[MUD-Dev] Korea and online world responsibility

[Damion Schubert]

From: Sean Kelly
 
> I agree.  Though as far as the prostitution angle is concerned --
> girls in general learn very early in life that there is little
> they cannot get provided they ask the right way.  And this is as
> much a horomonal issue as a cultural one.

Has anyone, as of yet, actually found news reports or other data
that proves (a) that this is the reason the government is so
concerned and that (b) this isn't a hoax, myth or misunderstanding?
As of yet, I haven't seen anything that suggests that these events
exist, much less are widespread.  Given how the press works in the
United States, it's very easy for me to imagine a concerned mother
misinterpreting her daughter's relationship with a boy she met
online, and starting a furor in a country where parents are already
concerned that their kids are spending all their time gaming.

The only article I can find (that's in english, anyway) is the Time
article that's already been quoted here (which can be found at
http://www.time.com/time/interactive/entertainment/gangs_np.html for
you latecomers - it talks about real-life violence but doesn't
mention real-life prostitution).

That being said, Lineage is an immensely popular game.  According to
massively multiplayer magazine, they have an install base of five
million people, I read elsewhere that they can have up to 330K
people playing at once (the Time article says 100K).  To put this in
context, Seoul has a population of 11 Million people, and Korea as a
whole has a population of 46 Million people.  Which is to say, a
pretty hefty percentage of Koreans are playing Lineage.

Given that, it's not a surprise that every cross-section of society
might be represented inside of the game space.  Saying that there
are real-life gangs, drug dealers, and prostitutes in the game is a
lot like saying that there are gang members, drug dealers and
prostitutes in the movie theatre - unless you can establish that
these people weren't going to become gang members, drug dealers and
prostitutes unless they played the game.

So does anyone have any hard information?

--d


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