The NYT has an article about Korea’s quite frightening “ten years in the future” gaming culture.
\’e2\’80\’9cToo often I hear people say \’e2\’80\’98South Korea\’e2\’80\’99 and \’e2\’80\’98emerging market\’e2\’80\’99 in the same sentence,\’e2\’80\’9d said Rich Wickham, the global head of Microsoft\’e2\’80\’99s Windows games business. \’e2\’80\’9cWhen it comes to gaming, Korea is the developed market, and it\’e2\’80\’99s the rest of the world that\’e2\’80\’99s playing catch-up. When you look at gaming around the world, Korea is the leader in many ways. It just occupies a different place in the culture there than anywhere else.\’e2\’80\’9d
Here’s a pic I took of the pro gaming arena in Coex referred to in the article.
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Eventually, the whole world will be like South Korea, furiously pursuing the latest in entertainment, desperately attempting to amuse itself while just beyond its borders, madmen plot to play some of the same games with real bombs and real guns and real death.
Wow, That’s a Cheery Thought.
Thanks.
North Korea and Kim Jong Il are the top developers of a game called “Global Thermonuclear War”. Maybe we need to get him to play tic-tac-toe with himself.
I knew Canada was acting too casual! They don’t want to face off against us crazy video gamers though, just ask Hilary what happens!
http://www.everybody-dies.com/
I’m prepared.
I understand Hanguk for Korea (basically Korean country), Choongguk (Middle country/kingdom) for China and Ilbon (literally Origin of the Sun, or Land of the Rising Sun if you are allowed some literary leeway) for Japan. However Miguk (Beautiful country) for America has always baffled me.
I’m not saying it isn’t beautiful, but is it so strikingly beautiful that you should refer to it as “beautiful country”?
Yes, yes it is.
The html is broken on the front page for this story, or it doesnt like IE. One of the two.
In Japanese/Chinese America is written as “rice country” (\’e7\’b1\’b3\’e5\’9b\’bd), despite our noted lack of rice (well, when compared to Japan/China). This is because waaaaaay back when somebody in China was trying to spell America phonetically and ended up with the Chinese equivalent of that. My guess is Korean settled on \’e7\’be\’8e\’e5\’9b\’bd (sp? Sorry, can’t speak Korean) for roughly the same reason.
In chinese, America is not \’e7\’b1\’b3\’e5\’9b\’bd (ph. mee-gwo) “rice country”, it is actually \’e7\’be\’8e\’e5\’9b\’bd (ph. may-gwo) “beautiful country”. Slightly more flattering. Like most foreign words indeed a phonetical choice, but they also tend to pick characters that have a positive meaning as well. They could have picked \’e6\’b2\rquote\’e5\’9b\’bd and it would have sounded the same but meant “not a country”.