Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tanklor1]

One of the things that I'm worried about when I go is the videogaming scene. I know that it's big in Japan but what is it like in S.Korea?

[Hater Depot]

If you like watching kids play Starcraft on TV, then boy are you ever in luck.

[tanklor1]

Not really into Warcraft. Do they have gamestores such as EB and Gamestop here in N.A.? Do they have a lot of arcades? That sort of thing.

[Juregen]

[Qinella]

There's a gaming scene? I always thought it was just something people did.

Anyway, your best bet would be to build your own PC and play whatever games you wish.

You can do like I did and have the HD and motherboard (cpu, ram) sent over, and then reassemble the rest on your own. Save yourself some cheese like that.

[tanklor1]

I'm more of a console gamer. How is the PS2,Gamecube and XBOX handled? Actually forget XBOX that thing is dead outside of the english speaking world. But what about the rest?

[Juregen]

[doggyji]

Starcraft has become like Baduk(Go) or Chess. It's not just another game in Korea. If you don't know how to play it, you should learn it and then watch On-game Net Starcraft leagues. Gods are playing it.

I don't think you will have a problem finding video games. Technomart or Yongsan might be the place in Seoul... And there are many online shopping sites that deal with various video games.

[SirFink]

I'm not a console gamer so I don't know about stores. I know Koreans who have PS2s so they're certainly available. There are alsos PS2 Rooms (similar to PC rooms) where you can play a PS2 for about $1/hour.

But yeah, Starcraft is huge as are a handful of other games that are just as old and primitive. Koreans latch onto something they like and just don't let go.

[Cohiba]

The Korean PC game scene SUCKS big time. In any given
year there are probably 50-100 new games released globally.
You MIGHT see 5 of those in Korea. It is really pathetic.

It probably has to do with the language barrier and some
cultural import quotas set by the government.

I order my games online with: www.gpstore.co.nz/ Great
customer service and cheap delivery. Although this brings
up another problem whitey has in Korea: Got a credit card?

[yesnoyesyesno]

[Hapkido-In]

You can pick up PS2s and XBOXs in Yongsan for fairly decent prices. About 1 year ago I paid about $180US for each. Then I got them modded to ignore country codes so that I could play games in English. This cost about $40 each.

If you know the right places in Yongsan, you can buy coppied games for about $10/each (or less). Of course if you have a PC with a net connection and a DVD burner it's even cheaper. Not that I'd ever do that...

The biggest draw back to legit gaming in Korea is the language barrier. It's hard to play RPGs or other text heavy games that are all in Korean. I'm sure there must be some places in Korea that sell legit English titles, but I've never been able to find one.

[bombenhagen]

EBAY!