PC-Tels Offer Korean Teenagers Location for Late Night Gaming
This is not a bad idea for the entrepreneurs that came up with the PC-tel concept, but I guess we will see if the Korean government decides to regulate them out of existence:
An increasing number of teenagers in Korea are heading to unstaffed motels at night to use the venues to play computer games, raising concerns about the facilities’ lack of monitoring against underage visitors.
Korea Times
The issue has stoked further a more deeply troubling side effect of the facilities that they are creating a space for teenagers to engage in the illegal consumption of alcohol, prostitution and sex crimes.
The lodges welcome visitors with kiosks at their fronts instead of concierge staff. The machines offer rooms to anyone who pays in advance, regardless of age. The facilities, because of the unmonitored check-in system and lax screening regarding customer age, are becoming more popular option for teenagers who are restricted from using PC rooms after 10 p.m. under the country’s Youth Protection Act.
These so-called “PC-tels” ― a compound of PC and motel ― aren’t difficult to locate. One can easily find a list of PC-tels at popular online lodge searching brands using websites or smartphone apps like Good Choice or Yanolja. Users, once agreeing to provide their real-time location information through those search engines, can conveniently browse a list of lodges offering high-performing computers with pre-installed popular games ― like League of Legends or Battlegrounds ― in their vicinity.
You can read more at the link.
I wonder whether this will have any staying power. When I do my yearly walk across Korea, I stay at a lot of different motels, some of which have computers inside the motel room. These computers are rife with viruses (and not particularly sanitary), and while it’s a pain to blog from my smart phone, I normally do just that if the motel has decent Wi-Fi. I understand that gamers want big screens, but I still wonder whether all of this is sustainable. And what about cost? The article doesn’t mention how much PC-tels cost per night, and here, too, I have to wonder whether teens have the budget to stay at such places (maybe they do if they have access to Daddy’s credit card).
Yanolja shows a price of KRW 20,000 for 6 hours in Shinchon.
2 ways to pay for it:
(1) Exchange game tokens for cash;
(2) “… a space for teenagers to engage in
the illegal consumption of alcohol, prostitutionand sex crimes.”“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” … and he is called the KNPA.
You had me at teenage prostitution…
…but you kept me with 5 hours and 57 minutes of League of Legends after I am done with her.
A little premature, CH.
You have been enculturated.