by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
Have you ever mistaken your grandma for an ax-wielding warrior? If your answer is “yes,” then you might have video game addiction, according to this ridiculous South Korean ad.
Earlier this week, Kotaku reported that South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare released a public service announcement about the dangers of video game addiction. People were apparently not happy with it. The 25-second ad started airing about two weeks ago in public areas with large screens in South Korea, but due to complaints, the ministry was forced to re-edit and rerelease the video.
In the original ad, the announcer asks viewers a series of yes or no questions, such as whether or not the viewer hears video game music when he/she is not playing a game or if an object has ever looked like a game character. While these questions are being asked, the ad shows scenes of a young man seeing hallucinations of video game avatars and a woman tapping on an imaginary mouse with a dazed expression.
The ad then ends with the statement “Game Addiction: It destroys more than whatever you fantasize about” flashing on a black screen.
Since the public complained about the PSA depicting violence, the welfare ministry cut out the part where the young man punches the grandma, as you can see in the edited version below. It’s too bad that the ministry couldn’t edit out the absurdity of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypy7-2h-2eA
Terrible ads aside, South Korea has been struggling with serious issues concerning game addicts for years.
In 2010, a 3-month-old infant died from neglect after her parents spent hours playing video games at an Internet cafe. Another similar case occurred in April of last year when an unemployed father left his 2-year-old child to starve as he played video games for days.
Due to these incidents, South Korean legislators continue to propose game addiction laws that regulate video games as addicted substances, much like alcohol or drugs. In 2011, South Korea passed the “Shutdown Law” which prohibits adolescents under the age of 16 from playing online games from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Of course, these policies have sparked debate in the gaming community, where many consider gaming as an art and argue that addictive behavior is more likely a symptom of existing mental health issue rather than a direct cause of video gaming.
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