Sweet Child O’Mine(version for gaming age)

April 19th, 2006 Jun Sok Huhh Posted in news |

Most of you might have some good memories about gaming shared with your family. Pong insanity or Tekken bloody fight with your father or brother? Ah, good old days! Maybe, you are playing with your daughters and sons with recent videogames like Animal Crossing of NDS.

It is not so surprising to say that videogames are one of major cultural activities in the family. But, how about this one? The mothers and fathers who are engaged in power-leveling instead of their children. Is this so strange? Gaming is just a pastime, so parents that do play for their children seem to be seen absurd.

Online gaming is universal language for communication among Korean kids. Especially, Maple Story is the #1 example for this trend. The majority of players in the game are in between 6 and 13 years old. If your child did not play the game in Korea, he might be out of the circle with her/his friends.

In the past, coin-ops and console games had been major gaming activities for Korean kids, but these was not be considered as major culture. Moreover, parents had looked videogames as evil axis of ruining study and learning. This negative attitude for games is not so much changed. To parents' eyes, gaming is the big obstacle against good advancement in school. Online games, however, are universal communicative tools among kids. Parents of today cannot but admit the bitter reality of gaming. They are much worrying about game playing of their kids, but they are not fully against games just like their old parents. Some parents might scold kids for playing too much, even take over computer to ban games. It would not take a long time for them to realize that it is not so effective ways to divert their interests in games.

As you well know, many online games require intensive time-consuming for advancing the level. The power leveling or grinding, "level No-ga-da" in Korean language, is the basic part for lots of games. If you want to be the best in the game, "Ji-Jone(至尊)" in Korean language, you should pour as many hours into game as possible. This nature of online games is also strongly present in games tuned for kids. They do never find enough times both for studying and playing hard.

What is solution for this conflict? Let me do your power leveling, kid! According to an article, many mothers are actually doing those virtual chores for their children. Thanks to this sacrifice, their daughters and sons can enjoy respectable status in the virtual world without sacrificing their schooling advancement. You should remember that parents’ concern for education in Korea is really excessive. Children are generally busy in attending after-school private academy. It is almost impossible for them to devote 3 or 4 hours a day to play games. Basically, the huge success of micro payment in Maple Story would stem from this time squeezing reality of kids.

Any side effect? There is no exception in irresistible charms of online games. In doing power-leveling, sometimes, parents themselves unconsciously slided into games too deep. Above news article reported that a mother who did a game for her kid had a big trouble with her husband for full engrossment in game. Money for virtual in-game items that are gotten by kid players actually comes from their parents, but money is not sufficient for proving love in the age of online gaming.