Microsoft takes the XBox for a road trip to Busan

Are you an indoor-loving gamer who has finally decided to leave the city for an undoubtedly much-needed summer vacation? Are you hoping to break with your games by going out on the road? There’s bad news: Microsoft’s game console Xbox 360 will be following you.
No, that’s not a threat. The marketing-savvy Xbox 360 team has decided to go on a nationwide tour with its “Rolling Console” ― a kind of Xbox on wheels, powered by a Volvo engine.
These mobile game-playing devices will be parked outside major summer events, such as the Pentaport Rock Festival, which is taking place this weekend in Songdo, Incheon. If you’re not bopping around to the music of Black-Eyed Peas, singing along with Placebo or grooving to the mixing of DJ Ken Ishii, Microsoft is hoping you’ll be squashing your thumbs on its console controllers.
The “Rolling Consoles” will also be visiting Sokcho on August 1 to celebrate the Korea Music Festival, as well as Daegu for the e-Sports Festival from August 12 through 15. The wheels will stop rolling in Busan for August 23 and 24, for the Busan Sea Festival.
The plan carries certain risks, however. After visiting several beach locations (with the exception of Daegu), Microsoft is hoping that the surf and sand won’t gum up the consoles.
For those vacationers who will be spending their holiday in quieter locations, Xbox 360 kiosks will be available at the Jeju Island, Busan, Daecheon, Yangpyeong, Gyeongju, and the Sanjeong Lake branches of Hanwha resorts during most of July and August. No one will be monitoring the users to see whether they are guests of the resort or not, so if your fingers get really itchy, you can still drop by for a quick game.
The Jeju Hanwha resort will also be offering Xbox console room rental services, providing a reasonable selection of game titles.
Is it an endless nightmare or has the fun just begun? That depends entirely on what game you choose. The game “Condemned,” which was released this month in Korea, is bound to send shivers down your spine, as you hunt down serial killers armed with gruesome weapons, many of them handmade.
For some inhuman action, “Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2” provides massive battles with ― or against ― ugly creatures. Speaking of ugly creatures, “Prey,” to be released in August, works on about the same lines. In the game, players fight aliens that devour humans for lunch.
On a brighter note, for the couch potato with digital athlete’s foot, plenty of cyber-sweat can be shed in sports games such as “Table Tennis,” and “Top Spin 2.” No driver’s licenses are required for “Full Auto” which was released last month, “Moto GP 06,” and “Test Drive: Unlimited,” which are coming up in September.by Wohn Dong-hee

Life is a game, winning is everything

The life of a gamer isn’t always glamorous. While top stars sign contracts for huge annual salaries and have more fans than most popular sports heroes, being a professional gamer takes time and effort and only a few find themselves in the limelight.

▶ EX gamers at their house in Bangbae

A recent visit to the living quarters of Pantech’s EX professional gaming team revealed that professional gamers ― more precisely referred to as professional e-sports players ― live anything but a glitzy life.
The team moved a couple of months ago to their new location in Bangbae, southern Seoul. Located on the first and lower floor of a four-story apartment building, the duplex would be quite spacious for a regular family, but feels more like a college dormitory with 20 young men living in the house.
The floor space of the apartment is about 529 square meters (5,693 square feet) and is comprised of seven bedrooms, a living room, practice room, meeting room, kitchen, dining room and four bathrooms, one of which has two shower stalls. The “top” players get single beds, while “newbies” sleep in bunk beds. Two middle-aged women attend to the meals, cleaning and laundry of the young men ― the women claim that they have become like substitute mothers and know which underwear belongs to which gamer.
In addition to the 20 players, there is also a coach, who oversees the team’s management, as well as two staff members, who assist players to develop individual strategies and analyze terrains on different game maps.

▶ eating together in small groups, players are served Korean food, mostly vegetables

The average age of players with EX is 20. Most join after high school and stay on the team until they go to the military for their mandatory period of service. The youngest member on the team now is 13, and he’s in the sixth grade at elementary school.
“We really didn’t want to accept him since we have to assume many more responsibilities in taking care of him and we thought younger children should receive a regular education instead of playing games full time, but his parents begged us to admit him, so we decided to let him go to public school during the day and join in with the evening practices,” said Coach Sung Jae-myung. The eldest player on the team now is 23.
Most of the young game players spend 24 hours in the house, only going out on rare occasions to meet with friends or family.
The main players, or leaders who represent the team and appear most often in matches, receive one or two days rest per week. Rest for the others is not a pre-determined matter, but the players are given some free hours during the weekend and a few hours every evening during which they can exercise, meet friends, watch television or pursue other leisure activities.
However, when under the intense pressure of a competition series, many gamers continue to play during their spare time, risking early burn-out.
Mr. Sung noted that corporate sponsorship has done much to improve game culture in the sense that many gamers are now “working” regular hours.

▶ player naps during break time. Rooms with bunk beds are for second-tier players. By Wohn Dong-hee

“In the past, gamers would stay up all night playing games and then sleep through the following day. Many people became night owls and this gave game playing the reputation of being a night-time activity. However, now it is different. We practice during the day. It’s my job to get the boys in bed before 1 o’clock. We make sure their lifestyles follow a healthy routine. They have to take exercise and eat three meals a day.”
That routine begins at roughly 10 a.m., stopping for an hour-long lunch break at 1 p.m. Then they practice again until 6 or 7 p.m. Practice hours are not strictly monitored, because games require a high level of concentration, and players are not expected to exert themselves non-stop. However, to prevent slacking and enhance their competitive edge, players take turns going to a small “stage” placed towards the front area of the practice room, where they take on one of the other residents. The game played between these two players is relayed on screens that hang on the ceiling so that other players can watch and analyze games played by their peers.
Shim So-myeong, leader of the EX team, emphasized that game-playing is not just about having fun, but is an activity that requires great mental acuity, as well as speed and agility. Tests on APM (actions per minute) for Shim show that, when he plays, he makes about 400 APM, many times more than an average game player.
“And we’re not just talking about random key strokes, but planned actions,” Mr. Sung, the coach, added.
Mr. Shim, speaking in a shy, barely audible voice, said that most professional gamers are “naive” and simple-hearted and “do not fit the negative stereotype forced upon them by prejudiced sections of society.” Mr. Shim himself said he spends his weekends going to church, taking exercise and talking with fellow teammates.

▶ In the practice room for the pro-gamers- each cubicle is designated for a specific individual

“People equate gamers with the image of smoke-filled PC rooms, but hardly any professional gamers ― maybe just one or two in the entire pro-league ― smokes,” he said. “We’re just kids who really have a passion for games.”
When asked if he found having a private life or watching adult films difficult because of living in a group situation, Mr. Shim said that EX members were like a family. “We don’t really think of it as a sacrifice. We are competitors, but we’re a team and we really love and care for each other. And we actually watch those videos together,” he said, much to the dismay of his coach.
Mr. Shim said that the pressure of being a professional gamer was just as bad as that faced by professionals in any field.

▶ watching television after lunch

“It’s so hard to become a pro-gamer, since there are only several hundred, but even if you do become one, you have to be in the top three, or else no one will notice you. And the thing is that you only have a limited time to make your mark, because guys have to go to the military,” he said. “I think there are gamers who regret their choice because they think of all the things that could have happened if they had chosen college instead, or done something else. But we have to live with our choices.”
“I feel sorry for the players because they are so young and are so specialized at an age where perhaps they should be going to college and learning a range of new skills with their friends,” said coach Sung. “It disappoints me sometimes when the players get lazy, but I know each and every one of them has his own dream and we all believe that the game industry is going to grow.”

by Wohn Dong-hee

Hooopy: Real-time news to your desktop

Fans of high tech may start going Hooopy.
Hooopy?
A Korean venture company has developed an English language service that enables people to choose Web sites, blogs, or other media content and receive that content on their desk top computer in real-time.
Shotech Co., an online marketing solutions company based in southern Seoul, said yesterday that it launched an English-language version of Hooopy, a service that incorporates a new way of sharing user created content. The service is the first of its kind available in English and is free (hooopy.com).
The concept of Hooopy is a fusion of designating favorite Web sites and receiving feeds.
After a user selects Web sites and blogs, updated contents on those sites, such as photos, movie clips, and music, are automatically delivered to a Hooopy box. The Hooopy box pops up on the computer screen whenever there is an update, but it can be minimized so that it stays on the computer desktop display.
Users can view updated content on their favorite Web sites without having to visit each site. Content that the user receives is compiled on the user’s own Hooopy site, which is equipped with functions normally available in blogs.
“The quality of online-user created content culture is changing at a rapid pace, and this service enables Internet users to share their contents in an effective manner,” said Yoo Seok-ho, chief executive of Shotech. “Blogs and community groups are no longer private spaces for contemplation, but are increasingly being used as tools for marketing.”
In Korea, the company offers the service to companies that use it to deliver real-time news directly to the desk top.by Wohn Dong-hee

Some spamming can save lives

Joo Ah-young, a 15-year-old with a mental handicap, was separated from her parents on an outing, and was missing for 15 days before the police decided to take another approach to the search. An SMS message with her photo was sent to people in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. Two days after the message was sent, a call came to the police from a security guard of a shopping mall in Dongdaemun, saying that he had found Ms. Joo.
Now that most people, regardless of age or social status, carry cellular phones, they are being used as a form of broadcasting messages that involve social welfare or national security.
Finding lost children is one example. SK Telecom’s mobile child-seeking service is operated jointly with the National Police Agency and the Korea Welfare Foundation.
Subscribers of SK Telecom, which is the largest mobile service provider in Korea, receive text messages that come with photos. Users can choose not to receive the messages. They can also make a free phone call to report any sighting.
Text messages are first sent to people who are around the area where the child was first reported missing, and then the radius is expanded if no one responds. Similar to child-finding services, there is also a mobile broadcasting service to find lost senile elderly citizens.
Mobile disaster broadcasting services are also available, through the National Emergency Management Agency’s agreements with SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom. Typhoon warnings, for instance, tell people of extreme weather conditions and relay messages if they have to evacuate their homes. Last summer, this network saved lives when torrential rains hit the mountainous regions of Gangwon province and caused landslides and floods. In the past, such announcements were made through television or radio, but many people do not keep those devices on all the time and the broadcasts do not cater to specific regions.
For Koreans traveling abroad, service operators offer special alerts if any emergencies are occurring in their area. Conducted in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry, people using global roaming service can receive a text message that explains the situation and gives the number of the Korean embassy in that country, or any other numbers that the person can call for help.
“If one is in a foreign country, some emergency may be happening and one may not know it, because of language problems. This service was used in the British bus terror incident and Southeast Asian tsunami,” said Kim Hye-jin, a SK Telecom spokeswoman.by Wohn Dong-hee