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CNN posted a series of articles titled "Gaming Reality" earlier this week, the first of which followed MarineKing, a Starcraft II pro gamer from South Korea. The author uses the World Cyber Games 2011 tournament as a backdrop for a discussion of gaming addiction as he takes a look at MarineKing - MKP for short - and his path to gaming stardom in South Korea. On Monday they posted a couple of followups, Blizzard's response to the original article and another which asked whether or not pro gamers should be considered athletes after some complaints about the tone of the first piece.
The original article and videos are definitely worth a look. We learn about MKP's introduction to the original Starcraft in elementary school and his parents' subsequent efforts to curtail his gaming hours. His parents eventually saw MKP's talent for what it was and decided to support his efforts to become a top pro. Interwoven with the MKP story is a bunch of information about gaming addiction in South Korea, which the video at the top of the article emphasizes more heavily than the accompanying text.
