South Korean officials say games are "poison", Korean gaming industry not happy

Do you consider games to be in the same category as alcohol, gambling, and drugs? Some legislators in South Korea apparently do, as a public hearing on the subject last Thursday ended with Korean legislators pushing forward a plan first proposed in April to classify online games as one of four “poisons” and to subsequently tax the industry up to 1 percent of its sales to create a fund that would pay for the treatment of gaming addiction.

Korea’s games industry brought in a whopping $8-plus billion last year in sales, so as you might imagine, the industry has not taken this lying down. Trade association K-IDEA added a sarcastic memorial image to its homepage (below) proclaiming the death of Korea’s gaming industry thanks to the bill, and individual companies have also taken up the cause. Game developer and publisher Nexon, for example, has already collected more than 80,000 signatures on a petition opposing the legislation.

Not all of Korea’s government considers the games industry poisonous, though. The bill’s support comes from the ruling New Frontier Party, but others — including Korean president Park Geun-hye — have argued that gaming is one of South Korea’s most important industries and suggested that the government should support it rather than branding it a poison.

The piece of legislation in question has not yet been passed into law, and it’s possible that the fuss the industry is kicking up could derail it. But until the government and the industry are on the same page about gaming addiction, what causes it, and how it should be handled by the state, this kind of conflict is likely to crop up again even if this particular piece of legislation goes away.

(via 17173, image source)