South Korea has been widely described as the “most wired nation on the planet,” with over 95 percent of its households having “high-speed” or broadband access. With more than 23,000 PC-bangs (Internet cafes) scattered across the peninsula to “Starcraft II” advertisements plastered on the sides of all Korean Airlines jumbo 747 planes, computer gaming has become a national obsession in the past decade and an industry worth billions of dollars. The popularity of MMORG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) games such as “Lineage” and “Starcraft” have also given rise to a new youth culture and a rapidly growing pastime in eSports, a professional gaming league sponsored by major corporations and televised on two cable television channels, five Internet protocol (IP) television sites, and two web portals. NCsoft, the creator of “Lineage” and the nation's most successful developer and publisher has been at the forefront of the online gaming industry, making...

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