Korea gets Open Beta

[ArcherofAiur]

Who does Blizzard love?


http://starcraft.incgamers.com/blog/...yone-in-korea/

[Maxa]

In related news:

Virtually addicted

While in high school, Cheong Beom-seok often slept through his classes and played online games seven or eight hours at night, sneaking in front of the computer while his parents were in bed.

[...]

Now 23 years old and at the prestigious Korea University, Cheong is down to playing two or three hours on "Starcraft" and "World of Warcraft" three times a week, and believes he's kicked his virtual addiction.

Cheong, however, may be in a minority of recovering Internet addicts. The South Korean government estimates that the country has 2 million citizens addicted to the Internet -- the darker side of being one of the world's most "wired" -- and is launching a fresh attempt to address the country's online addiction.

[KadajSouba]

Damn...

[protoswarrior]

Makes business sense, since the point of BNET 2.0 is to entice the Korean pro-scene and to expand the e-sports genre; and Korea is as good a place as any to start, given that it is the ONLY country where e-sports (with SC: BW at the front) figure on National TV.

[Hav0x]

Hardly an open beta.

[sandwich_bird]

Not really an open beta... The waiting line to get in one of those pc bang place to play Starcraft 2 must be huge.

[horror]

i thought there were pc bangs all over the place though...

[Hav0x]

i thought there were pc bangs all over the place though...

Even if there were it still wouldn't be an open beta.

[ArcherofAiur]

For Koreans a PC Bang IS there home computer

[Gifted]

This is a very smart move by Blizzard. Basically they're hitting KeSPA in the area that they need to be hit, at the heart. This isn't a bad thing or a fight thing, but if the country they are in falls in love with the game, the country will want the game.

Sure, this is a VERY basic way of saying it, but getting the population involved with the game in any way possible will increase exposure, which is a good thing overall. This is a situation where jealousy shouldn't exist... my opinion:

If there is a single place in the world that the majority of us want SC2 to succeed, it should be Korea.