Labor rights for professional gamers is a tough concept to wrap one’s head around. At least in the states it is, but in South Korea it’s a different story.

“The standard in pro gaming groups is for people to live together 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no traveling to or from work, and for those ranked Group 2 or lower, their entire daily routine consists of eating, cleaning, laundry and games,” said Kim Jeong-geun. “Because of this structure of bringing in young people, developing them and then replacing them when their lifespan is spent and they have been squeezed dry, it has earned the name of ‘the chicken coop.’”

(Eating, cleaning, laundry and games sounds to me like a life many young gamers dream of… minus the cleaning and laundry maybe.)

“Everyone knows about these problems, but if you start talking about players’ rights, everyone wants to keep quiet about it, scared they might be branded as an impediment to the growth of e-Sports,” said Kim Dong-su. “They need to introduce things like a minimum age system for players and limitations on the number of games.” Citing the example of fixed StarCraft matches uncovered on May 16 through an investigation by prosecutors, Kim said, “Because players have short lifespans and uncertain futures, you inevitably have a widespread sense of ‘Let’s pull something off while things are going well.’”

Since I got my hands on the StarCraft 2 Beta, I have become a bit of a follower of the StarCraft programing and commentating scene. I wonder how many of these problems extend out to the west’s tiny place in it?