201204

vol. 26

N ewsletter

[ Member Nation Reports ]

Spain Revives its Passion for e-Sports

[ MissGamerContest ]

Spain Report writer - Ă ngel Quintana

opinion

Time to start action indeed

Everybody wants a slice of the Razer DotA 2 Tournament 2012 Singapore Report writer - Reuben Soh

The Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2011 e-Sports Championship Sri Lanka Report writer - Gamer.LK Overviewing what’s been happening in Russia

Won-suk Oh, Secretary General of IeSF

IeSF Notice for Members Dear all members! As we are preparing for upcoming events of IeSF, such as IeSF 2012 Asia/ Euro Conferences, and IeSF 2012 World Championships, there will continuously be announcements regarding these events. [ ZOOM IN]

Russia Report writer - RESF

The biggest ever competition is forecast to change the landscape of e-sports market Korea Report writer - khgames

[Kunlun] Strong emerging game company in China, 100 million users all over the world are into the game!

IeSF Newsletter - vol.26

www.ie-sf.com

2012. 4. 12

IeSF Headline

Cheon-an City, Korea

The Host City of IeSF 2012 World Championship As we have been organizing the IeSF 2012 World Championship, we have finalized the period of it, and the host city of IeSF 2012 World Championship has finally been selected. Thus, we would like to share the information with all of our members. So, we hereby announce that IeSF 2012 World Championship will be held at Cheon-an City, Korea from 4th to 8th of October this year.

For your information, we would like to introduce the host city, Cheon-an, to all of you.

The name of the host city, Cheon-an, means that ‘the most peaceful place under the sky’. As the meaning of it, Cheon-an in the one of the most developed cities in Korea for education, culture, environment, welfare, transportation, and etc.

Cheon-an has fine accessibility to the capital city of Korea, Seoul. It is located about 90 kilometers far from Seoul, which takes about an hour, and has convenient transportation as connected with highway, railroad, and etc. Above all, it has an advantage that people can reach to Cheon-an by using Seoul Metro subway line.

Also, as the gateway of three major provinces of Korea, Cheonan is the place where people and cultures of Korea meet, and possesses numerous tour spots and diverse cultural events. There are numerous historic national treasures lying scattered all over Cheon-an. Moreover, there are “The 12 famous spots in Cheonan”, which shall not be passed during the visit of Cheon-an: 1. Cheonan Samgeori park, 2. The independence Hall of Korea, 3. Historic Site of Patriot Yu Gwan Sun, 4.

Arario Sculpture Park, 5. Byeongcheon Sundae Street, 6. Gakwonsa temple, 7. Mt. Gwangdeoksan Snow Scene, 8. Huracle Resort Amusement Park, 9. Ipjang Grape Village, 10.

Wangji Peak Pear Blossom, 11. Cheonhoji Pond Night Scene, 12. Cheon-an International Dance Festival. All these spots attract tourists with unique magnetism of each spot, such as beautiful natural landscape, unique local culture, history of Korea, modern comfort and recuperation, and etc.

IeSF 2012 World Championship will be hosted as using all these advantages of Cheon-an city’s position. The preliminaries of the tournament will be held within Cheon-an Samgeori Park which is one of “the 12 famous spots in Cheon-an”, and the main events will be held in Cheon-an Culture & Art Center, which is newly built.

Moreover, for the accommodation, player’s village will be held in Huracle Resort, and it contains various convenient facilities including large size waterpark.

Also, along with the period of IeSF 2012 World Championship, Cheon-an International Dance Festival, which is selected as the best festival in Korea by Korea Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, will be held from 2nd to 7th of October. It is expected to provide diverse attractions as well.

We, IeSF, are sure that all of our respectful members and e-sports players from all over the world will undoubtedly make new memories and tales on this October. We look forward to seeing you all in Cheonan Soon.

Global Data

Comparison of total purse

Cheon-an Samgeori park

Member Nation Reports

2012. 4. 12

Spain reports

Spain Revives its Passion for e-Sports Ángel Quintana

Such expressions as “the numbers speak for themselves” have become almost clichéed, but they could not be closer to the truth when talking about Season Two of the LVP [Spanish Videogame League]. The number of both players and spectators has grown so rapidly in recent months that we are now talking about figures that were unimaginable in the past for an e-sports competition of a purely Spanish nature.

However, it is not our intention here to highlight and analyse a series of numbers that are almost meaningless when looked at on their own or out of context. Suffice it to say that, within the space of just twelve months, the LVP has succeeded where many before have tried and failed in Spain: to bring e-sports to a wider audience.

Through a direct and accessible approach, the LVP has showcased the beauty and spectacular nature of videogame competitions to an audience who already enjoyed playing but who had never been spectators of such events in the past.

This growing interest reached new heights in March when the FinalCupH2O was held in Madrid. With more than 10,000 people in the audience, it became the event with the largest number of live audience in the history of e-sports in Spain.

This milestone was only enhanced by the number of people who followed the event via the Internet and the reports that appeared in the traditional press and television media.

We even witnessed the repeat of a historic event in Spain: the broadcasting of a competition on television. For the second time, after Dreamhack Valencia in 2011, the television channel Canal+ Xtra lent its support to e-sports by broadcasting the finals of FinalCupH2O, live. e-Sports are becoming more and more popular in Spain and are starting to awaken an interest among new audiences, traditional media, Internet media and industry. Within this new framework of success, the LVP has positioned itself as the truly national league with the largest following and enjoys the approval and support of all the professional players and esports clubs in the country.

Spain is a country of passion and it was only a matter of time before someone discovered the right trigger to spark the explosion currently taking place in the world of e-sports in this country. The LVP has managed to arouse a new passion for e-sports and is the proud standardbearer of this new sport in which Spain could play another starring role at an international level.

Singapore reports

Everybody wants a slice of the Razer DotA 2 Tournament 2012 Reuben Soh (Rapture Gaming Network)

Cut a massive figure above the rest, the Razer podium, which greeted visitors as they entered the halls of the Singapore IT show, was a prominent set up worthy of the attention of any passer-by. But straggling in a sea of enthralled watchers and eager fans, not forgetting the hustled patrons of the fair, to stop and admire the magnificent stage would have hardly been practical. Yet people stopped to stare. It wasn’t the grandeur of the set up that drew the numbers but the entertainment the talent on display brought to the table; 14 accomplished Action RTS teams, 4 days, SG$15,000 worth of prizes and only one winner - the inaugural Razer DotA 2 Tournament.

The competition, the first ever tournament organized by Razer Singapore, ran in tandem with the Singapore IT fair at the Suntec Convention Centre, from the 8th of March to the 11th. Drawing crowds that numbered as high as a hundred, organizers and contestants alike put out an entertaining show that delighted both the fans of the yet to be released game and curious onlookers. However, despite the home advantage, local teams could not prevent foreign competition Mineski and Orange Esports from running away with the show.

After a nail bitingly close final game, team Mineski from the Philippines walked home the biggest winner with US$2,500 in cast and merchandise worth US$3,600. Not far behind were their Malaysian counterparts Orange Esports, who walked home with a cool US$1000 in cash and merchandise worth US$1860. The best performing Singapore team of the event, AEONSports, took the honor of being the 2nd runner up and US $1,930 worth of cash and gaming products.

Present on the final day was Razer’s CEO, Mr. Min-Liang Tan, to present the awards at the prize presentation ceremony. After announcing the winners to a chorus of cheers, the emcee then proceeded to reward several lucky spectators with Razer products. However, regardless of whether you walked home with goodies in arms or not, most left stellar impression of the soon-to-be released game, DotA 2, by Valve. In what was perhaps the last, or one of the last major regional competitions to be held prior to the big release, many present would agree that the Razer DotA 2 tournament had a little bit for everyone and no one left utterly disappointed.

The Razer DotA 2 Tournament is presented by Razer and sponsored by NVIDIA, AVerMedia, Kingston, Alienware, Starhub, organized by Rapture Gaming and supported by e-Club.

Member Nation Reports

2012. 4. 12

Sri Lanka reports

The Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2011 e-Sports Championship Gamer.LK The 2011 e-Sporting calendar for Sri Lanka came to an end with the epic finale of the Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2011 championship held at the BMICH from the 2nd to the 4th of December 2011. The 3-day LAN tournament saw a record number of spectators and participants this year, with over 1,000 gamers taking part in the 8 game titles, thus making it the largest gathering of gamers and cyber-athletes in Sri lanka.

This year saw champions being made and kings being dethroned in the 8 featured game titles: Counter-Strike 1.6, Call of Duty 4, DotA, FIFA 11, NFS: MW, Trackmania Nations, Halo 3 and Mortal Kombat 9. The results for the 8 titles are as follows: Counter-Strike 1.6 Winner: Tech Morph xZtint Runners-Up: Livin Legends Call of Duty 4 Winner: Tech Morph Outlaws Runners-Up: Mighty Ducks DotA Winner: Death Sentence Runners-Up: Death Company

FIFA 11 Winner: PnX KID Runner-Up: PnX LeoN NFS: MW Winner: Maximum Thunder Runner-Up: PnX Silent Knight Trackmania Nations Winner: PnX Binura Runner-Up: [DC] Land[of]Death Halo 3 Winner: Reapers with Snipers Runner-Up: Killer Klowns From Outer Space Mortal Kombat 9 Winner: Tensa Zengetsu Runner-Up: Platypus Congratulations go out to all the winners on being crowned champions of Sri Lankan e-Sports.

Korea reports

The biggest ever competition is forecast to change the landscape of e-sports market khgames

On game net has begun annual LOL The Champions Spring 2012 Finals on Mar, 16th. LOL The Champions (regular league, total purse of 200million won) will be held to determine the supreme champion all over the world among strong North American, European and Korean team and so on for 3 months. Especially, LOL, the newest hot game, is a huge hit as soon as it opened in Korean breaking 18 hundred thousand marks for the number of simultaneous log-ins at PC room.

Game officials said it’s like early days of Star Craft. It’ll be much more popular than Starcraft if founded as a regular league in Korea since it’s already won fame for e-sports title abroad. In addition, we are looking forward to the future with foundation of pro-game teams as well as huge sponsors to support this competition. Ongamenet finished all tournaments with 22 teams passing the online preliminary stage and 2 offline sid teams before the regular league on Mar.2nd.

[The way of handling game is like Starcraft] Total 16 teams advanced to the finals at ‘LOL The Champions’: 12teams passing preliminary stage, 2 teams won the highest score at ’LOL invitational’, and 2 overseas sid teams. The finals will be carried live on Ongamenet TV twice in a week as of Mar, 21st.

This competition is the first season of annual ‘LOL The Champions’, they decide to hold competitions 4 times a year to run stable competition and 4 matches is planned in 2012.

They’re planning to promote the global league which can join overseas team.

On game net said “we’re preparing for super special matches for LOL users all over the world besides LOL The Champions. We are doing our utmost for LOL to not only be attractive contents of e-sports fans but also be a growth engine of next generation in e-sports market.

[Crowds of e-sports fans mass rapidly] The reason why LOL league is on the upturn is its own special features. There are two features: competition factor in battle makes it easy to be chosen esports title and it is already becoming a hot issue due to holding competition in overseas countries.

E-sports officials were surprised at the unexpected number of audiences to see ‘WCG 2012 Grand Final’ held in Busan last year.

They said it was a good chance to confirm its potential for steady growth in e-sports in that the competition was also crowded with lots of audiences in a few more league as Starcraft league used to be. Popularity of LOL league will continue with foundation of pro-game team as well as sponsors of major company like Najin.

Among pro-game teams, some people are glad to expect the news that major company called ‘L’ is considering investing money in e-sports.

It is certain that LOL league strengthens its position as a leader league although it is in the early stage now.

There is a possibility that LOL league changes the landscape of e-sports market if it keeps improving and threatens current league.

Member Nation Reports

2012. 4. 12

Russia reports

Overviewing what’s been happening in Russia Russian e-Sports Federation

Since we all met last time in Andong at the basic event for all our community, IeSF World Championship, we have had a lot of hot activities in our cold country. On November, starting with Ural Cup e-sports event, we have hosted conference and festival as collaborating with Universities in Russia. Also, our new web project, Russian e-Sport Portal, since July 2011, has been keeping us busy as well. We just opened the project for testing. Moreover, we have hosted other interesting events such as Miss Gamer Contest and Techlabs Cup. We will update full story of each events through several volumes of IeSF newsletter. For this month, we would like to start with the story of several events, Ural Cup, Miss Gamer Contest, and Techlabs Cup. On the 19th of November, in Yekaterinburg, we had a small e-Sport event named Ural Cup, which took place in the Ural State University of Economics (USUE, http://www.usue.ru/en) within the framework of Young Innovators Congress. Players competed in StarCraft 2, Mortal Combat 3 (xBox360), Civilization V. Also, there was presented a nongaming contest, such as PC assembling. About 1000 players and spectators attended the event. StarCraft 2 games internet streams were watched by 15000 spectators. One more important thing about Ural Cup is that it used to be one of the first our big competition events at the very beginning of RESF (in 2001-2005). Now it’s reviving and we all hope that it soon will reach the same magnitude as it was ten years ago.

Among weekdays full of routine (either work or playing games or e-sport training, to each their own), there should be something recreating what lets one catch a break. Spring has come (though here we still cannot see it, it’s -3°C ~ -12°C) and, for the second time, the “Miss Gamer” event took place. The idea of the contest is that each game project participating makes preliminary casting where people choose a girl, who will represent the game at the final. This time the games were: World of Tanks, Forsaken World, Panzar: Forged by Chaos, the Settlers Online, Risen 2: Dark Waters, Dofus, Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai, Mass Effect 3, BS.ru and Ridge Racer Unbounded. To tell the truth I had no idea about most of the games but I liked the final contest itself. The contest consisted of four rounds. First lady-gamers presented themselves and their games, then they competed on PlayStation 3 in Mortal Combat. After that the girls dressed in bikini presented brand new games World of War Planes and World of Battleships (WarGaming.net). And the last one was cosplay-defile. The first place was taken by Miss Mass Effect 3 Anna Moleva. Miss Risen 2 Elena Urusova became the Vice Miss Gamer. RESF provided technical support and assistance for the contest.

By the time the Miss Gamer Contest took place we had already finished online preliminaries for the most recent our competition – Techlabs Cup. TechLabs Cup is a new event for us. History of TC counts a few years. It’s a project of a Byelorussian IT & hardware web-portal TechLabs.By. In 2011 Techlabs Cup competitions covered Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In 2012, it started with Russia. Players competed in World of Tanks 7x7, BloodLine Champions 3x3, Point Blank 5x5, Counter Strike 1.6 5x5. WoT, PB and BLC prelims were only for Russian players, CS ones were open for everyone. Teams competed were held with single elimination system till final matches. Finalists were to compete at the final event which took place on the 18th of March in Khimki (Moscow suburb).

Total number of players participated in the preliminaries exceeded 5 thousand. Techlabs Cup final event also included show-matches in Quake Live, Dota 2, Counter Strike 1.6 and overclocking competition between teams from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan supported by TechLabs portal. Final match in Counter Strike should have happened between NaVi and SK. Unfortunately SK team didn’t manage to come and got technical loss, and NaVi gained the first prize. Instead we arranged a show match between NaVi and Moscow Five which actually only increased the audience and was the central happening of the event. The other match that attracted a lot of fans was Quake Live Cooller (Anton Singov) vs Cypher (Alexey Yanushevsky). Cypher won 2:1.

Photos 2 Photos 3 Photos 1 Photos from the TechLabs Cup: We didn’t make any video about the cup but there are a lot of reports at youtube made by others.

Meanwhile RESF have opened a regional department in Khabarovsk and started making new ones in Samara and at Sakhalin. Thus, by the regular congress (once each four years) we’ll have around 55 regional departments. On the 24th of March, Russian e-Sports Federation became 12.

Interview

2012. 4. 12

ongamenet Director Hyeongjun Hwang

LOL League to challenge ‘globalization’ "We’re planning to flesh out interesting idea a bit more on that, for people already regard LOL League as e-sports. The most important thing is to expand its base. Do you know that e-sports fans overseas want to visit Korea to make a pilgrimage? We On-game net will make some places for them."

There has been the same formula in a hero cartoon: A Hero always cracks a case anytime, anywhere and then the world becomes peaceful soon. Although we know it’s predictable, a story with happy-ending makes us keep expecting it.

E-sports industry is also expecting a hero to stir up a boom again. Then, how about a glorious comeback of the Star League founder? Director Hyeongjun Hwang, the first planner of opening Star League, found his way back into the e-sports industry. Now Star League becomes a representative example in booming e-sports.

We’re expecting Hyeongjun is making a “something big”, looking back on his achievement having lots of symbolic significance like making a dream stage for progamers, history of e-sports in Korea, notable examples of game league and so on.

Hyeongjun said that ‘Global’ will be the key strategy to become a big hit at the opening ceremony of ‘LOL The Champions 2012’ held by On-game net on March 14th.

Two days before the opening day, we asked Hyeongju whether e-sports will be revitalized, he undoubtedly said ‘Yes’.

He has been busy working and taking responsibility for all works of On-game net and online Insite TV, moving from On-game net in Bundang,Korea and CJ E&M in Sangamdong,Korea. Our reporter watched him gathering all PDS and frowning at viewing figures of program.

[E-sports, going up more than ever] He said to our reporter “I’ve been so hectic working both at the same time; it will be hard to talk with me after I start to hold LOL League. You are timely to come and talk with me, haha.”

He has a mild voice, is a little picky (but he doesn’t hold grudge) and creative. I believe these characteristics are regarded as his strengths.

He was suggesting adopting relay-broadcasting with the game league and making gamers as a star. At that time it might make co-workers annoyed but his persuasive and mild voice could have strong power to get them on his side. Additionally, Star League cannot help succeeding under control of his picky personality.

Every idea of his is not successful in business. He developed online ‘Batu’ based on Baduk game(a game of go) and promoted ‘Batu’ to be the title of e-sports, but it ended with failure. Then he had been out of e-sports industry.

He said, “I was scattered. Especially Star League is symbolic not only for On-game net but for whole e-sports industry. To tell the truth, the reason why I left e-sports industry without any regret is that I thought there’s nothing for me to do.”

He tends to enjoy lots of challenges rather than like challenges, so he is ready to enjoy challenges at this time. But lots of people have more unfavorable opinion that e-sports industry has been on the wane and not easy to revitalize. Some think that Star League having a temporary shut down for a while will be closed soon.

He said “I don’t understand them. It can’t be possible that every culture and sports keep being on the upturn. As a certain time passed, the fate of Star League will be sealed. Everyone is worrying about it, but I don’t think so. E-sports have only to jump higher from the bottom. I have no doubt that e-sports industry is of great value. I’ll spread e-sports into people knowing what e-sports exactly is.”

[LOL League to challenge ‘globalization’] He said confidently Star Craft is not the only answer. It’s time to meet new needs of our fans even ‘Star Craft’ has been perfectly suited for e-sports as time goes by. Kart Rider and Tekken would be key factor to revitalize e-sports and Ongame net.

His answer was ‘no’ with a question that LOL League will replace Star League by reason of great reputation from the public. He said ‘both games are totally different and LOL is not an easy game to reach general viewers. LOL League is a kind of our effort to diversify titles to meet our fans’ needs. LOL League is just one good example of them. I believe our fans need to study the game as you watch a football game.

Then we wonder what he really wants to do next. He answers ‘global’ without hesitation. With this, we could go further all over the world. He has revealed his plan to offer VOD service and live broadcast across the world. Operating expenses are almost the same amount as Pro League: five billion won.

We’re planning to flesh out interesting idea a bit more on that, for people already regard LOL League as e-sports. The most important thing is to expand its base.

Do you know that e-sports fans overseas want to visit Korea to make a pilgrimage? We On-game net will make some places for them.

Zoom in

2012. 4. 12

Strong emerging game company in China, 100 million users all over the world are into the game!

Ranking third in the web game market of China, Plan to seek a stock exchange listing.

The Teaback mountains and the Kunlun mountains have something in common: each mountain connects each country, Korea and China. Kunlun is a new IT company signifying Kunlun mountains. Kunlun has already become the most remarkable game company of the year as one of top 3 companies in terms of market share, 100billion won in annual sales within 4 years of its founding. The reason why Kunlun has been growing explosively is to maintain a high focus on global market and promote specialized strategies of its local market.

Especially, Kunlun is planning to gain a toehold to jump higher. IPO(Initial Public Offering in China) is near at hand, it'll be done within the first half year of 2012. Strengthening its global competitiveness, Kunlun is trying to establish itself as major game company representing china with Snda, Tencent. Above all, Kunlun has been very interested in Korean market and kicked into high gear to do game business by founding its local branch. It is said that Kunlun has some plans to raise funds over 30 billion won and to launch more than 10 games a year with direct and indirect investment. Our reporter visited a Kunlun headquarter in Beijing, China to check its vision challenging famous Korean game company.

Kunlun, located in Beijing, China, is a conglomerate having more than 1000 employees in the 11 story building. Kunlun changed original CI into 'Kalends’(the first day of every month) to strengthen its global image and opened to the public. Kunlun introduced company and announced future growth strategy in the 2012 vision conference on Mar, 7th.

[Taking over global market with its specialty 'web game'] Kunlun has various kinds of web games. Kunlun has a strong power to diversify its business focusing on web game genres compared to other Chinese game companies focusing on client based games. Kunlun could establish a foothold with the first web game 'The Three Kingdoms‘ chosen as user's most favorite game from Chinajoy in 2008. They have more than 20 web games including Kunlun Shijie, K3 online, Jianghu, Qianjun etc...

Kunlun has various titles: Kunlun Shijie was chosen as one of the most popular top 10 games at Game Industry Annual Conference in China, 'K3 Online' called web game having more than 100million users is also well-known to Koreans. This consecutive success of Kunlun keeps developing itself up to 100% every year. The reason why Kunlun has been doing well in the web game is its marketing strategy based on young intelligent employees. Kunlun has taken full advantage of many young intelligent employees in marketing, hiring comparatively more than other game companies.

Especially, there are multinational employees all over the world working at a head quarter of China. Kunlun is planning to expand its services to the whole world by using borderless features of web game.

This multinational marketers working at the headquarter of Kunlun in China has maximized business efficiency with flexible network, meeting user's needs through active communication with local users and operating its game all over the world.

Kunlun has strengthened global competitiveness and actively advanced to the overseas market by building its local branches including Japan, Hongkong, Malaysia and Korea in their country.

Kunlun has got remarkable results in over 300 employees and 60 billion won earnings last year.

[Korea as a new engine of growth to the future] 2012 is the most important year to Kunlun: Kunlun will try to its best not only to look for and get a new engine of growth as a global conglomerate but to list on stock exchange. Yahui Zhou, a founder of Kunlun, announced that Kunlun combined with a growing Kunlun Korea would develop both at the same time making Kunlun Korea as the 2nd headquarter with much more supports and investments than last year's.

Kunlun Korea will complement and promote some major businesses such as hiring huge brains, building a global sourcing center, reinforcing multi-platform business. Kunlun is making a global distribution network using a global sourcing center and raises funds to find potential games, game studios and acquire the studios.

Long term goal of Kunlun Korea is to be one of top 10 online game publishers in Korea.

Kunlun Korea has been operating 4 kinds of games since the second half year and already reached the break-even point(BEP). They are planning to increase domestic online game market share by initiating client based game service this year.

Sungbong Lim, a CEO of Kunlun Korea, said that our role is to help our head quarter maximize synergy effect of global game business by building stable lineups and pipelines. Launching voice based messenger service 'Raid Call' and searching for new business model like multiplatform business lead to global company. Ÿ Multinational marketers working at Kunlun headquarter have been checking efficient games operation and marketing of every branch in foreign country in real time. Employees need to speak Chinese besides their mother tongue for smooth communication at work.

Opinion

2012. 4. 12

Time to start action indeed

Won-suk Oh Secretary General of IeSF

It was when I was working as vice-president of international game tournament organizing company. In beginning of 2002, during my visit to Malaysia, I happened to have a chance to join Minister of Ministry of Sports and Youth for a dinner, as he came to the local event for congratulatory speech. In fact, in those days, people were little too unfamiliar with the concept of e-sports. Thus, it was honor to have a Minister of a nation at the event, but also, was a bit stressful. During the banquet, I nerved myself to ask him, “There are still doubtful perspectives for e-sports even in Korea, the suzerain of e-sports. Then, wasn’t it quite awkward to present at such event as a Minister of a nation?” He answered flatly, “I got to know that the game is a sort of gate for IT through communicating with my kids. These kids access, communicate with and learn IT through games. If the situation is getting more like distinctive culture for our younger generation no one can defy, I’d rather say it is right for older generation or the government to change mind, and to lead our kids to positive direction for them to learn and face it right.” He also said, “Thus, supporting your esteemed event which attempts to promote game tournament as proper sports is fairly reasonable action for me, and I am truly proud to be here. Even for the future, I expect that e-sports grow with proper direction.” Then, I realized that I had been even less sure about e-sports than he was, taking this opportunity, I became to have firmer faith on future of e-sports.

I am not sure whether the Minister was involved, but the President of Malaysia e-Sports Federation, at the IeSF 2011 Torch Lightening Ceremony, introduced the very first e-Sports Stadium constructed in Malaysia to us. Of course, it was not even comparable to our e-sports stadium, but still, I thought it was significant movement, and at the same time, I recalled the Minister. I still remember his confidence that he would do his best with the modest attitude, and he would take all the consequences.

It reflects a lot on the e-sports in the present. In my opinion, e-sports have not accomplished even its primary goal yet, such as activation of amateur activities which is grass roots of e-sports.

It is time for the parties in e-sports filed to check whether there is any neglected or incomplete mission. Also, for establishing future plan, if there is any issues need results, they shall be attempted in the earliest time, and examined for its problems and solutions. There are bunch of issues that we have not reached for an answer yet, such as long term cooperation with publishers, exchanging referees and players among genres and titles, variation and unification of platforms, connection between professionals’ pool and amateur pool and etc. If we do not see an answer for the moment, I believe that the fastest way to find the answer is to confront and initiate it, and see.

As looking into the Online Global A match which was first time attempt for us, it seemed there was not any technical issues, but a lot of problems unexpected were detected as it started the matches, such as identification of players, tuning time differences, refinement of players, qualification of referees and etc. However, detecting all these issues will be nourishment for us to organize better and smoother global online league in the future.

There is no time for us to hesitate. In order to design more completed strategy in the future, we need to make outcomes in earliest time for the controversial issues.

A new e-Sports Stadium is under construction in Korea to be completed on end of 2012, and it will be established as the world biggest scale. Certainly, hardware is crucial part for e-sports as well as other sports; however, more important factor is an unshakable faith and substantial cooperation among parties. As mentioned at the beginning, the e-sports leaders shall have confidence and execution with the plan at the same time in order to overcome the problems and to create insight for the future. We shall complete things to be completed, and abandon things to be given up within the earliest time. Then, I hope, when e-sports stadium is completed, that Korea can show the whole world that it is true suzerain not only for the e-sports hardware, but also for the software and experiences.

Why Mario avoids Facebook Square Enix, Konami, Bandai Namco in Japan which had long dominated game market is having difficulty running their console business. As social games led by DeNA and Gree mark a new phase in game industry, they are getting over their recent slump. Despite these changes, only one “The giant Nintendo, once regarded as the first all the time”, hasn’t tried any changes. No one could expect Nintendo becomes a loser.

Even though Nintendo is recovering from a losing position with 3DS, many people keep suggesting that Nintendo should change their way to do business using hardware into social game.

Some experts said Nintendo doesn’t want to do social game business rather than doesn’t do social game business.

Once the president Satoru Iwata of Nintendo told that a player completing the mission with new items not given from the start of the game is like ignorance that players ignore lots of efforts and struggles of developers and we couldn’t make a long term relationship with our loyal customers using Nintendo though we know item fee-charging models makes lots of profits for a short time.

Nintendo having had its own platform for a long time is ranked first and followed are Bandai Namco, Sega Sammy and Konami.

He is considering developing an additional contents’ concept rather than a fee-charging model. It’ll happen after users complete all missions, users who want to play more in the different stages buy a new stage with extra expenses.

Nintendo and DeNA are ranked in the top 5 only with game business; the rest of the top 5 companies included other business like toys, gambling and sports club etc to be in the top 5.

As a leading platform holder for decades, it is not easy for Nintendo to decide to start social game business by giving up suddenly their own business.

Let’s think simply, what if Nintendo begin to run social game business? We might have expected tremendously increasing profits.

When people hear the rumor that Nintendo will charge users for game items, there is much supposition surrounding Nintendo’s social business startup. But Nintendo denied the rumor, explaining item feecharging models could be possible in the console games as well as in the social game.

Especially, Nintendo didn’t care a bit with such instigation since Nintendo has been through every hardship for a long time.

Nintendo might have finished market analysis of future game industry, thinking social game craze is just a passing trend during a certain period. They might prepare for a new form of network games as an alternative to social games sooner.

Kim Dong Wook khgames director

Opinion

2012. 4. 12

Gaming Addiction and Rehabilitation / Healthy Gaming Habits

It is about 10 years ago that I realized that I was a workaholic. During that time I was in the office two hours before anyone else. I would work through the day, skipping tea breaks most lunch breaks too. In the evening I would put in another two to four hours before going home. My average work day including weekends was 14 hours long.

My friends and family made me aware that my work habits were unhealthy and I should balance my life with other activities too. So I changed my work habits and started working no more than the regular hours. Since I stopped working so much I needed to occupy my mind and find a way to spend the extra time I had on my hands. I played every game I could get my hands on. So my days were filled with working, and my evenings and weekends with gaming.

During that time the internet access in my country was still dialup, so online play was impossible. 6 years ago that changed and I ended up playing a game called “America’s Army”, a tactical shooter that is developed for and endorsed by the US Military. When I stopped playing 3 years ago, I had clocked almost 4000 hours officially, with many more hours unaccounted for.

During that time I played in a team, competing at a high level. Part of our team commitment was to play 6 days a week for at least 3 hours.

We had to spend that time online, practicing and competing. We were undefeated champions for quite a while in the regional championships and competed with the French champions who could not beat us either.

Most people thought we cheated because we had every aspect of the game and tactics practiced and drilled to perfection.

I would however play 7 days a week, averaging probably 6 hours a day. Saturdays and Sundays would start at 7am and end at or even after midnight if I could. During that time I stayed with my fiancée and got married. I did not realize how much strain my relationship had because of my habits, and my wife was very patient and supportive of them. I did not know how much I hurt her and how much damage my gaming would do to our relationship.

Things changed very rapidly. A new version of the game was released, which turned out to be very buggy. The community fell apart and thus my time was free to do other things. I was very depressed and frustrated with my life. I realized that I had become obsessed with the game, maybe even addicted. I looked for help online and found a group called “Online Gamers Anonymous”.

I joined their forum and communicated regularly with other addicts. I realized that the problem was bigger than I thought and made a decision to change my life.

I sold the gaming PC and enrolled for a part time course to improve my qualifications. At the same time I committed my time to the gaming community and gaming as a sport. I decided to get gaming recognized as a sport and that part of the responsibilities that go along with that are to promote healthy habits and a culture that is on par with that of any other sport.

The challenges faced by gaming as a sport are many. Since gaming has become the number one social activity enjoyed by people of all ages all over the world, it is also prone to the most negative press. The key arguments against gaming being mentioned start at the content of games and age restrictions, cover physical health and health issues and also reach into mental health, addiction being one of them.

Kai Eysselein President / The Namibian Electronic Sports Association

Being a recovering gaming addict myself, I feel a very strong responsibility towards other gamers and society to share my experience and inform people about the risks. I have successfully changed my life from someone who obsessively gamed, to someone who can game casually. Fortunately I am in the position to share my experiences and to inform the public about the risks and how to deal with them in the best way.

The first step in having achieved this was to formalize the Namibian gaming community and create the national e-sports body as a founding member. As co-author of our constitution I ensured that healthy habits form part of our objectives. The next step is about getting informed and informing the public. Being transparent and honest with ourselves and others will allow us, as sporting administrators of e-sports to grow electronic sports and ensure that it gets the recognition economically and most importantly, socially too.

Gaming has many positive aspects too, ranging from social interaction, to skills and intelligence training. These have been researched and highlighted in the media almost as much as the negative press gaming has received.

This article is the first in a series of articles about gaming addiction and healthy gaming habits. The next article will focus on obsessive gaming and gaming addiction.

IeSF Notice for Members Dear all members!

As we are preparing for upcoming events of IeSF, such as IeSF 2012 Asia/Euro Conferences, and IeSF 2012 World Championships, there will continuously be announcements regarding these events. For the successful hosting of these events, cooperation of all of you is the most crucial part. Thus, please stay tuned for upcoming announcements. Also, for all the requests for documentation and cooperation, we expect all of you to actively cooperate for good. As differentiated from past years, we will have certain invitational policy for all members and applicable players to make sure the transparency and qualification of all the participants. Every single submission of reports and documentation will be subject to be evaluated. So, please keep your attention on the IeSF's announcement and react with it properly.

For the most wanted question, what official game titles for IeSF 2012 World Championship, they are in the final process of negotiation with the publishers. Thus, there will be an official announcement for the titles in a week or two. Also, related rules and regulation including invitation policy will be announced at same time as well. Thank you all for your patience.