Last `Star League` event rings death knell of online gaming

Yongsan e-Sports Stadium in Seoul Tuesday attracted 1,500 "Star League" fans in a venue meant to hold 400. Organizers removed all chairs to admit more people.

Star League fans refers to aficionados of the hit online game StarCraft. Certain college students held signs saying, "Star League is not the end of it all."

The reason many StarCraft fans rushed to the game was because this was the last game of the Star League held at an e-sports stadium. People in their 30s comprised most of the spectators, spurred by the news that the Star League, which has led online game fever in Korea for 13 years from 1999, would end.

Kim Jeong-bae, 31, who could not make it to the stadium because of overcrowding, said, "It feels like the good memories from my 20s are disappearing."

StarCraft is a game in the Star League and sales in Korea alone hit 4.5 million units, about half of the game`s sales worldwide. The emergence of "e-Sports" resulted in the creation of the job "pro gamer."

The Korean Air Force nurtured servicemen who specialized in games for a while. Pro gamers received nine-digit salaries from the pro game clubs of conglomerates. In a survey of elementary school children in 2006, professional gamer was cited as the most desired job.

The spread of smartphones and social networking services, however, changed the situation. Around three to five people used to play games together before but more are playing on their mobile phones, resulting in the decline in the popularity of online games like StarCraft that is more sutible for teams of multiple people to play a game.

This trend reflects the time when online community activities through social networking services fill young people`s need of sense of belonging, replacing team games.

jikim@donga.com