DECEMBER 11, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 23

Online Gaming
Web Warriors: Have Fingers, Will Fight
By DONALD MACINTYRE

ALSO
All Wired Up
Their country has gone from being an online backwater to one of the most connected places on the globe in double-quick time. Now millions of Koreans are living the Internet revolution
Virtual Vows: A couple live their lives on the Net
Viewpoint: How Koreans took to the new technology

ALSO IN TIME COVER: All Wired Up Their country has gone from being an online backwater to one of the most connected places on the globe in double-quick time. Now millions of Koreans are living the Internet revolution • Player Power: Online gamers are in a league of their own • Virtual Vows: A couple live their lives on the Net • Viewpoint: How Koreans took to the new technology JAPAN: Did Somebody Mention Pinochet? Peru's ousted ex-President Fujimori copes with exile in Japan INDIA: Reform Behind Bars Delhi's notorious Tihar Jail is now a kinder, gentler prison HONG KONG AND SHANGHA: May the Best Town Win The former colony is losing business to China's largest city CINEMA: The Chosen One Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi's effervescent talent pours through Zhang Yimou's The Road Home, and Hollywood is beckoning. But she still struggles to be appreciated back home TRAVEL WATCH Get Insured: No One Plans for a Shark Attack

Two duelling computers are placed on a stage in downtown Seoul. Doo Jin Kwang sits at one, fidgeting nervously with his keyboard. A meter or two away: his opponent. The contest begins and Doo's left hand starts flying across the keys while his right furiously clicks his mouse. Pink and purple creatures flit across the screen like herds of miniature animals, with blue flashes signaling attacks. It's a computerized battle, projected onto a screen for some two dozen spectators physically present, and broadcast over the Internet and cable TV for millions of fans. But with a few unfortunate flashes, Doo's attack starts to fail and soon his army is destroyed. Doo quietly unplugs his mouse and leaves the stage.

Chalk that one up to experience, for Doo has his whole career ahead of him—as a professional computer gamer. At 18, he is the youngest member of Samsung Electronic's professional online gaming team. Scouted from an amateur league, he has landed himself a dream job that growing numbers of young Koreans aspire to. For South Korea has turned into a powerhouse in the new sport of online gaming, with three different pro leagues, nearly 50 teams and some of the world's best players. They aren't quite rock stars, but give them time: fans already approach players for autographs and deluge them with e-mail. Top players pull up to $100,000 a year in salary and prize money, traveling to Europe and the U.S. to compete. Says Doo: "I want to be the best in the world."

Samsung has taken this sport as far as anybody, putting its five-member team—which includes one female player—into an apartment in downtown Seoul where they train, eat and sleep together five days a week like Olympic athletes. (Drinking and smoking are forbidden, as are intimate relationships.) They rise at 6 a.m. and head to the gym for an hour-long workout. After some corn flakes and fried eggs back at the apartment, they watch playbacks of games to study moves, and do finger exercises to improve their agility. Most of all, they practice: Doo spends up to 13 hours a day learning the intricacies of StarCraft, his specialty and a hugely popular game in Korea. The daily regimen helps him focus, says the team's full-time coach Chung Soo Young: "Mental discipline is important. Doo has little patience. Today he attacked and attacked when he should have waited."

Quiet and introverted in real life, Doo comes into his own in cyberspace; he's aggressive in battle and chatty with his online friends. "Being online helps me to be a whole person," he says. Doo is building a career as well. Seoul recently recognized professional gaming as an official job category. Doo's mother used to worry that he spent so too time playing games online—until Samsung employed him last summer. Now she's content.

Eventually, Doo wants to go into the business of game design, which isn't a mere fantasy. Most companies sponsor computer game teams to portray a youthful, sexy image. But some, like Samsung, also use their players to test products under development, both games and hardware. (Good players, for example, have a subtle feel for the way different chips affect the look and play of a game.) For now, though, Doo's focus is on getting ahead in one of the New Economy's newest niches—and sharing a downtown flat with three guys and a girl ain't bad either.

With reporting by Stella Kim

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