Part casino, part MMO, ZT Online proves that not all gamers are willing to invest time into an MMO to be successful but rather, their own money.

“Chinese gamers are an unwelcome species on European and American servers,” said a game manager who once worked on World of Warcraft. Chinese players always have ways of quickly ascending levels that leave European and American gamers in the dust, and on group missions they do not like to respect the tacit rules of profit division. For those “pedantic” European and American gamers, Chinese players are like fearsome pagans. “European and American games do not encourage unlimited superiority of power; they put more of an emphasis on balance and cooperative support.” The former WOW manager said, “Perhaps this is because of the influence of traditional culture and the current environment; truth be told, Chinese gamers are better suited to jungle-style gaming.”

An online game manager recalled that he once received at the company a gamer who had money but no patience. This gamer came with an inquiry: could he simply pay to purchase high-level equipment? Everyone at the company had a good chuckle at that. Now, the manager sighs regretfully: they did not realize that the gamer represented an immense business opportunity. ZT Online, on the other hand, saw it and achieved success.

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A civic group called School Beautiful Movement, together with the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion and SK Telecom has launched a program to teach the young proper cellphone use, in preparedness of protecting them from the harsh recesses of mobile addiction. Twelve Korean elementary, middle and high schools were selected for the pilot program and for the next two months.

These students will gather in a group to talk about their cellphone use (not to mention the hardships texted to them from the loves of their lives), and the symptoms they feel when they are without their cellphone. The students will voluntarily not use their cellphones in school to test their reactions. Riot police are on call. — Andrew Dobrow

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March 24 could be a challenge for those who want to partake in Shutdown Day. What is Shutdown Day? Are they going to shutdown Grandma’s life support? No, no worries. But the challange you must face, might ultimately be harder than losing a loved one. That’s right. We’re talking about not going on the computer….for a complete 24 hours.

The internet has become such an integral part of everyday life that it is clearly more of an addiction then a common hobby. With your MySpace’s and your YouTube’s, the computer has become a drug. Though it happens to be a drug that we adore. On March 24, we’ll be here like every other day, reporting the news to blank monitors and computer addicts (us included) through the world. — Andrew Dobrow

Project Page [Shutdown Day]