“Culture and Arts Promotion Act Partial Amendment Bill” (Culture and Arts Act Amendment) will be enforced from March 28th, 2023. The Culture and Arts Act Amendment was proposed by representative Jo Seoung-Lae in November 2020 and amended partially on September 27th, 2022.

The Culture and Arts Act Amendment regulates essential attributes of “Culture and Arts” and includes the content that games, animation, and musicals are included in the category of “Culture and Arts.” It defined “Culture and Arts” as creative expression activities and their results that individuals and groups perform based on their own or others’ impressions, knowledge, and experiences for the purpose of intellectual, mental, and aesthetic appreciation and added games, animation, and musicals to the category of “Culture and Arts.”

Rep. Jo said he proposed the Culture and Arts Amendment to nurture the game as the culture and art business in the phone interview with “Channel PNU” on October 24th. Rep. Jo said, “Modern games are comprehensive arts in which various art genres such as videos, fine arts, fiction, and music are fused. Developed countries are already regarding the game as a new art genre leading the 21st century’s art paradigm.”

As the Culture and Arts Amendment is enforced, games can cast away negative recognition. The game had been recognized as “what needs to be fixed” since it was classified as a risk factor treated like alcohol, gambling, and drug as the World Health Organization (WHO) added game addiction to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) in May 2019. Kang Ji-Young (Dept. of Phycology, 19) of Ultimate, an e-sport&game central club of Pusan National University, said, “When our brain encounters the term associated with stereotypes, thoughts are designed to induce the specific directions. I hope the game, which used to have negative associations, can be positively recognized as culture and art from now.”

Some think that gaming still has problems to solve in order to become an authentic culture and art. Young Si-Hyun (Dept. of Applied IT & Engineering, 21) said, “The problem that game companies pursue profit first should be solved, and they need to create good quality games for many generations to experience. If they offer the opportunities to experience good quality games and promote them, negative recognition of games would be overcome.”

Reporter Im Hyeon-Gyu

Translated by Lee Yoon-Seo