PC bang

PC bang is a type of gaming center in South Korea where people can play multiplayer computer games.

PC bang industry has created a culture that is participated in by most youth in South Korea.

Many popular Korean multiplayer games provide players with incentives which encourage them to play from a PC bang.

At a PC Bang, as a number of Internet cafes here are called, several gamers agreed recently with the restrictions.

Online gaming teams are sponsored by major conglomerates and 24-hour, high-speed Internet cafes, known as PC Bangs, dot every urban neighborhood.

"I then started to like playing soccer, going drinking with friends and talking," Cheong told CNN in a smokey basement Internet cafe, or "PC bang", in Seoul.

A variation of Internet café called PC bang (similar to LAN gaming centers) became extremely popular in South Korea when StarCraft was released in 1997.

A series of upgraded regions (indicated by an "Ex" prefix) can only be accessed by playing at a participating PC bang or purchasing a room upgrade from the game's online shop.

For example, the Nexon games Kart Rider and BnB reward players with bonus "Lucci" - the games' virtual currencies - when they log on from a PC bang.

Korean gamers do not need to invest in expensive consoles: 21,496 "PC Bangs" (Internet cafes) nationwide offer ultra high-speed access at hourly prices that start at just over a dollar.

A PC bang (Korean: PC방; literally "PC room") is a type of LAN gaming center, where patrons can play multiplayer computer games for an hourly fee.

In Seoul's dense Shinlim district, Huh Hyeong Chan, a 42-year-old math tutor, seemed to be the respected senior citizen at the Intercool PC bang, which covers two floors, smoking and nonsmoking.

"Korea is a very small country where everywhere you can see a PC Bang, and every house has broadband, so there are very easy conditions for playing online games," Justin Kim of KOCCA told CNN.

I asked another one of the kids about her preferences for playing StarCraft during the following class, and her response that about 90% of the StarCraft she played was played at PC Bangs, and only about 10% was at home.

However, in other areas of the building or on other floors there are unisex areas, usually with a snack bar, ondol-heated floor for lounging and sleeping, wide-screen TVs, exercise rooms, ice rooms, heated salt rooms, PC bang, noraebang, and sleeping quarters with either bunk beds or sleeping mats.