Understanding Korean experiences of online game hype, identity, and the menace of the “Wang-tta”

Abstract

This paper presents an ethnographic analysis of case studies derived from fieldwork that was designed to consider the different ways Korean game players establish community online and offline. I consider ways online game hype and identity are formed by looking at Korean PC game rooms as “third places,”, and activities associated with professional and amateur gaming. A synthesis of the Korean concept “Wang-tta” provides extra insight into the motivations to excel at digital games and one of the strong drivers of such community membership. Korea’s gaming society has many unique elements within the interplay of culture, social structure, and infrastructure.