The Importance of Language

       That a lot of people are surprised to know that playing online games has been a culture in other countries, predominantly in Asia countries, is quite surprising to me, to be honest. Maybe this is because I haven’t really thought about online games before, or maybe I took it for granted that online games are now a kind of culture in my home country, so I just became used to hearing things about online game tournaments, professional gamers and all that.
       Come to think of it, however, it has not been so long since online games became something that people now consider as e-sports or as a career field where you can actually become professional. Although I can only remember vaguely, becoming an online gamer was to a great deal looked down upon by most people in South Korea. I don’t want to generalize, but it seemed to me that most people thought that those who pursued career in the field of online games just tried to justify their inability to get better-paying jobs. It seemed that many parents whose kids were trying to become gamers did not like the idea of doing online games 24/7 in the first place. At that time, people never called online game e-sports. People didn’t expect to use the word “professional” when it comes to describing online gamers.
       But now, online games did become a kind of sports in Korea. There are numerous “professional” gamers who do games as their jobs and even some gamers earn 6-figure salary. There are TV channels that only feature online game tournaments, championships, and world leagues. Now people are more accepting and permissive of the idea that playing games actually can be a way of earning money and can be a job for someone.
       I think language has contributed a lot to making this happen. The way people define and call something tremendously affects people’s perception of it even if they are referring to the same thing. Calling online games “e-sports” and calling people who are extremely good at playing games “professional” make a whole difference in terms of people’s perception and attitudes toward the games. It just gives online games much more respect and better name.
       Only few now hesitate to call it e-sports and to use the word “professional.” Parents are now proud of their kids when they win Starcraft and WoW, because they are not just the kids playing online games, but they are now “professional” in their fields.