Playing Public: The Story of PC Bangs and LAN Gaming Centres

For Wes­terners under the age of 20, the idea of a PC room is somewhat alien. After all, most people buy their own devices and set up in their own homes, or pile into a friend’s house who has the latest console and games. But those slightly older may remember a time when Internet Café’s or LAN Gaming Centres were (rela­tively) com­mon­place, and they may even have memories of playing some cutting-edge games in such places.

Those with an interest in Asian culture are likely aware that such places are still com­mon­place. Be it in the metro­po­lises of South Korea, China or Taiwan public venues where indi­vi­duals can pay by the hour to get their hands on powerful gaming devices are still commonplace.

The real question is: why? Why do gaming spaces con­tinue to thrive in Asia while they have fallen into obscurity in the West? There are a few key reasons:

Space and Venues

It’s no secret that many Asian cities are incre­dibly densely popu­lated due to their effi­cient use of tower blocks, apart­ments and town planning. While this is great for con­nec­tivity, it often means that large families quickly outgrow their cramped urban resi­dences. This leaves the youth (in par­ti­cular) sear­ching for per­sonal and social spaces where they can be themselves.

While there are plenty of venues for adults to blow off steam—bars, clubs, cafes, libraries, parks and more—for young people many of these acti­vities become con­trived by age rest­ric­tions and their place in public. As such, PC rooms offer a way for the young to hang out and relax, either alone or with friends, while engaging in something.

In con­trast, many Wes­terners often find them­selves growing up amid sprawling suburbs in com­pa­ra­tively larger homes (due to city con­s­truction pre­fe­rences). This sees both a greater amount of per­sonal space, a larger pre­fe­rence for at-home enter­tainment and wider dispersion of the population.

Gaming spaces require a large, local popu­lation to really thrive—benefitting heavily from regulars. Thus, in many loca­tions where the popu­lation is more dispersed, it is simply unfe­a­sible to turn a profit from such a space.

Cost: Internet and Labour

While Internet Cafes and LAN gaming centres were once a norm in many parts of the US and Europe, as more and more indi­vi­duals got their hands on their own machines—be it con­soles, PCs or even gaming laptops—they slowly became less and less attractive to gamers. And as cus­tomers dwindle, costs begin to rack up.

Com­pared to many East Asian countries, labour and internet costs are gene­rally higher in Western countries. This leads to a problem where gaming centres are forced to push prices up. However, as prices go up so too does the rea­li­sation that you could instead save the money to purchase a machine for yourself.

Take for example Wanyoo Esports which ope­rates in the UK. Gaming there in the che­apest spaces will set you back £5 ($7) an hour (for members) and £6 ($8) for walk-ins. Compare this to South Korean PC Bangs which often weigh in at 1000 Korean Won ($0.88) per hour, and you can easily see why you might opt out of going to a gaming centre in the west.

Pair this with the game spaces in the west often being located in areas with fewer local resi­dents, and it becomes clear why the business model simply may not be appli­cable in the west.

Platform Pre­fe­rences

Dif­ferent countries prefer dif­ferent games and dif­ferent ways of playing games. Western countries, with their large home spaces is a country which loves console gaming. While South Korea, with limited apartment space, is geared more towards PC gaming.

This leads to a few key factors. More Ame­ricans are likely to own their own console or have a close friend with one than Koreans are to own a high-end gaming PC. This is both down to home space and the fact that gaming PCs usually out­price con­soles dollar for dollar.

It’s also no secret that gaming spaces are usually best geared towards com­pe­titive online play—a style of play, which is incre­dibly popular worldwide, but perhaps even more popular in Asia due to gaming spaces thriving off social interaction.

Thus, the question for many Wes­terners becomes “why bother?” If they already have a console and game at their dis­posal, why not just use that instead of sear­ching out an over­priced social space elsewhere?

Will They Return?

With the rise of VR, many urba­nites will notice VR gaming spaces cropping up all over the world (there may even be one near you) however as VR becomes more and more affordable and acces­sible to users, chances are it will head down the same avenue as gaming centres.

While this can leave many wes­terners pining after the joys of playing games in a public space where it’s easy to meet others, play with friends and feel totally immersed, it’s fair to say that due to a wealth of cul­tural and insti­tu­tional dif­fe­rences this is going to remain a pipe dream.

But, as we have dis­cussed, the exis­tence or dis­ap­pearance of gaming spaces shines a light on much larger, and more fun­da­mental, cul­tural differences.

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