against and defeat an enemy bent on your destruction. Starcraft is a war game at heart, and an intensely addictive one with campaigns lasting 20 minutes to an hour. Perfect for quick psychic depressuration against a hostile force to the north.

Another word about the article. The writer is from the UK, so you get a sense of gaming culture from two countries.

One more word, more or less personal. Blizzard (the people who made Starcraft, as well as Diablo and Warcraft) has muttered audibly about bringing a handheld version of Starcraft to the DS, which would cause me to turn into Gollum, hiding away in the dark for hours on end as I play my new precious. Bringing an RTS to a handheld would be a Herculian task, but Gameboy-Advance.net has brainstormed a decent way it could work.