No pain, no game: how South Korea turned itself into a gaming powerhouse

South Korean resident Lee Jae Myung declared in October that video games ‘are not addictive substances’. Photograph: Office of the President of South Korea

Son Si-woo remembers the moment his mother turned off his computer. He was midway through an interview to become a professional gamer.

“She said when I played computer games, my personality got worse, that I was addicted to games,” the 27-year-old recalls.