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   When it comes to game addicts, the only ones that could surpass even the Japanese - and I believe they do - are the Koreans. I'm sure you all heard plenty of stories about what a huge role games have in the life of Koreans, about professional StarCraft players that moved to Korea so they could train properly and, more often than not, make a living from professional gaming. But still, what's so different in Korea when compared to the rest of the world?

   Well... pretty much everything. Starting of course with the mentality, the more widely spread broadband infrastructure, and the specific conditions in which the games development and consumer markets have evolved (or should I say exploded). An interesting topic discussed by Gamasutra is that of "micro-payments" for additional content in games. Which, for most of us, means horse armors in Oblivion, tutorials and cheats shamelessly sold by EA, or other such measly little things that only make up a minute fraction of the Western gaming market.

   In (South) Korea, on the other hand, microtransactions make up at least 50% of the online games market, a market that was estimated at $1 billion in 2006 - according to the "Games Market in Korea" study published by a certain company called Pearl Research. South Koreans usually pay between $0.25 to $15 for each piece of additional content in games, and the main reason behind their willingness to buy so much virtual nothingness is that most of their games are free. 7 out of 10 online games used in Internet cafes are free to play, however gamers must pay little by little in order to advance and have the best weapons, for instance. Just try to imagine what World of Warcraft would be like, if Blizzard would offer a transparent system for buying and (why not) selling in-game objects and characters... Pretty unballanced, I'd say.

   And speaking of transparency, many such micro-payments are done through a converted system of in-game currency or "points" (as in Microsoft points on Xbox Live, or Wii points...). And it's often easier to pay 1000 points out of your virtual pocket, instead of 5 real-life, hard-earned dollars. Even though, ultimately, you might have payed $10 for those 1000 points in the first place. So watch what you're spending your money points on.

   Last, but not least, it's interesting to note that all these micro-payments are much easier to make in Korea. While cred-cards are still going strong in North-America and Europe, Pearl Research's study shows that 58% of South Korean online gaming payments are done through (mobile) phone bills, with just 27% by credit card. And, aside from these payment methods, they also have about a dozen others, which some of us have probably never even though about.

   But maybe we'll get there too, one day, because more and more Western publishers (including Sony Online Entertainment and Vivendi) are beginning to adopt the oriental way of doing business, the same one that's currently turning Korea and China into the world's largest online gaming markets.