The Games We Play Online and Offline: Making Wang-tta in Korea

Abstract

This article presents an ethnographic analysis of case studies derived from fieldwork that was designed to consider the different ways Korean game players establish community online and offline. I consider ways Korean youth participate in activities at Korean computer game rooms, which can be thought of as "third places." A synthesis of the Korean concept Wang-tta provides extra insight into the motivations to excel at digital games and one of the strong drivers of such community membership. Korea's gaming society has many unique elements within the interplay of culture, social structure, and infrastructure.In his work, No sense of place: The impact of electronic media on social behavior, Joshua Meyrowitz (1985) asserted that because of electronic media, physical location no longer matters in shaping our experiences and behaviors; nor does the physical presence of people "with" us. Although Meyrowitz concentrated primarily on television to support his analysis of electronic media, it is important to consider his work as a voice of concern over the impact of electronic media on society. Since the time of its publication, such media-centric concerns over the welfare of society have diverted much analysis to a debatably more "dangerous" and "addictive" genre of electronic media: the online videogame. My argument is that such media-centric analyses largely obscure the bigger picture of how a society responds to electronic media. Cultural artifacts such as television or videogames have different ascribed meanings depending on the cultural context. In this article, I use my case study of Korean online game communities to show how consideration of the physical location of a technology does indeed matter, and how media use differs from one culture to another.

Senses working overtime

“…Some field studies take place on several occasions in one LAN party or one game café [28] while other field studies evolve over years at several game cafés [30]. In previous studies the numbers of interviews range between 14 players to 80 participants often of mixed backgrounds, of varied age with a clear majority of male participants [6][11] [19] [24].…”

“…The emergence of co-located public game settings, such as game cafés, across the world is notable. In South East Asia, "PC bangs", "Wang bas" and Internet cafés are popular places among youth to play computer games and to socialize with friends [6][22] [24]. In Europe these settings have become popular hangout places for teenage boys to play with friends [11] [16] and to escape parental surveillance.…”

Sensing game play. Exploring computer game play in a game café and a mass LAN party

“…We will use the international term game café in this paper, which includes computer game settings such as wangbas in China, [9] i in Korea PC bangs [7,14] gaming centers in Sweden. The lack of definition is notable since there have been a growing number of studies of game cafés in Europe and Asia [8,[10][11][15][16][17].…”

“…In South East Asia, PC bangs, Wangbas and Internet cafes have been found to be popular places among youth to play computer games and to socialize with friends [7][8][9]. In Europe game cafes have become popular places for teenage boys to play games with friends [10][11] and escape parental supervision.…”

A Contemporary History of Bullying & Violence in South Korean Schools

“…This phenomenon piqued both the interest and fear of South Korean citizens and subsequently led to the creation of the terms 'iljin' (from ijime) and 'wang-tta.' 'Wang' means 'King' or 'best,' while 'tta' means to ostracize/exclude; thus 'wang-tta' has been defined as "the act of singling out one person in a group to bully and ostracize" (Chee, 2006). …”