201205

vol. 27

N ewsletter

© 2011 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. © WindySoft Co., Ltd.. All rights reserved.

[ Member Nation Reports ]

Belgian eSports takes the next step: project Gamebox

- New Recruit at IeSF Secretariat - Official Titles of IeSF 2012 World Championship [ IeSF Headline ]

opinion

Report writer - Steven Leunens

The Transformation Won-suk Oh, Secretary General of IeSF

BENEFITTING ALL!

IeSF Notice for Members Report writer - MSSA

Increasing sponsorships for official e-sports devices and competitions Report writer - KHGames

Dear all members! We hereby announce that we have decided the host city of the IeSF 2012 Asia Conference.

The IeSF 2012 Asia Conference will be hosted at Cebu City, Philippines, from 6th to 8th of July. The details of Venue, Accommodation, and Others will be disclosed via group e-mail to relevant members with invitations. [ ZOOM IN]

RESF and Russian sport institutions [Eyedentity Games] Dungeon Striker, Can 5 million USD in annual Report writer - RESF sales continue?

IeSF Newsletter - vol27

www.ie-sf.com

2012. 5. 10

IeSF Headline - 1

New Recruit at IeSF Secretariat We pleasurably inform all of you that IeSF has just recruited a young and ambitious woman as a new member of staffs. We introduce her to all of you to get to know this fine talent. So, we would like you all to welcome this fresh member of ours, Sujin Choi.

1. Please introduce yourself briefly to other e-sports family in the world.

- Greetings! My name is Sujin, Choi. I’m currently in charge of Accounting & Financing at IeSF. I’m very glad and honor to introduce myself to you all. I’d like to set up a good relationship and friendship with our global family of e-sports. So, I’m very happy to obtain such chance through IeSF. 2. Please describe little bit about you.

- My life’s motto is “Don’t worry, Be happy”. It is always a big pleasure for me to play games and enjoying e-sports. My favorite genres of game are FPS and Puzzle games because FPS game is dynamic and thrilling. Puzzle game is easy and usually designed fancy.

I like watching sport as well, such as football, baseball and so on. I also like participating in sport activities in direct manner. So, I did rafting in Luzern, Switzerland and skydiving in Sydney, Australia. That’s a very exciting and memorable experience.

3. Please tell us about your Mission and Goal in IeSF. - Generally, Female is somehow unconcerned in e-sport field. However, there might be some women who want to experience and participate in e-sports in direct manner just as what I did for sports activities. I wish many women have more chance to know joy of esports.

With the pleasure through e-sports activities, people can get rid of stress during the leisure time, and take a great delight since e-sports have many positive effects. I, as only female member of IeSF Secretariat, would like to take a role to spread and popularize e-sports among females from all over the world.

Global Data IeSF Notice for Members Dear all members! We hereby announce that we have decided the host city of the IeSF 2012 Asia Conference. The IeSF 2012 Asia Conference will be hosted at Cebu City, Philippines, from 6th to 8th of July. The details of Venue, Accommodation, and Others will be disclosed via group e-mail to relevant members with invitations.

At this year’s Asia Conference, we will be handling and discussing a lot of important issues, such as ‘Preparation and Operation of Global Online League’, ‘Progress of Sport Accord Affiliation and Member’s responsibilities’, ‘e-Sport discipline of Asia Indoor Games’, ‘Amendment of IeSF Statutes’, ‘Membership Subscription’, ‘International Referee Training Program’, and other important topics. Therefore, even if one is having busy schedule, we highly recommend all the relevant members to attend the conference, and participate in the discussion on these topics.

Also, you may have chance to meet new member candidates from Asia, and other parties as well. For those who are subjects to be invited, please stay tuned for the upcoming announcements. We look forward to meeting you all at the IeSF 2012 Asia Conference.

IeSF Headline

2012. 5. 10

IeSF Headline - 2

Official Titles of IeSF 2012 World Championship We, International e-Sports Federation (IeSF), hereby pleasurably announce the official titles for IeSF 2012 World Championship. The process of screening e-sports titles was based on the polling figures that 33 members of IeSF recommend. Grounded on the figures, IeSF has arrangeed most well-received games in order, and has discussed with game publishers of the relevant game titles.

After negotiating with them about terms and condition, final decision for titles has just been made. In accordance with this process, most beloved game titles by worldwide fans, “StarCraft II”and “Tekken” have tentatively been selected as the official titles of IeSF 2012 World Championship. The “Rules of Tournament” and “Match Rules” for each official title will be announced and sent to each member national associations via group e-mail.

The announcement of demonstration titles remains unrevealed yet. IeSF will disclose additional e-sports titles as soon as the necessary conditions with the related publishers finalized. Also, there will be several more announcements regarding IeSF 2012 World Championship, such as invitation policy and other details. Please stay tuned for additional announcement, and please note for the crucial items to prepare national qualifiers and participation.

Belgium reports

Belgian eSports takes the next step: project Gamebox Steven Leunens

Belgian eSports has had a difficult time getting any government involvement but finally a new project has been started that will change the face of eSports in Belgium forever. Gamebox is a non-profit organization founded by some BESF members and friends with the sole purpose of creating a base for further development of eSports in Belgium. The entire Belgian federation is in the process of becoming part of this new umbrella organization that will have three different aspects to it.

First of all the BESF organization will become a part of the Gamebox project and will act under the same umbrella. It will attempt to standardize competitive gaming in Belgium and will continue to organize national qualifiers for major tournaments such as the IeSF Grand Final.

Secondly, we will see a similar project to Denmark starting where Gamebox has received an offline location from the City of Antwerp in which it will host a clubhouse. This clubhouse will be a social meeting place for youngsters who share the same passion: gaming. It will host state of the art gaming equipment and the latest games through various partnerships with publishers and hardware manufacturers.

Thirdly the project will also attempt to be a knowledge center for everyone involved in gaming in Belgium.

It will attempt to answer some questions people may have and it will gather information on gaming in Belgium in all its aspects. Not only will the project look at the positive aspects of gaming, more negative items will also be considered and discussed.

This entire project will receive the financial support of the City of Antwerp and the federal government and with some grants already accepted, there is the opportunity for even more subsidized projects in year 2 of this project.

The government is finally listening to gamers and although starting out small, this project will continue to grow and could establish gaming as an integral part of any federal or local government plans.

Clubhouse location Oudaan 14 2000 Antwerp Belgium Official start of the project: May 2012

Member Nation Reports

2012. 5. 10

South Africa Report

BENEFITTING ALL!

by MSSA

Nashief Hendricks started gaming in 1999 by just playing with friends at LANs. Then in 2005 he and a few friends started Clan ASF. After 2007 Nashief took a break from gaming and got married. He returned to gaming in 2009.

Upon Nashief's return to gaming in 2009 he restarted Clan ASF. The Clan now has 57 members playing StarCraft 2, dota2, cod4 and battlefield 3, and is sponsored by Gigabyte, ECS Elite Group. Afrihost and Gamezone.

By being elected into the position of Provincial Director, Nashief is confident that the can successfully use the position together with MWEB's Gamers in Beta (GiB) program to grow the online gaming community and get more competitive gamers.

To this end, Nashief is also in the process of opening up a training academy. The academy is for all gamers and non-gamers that would like to learn the game to come in and play games like (cod4, BF3, SC2, CS, MW3).

In line with Nashief's firm beliefs in growing the community, the training academy will be free to the community and will also host LAN parties and other get-togethers. There will be hands on trainers at the centres for both PC and console gaming, and it is hoped that the centres will do much to encourage both the advantaged and financially disadvantaged to take up gaming on an equal footing.

With Nashief at the head of gaming in the Western Cape Province, it seems as though the province is going to become the powerhouse of South African gaming!

Korea reports

Increasing sponsorships for official e-sports devices and competitions by khgames

On 8th of April, the first pro-league adopting Korean title, ‘SF 2 Pro-league' ended with great success. Especially, All eyes would be on the pro-league which was held at the first time after the title's change from Special Force to Special Force 2.

The league has left behind remarkable achievements: 8 game teams joined the league as the league was launched and the league grew rapidly on a large scale with lots of entertaining factors. We're expecting the next 'SF 2 Pro-league 2012' to be updated soon.

It is the most remarkable that sponsorships from gaming device company in addition to SK Telecom are officially considered available. Sponsors held a special round with their name and gave players cash prizes by holding another award ceremony.

[Extend official sponsorships into devices] On 6th of January, a worldwide gaming device company 'Steel Series' and KeSPA (Korea e-Sports Association) signed a contract on devices for e-sports competitions.

Steel Series which used to support last season also supports high-tech devices for this season like gaming mouses, headsets and mouse pads, etc.

Gaming devices of Still Series are not only well-known for FPS gamers but also competitive in terms of media control, super speed tying support, etc. Sensei, a gaming mouse, has become popular since pro-gamers made it by themselves. Steel Series is officially backing up the other e-sports titles besides Special Force 2 as well.

[Holding a special event of sponsor] To differentiate the sponsorships, they held special events to choose 'Steel Series MVP' among 4 sections each round of SF2 pro-league: the highest number of kills, assistance, save and special prize. A player who sets the record the most such as highest number of kills, the number of assistance, the highest points would be awarded per round.

Players of KT Rolester took three of four sections' prizes. Junghun of KT set 144kills in the highest number of kills section and won double prizes with the highest number of kills and save MVP. There is much to see in the events that Minsu Do of KT won the first MVP with outstanding performance and there are more special cash prizes.

Member Nation Reports

Russia reports

RESF and Russian sport institutions

by Russian e-Sports Federation

The basic age of e-sport players differs from 17 to 24 years old. It coincides with major student age. According to that many higher school institutions have been holding e-sport contests recently. Those contests can be for students of only one university, can be open (f.e. to attract enrollees), can be inter-academic. Such competitions give Russia e-Sports Federation (RESF) a good ground to work on Russian Student e-Sport League which we’re planning to start next year. Nowadays we’ve been helping to organize such competitions in a number of educational institutions in Moscow and a few other Russian cities. Once it gave us a result we did not expect but were glad to obtain.

In 2010 a group of student decided to have an inter-academic Counter Strike tournament. The students were studying in Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (RSUPESY&T, formerly known as State Central Order of Lenin Institute of Physical Education – SCOLIPE). They asked for help IT-department of the University. The department suggested RESF can do it better.

In May 2010 Moscow branch of RESF and IT-department of RSUPESY&T held a small tournament were six Counter Strike teams participated: five ones represented different universities and the sixth was composed of Chinese students living in Moscow. On the same day at the next University building there was an international scientific conference “Theory and methods of physical education: founders heritage and prospects”. At the end of the conference we made a short speech about the competition and e-sports in whole.

Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism is the main sport HEI of Russia. It educates sportsmen, coaches, sport methodologists and pedagogues. Also the University conducts scientific works in the sphere of sports and physical training, develops sportsmen preparation and training methods, researches influence of various sport activity on physical and mental conditions.

Each department of the University either is tied to a particular sport (group of sports) or executes cross-disciplinary job.

The idea was evident. If the e-sport exist as a fact, obviously it is the subject of RSUPESY&T's IT -department. And first step to realize it is to hold an institutional conference on e-sports. RESF is interested as well. Conducting such an activity gives us basis to bring the e-sport back to the State Sport Register (which it was excluded from in 2006), and then to have a scientific ground to cultivate it further.

The First institutional conference "Problems and prospects of e-sports" took place a few months later, on the 17th of December 2010. The agenda contained more than 20 reports, most of them were directly e-sport related: – Some aspects of e-sport competitions organizing; – Collaboration and uniting of mind sport games; – Videogames as a sport; – E-sport events in Russian media, history of coverage; – E-sports in RSUPESY&T; – E-sports: evolvement problems and theoretical background of way to solve; – About e-sport terminology; – Development of e-sports in Russia and in the World; – Problems of official e-sports recognition; – Experience of e-sport department in Specialized Children and Youth School of Olympic Reserve, Orel city; – Pedagogical aspects of training e-sportsmen Three of them were made by RESF representatives, all the rest – by specialists from RSUPESY&T and other sport institutions. The reports of the first conference were published in June 2011. The brochure became probably the first publication on e-sports with ISBN and other classification codes.

The conference was a good start for collaboration between the University ITdepartment and Russian e-Sports Federation. Next year the department received the authority to educate bachelors in the applied informatics specialization. Which basically means they started to produce IT-specialists for sport and physical education needs. Among other subjects of the specialization there are a few ones closely connected to the e-sport, such as: game theory, mathematical modeling of physical processes in computer games physics, the basics of programming videogames, e-sport competitions organization, e-sport training methods.

Moreover, among applicants for this specialization there were two real e-sport players from a famous Russian multi-gaming team “Moscow Five” (M5). Now Sergei “Fox” Stolyarov and Mikhail “Dosia” Stolyarov (Counter Strike players) are students at RSUPESY&T IT-department (http://it.sportedu.ru/content/nashisportsmeny-kibersport).

On the 25th of November 2011 there took place the second conference – AllRussian Scientific-practical conference “The e-Sport (cybersport): Problems and prospects”. The conference was held under the guidance of Ministry of sport, tourism and youth policy (that gave the conference the “all-Russian” status). Also the Conference was accompanied by a small exhibition at the main hall of the University where some e-sport peripheral devices, simulators and electronic trainers were presented, including xBox 360 Kinect, Thermaltake game station, racing simulators and a few University electronic machines they use to measure and research sportsmen physical condition and activity.

The second e-Sport Conference became richer in content than the previous one. On the whole it had more reports, attracted more media and gave a good ground for further developing of e-Sports in Russia including its official recognition.

Basic organizations that were presented are: Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy, Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (IT Department, Psychology Department, Chess specialists, other), Russian e-Sports Federation, Moscow State Physical Culture Academy, Scientific Research Institute for Sports, Physical Culture Pedagogic Institute, xBox Russia, Thermaltake Company, GameSTUL Company.

Among more than 30 reports made at the conference there were; – XBOX 360 at e-sport activity; – E-sports in informational and educational space of a physical education institution of higher learning; – How to maintain health during e-sport trainings; – E-sport specialists training program in RSUPESY&T; – Moto-simulators SCOLIPE use for testing driver skills; – Actualization of e-sport activities kinetic part, real weapon in competitions and trainings at shooting simulators; – Scientific-methodical and legalistic aspects of e-sports; – The role and place of e-sports in Olympic education and training; – Russian and international e-sport competitions 2011; – E-sport titles choice at major competitions and e-sport disciplines matter; – Correctional videogames for persons with mind disabilities.

Unfortunately, the texts of the second conference haven't been published yet. We're expecting the brochure in May this year. But the work is going on. These days (23-25 of April) the RSUPESY&T IT-department is holding the third e-sport championship of the University which will define its representatives at interacademic student tournament on the 26th of April. Also they have started the second admission of student for the applied informatics. The conferences also gave the RESF a lot of contacts in sport academic field which reflected in the fact that at some competitions players conditions are measured by scientific equipment. As soon as there is a proper data and interpretation of such measurements we'll share the information.

Next month we're applying to the State Sport Register to return the e-sport its full official status. Now e-sport is recognized by the Ministry of Justice by fact of RESF's existing, but it was excluded from the register due to the absence of reporting in 2005-2006. We hope that collaboration with RSUPESY&T and other sport institutions we've performed will give us a lot of additional point in e-sports recognition by our Sport Ministry.

Interview

Jason Lee, League Management team General Manager of KeSPA

A referee, ‘e-sports operator’, lead to fair play “A referee is not the person controlling the match but making a proper environment that players can do their parts well and audiences can enjoy watching the games fully.”

A referee of KeSPA(Korea e-Sports Association) chants “Fairness” in salute before participating in the game. We are now realizing that “Fairness” has become the most important value of Korean e-sports by developing this further and responsibility of “Fairness” keeps passing on. At first, people used to think Jason Lee, manager of KeSPA, insists it just because of ROTC spirit (ROTC: Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) when people should chant “Fairness” in salute.

A team for operating competitions of KeSPA is training lots of referees and helping run competitions well. Referees of e-sports play a role as helping audiences feel the joy of real esports and providing a pleasant environment for both players and audiences while referees of other sports only make a fair judgment. That’s why Jason Lee defines a referee of e-sports as an e-sports operator.

A referee is a person who should be there in the center of a controversial situation to make a right decision. Jason Lee always thinks that a referee plays the key role in operating competitions even referees are sometimes blamed for judging disputatious situation from players and fans showing their complaints on the game.

Reporter: KeSPA is now hiring many referees as the number of sporting events increase. Are there any special requirements?

Jason Lee: Officially, Both men and women over 19 are eligible to apply for a referee. An applicant could be a grade 3 of referee by taking a certain education course and by passing a qualifying examination.

Reporter: What qualifications are required to be a professional referee of e-sports?

Jason Lee: It is important to have an interest in e-sports and understand the sporting events.

We need a person who can make a clear distinction between what’s private and public.

A referee should be able to have a cool-headed and accurate assessment of the situation and be decisive because a referee is necessary to be in a very ambiguous situation. A referee should interpret the rules reasonably and lead competitions to be played well.

Reporter: Permanence of e-sports is desperately needed to make more professional referees as an official job. How about your opinion?

Jason Lee: No one knows which sports rule over the whole world in 2100. E-sports could be a major sport as popularity of sports like soccer, baseball and basketball decreases. When playing baseball, soccer and basketball, people need tools and places to play. You can’t play a soccer match without a ball, even there is a place to play.

Based on IT, however, e-sports is totally different. It is accessible without a time limit and a certain space. As young generation now in 20~30s get older and become mainstream members in the society, the viewpoints toward e-sports would be changed and e-sports can be an official sports everyone enjoys, even it is a little unfamiliar to the old.

Reporter: A referee has a huge effect on the competition. I think learning or system should be required to improve competence of referees.

Jason Lee: We’ve been always trying to make our referees have distinguished operating ability.

Every referee should write his or her report about the game that they take part in and then we share all materials including situations and special cases that happened during the game. It’s like every doctor share his or her opinions or skills to treat patients well at the regular conference.

Additionally, we are helping our referees increase their competence by conducting regular courtesy trainings and workshops Reporter: Referees could easily figure out a necessity of amending and deleting rules to operate the games well with players before anyone else.

Jason Lee: Right. To help operate the game well and bring the greatest joy of watching games for audience, it is very important to have well-made rules. Well-made rules are to prevent ambiguous situations and help make a quick judgment when it comes to lots of problems. Referees are very active to modify the rules since they could experience various cases and acquire hands-on experiences by running games. They don’t change the rules on their own but they could ask KeSPA to change.

Reporter: These two parts ‘Operating games’ and ‘Referees’ are the most distinguished results of globalizing e-sports.

Jason Lee: Only e-sports in Korea is holding a week-round competition and operating proleagues and amateur leagues separately. We have a broadcasting company specializing in game and online game companies are actively participating in the leagues. We have been accumulating know-how regarding referees and operating games based on our great infrastructure.

We are not forcing others to do as Korean do but providing know-how for developing countries which need certain rules, operating systems and referee systems with IeSF(International e-Sports Federation). We strongly believe once e-sports in Korea could cooperate all over the world, we can develop ourselves more than ever.

Reporter: As we heard, game companies provide basic rules to KeSPA, a team for operating competitions control it.

Jason Lee: The more people are more interested in e-sports, the more experts of e-sports are cultivated, game companies become increasingly specialized in e-sports. But, game companies themselves have less experience than KeSPA in running competitions.

As we are in the best position to advise many game companies to make rules, we are helping them to make the competitions more exciting with practical experiences for years from referees and know-how from operating competitions. One more thing, referees can tell their opinions on rules freely but don’t make the rules itself. Rules are made by KeSPA following the association’s formal procedures and referees apply rules fairly in accordance with this.

zZZoom in

[Eyedentity Games] Dungeon Striker, Can 5 million USD in annual sales continue? greatly encouraged by the new release-a significant synergy effect with Hangame

Almost all of game users wouldn’t be concerned with where the game comes from. That’s why domestic game company in Korea represents itself as the biggest title rather than its company name. In terms of this, Eyedentity Games represents itself as a developer of Dragon Nest.

Dragon Nest, the first title, has been known for its action features and sensible graphics.

Especially, the game has been successful earning 5 million USD in overseas market like China, Japan rather than Korea. The new title ‘Dungeon Striker’, an ambitious title, has been made public and was released by NHN Hangame.

Dungeon Striker will decide the success or failure of Eyedentity Games’ present and future because Eyedentity Games has had difficulty running its business because of many sudden changes such as a merger issue with Shanda Games, the replacement of chief executive officer and so on. Eyedentity Games is now ready to make a new leap forward and let’s take a look at it.

On April 4th, Eyedentity games announced that they made a publishing contract of Dungeon Striker with NHN Hangame and introduced the game to the public. Users get more interested when they saw a few screen shots and a part of games.

[Dungeon Striker, expected to achieve higher sales than Dragon Nest] Jungsun Jang, Global Business Team of Eyedentity Games, said that users are getting more interested in Dungeon Striker and our game becomes more popular through media these days, it makes our developers take up their courage more than ever.

The publishing contract of Dungeon Striker had been made in December, 2011. It seems that all employees hope that Dungeon Striker, a project for 2years and 6months with over 50 developers, will be as successful as Dragon Nest which has been Eyedentity’s cashcow playing a key role.

Other game officials said that It will be a huge hit if Dungeon Striker is as successful as Dragon Nest. Dragon nest has been a huge hit in China, Japan, Taiwan and North America with sales 5.5 million USD, operating profit 3.5 million USD. Also there are other voices of concern that some suggest Dungeon Striker is similar with Dragon Nest.

However, Jungsun Jang, Global Business Team of Eyedentity Games, said it’s surprising to hear that those two games are similar. It’s true that those two games have remarkable action features but they are totally different from the way of playing games: Dragon Nest has the way of playing FPS but Dungeon striker has the way of playing simple RPG. Identity Games said Dungeon Striker is an action game strengthening RPG features.

Especially various users can be easy to access the game while Dragon Nest is creating a huge fan base for a game buff. Eyedentity Games is also planning to monitor user’s responses thoroughly.

From 27th of April to 29th, for 3days, Dungeon striker carried out the first closed tests.

Jungsun Jang, Global Business Team of Identity Games, said we’re going to check our user’s first impression on our game. For 30 minutes of the beginning of the game, It’s of especial importance to check user’s reaction, we’re checking the flow of human traffic and user’s favorite.

[Inspiring creativity for developers] Experts said Eyedentity games representing Dragon Nest and Dungeon Striker will keep growing substantially in the near future. EyeIdentity Games is also moving their company to another place and hiring more employees. The number of employees has increased considerably from 70 in April,2011 to 250.

With bigger sized group, Eyedentity Games is also setting a bigger goal. They said, "We are expanding the number of exporting countries within this year." Exporters of Dragon Nests are Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan, etc and the number of exporters will be expanded with Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and Europe, etc in 2012.

Eyedentity Games is not also pursuing quantitative growth, investing lots of money on company welfare. They moved to 6-floor-building recently and made lots of spaces for developers like a gym, sleeping place and swimming pool and so on.

Executives of Eyedentity Games believe there should be enough rooms to inspire creativity for developers.

Based on this consideration of executives, Eyedentity Games is going to keep stepping forward. Eyedentity Games said that representative keywords of ours are ‘global’ and ‘action’, we are always focusing on developing games, trying to do our best making much higher quality game.

Opinion

The Transformation

Won-suk Oh Secretary General of IeSF

How would it be proper to apply the concept of sports to e-sports? We must check if we are narrowing down the extension of our imagination about e-sports as we are thinking in a certain routine. If it is the fact that e-sport is currently being settled as it is initially planned, it would be showing a certain result, or providing direction or destination. However, the reality shows the scene that the pioneer sponsors who have been dedicated to the e-sports are leaving the market.

For last 10 years, we have become big-headed. It seems that we’ve already exhausted the imaginative power, was once our competitiveness.

Perhaps, we have forgotten our original intention while we have comforted ourselves with the thought that we have achieved what others did in 70 or 80 years within several years. People believed that the money will follow as the market grows, but the current situation is saying ‘no’ to that. Moreover, e-sport, which was sensational 10 years ago, is not even fresh concept anymore.

We, as a mainbody of e-sport’s emergence, have been generous to ourselves; however, we might have not actually been apathetic about publishers, broadcasters, and gamers who are the core part of the esports. Now, many of those who are core member have left, or are willing to leave the market regardless of our supplication. Some says they do not see any hope in this field no more.

Perhaps, it would not be possible anymore to break through with simple remedy or microscopic maneuver. We may need to approach with totally different manner. How can we make publishers desire to collaborate with us? How can we attract broadcasters to eager to produce and broadcast our contents? What can we do to make sponsors line up in our front yard?

The answer may be a simple one. One would be listening to their story.

We should provide the proper reason for them to hold our hands, and let them justify the long term investment or cooperation arbitrarily.

Although it is not concrete, the very clear pretext and plan should be provided, which shall be designed and operated with communal participation and efforts.

Currently, sponsors rarely get attracted by simple brand exposure. In this fierce competitive market, they don’t get touched by the ambiguous concept, ‘common good’, and rather follow practical benefit such as inclination of sales or improvement of brand value.

Although we invite them by any chance, we are not going to able to keep them stay continuously. What we need to do is to prove that their investment will get compensated by cooperation with us.

In the same manner, for the publishers as well, our plan shall be designed and tuned closely to convince them to assure the cooperation with us as the key of success. As cooperating in long term rather than temporary work, we should give the best shot to compensate their initial investment with long term success. Even for us, as the host of events, selecting stable and sound partner and publisher is crucial part to be considered carefully.

In case of broadcasters, not only for the advertisement business but for contents sales, we need to support them to develop global market as a partner. For global market development, it is impossible to sales contents without grasping the local culture in each country. What we can do for them is set up a connection with our member national associations and local governments. Then, we may rise as the key organization indeed.

Relation with gamers is also a part where we need to be more-minded.

There are more kinds of games piled up, and the range of gamers has become broader. As we embrace variety, and develop community at the same time, we may be able to discover star players and more stories. In fact, the category of gamers is an unknown dimension, requiring more study. Such phenomena as ‘game addiction’ or ‘game immersion’ have been explored; however, study on foster measure for gamers has not been conducted yet. Now is the time to focus on gamers who are the subject of e-sports for e-sports to be settled as one stable industry.

Even if we successfully achieve to enter the boundary of custom sports with the name of e-sports, we cannot assure what we will obtain as benefits yet. There, we need certain strategy for the future. As analyzing the opportunity and threat in current situation, in order to have e-sports to survive and to be developed, we need to deeply mediate what stance we need to take for the change.

Games these days What do you want to get from the games? It may depend on people, most people say “pleasant feeling from achieving something”. It is not easy for us to forget special memories: excitement from achieving something when playing ‘Tetris’ filling various blocks in a limited time or playing ‘Street Fighter’ knocking down the powerful and giant opponent with perfect combination of buttons. But what you have to bear in mind is to overcome barriers before you feel the excitement.

What if knocking down the opponent is so easy? The procedure itself of overcoming difficulties attracts people to keep playing the games for hours and for days. These days, we can receive lots of rewards accomplishing quests, while we could only see a few images or messages like ‘Hurray’ or ‘Congratulations!’ those days, that’s all.

Nevertheless, we used to keep trying to play the game and never stop playing the game to see the image or message until our hands were callused.

Social casual game is about to hit the mainstream these days. User’s preferences are being also changed in accordance with this trend.

According to Gamastura, teens are much more interested in mobile or social game while they are not interested in conventional console game at all. In a survey of nearly 5600 high school students in USA, 66 percent students reported that they are only interested in playing mobile and social game, compared with 34 percent last year.

Whereas we used to be into the game those days, we’d enjoy playing games during the short break before and after work: that would be merit in social game these days. There would be no more annoying factors that users consider which weapon I should equip or which dungeon I was in.

There would be meaningless to use this system in the social game and there would be no more excitement from overcoming difficulties which older gamers used to feel. There is no more replay function to show winners as a reward because of environmental factor and capacity of the platform. Only a few cards replace user’s excitement with contentment with one card collection.

Staying up late at night to play ‘Super Mario’, I could knock down the ‘Cooper’, save the princess and then the princess ‘Peach’ shows up and says ‘thank you’. For me, it was the climax of my achievement in the game. Nowadays, however, we don’t have to play the game for hours and stay up late at night, only message I can get is a ‘thank you’ message from another player. I think developers do welcome with this trend.

Because developers make only rooms for users and make users feel exciting using the social network and make games based on the network. I cannot help wondering if there is only one who feels this way, watching social casual games and finding a sense of achievement I used to feel in the past.

Kim dong wook khgames director

Opinion

Video Game Addiction (Video Game Overuse) - Part 2

According to Wikipedia “Video game addiction, also known as video game overuse, is extreme use of computer and video games that interferes with daily life”. This is the consensus of most articles published about the topic. Since the problems related to video game overuse are a new and fairly recent phenomenon, not much scientific research has been done to date.

In fact the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which is under review in 2012 most likely is not to include video game addiction as a recognised addiction. The reason for this is that insufficient information is available on the topic. Since the healthcare industry has not sufficiently researched this topic we can only speculate and write opinion columns on the matter.

As custodians of e-sports it is our responsibility and privilege to address any public concerns that may put video gaming as a sport into disrepute. Our role is not to defend the video gaming industry, or to discredit it. Our goal is to establish and regulate ESports on a level that is on par with any other sport and thus gains the recognition and respect as such. We wish to be honest and transparent about a social problem that goes along with gaming.

The internet is littered with articles and websites about video game addiction and the effects that has on people and their lives and the lives of their friends and loved ones. Many sites dedicated to supporting individuals and families of so-called ‘gaming addicts’ can be found. This article deals briefly with how some games are designed to ‘exploit’ human weaknesses to make gamers to become immersed in the gaming experience.

There is no denying that video games have become a part of modern culture as much as music and film have. In fact, in recent years the video game industry has overtaken the music and film industry, combined when it comes to annual revenue. A fairly small percentage of the population spend more money on games, hardware and subscriptions than the entire population that is exposed to TV, film and music. The Video Gaming industry is a very competitive and dynamic market. Games and the hardware they run on are constantly evolving.

The game publishers devise new ways to engage the public and to gain customer loyalty. In fact, fighting for customer loyalty is common practise in any market. It can be easily argued that for the purpose of making top dollar, any manufacturer, of any product, in any market will do their best to gain an edge over their competitors to see their product come out on top. For this purpose researchers are employed to establish exactly where and how they have a foot in the door to get more clients and to keep them interested in their products.

For an individual to cope with their everyday life, he or she needs to feel good on a regular basis. Depending on this person’s situation, brief happiness can be achieved by eating a piece of chocolate or sitting down, relaxing and listening to their favourite song. In both cases the brain releases hormones that trigger the warm, happy feeling.

Kai Eysselein President / The Namibian Electronic Sports Association

Personal achievement and peer recognition also trigger feelings of happiness and self-worth. This is also a reason why we play games for entertainment (and in some cases as a sport, as is the case with chess). We are challenged and once we complete the challenge of the game our brain releases hormones that make us feel happy about ourselves. In the case of patience, a card game, it is even played by one player only. The game of ‘dungeons and dragons’ allows many participants to interact in an imaginary world conjured up by one of them. With all games people participate to achieve a sense of well-being. The games would not have become popular if they did not have some hold on the players or participants.

The next article will deal with how games are designed to make the participant feel good, and thus set the foundation for addiction or overuse.

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