For some people in Korea, hardcore gaming is a way of life. From old people using their phones to play games on the metro to high school students becoming Starcraft superstars, the influence of games is everywhere. The government has also tried to limit the time children spend playing games and special summer camps exist to help some youngsters with their addiction (see this Al Jazeera documentary for more).
The thousands upon thousands of Korean players simultaneously playing the newly released fantasy/horror game Diablo III online, have inadvertently put extra strain on the Asian Diablo servers, resulting in Blizzard, the game’s publisher, resorting to the use of North American servers to help relieve some of the server stress.
Netizens don’t appear to be phased by the fact that Koreans make up 67% of online Diablo III players in Asia. Koreans have been obsessed with Diablo III and most Blizzard games, with a Korean “clan” being the first group in the world to complete the game, finishing in just 6 hours. The game became the fastest-selling PC game in history when it came out last month, selling 3.5 million copies in the first 24 hours.
From Naver:
On the Asian Diablo III Server, 430 000 out of 640 000 Players Online are Korean
The most players to ever connect at the same time, on Diablo III Asia server 1, was almost 640 thousand and out of those, more than 430 thousand of them were Korean, said Blizzard Entertainment.
On June 1st Blizzard expanded the Diablo III Asian server. On the official Diablo III homepage it was reported that greatest number of people connected to the newly constructed server were in Korea. Blizzard said ‘Currently the Asian Diablo III server has approximately 640 000 people connected, and out of those more than 430 000 of those players are Korean. ‘We could not have foreseen that their would this many users on playing Diablo III at the same time. We just want to apologize again for not being able to resolve the access problem sooner after the release.’
Blizzard said ‘In order to resolve the access standby issue, we are optimizing the battle.net system. We are preparing to expand the servers serving the Korean area, and will have it completed as soon as possible. We have decided to temporarily borrow extra capacity from the U.S. servers, in order to expand the Asian servers and expand the number of people allowed to connect to the Diablo III Asian server at once.’
Blizzard has said that ‘Moving forward they will not be adding any more server capacity to serve Korea by taking away from the servers meant to serve the U.S. as they have already reallocated a sufficient amount. If in the future it looks like the number of players is going to overwhelm the server again, we will take further actions to add more capacity.’
zaka****:
Students should stop playing games, and use that time for a part-time job, to study, or to improve their resume so they can get a good job later and live a good life. If you don’t you will end up like me! Thumbs this up.
duke****:
I have one question. I prefer to play games alone like First Person Shooter games, where I don’t have to do any unnecessary typing [chatting]. But can I just do the basics of Diablo III by myself? But since my computer specs are 2600 and 570 I shouldn’t have any problem running Diablo III. Anyway, with most Role Playing Games even if you don’t have a lot of experience, can you still have fun doing the basics by yourself?
seba****:
I guess the economy isn’t that hard on your average Joe anymore is it? When I see these kinds of problems I know that we are living and eating well.
joap****:
Can someone who has played Diablo III please tell me, is Diablo III better than similar online games?
dogu****:
They have completely messed up thinking. People who don’t play games are unable to know about game culture. Some people who don’t play games, think gamers are all depraved, un-employed losers. But that just shows that our country has a long way until it is fully developed.
koce****:
Me and all of my friends play Diablo, and two of them are researchers, one is a level six public servant [there are 9 levels with 1 being the highest]. Lol. People who leave malicious comments about games, are actually the unemployed ones who have never worked.
dkrd****:
There are people who can manage to work while playing games and there are some that cant. If you work as a public servant, or you work at a government owned company, you will still be fine if you play more than 3 hours a day. But normally if you work as an engineer or researcher in a big company it is difficult. And if you work in a small or medium sized company it is difficult to even play for 1 hour a day. I think it would also be difficult for people who are self-employed. Of course it is easiest for students and those looking for a job to find time to play games. So I think out of the 430 000 Korean players a good number of them will fall into the former groups. As far as I know, people who are busy working, can’t get anywhere near the highest level or get to nightmare mode. [nightmare was the hardest difficulty level in Diablo II, however there is an even higher top difficulty level in Diablo III]
feat****:
Wow there sure must be a lot of unemployed people in Korea!
hsan****:
I understand. beanpaste girls’ boyfriends were stolen by games. But working ladies go to Yoga classes right after work, they also live their lives around their hobbies [they don’t meet their boyfriends]. So if that is the case and you feel hurt about it, go gather up those guys playing games and don’t hate on games here.
me2day djffk18:
I want to help it reach 1 million players online, but because I live with my girlfriend I cannot.
suwo****:
Even all the church goers are buying it!
niks****:
What is your daddy’s job?? My father is a Barbarian!
hksh****:
So do you think it is good is people go out to drink after work? Or is it better if people go to a pc bang as a group and then go home after?? So instead of saying how bad you think gamers are, you should think about how much alcohol is sold in our country. So tell me if you think it is better for most of our citizens to be crazy alcoholics who damage the world, or people who quietly play computers games and enjoy their hobby are better.
wlsd****:
Since so many players are in Korea, we have the most number of people hunting evil, does that make our country a sacred/holy country?
gaga****:
Now I’m frightened… The characters are the same in every way, all their skills are similar, the maps are always the same, but still this game is worth the 55 000 won [47USD]!
love****:
Diablo II was a really fun game, so I’m a person who really looked forward to the release of Diablo III. But now I have a husband and a lover. We played Diablo II together and had a really great time, but now that we are married I think it is our only hobby we enjoy together. My sister’s husband plays with us too and we all help rush each other and share items and build up our stuff. Our family has a great time spending spare time like this together, so I don’t understand why some people would look at it so negatively and say people like us have no social skills. So aren’t gamers way more healthy than all those alcoholics. If you let everything in life pass you by, it doesn’t matter whether it is because of a game or something else.
