Korea is a very modern country, showing just its best sides wherever you look. Seoul is a really large city with more than 20 million people in the area. And it is bustling with life. All that we have seen in the few spare moments was so colorful and alive. You can see from the photos, Korea lives up to the cliche of neon signs in narrow alleys.

Seoul is bustling from activity. And on every second street you see one of the legendary PC Bangs, Korea's gaming cafes that fueled the Starcraft epidemic that gripped the Asian peninsula in recent years. Korea is all about technology, and that's one of the first things that you notice when you enter the GStar game show (they actually write it G★).

Everybody here has a photo camera. And I'm not talking about regular compact cameras. They have the big ones, with really big expensive lenses. It is madness. And it's not just press either, lots of regular visitors run around with equipment that I won't find on top tier journalists from where I come from.

The second thing you see is the reason for all the cameras. Lots and lots of female promoters in very short dresses. At the SK Telecom booth for example, they have 5 promoters that do nothing but pose for photographers all day long. And not just there, at almost every booth you'll find these attractive young women. It can get distracting.

GStar itself is not that big compared to shows like Games Convention, but it is very crowded. A big plus is, that it is only open for 7 hours, compared to the 10+ hours of other trade fairs. On the other hand it creates a lot of pressure on the schedule.

What I like about GStar is that it's rather relaxed, not very hectic or cramped. The walkways are wide, perfect for such a large crowd. I was a little confused though, that eSports only plays a minor part here. The focus is on presenting a few games and brands with lots of girls. eSports is happening in the far end of the hall. Right next to the Intel Extreme Masters are two other stages, one showing some sports games show matches, the other offering tournaments in games like Sudden Attack, a Korean Counter-Strike clone.

We have a very nice tournament area this time, with bleachers all around the player area and an enormous LCD screen in the middle where people can watch select games. The atmosphere is nice although we haven't really had the best matches yet. That will follow tomorrow with the WoW Playoffs, as well as Warcraft 3 and Counter-Strike. Looking forward to that, and hopefully get back tomorrow with a new blog entry.

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