The 43-year-old Dr. Yoon, from the 매일경제.
An excerpt from KBS:
A graduate student at the computer science department of Sangmyung University in Seoul has earned the country's first doctorate in gaming.
Yoon Hyung-seop received a doctorate with his dissertation on massively multi-player online roleplaying games.
He said the sale of games generally correspond to their fun and popularity in his analysis of the games World of Warcraft, Lineage II and AION.
Like Roboseyo, I once walked into a professional computer game tournament. And like Roboseyo, I think the Koreans' affection for, and skill at, computer games is something the country could promote more. Here's what he had to say in a comment to his post:
I think Korea should embrace and get excited about all kinds of its cultural fringes: b-boy, starcraft, those punk-rock kids walking around Hongdae, foreigners wearing hanbok, you name it, and start looking at Korea as the vivacious, varied place it IS, instead of trying to force an image onto it that is neither accurate to what you can actually find in Korea, nor always the most appealing to those reading Korea promotions. Certain kinds of people get interested in Korea through photos of temples and hanok...but there ARE people who would make Korea a destination because it IS the world capital of competitive starcraft...and that's cool, not nerdy.
Taken at a competition I stumbled across in COEX Mall, July 2006.
5 comments:
"Yoon Hyung-seop received a doctorate with his dissertation on massively multi-player online roleplaying games.
He said the sale of games generally correspond to their fun and popularity in his analysis of the games World of Warcraft, Lineage II and AION."
Wow... how did he come to that conclusion?
What he said about trying to promote an alternative view of Korea, for example as a center for gaming, is a very smart and forward thinking move.
Most people who have never been to Korea, or even heard much about it would probably associate it with a bunch of Asian style temples and kimchi. While this is all well and good, it usually only attracts one type of tourist.
I also agree Korea should play up it's other more modern strengths, even if it may seem a little cheesy. Gaming, technology, good looking women, a general friendliness for foreigners, modern Korean food (yes it does exist), late night shopping almost all week, Korean pop music complete with the over-the-top dances and shows, the fashion trends that ripples through the country and changes constantly.
Promote those to capture a whole new demographic of tourists.
is it possible to read his dissertation somewhere in English?
Kosaru, I have no idea but I'll look around. From what I hear the abstracts at least have to be written in Korean and English, so perhaps it's possible to find that at least online.
Yesterday when I was taking the bus to Costco in Seoul I noticed a ton of Koreans in Cosplay (dressing up as their favourite anime character). There apparently was some kind of cosplay festival or gathering.
Now, that would have been interesting to see! And its something that is apparently equally as huge here as in Japan. Yet, that interesting subculture thing isn't promoted here at all.
Meanwhile, in Japan they celebrate non-stop. They even built a 59 foot statue of Gundam in Tokyo. You make a great point, Korea really needs to promote their interesting sub-cultures more.
Though, b-boying does get adequate attention I find,
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