PC Bangs 101
🔑Key Learnings in this Piece
PC Bangs are gaming dedicated internet cafe’s that have been popular in South Korea since the 1990’s. They boast powerful computers that can run the latest games and allow patrons to order food directly to their seats or even sleep overnight.
PC Bangs offer a much needed escape from South Korea’s demanding academic and professional culture. They are also a go-to place for university class registration, TV watching or even date nights!
Games companies pay very close attention to public leaderboards tracking which games are most popular at PC Bangs. These rankings are powerful word of mouth marketing forces and guide uncertain PC Bangers into playing certain games.
Although COVID has prevented the success of PC Bangs in recent years, there is still long term optimism in PC Bang’s due to the underlying cultural needs of PC Bangs remaining unchanged.
🤷♂️What is a PC Bang?
PC방, or ‘PC bang’/’PC room’, is a South Korean name for internet cafes that are designed entirely for gaming. The first PC bang opened in 1994 in Seocho-gu, Seoul under the name of BNC (Bit Communication Cafe). They became popular during the 1997 economic crisis that hit countries in Southeast Asia and left many people unemployed. By that time, the government of South Korea had arranged nationwide broadband coverage, supplying the country with a stable and fast internet connection. For those who were laid off and turned to self-employment, running internet cafes as a business was a relatively easy option - scanning the net for job postings or stock updates.
The first PC Bang in 1993 - BNC (Bit Communication Cafe).
The largest PC Bang in South Korea currently, LoL Park
It wasn’t until a little game called StarCraft came along from Blizzard Entertainment that launched Korea’s PC Bangs from a place of digital utility to something much bigger.
Big thanks to Yoon Sang (윤상) and James Kim, Seoul natives, who were generous enough to share their personal experiences with PC Bangs!
🤿Diving In
A PC Bang is effectively an internet cafe on steroids. A dedicated place that houses high-end computers with state-of-the-art graphics cards for gaming, friendly staff, and cheap delicious food available at the touch of a button.
Sit yourself down in a booth in one of these establishments, sign onto the computer with your Korean National ID (sorry tourists) and entertain yourself with a library of pre-installed games or simply browse Netflix to binge your favorite K-Dramas.
Socially it scratches the same itch as a bar. A place to visit whether after work, school, or a crazy night out, to relax by yourself or with others. It's an easy, default answer to "what now...?" when you or your group isn't ready to head back to their respective families’ homes.
The scale of a PC Bang can range from something as small as a 20 computer hole in the wall to the largest PC Bang, LoL Park at 33 Jong-ro, Cheongjin-dong, Jongno-gu, which doubles as the professional League of Legends arena.
An Escape From…
👨💼Work
South Korea has a demanding work culture. Not dissimilar to its Japanese or Chinese neighbors, South Korean culture expects long hours day in and day out. South Korean adults work the second-longest hours but earn less-than-average pay compared to other nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Those long hours start at a young age, with Korean children often spending as much as 14 hours a day in a classroom between regular school and private, afternoon academies called hagwons.
This means that when a 24-year-old salaryman leaves the office on a Friday at 9 PM after a grueling 14 hour day they may not be exactly jazzed to head home to the parents and grandparents in their tiny Seoul apartment.
The PC Bang offers a beautiful respite from the stresses of work. Where you can channel your professional frustrations as a Financial Analyst into gaming frustrations as a PC Bang League of Legends Player (bonus points if you insult your opponent’s family in-game!).
It's not surprising to find well-dressed professionals mashing keys, slamming noodles back, and slinging digital insults deep into the night at one of these PC Bangs.
🧑🎓School
“Researchers found more than half the Koreans age 11 to 15 reported high levels of stress in their daily lives. That's a higher percentage of stressed out kids than in any of the 30 other developed nations that are part of the OECD”
School isn't a walk in the park either. South Korean schools can place a grueling amount of pressure on academic pressure. Where secondary school students are constantly ranked on performance, grinding homework into the wee hours of the night and being grilled on which university they will attend. It's a lot for anyone, but especially for a kid.
Much of this academic ardor climaxes at the College Scholastic Ability Test (suneung) or college entrance exam in November. Students face enormous pressure to do well on the test and get into a top university. Airplanes are even grounded on the day of the test so they won't disturb the students.
In high school, Korean students get an average of 5 hours and 27 minutes of sleep a night, according to a 2014 poll. South Korean youth and adults also suffer from the highest suicide rate in the world among OECD countries.
It’s an incredibly demanding environment and even if young students make for the most unruly of PC Bang patrons, heading to a PC Bang after school for these kids can be a cathartic escape from marks and studying - where the only ranking you care about is your StarCraft or KartRider rank.
👩👩👧Family
The pressures of work or school doesn’t stay at the office or classroom. The heavy societal expectations of South Korea find their way home and into the minds of well-meaning parents and grandparents.
Whether its to meet their lofty expectations or simply to have some more space beyond the small apartments Seoul is filled with, a PC Bang can be an escape from it all.
Unlike the west where there is pressure from family members to leave the nest after university, South Korea (and many other Asian countries), keeps many of their graduates in family homes well into their 20’s. A 2021 report from Statistics Korea, showed that 54.8% of single Koreans in their 30s are living with their parents. Moving out of the home you grew up is greatly hinged on your romantic options and how close marriage is approaching. It’s why the report showed 62.3 percent of unmarried people aged between 20 and 44 are living with their parents.
Another consideration is that not many homes may have a dedicated gaming PC that can run the latest and greatest. Even if they did, I'm sure family members wouldn't be too thrilled to have their son or daughter use the only family computer to grind Counter-Strike when they know they should be working or studying (see above).
🏅Esports
Not all PC Bangs are for casual gaming. Esports legends are forged here in these dark corners of Seoul's urban onslaught. Just like the asphalt courts of American community gyms and rec centers honed the skills of NBA greats like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant , PC Bangs were instrumental in the development of Esports legends like Uzi playing League of Legends and Hotba playing Overwatch.
It’s effectively the gaming equivalent of training under a waterfall in kung-fu movies. A remote, intimately focused environment entirely dedicated to grinding matches and training, either with friends or with oneself.
🏆PC Bang Game Rankings
Just like secondary students are aggressively ranked in class, PC Bangs hold public rankings of the top games sweeping through PC Bangs.
It's a powerful leader board that informs the novice PC Bang visitor what's worth playing. Odds are the games at the top are the games their friends or colleagues are playing.
It also means that developers and publishers competing in the PC Bang space like Nexon (Kartrider), Riot Games (League of Legends), or Blizzard (StarCraft II) will place a lot of stock in where their games end up.
Imagine there was a publicly available scoreboard charting the market share of the most competitive consumer businesses on the planet. Coke vs Pepsi, Nike vs Adidas, League of Legends vs DotA. Companies would (and do) watch this like hawks and compete in the bloodiest of corporate battles for basis points of market share. PC Bang leader boards are no exception.
🤔Not Just Fun & Games
📄Class Registration Day
For university students, the day that course registration goes live is massively important. Like a day trader that needs the realest of real-time trading rigs, Korean students flock to PC Bangs ready to cramp their fingers mashing the browser refresh key to get the best possible class times for their upcoming semester. The same competitiveness in work exists in registering for university classes with slots filling up fast and if you’re not quick, you might be left with classes you’re not interested in.
🛌Snoozin’
On a lighter note, people even use PC Bangs to catch a quick snooze. As long as you pay for your use, no one bothers you at your seat. You can use the noise-cancelling headphones, snuggle in your rented blanket, lean back and slip off into dreamland. Many PC Bangs are often for 24 hours, so if you missed your last train/bus and taxis aren’t an option, you can spend a night in one. 10 hours at a PC Bang can cost as cheap as KRW10,000, so while it’s not an ideal place to sleep, it can even cheaper than a hotel.
🤬What did he just say?
I've never met a Korean that I didn't find kind, modest, and respectful. James and Yoon, on the other hand have encountered quite the opposite online. Miss an easy kill in Counter-Strike or a last hit in DotA? Maybe your APM just isn't that strong in StarCraft II? Expect some absolutely raucous things about your grandmother to come your way in the in-game chat
“However, over the many years of playing this game, I’ve experienced so much toxicity in Korean servers. I’ve had death threats, experienced racism [because I was typing in English, so people called me all sorts of names], and slander towards my parents [it’s considered the worst type of slander in Korean culture], among many other forms of toxic behavior.”
Jokes aside, this level of in-game toxicity plays a sadly impactful role on the mental health of esports players mentioned above. Korean games are held to the highest standards in the world and failing to meet those is acknowledged and punished without clemency.
🧑🤝🧑PC Bang Date Night…?
Playing games with your closest friends doesn't have to be strictly platonic at a PC Bang. James recounts certain instances where romantic couples would game and eat together, sidling up on a cozy love seat of sorts. Not sure how common this is in aggregate but nothing screams romance to me quite like stuffing yourself in ramen and overhearing elementary students sling racial slurs in Counter-Strike.
📈The Future of PC Bangs
PC Bangs no doubt are a staple of South Korean gaming culture, but for how long? Two key factors will undoubtedly affect its future.
😷COVID-19
The banning of PC Bangs during peak COVID seasons, not just in South Korea but in other PC Bang countries like Malaysia and The Philippines greatly cripple the ability for your local mom and pop PC Bangs from flourishing
In South Korea specifically, the recent 10:00 P.M. curfew imposed by its government means that the beautifully meditative, late night, half-buzzed PC bang haunting that many Korean youths enjoyed is no more! It means an earlier return to the realities of work, school, and family - to reality quite frankly, and in such a dark chapter of human history that can be a difficult thing to confront without escapist coping strategists like entertainment.
📜Shifting Government Sentiment
On August 3rd, the Chinese State owned newspaper condemned online gaming as “opium for the mind”. This prompted Chinese tech giant Tencent to announce new game controls and fueling investor fears of a start to government crackdowns on the gaming industry.
Later on August 30th, investor fears rose again as China introduced new rules that limit the amount of time children can spend on video games to three hours a week, a move it said was necessary to combat gaming addiction.
Recently, Korea has abolished a gaming curfew that was imposed back in 2011. Though this might sound like a victory for PC Bangs, new legislation to curb gaming addiction is being considered. In the absence of the curfew, South Korean will rely on the current "choice permit" system. Introduced a year after the 2011 curfew, this allows players to request a permit per game and designate hours for playing these titles with the agreement of their parents.
I think this is a step in the right direction, balancing the need for leisure and games but also respecting youth health and lower addiction risks. Regardless, it seem Korea’s relationship to gaming remains fluid.
Regulation may still be in the cards for Korea if its government believes it could pose a significant threat to youth health. I believe that's an utterly foolish position to take when such a prolific part of Korea's international culture success in recent years can be hinged on two key exports: K-Pop, and Esports. These 2 phenomena should be cultivated, not squelched, by the South Korean Government and PC Bangs can be an incubator for at least one, if not both.
❓Going Forward
James Kim thinks demand may go down slightly because of COVID, but the underlying cultural persuasion is still there. Until Sq Ft of homes increases to allow for privacy, PC Bang frequenters will want privacy. Until the familial dynamics of living with parents until late 20’s goes away and unless the aggressive work culture doesn’t force respite, PC Bang frequenters will want respite. And until Esports loses all its steam and loses all its economic potential South Korea, which is unlikely, PC Bangs are here to stay. Every culture of professional aggression needs its vices of equal strength to keep equilibrium.
It's a pint after work in Dublin, a late night club crawl in NYC, or a spicy match of League of Legends in Seoul - we all want to enjoy ourselves at the end of the day, and I’m glad that games can be a part of that.
