Korean society, through Neo-Confucianism, results in a soul crushing life situation where creativity is quashed and individual expression is minimised (euphemism). I had seen many artistically bent children not allowed to pursue their talents, music is done for the sake of competition, not enjoyment or artistic expression. Most young people have no avenue for expression leaving only the escapism we know as gaming. This happens to adults as well; all they do is work with little to no holiday time and many are highly depressed without any acknowledgement of the condition. There are some good points to Korean society but this is not one of them.
This is true. The conservative, confucian, hierarchical, super image concsious society in Korea makes people very unhappy and makes them want to zone out and escape.
Koreans usually can't really see this for themselves or articulate it, because they are indoctrinated into it so deeply. But to the outsider it's very apparent.
Combine this with the fact that drugs in Korea are very scarce, and most Korean have never even tried any rec drugs besides alchohol. And you have people zoning out on video games for an escape.
Americans usually escape with sex, alcohol and drugs. Koreans escape with sex, alcohol and technology.
