The 100-Minute Debate
Three days before the 100-Minute Debate taping, I received a call from the PD asking all the panelists to gather together. “We’ll follow the script we distributed. The format of the debate and important points to keep in mind are…”
Ugh. This is so boring… After sitting through the entire explanation and the Q&A that followed, I finally got a chance to talk with the other panelist who, like me, believed arcades weren’t a problem.
“I’m Park Kyung-yul from the Korea Institute for Social and Cultural Research. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Even though he looked quite old, he had an impressively open-minded attitude and actively tried to embrace the new generation and its emerging culture. “We need to center the debate around the new youth music culture rather than arcades themselves. If you look at these materials…”
The conversation ended with us simply aligning our debate direction and sharing data, but getting objective feedback on my own materials and arguments wasn’t a bad thing at all.
And then, finally, the day of the debate arrived.
“We now begin the late-night current affairs and culture program, 100-Minute Debate.”
The debate kicked off deep into the night.
“First, we have the panelists who argue that [today’s arcades are the cradle of new culture]. Please welcome Park Kyung-yul, director of the Korea Institute for Social and Cultural Research, and Yoon I-seo, cultural columnist.”
Applause erupted from the audience. But for someone like me whose inner nerd loner nature had been internalized across two lifetimes, all those eyes and claps coming from every direction just felt overwhelmingly burdensome.
“And on the side opposing arcade culture, we have Kim Young-gyo, president of the Korean Cultural Studies Association, and Kim Shin-ye, vice-chairwoman of the National Parents’ Alliance. Please welcome them as well.”
Another wave of applause swept in from all sides. I’d given lectures a few times in my previous life, but standing in such an open space with the entire audience staring at me created incredible pressure. I prayed I wouldn’t trip over my words.
“Now let’s hear from our panelists. Those in favor of arcade culture, please begin.”
After the prepared PPT introduction finished, it was finally time for the real debate.
“I’ll take the floor. First, I need to clarify something that wasn’t covered in the introduction. According to our investigation of arcade owners, every arcade in Seoul is currently experiencing continuous revenue decline and operating at a loss. We should make it clear that the discussion is only about the single arcade near Seoul Station that was reported on by the Dongjo Shinmun.”
I started by narrowing the scope of the debate. If the other side brought up some actual delinquent-infested arcade, there’d be no end to it.
“This is data personally compiled by I-seo. According to these figures, when the arcade closed at 2 a.m. and tallied its earnings, nearly every machine except the new style of rhythm games—where players press buttons in time with music—saw decreased revenue. This clearly shows that the center of arcade culture is shifting from the old lowbrow games aimed at delinquent kids toward music as a new cultural form.”
In other words, the so-called delinquent culture you keep talking about is naturally dying off on its own.
I presented my prepared materials with precise numbers and graphs to support the claim. My intention was to counter their vague, hard-to-quantify arguments about addiction and harm with concrete data, making our side seem far more objective.
“The term ‘delinquent arcade’ is now outdated. We must acknowledge that the old delinquent arcades have disappeared and that a new cultural paradigm centered on music has taken their place.”
I wrapped up my argument with a concise conclusion.
“Then let’s hear from the opposing side.”
“Arcades are, by nature, a social problem that tempts growing children and young people into the harmful medium known as games. Moreover, the new music represented by Seo Taiji has already been labeled as delinquent folk songs for various reasons, including its lyrical content. Unconditionally packaging and defending this as ‘new culture’ and even playing it openly in public spaces like arcades is a serious issue.”
The fundamental problem that arcades are harmful hasn’t changed. And honestly, we just don’t like this whole “new culture” thing. It’s all social criticism and delinquent nonsense.
Yep. Just as I expected. They hadn’t deviated from my predictions at all—in fact, their framing was even more incompetent and bizarre than I’d imagined. It seemed they’d locked onto the music angle, which actually gave us far more material to counter them with.
“You’ve pointed out the harmfulness of this new music and criticized the public playback of it inside arcades.”
The moderator’s clean summary. It was about time for me to step in.
“I’d like to rebut. If you’ve actually listened to the music played in that arcade, you’d know that songs containing the anti-social lyrics that define folk protest music are not played there. Out of twenty songs, only one has lyrics, and even that one is simply a love song.”
You built your whole frame wrong from the start. Now I could crush their momentum right away.
“Accusing this situation of being delinquent makes no sense. Suppressing a culture that has organically emerged in our country simply because it uses digital tools is tantamount to denying the power of culture that independence activist Kim Gu advocated for.”
Here I dropped the first cheat key. If they argued against this, it would be like saying one of our nation’s founding heroes was wrong—an impossible position for them to take.
“Ugh… As I mentioned earlier, arcades were labeled as delinquent culture not just because of the music, but also because of the atmosphere inside and the inherent harmfulness of the gaming medium itself. As shown in the photos attached to the Dongjo Ilbo article, the dark and shabby environment encourages teenagers to go down the wrong path.”
The vice-chairwoman had given me another opening. At this point, it really felt like they hadn’t prepared any anticipated counterarguments—or even prepared for the debate at all.
“The black-and-white photo from the Dongjo Shinmun has lost its function as photography by applying extreme contrast adjustments. Here is a color photo of the same arcade that I personally took with a digital camera and printed. I can swear under oath that there has been zero manipulation.”
Preparation really is everything. They were probably showing the cropped version without the KIN logo on TV right now.
“As you can see, the atmosphere is perfectly wholesome—people simply watching others play rhythm games and enjoying the music together. I have to wonder whether the vice-chairwoman has ever actually visited an arcade for research purposes.”
“What did you just say? This kid who still has baby hair on her head—!”
“Columnist Yoon, Vice-chairwoman Kim. Please refrain from personal attacks during the debate.”
My emotions had gotten the better of me and I’d said something not in the script. I wasn’t usually this quick to anger… Was this another effect of being in a woman’s body? They do say the mind follows the body, after all.
“I’d like to rebut. Surface appearance is not the essence of atmosphere. That particular arcade, where mostly young people gather, naturally forms peer groups, which easily leads to hierarchical structures within those groups. Such vertical hierarchies naturally encourage upper ranks to exert pressure on lower ones, and if that behavior continues, it becomes exactly like the iljin or organized crime groups.”
The association president countered using quite sophisticated vocabulary. To someone hearing it for the first time, it might sound convincing, but…
“I’d like to counter-rebut. Hierarchical structures within peer groups do not occur automatically. As someone who actually plays games in that arcade, I have never witnessed such hierarchy forming. On the contrary, the sense of camaraderie from enjoying the same games and music, along with the feeling of belonging within peer groups, has created an even tighter community that has fostered a culture of consideration inside the arcade. I can state with certainty that none of the things the president described are happening there.”
There was a bit of subjectivity in my words, but there wasn’t much more I could say. From our side, this was essentially asking for proof of a negative. You can’t prove something that doesn’t exist.
“If arcades are recognized as culture, then countless new arcades claiming to be part of this ‘new culture’ will pop up everywhere. Can you really be certain that the same problems won’t occur in those places? Human nature is inherently evil—if the environment allows it, people will inevitably fall down the wrong path!”
The vice-chairwoman jumped in again. It seemed she was determined to latch onto that point and drag it out…
“Does growing up in a bad family automatically make someone a thug? If a poor environment turns people bad, then does that mean someone like me who grew up without parents is also a bad person? A bad environment doesn’t automatically create bad people!”
I’m sorry, parents of this body whose faces I’ve never even seen. Please sacrifice just a little for the cultural development of the Republic of Korea.
The audience stirred. The opposing panelists, completely thrown off by this 21st-century self-roast, could only clear their throats awkwardly.
“Ahem. Everyone, please settle down. We’ll continue.”
“I’d like to speak. While we classify it as a game, I believe this particular title is closer to a comprehensive art form. It transcends the one-way nature of traditional music that you simply listen to, adding participation, interactivity, and playfulness. It’s a fusion of visual art and music. That’s why I consider arcades centered around these rhythm games to be a legitimate cultural space.”
“I disagree. No matter how much playfulness is involved, a game is still a game. The harmfulness of games has already been proven in the West, including America, where they have even enacted legal restrictions. With such precedents already in place, is there any need for us to follow the same path? The reason adults reject games is wisdom gained from watching exactly that kind of chaos unfold in America.”
They’d taken the bait I’d deliberately dangled again.
“I’d like to counter that. What America has legally restricted are not games in the broad sense, but only home console cartridge games with extreme stimulation and sensationalism. Arcade games, which are the foundation of arcade culture, are still permitted in America. Since you don’t seem to have the data, please take a look at this.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. Most importantly, the fact that arcade games are allowed in America is their precedent. It has no relevance to our country, which has never even had home game consoles.”
…Huh? Did I mishear that? Weren’t they just saying we should ban them like America did?
The association president sitting next to the vice-chairwoman suddenly looked shaken. I thought I saw cold sweat dripping from beneath his thinning hair, but maybe it was just my imagination.
“There has never been any proper proof that arcade games, including rhythm games, are harmful. If we continue to suppress all new cultural phenomena out of nothing but fear, our country will never become the advanced nation we showed the world at the Expo.”
In the end, the debate concluded with both sides simply saying what they wanted to say. The result… wasn’t particularly good. The script and anticipated questions fell apart from the very beginning, forcing us into freestyle debate, and I ended up making quite a few verbal slips myself.
The moment I got home, exhaustion hit me like a truck and I passed out. Maybe I’d been pushing this body too hard lately—every muscle ached and my whole body felt incredibly heavy.
The next day, when I checked the internet communities, they were in complete chaos. Digital Inside couldn’t handle the traffic overload and its servers crashed. Both Manrian and Mytel were flooded with an insane number of posts overnight. Even though Mytel’s servers had crashed and been restored in the early morning, the flood of posts showed no signs of stopping.
Mytel, which was mostly used by younger people, was filled with posts defending me.
Meanwhile, Manrian, which had a larger middle-aged and elderly user base… let’s just not go there.
Anyway, the arcade debate had entered a new phase. Arcades—more precisely, rhythm games—had become imprinted in the public consciousness as the new youth culture, just like Seo Taiji. The younger generation’s overwhelming support was pushing rhythm games forward.
While we were busy phasing out the old arcade machines and bringing in more rhythm games to rake in steady profits, something completely unexpected happened.
“This is the Agency for National Security Planning. Put down everything in your hands, stand up slowly, and raise your hands.”
What the hell? Right now?