Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams.
Free-to-play video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which requires a payment before using the game or service. It is also separate from freeware games, which are entirely costless. Free-to-play's model is sometimes derisively referred to as free-to-start due to not being entirely free. Free to play games have also been widely criticized as "pay-to-win"— that is, that players can generally pay to obtain competitive or power advantages over other players.
MU Online is an Isometric medieval fantasy MMORPG, produced by Webzen, a Korean gaming company. It was introduced in 2001, and is still being supported and updated in 2024.
Huxley was a multiplayer first-person shooter computer game with persistent player characters published by Webzen Games Inc. It was being developed for Microsoft Windows. An Xbox 360 port was planned, but it has been put on an indefinite hold. Huxley initially was going to be cross platform, but according to statements made at the 2009 E3 Expo press conference that feature is currently excluded from development. The contract to operate the game in China was sold to The9 for $35 million USD on February 12, 2007, considered the largest export transaction to date for a Korean-developed game.
BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch.
Gold farming is the practice of playing a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) to acquire in-game currency, later selling it for real-world money.
Shot Online is a massively multiplayer online golf video game which also features character development and MMORPG elements. It is developed by the Seoul-based game developer WebzenOnNet Co. Ltd., and published by Webzen under their game portal website, GamesCampus. Although there is no subscription fee or cost to download and play the game, the game offers upgraded "Gold" membership plans for a monthly fee, and additional items may be purchased using real currency through the game's website.
Kim Kyung-jae was the first human being to die from playing video games too much. He died of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) after playing the Webzen video game Mu for 86 hours in Gwangju, with pauses only to purchase cigarettes and to use the bathroom. No medical report is available in English. Prolonged immobility as well as vein condition are diatheses that increase the odds of contracting deep vein thrombosis.
Soul of the Ultimate Nation was a fantasy-based massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) produced by Webzen, a Korean-based company. It was operated in South Korea by Webzen and in mainland China by The9. The game was launched in Taiwan on April 19, and in China on May 24, 2007 as a paid online service and closed on July 3, 2013.
ArchLord is fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by NHN Corporation and Codemasters Online Gaming (COG). The game was released in March 2005 in South Korea and October 2006 in North America and Europe, receiving poor reviews from the gaming press. In August 2007, ArchLord became free-to-play to coincide with the release of the first episodic expansion pack, Season of Siege. The second expansion, Spirits Awakening, was released in August 2008. From August 2009, Webzen published ArchLord in additional countries where Codemasters did not have rights to distribute the game. From October 3 the same year, Webzen maintained ArchLord globally, offering the seventh expansion, called Heaven & Hell. The game has been shut down since January 1, 2014.
Nexon Co., Ltd. is a South Korean video game publisher. It publishes titles including MapleStory, Dungeon & Fighter, Sudden Attack, and KartRider. Headquartered in Japan, the company has offices in South Korea, the United States, Taiwan and Thailand.
Flyff is a fantasy MMORPG by Korean development company Gala Lab.
G-Star is an annual trade show for the video game industry presented by Korea Association of Game Industry and Busan IT Promotion Agency in November. Originally held in the Seoul Capital Area, it was relocated to Busan in 2009.
Global StarCraft II League (GSL) is a StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void tournament held in South Korea from 2010 to the present. It has been hosted by afreecaTV since 2016; GOMeXp hosted it from 2010–2015. Blizzard Entertainment was involved in co-producing and co-funding it for much of its history, although their involvement reduced in later years. For the first two years of the tournament, it featured two leagues, Code S (major) and Code A (minor); afterward it ran as a single combined tournament.
Gala Inc. is a holding company based in Tokyo, Japan, that administers GALA Group, which is made up of subsidiary companies of Gala Inc. The group of companies comprises three types of businesses: MMORPG games, web design, and data mining. Within the group companies Gala Lab Corp. was established in South Korea after the merger of Aeonsoft and n Flavor and develops games for the group's online gaming portal gPotato. GALA Group focuses on developing largely multiplayer online role-playing games. To cover local areas, there are group companies located in the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
gPotato is a free multiplayer game portal website operated in Japan and South Korea by Gala Inc. and its subsidiaries, and formerly in North America and Europe by subsidiaries of South Korean-based Webzen. gPotato game portals are in South Korea and Japan. Games hosted at gPotato range from traditional MMORPGs to more accessible casual flash games/browser-based games, all of which are free-to-play so no annual/monthly payment is required; revenue is generated from a micropayment system. Games and their premium item shops can be accessed by the Group's regional gPotato portal sites.
The StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) was a StarCraft II professional tournament series organized and sanctioned by Blizzard Entertainment that ran from 2012 to 2019. For all but its first year of operation, it was the highest tier of professional StarCraft II competition. Its longest-running iteration featured two regions, World Championship Series Korea and World Championship Series Circuit, with World Championship Series Global events featuring players from both regions. Grand finals were held annually at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California, except for the first year of competition, when the finals were held in Shanghai, China. WCS Circuit events were streamed on Twitch while WCS Korea events were available on Twitch, YouTube, and afreecaTV.
MU Legend is a massively multiplayer online action role-playing game (MMOARPG). It is based on the 2001 game MU Online as well as MU Origin.
Professional StarCraft II competition features professional gamers competing in Blizzard Entertainment's real-time strategy game StarCraft II. Professional play began following the game's initial release in 2010, as the game was the sequel to StarCraft, considered one of the first esports and the foundation of South Korea's interest and success in competitive gaming. Between 2016 and 2019, competition was centered around the Global StarCraft II League in Korea and the World Championship Series Circuit everywhere else, with all Blizzard-sanctioned events being under the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) banner. Since 2020, Blizzard changed the format of WCS by entering into a three-year partnership with esports organizers ESL and DreamHack.
