f13.net

The Korean Navy on Sunday announced that it will form a team of video gamers dubbed "Aegis" to develop the talents of pro-gamers in the service.
The Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) said it expects to see gamers in Navy uniforms playing in Starcraft pro competitions in the second half of this year.

The order to create the team came from Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Song Young-moo, a Navy official said, after it was concluded that a gamers team could be an excellent low-cost publicity move.

Starcraft is an online game in which participants compete as members of one of three tribes. Currently players from 12 pro teams compete in individual and group tournaments in Korea.

The launch of the Navy's Starcraft team comes on the heels of a similar move by the Korean Air Force, which formed its Airforce Challenge E-sports (ACE) team in April.

When the Air Force uploaded a feature on its website of the military life of gamer Im Yo-han, known as the king of the Terran tribe in Starcraft, it was temporarily overloaded with a crush of video game fans trying to access the page. Visitors to the Air Force's website have doubled since it founded its gamers team.

The pro game industry has welcomed the establishment of the military teams. Many pro gamers who have postponed their military service start dates will have to don their uniforms by the end of this year.

The Korean Army is also said to be considering starting a video game team. That means future tournaments could see players from all three branches of Korea's military.

hoo-ya..

"so grandpa, what did you do in the army?"
"I set up the Army's best Tribes player's computer at tournements..."
"Did you kill anyone?"
"Trust me - I wanted to...."

The logical conclusion is to use RTS tournaments instead of actual wars to settle international disputes.  I'm all for it.

So you welcome our new Korean overlords?

We'd still need the real wars for source material though.  Look how stagnant the fps genre has gotten since it so desperately needs a sequel to WWII.

Personally, I don't much like Starcraft, but I can see how it's a good, popular game.

But geezus fucking christ, what is in the drinking water in Korea?

People like Second Life. Starcraft is an infinitely better experience than SL. Hell, I'd rather have a zergling eat my face than watch digital penises in action. Christ.

Samwise, people used to use chess in early societies, no? Perhaps that is an old wives' tale.

Comparing Second Life and Starcraft as games in the same category is stupid.

Sorry. I just can't let that fly.

Both games have professions that people base a large majority of their lives around -- I thought it was a pretty sound juxtaposition when I considered professional Starcraft players and professional SL players (real estate/casino/et al). Maybe you don't like it, but I can't think of any other games other than maybe CS where there has been such an organized professional following.

I suppose you might could argue that CAL extends the idea of professional gaming to all spheres, but most games don't have a professional make-a-living following like SC and SL.

EDIT: Professional->Moneymaking opportunities.

Starcraft players are good due to skill at playing.

Second Life players are good at sales.

Starcraft is a game where the strongest and best win.

Second Life is a shitty society where the biggest whore wins.

While people can win in both, the comparison does not sit with me.

Butbut, I'm not stupid!  :cry: 

I see your point.

The big difference is that people make money off Starcraft by playing it as a spectator sport.  People who are making money in Second Life aren't doing it by running around with a penis avatar and being so entertaining that other people will watch them and generate ad revenue.  They're doing it by making penis avatars for other people to run around in.  Big difference.

Or by Cyzborz.

Hey, our latests wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have provided fertile soil for a number of new games.

(http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/videos/drv100/v153/v15399oxdwp.jpg)

That was a fucking great film.

The comparison is apt, you just refuse to validate things you don't like (in this case, SL instead of the Wii). It's great to be all flip about SL and just say "Here there be furries" and be done with it. However, the skill there is building, scripting AND sales. Sure, it's entirely different than "I can catass SC long enough to know every single base building tactic to zerg to victory" or whatever, but they're essentially the two ways people make money from gaming that doesn't involve gold farming.

Saying that "cyber-athletes" are any more legitimate than "serious internet business people" is purely silly and doesn't "sit with me." They're both inherently silly activities that net the people with the most time on their hands the most payoff.

Besides....Starcraft and strength don't really go together.  What's strong?  Their mouse clicking fingers?  At least your average SL user has a highly developed set of wrist muscles.

????? SL is not even a competitive game. Only the players make it so. You telling me there is anything to Starcraft than 'get the victory screen'

As I'm wandering around second life currently, you are mistaken. It's VERY competitive. I'm thinking about getting into the whoring business.
edit: Uhmm - I mean pimping

Too late.

Where can one sell $L? I'm thinking it might be a pyramid scheme...

Better ask your pimp.

Yep, it's competitive, but in the realm of content creation.  Starcraft is just "destroy other base." SL is more like "be first to market and/or improve on existing ideas."

Whatever though, it's "not a game" and has people with well-advertised sexual kinks, so clearly it can't be taken seriously in any manner whatsoever. :roll:

Oh btw Furiously, you sell the $L via the Lindex...or a 3rd party buyer and reseller if you can find one.

Starcraft is to Secondlife as the NBA is to a box of Lincoln Logs.

I'm sorry, this comparison just sucks.

Yes, I'm sure some people some where have made some stuff out of Lincoln Logs and sold it. Great. That doesn't make the act of building things with Lincoln Logs anything like the NBA and on the same note, all the dick-shaped mopeds on the server joining a race doesn't make Second Life anything like a zerg rush in Starcraft.

In my opinion, it makes SL more amusing and entertaining than SC. And I refuse to have SL on my PC.