201206

vol. 28

N ewsletter

IeSF 2012 Asia Conference at Cebu, Philippines [ Member Nation Reports ]

[ IeSF Headline ]

FIFA Online 2 Vietnam Awards 2012 Ceremony

by Vietnam Recreational eSport Association

Women begin to make a mark in e-Sports

by Mind Sports South Africa

Azerbaijan is preparing to realization of VII National Cyber Games Championship

by Azerbaijan Cyber Sport Federation

PGL takes Romanian e-sports to the next level

by Professional Gamers League

opinion

Thought on the legal approach to game immersion Won-suk Oh, Secretary General of IeSF

IeSF Notice for Members Dear all members! As you may all know, we are attempting to put more weight on the promotion for female participation as keeping up with the Sport Accord and IOC movement.

As the test base of this project, we would like to open “Women’s Invitational Match’ during the IeSF 2012 World Championship. Therefore, we will receive application of participation from all of you for this Women’s Invitational Match. [ ZOOM IN]

[wemade creative] 'VikingIsland' is full of fascinating factors for global users

IeSF Newsletter - vol28

www.ie-sf.com

2012. 6. 10

IeSF Headline

IeSF 2012 Asia Conference at Cebu, Philippines We, International e-Sports Federation (IeSF), hereby pleasurably announce that we are hosting IeSF 2012 Asia Conference at Cebu city, Philippines. We would like to invite all of our respectful members in Asia. The details of the Asia Conference are as follows: As we sent out invitation e-mail to all of Asian members, please send us following information for invitation letter for your visa.

1. Full Name (as stated in the passport) 2. Date of Birth 3. Passport Number As soon as we receive this information, IeSF and Philippine eSports Organization will write invitation letter for Visa.

Also, if you have already planned for your national qualifier schedule (pre-report), please submit it before the conference. If not, please let us know the estimated date of the national qualifier at least. So, we can make the presentation material for National qualifier schedule for members.

Once again, please note the schedule and arrange your flight ticket as not being late for the official event. We highly recommend you to plan your trip to arrive no later than 18:00 PM of July 6.

We look forward to meeting you all soon at the beautiful vacation spot, Cebu city.

IeSF Notice for Members Global Data

Dear all members, As you may all know, we are attempting to put more weight on the promotion for female participation as keeping up with the Sport Accord and IOC movement. As the test base of this project, we would like to open “Women’s Invitational Match’ during the IeSF 2012 World Championship. Therefore, we will receive application of participation from all of you for this Women’s Invitational Match.

The details for the Women’s invitational match are as follows: 1.

Title: Tekken & Starcraft II 2.

Player: One player for each title per nation 3.

Invitational condition: Accommodation, Meals (Flight shall be covered by each member association) 4.

Application Due: 30th of June If you would like to send female players, please submit the application which has been sent you via notice e-mail by 30th of June. The relative information of players shall be submitted by 2nd of Sep.Also, please note that the due for submission of estimated number of participants is 30th of June. Submission of this document is very crucial for us to arrange accommodation and board. Missing due may lead to the subject of disadvantage for invitation. So, please do not miss the due.

We expect all of your active participation.

Member Nation Reports

2012. 6. 10

Vietnam reports

FIFA Online 2 Vietnam Awards 2012 Ceremony

by Vietnam Recreational eSport Association

FIFA Online 2 Vietnam Awards 2012 is designed to give athletes, teams, club and moderator involved with FIFA Online 2 proper recognition for their results and contributions in the year 2011 . Only the best of the best are honoured with the prize. The final winners are determined by a jury and comunity. FIFA Online 2 Vietnam Awards ceremony was held in Horizon hotel, 40 Cat Linh street, Dong Da district, Hanoi on April 9th.

FIFA Online 2 Vietnam Awards 2012 ceremony with the participation of: Vice President and General Secretary of eSports and entertainment organization VIRESA, representator of VTC Game, famous sports commentator Vu Quang Huy was held formally at Horizon hotel, 40 Cat Linh street, Dong Da district, Hanoi on April 9th.…

Talking about eSports orientation in Vietnam and VIRESA’s plan for FIFA Online 2, Mr. Duong Nghiep Chi - Vice President and General Secretary of eSports and entertainment organization VIRESA: “We are cooperating with administration of Sports in a project about developing mental and intelligent of Vietnameses. After many researches, we can see that atheletes playing FIFA Online 2 are getting much better in mental, intelligent and using computer as well”.

On behalf of VTC Game, the main publisher company of FIFA Online 2, Mr. Luong Hai Ngoc – Vice Director of VTC Game showed his own thought: “2011 was considered as the most successful year of FIFA Online 2 Vietnam since it has been placed in to Top 5 Game Online in Vietnam. It also has a huge community with twelve Clubs in Vietnam. eSports and entertainment organization VIRESA released a document that recognites FIFA Online 2 as a part of eSports. Athelete that won Vietnam Esports Championship 2011 received a master certificate from government. Moreover, FIFA Online 2 Vietnam succesfully defended championship in One Asia Cup 2011 Malaysia which created huge impression toward esports community and journalists.

This is a good news for eSports scene in Vietnam. Nowaday, FIFA Online 2 atheletes will play, train in a good eSports environment and they are appraised higer than ever.”

The results of FIFA Online 2 Vietnam Awards 2012: 1.

Athletes of the Year: Nguyen Thai Bao 2.

Community of the Year: King_Dragon 3.

Potential athletes of the Year: Tran Duc Trung.

4.

Potential community of the Year: 1st_ThanhHoa. 5.

Moderator of the Year: Tanhbom – Mr. Le Minh Tri 6.

Club of the Year: FIFA Online 2 Ho Chi Minh Club.

7.

Vip Gamer of the Year: Mr. Phan Hong Duc.

South Africa reports

Women begin to make a mark in e-Sports

by Mind Sports South Africa

In e-Sports there is no distinction at the moment between men and women as both genders compete as equals for the spoils. However, until a couple of years ago it was a rarity that women would finish among the medals in e-Sports. Only occasionally would women make it into the medals. But no longer.

At the 2012 Gauteng Provincial Championships held on 28 & 29 April in Boksburg there were as usual, only a couple women who braved the event as competitors.

Nevertheless, both women made up for their lack of numbers by exhibiting both skill and exemplary sportsmanship.

Young Gabriela Isaacs, from SAHETI High School, took on all comers to make her mark in the WarCraft III: Defense of the Ancients game.

WarCraft III is traditionally dominated by men and no woman has ever made it into the premier medals before in South Africa. Nevertheless, the young thirteen-year old showed her skill and took on all comers.

Her first game was against Wouter Smit (the IT Educator from HF Verwoerd) and she took him down in a game that only last a mere seven-and-a-half minutes. Immediately cries went up from Wouter’s learners about having been beaten by a girl. Gabriela beamed!

All but South Korean, Dong Hoon Kang, and Pretoria based Ivan De Lange went down to Gabriela to place Gabriela in third place in the Premier section.

Gariela’s fine achievement means that she is the first ever female to win a premier medal for WarCraft III and has also now qualified for the SA National Team Trials.

In TEKKEN 6, the console game, Marushka Bosch made her mark.

Again, faced with only male competitors, and not to be be put off, Marushka showed her skill and fought her way to third place. Marushka too, by having finished in third place has now qualified for the SA National Team Trials.

Member Nation Reports

2012. 6. 10

Azerbaijan reports

Azerbaijan is preparing to realization of VII National Cyber Games Championship

by Azerbaijan Cyber Sport Federation

Beginning from 2006 National Association of Cyber Games (Federation of Cyber Sport from 2011) together with Ministry of Youth and Sport holds National Cyber Games Championship in Azerbaijan.

Every year hundreds of young people from different regions of the country who came to the capital, Baku city, to try their luck for title of the strongest cyber-athletes of Azerbaijan pull into this event.

Up to 2010 all the qualifiers were held directly in Baku city. In 2011 organizers have carried out experimental matches in several regions of the country and positive results were reached. In 2012 the decision about carrying out of national qualifiers in all the regions of the country has been adopted.

For realization of this, three-stage system of qualifiers’ organization was planed. At the first stage regional qualifiers will be held in 70 regions of the country. At the second – zonal – stage qualifiers will be held in 9 towns. This list includes: Qusar, Lenkaran, Balaken, Goranboy, Nakhchivan, Ismayilly, Sabirabad, Ganja and Baku. And in conclusion, closing stage – National Final – will take place in Baku. It should be noted that organization and carrying out of qualifiers in the field takes place with a help of Ministry of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan.

Romania reports

PGL takes Romanian e-sports to the next level

by Professional Gamers Leaague

Founded in 2002, the Professional Gamers League has always been at the forefront of hosting e-sport events in Romania, partnering up with major organizers and sending the top Romanian players to represent their country around the world at the international grand finals.

on Saturday, the Counter-Strike group stages and the DOTA 2 matches and finals will be in the spotlight, while on Sunday, the StarCraft 2 finalists will thrill viewers with intense matches, paving the way for the Counter-Strike grand final.

Now, PGL takes it one step further this weekend with the Grand Finals for the first season of the Romanian eSport Championship.

Hosted between 26 – 27 May in Forte Games iCafe, Constanta, the grand finals will feature the best Counter-Strike, StarCraft 2 and DOTA 2 players in Romania, who will battle for cash prizes worth over 6000 EURO.

However, this will be just the start, because on October 26-27 the Dreamhack Eizo Open will make its final stop in the European tour in Bucharest, where the 1st and 2nd places for each official game will have reserved slots at Dreamhack Winter 2012 (November 22-25, Jönköping, Sweden).

As with the rest of the PGL events for 2012, the season one grand finals will be streamed online via PGLTV:

This will be the biggest e-sport event ever hosted in Romania, with prizes well beyond the established norm. And with top teams attending and competing for their place at Dreamhack Winter, e-sport fans won’t want to miss it for anything.

INTERVIEW

2012. 6. 10

Suzanna Samstag Oh, a branch manager in Korea, Games For Change

why Korean government is only focusing on negative effects

“Annyeonghaseyo” Suzanna Samstag Oh with blond hair and blue eyes, a branch manager in Korea, Games For Change, says hello to our reporter in Korean.

Last March, Suzanna Samstag Oh made a impressive speech at the conference named Breaking Down Bias on games conference.

There is an odd phenomenon that people attribute all bad problems to games happening in society. But she suggests it is not an absolute solution. She is one of figures who criticizes game restriction in Korea.

She said games in Korea is just like a inferior culture, meanwhile, Video games in western countries are recognized as an art, it is sometimes displayed in the art museum. [why Korean government is only focusing on negative effects] The bill of game regulation says that violence and addictive features has spoiled our children. However, each member of community like parents, teachers and etc hasn’t played his or her own role in the society. Suzanna said, the reason why Korean government is only focusing on negative effects of game is not because of problems of game itself but because of Korean government’s fault.

Korean community tends to avoid uncomfortable situations rather than set specific standards on specific issues. These issues including sex violence, school violence petered out for this tendency of Korean community. It doesn’t make sense that games cause harsh violence for children and make our children become addicts.

There would be no biased perspectives on games if parents and teachers had a long and sincere conversation with their children and set clear criteria.

I cannot help wondering why there are lots of negative reports in Korea, even though there are lots of reports including positive effects of game in foreign countries. She thinks the press in Korea saying that internet addicts have a low level grasp and poor judgment due to developmental disorder of front lobe seems to depreciate its professionalism. She cannot but think that would be a serious mistake making the public think that games have only negative effects.

She said the press worsens the situation with unprofessional knowledge of games and distorted facts rather than points out the older generation’s misunderstanding or don’t emphasize proper function of games. “Korea should change its negative recognition toward games. Korea will miss the great chance to be a hub of contents industry of itself if Korea doesn’t change itself.”

She said many countries excluding Korea have regarded the game affecting brain development and its accessibility as favorable contents and have kept trying to create a synergy effect with education.

However, Korea is stopping itself from developing, without knowing that Korea could seize the initiative in the game contents industry all over the world. What’s the most important is right recognition on games of Korea to be the leading country in the contents export business.

[Lineage game could be a functional game.]

People tend to think functional game should focus on only educational effects, actually it’s not true. MMORPG like Lineage and Aion could be a functional game. She explained there would be a system that job seekers could get additional points in foreign countries. A person who has ever played MMORPG would have more cooperation, problem-solving ability and negotiating power. It’s like employers give an employee who finished his military service additional points in civil service examination.

She denies negative problems of Korean MMORPG, explaining educational effects of MMORPG. She said, a player could have a strong sense of community that people can’t learn from real life and learn problem-solving abilities and the way of communication through many processes of hunting animals, enjoying raid, managing items and selling items. It means it could be a functional game as it is now.

“Korea should continuously invest money and be patient to be a leading country in the functional game industry. Korea shouldn’t expect to pass with flying colors if Korea stops it due to current low profitability”. She said haste of Korean company has had functional games fail over and over in Korea.

The Competition between 10billion won’s development expense and less than 100million won’s investment doesn’t make sense. There are untapped opportunities in the functional games. Failures would be inevitable only if someone wants to get instant success in the market.

She said the role of Game Culture Foundation or KOCCA(Korea Creative Contents Agency) would be very important. These organizations need to signpost for game industry the various points Korean game is going to step forward in the long term.

She said although game industry in Korea is having difficulty fighting against its negative effects of game like violence and excessive immersion in game, it could be a necessary catalyst in the near future to solve all problems rooted in our society by trying to our best. Additionally, Korea should find a proper answer not only in terms of technologies and contents but in terms of systems and trends for bright future.

Zoom in

2012. 6. 10

[Wemade Creative] 'VikingIsland' is full of fascinating factors for global users ‘VikingIsland’ will be on show at the E3... equal quality of console

"Smart-phone is hitting the mainstream and we're going to succeed with the greatest quality in the global market". The environment of game developers is totally changed with the distribution of smart-phone. There would be lots of new phenomenon that mobile game developers are considered the top priority to be hired and smart-phone games made over ten million dollars.

This trend is also at the E3(Electronic Entertainment Expo) which will be held on the 5th of June in U.S. World-wide famous smart-phone game developers will release their new titles at E3. Wemade Creative as a Korean smart-phone game developer will reveal new line-ups such as 'VikingIsland', 'Chaos&Defense' and 'Pet Island'.

Yongjong Cho, a chairman of Ngonsoft (a branch of Wemade Creative), announces proudly that smart-phone games has a high quality comparable to console games.

Yongjong Cho said that smart-phone games are reaching the level of competitive quality regardless of platform. He said that 'VikingIsland' could prove this trend to the world by showing its world-wide level of quality.

-Reporter: You are exhibiting 'VikingIsland' at the E3. How are things going?

-Yongjong Cho, a ceo of Viking Island (YJ): We're focusing on displaying it as it is because we've already finished developing it, we are not supposed to make another version for the E3. We're expecting favorable responses of local users as it would be planned to launch in North America from the developmental stage.

-Reporter: What do you want to get at the E3?

-YJ: Only Wemade Creative among Korean game companies will have an exhibit at E3. I hope we'd like to not only introduce Korean games and excellent ability to develop great games but get a desired marketing effect by catching user's attention in North America.

-Reporter: Console games used to be treated as a top priority but exhibits of mobile game developers such as Wemade Creative and Gree are issued this year. Are you confident that 'VikingIsland' could be worthy of note compared with others at the E3?

-YJ: I would proudly say that both the quality and graphics of ours are excellent.

Compared to our 3D based game with high quality and graphics, almost all of companies mainly exhibit 2D games, so I'm sure 'VikingIsland' never fails to attract user's attention in a short term. Officials from Wemade Creative decided to invest money on 'VikingIsland' in 30 minutes right after they saw the game. That's why I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to get an explosive response at the E3.

-Reporter: We're worrying about lots of competitive titles, actually there are already lots of social games based on farms in the global market.

-YJ: Right, but the high quality of our game makes our title differentiate it from others.

Our game has two differentiating factors compared to simple farm based game: viking heroes and objects are made in 3D with different appearance and RPG characters are put in the game like developing characters and fighting against monsters.

-Reporter: You has started to service the game as of 26th of April. How about Korean users' reaction to the game?

-YJ: Many users like to play our game and we also received good reviews on graphics and contents. Since many users, regardless of gender, can enjoy both battle and farming at the same time, Men likes to play battles centered and women likes to play farming centered.

Some people pointed out problems like debugging, but the problems will be thoroughly examined as quickly as possible by updating the game in a large scale. We're also take actions to let 3GS users and Android users play well.

-Reporter: Is there any competitive title to 'VikingIsland'?

-YJ: I don't think there is a competitive title, It's like no one can easily say :'Starcraft is much better than Lineage' or 'Lineage is much better than Starcraft'. The game characteristics itself is totally different.

In North America, 'DragonVale' is pretty popular and users tend to prefer that kind of game. I believe viking would perfectly suit North American users' taste because it has an interesting view of the world 'viking' as well as it reflects well war-like tendency of users.

Opinion

2012. 6. 10

Thought on the legal approach to game immersion Recently, I sort of miss the society where people admit the difference of each other and respect variation of each other’s life.

Perhaps, there are not many people living their life as they have once dreamed of in childhood. Before we realize it, perhaps most of people live their life concerning it as standardized answer of multiple choice questions which replaces their old dreams, though it may be not the right answer. People cannot easily answer on the question of when the happiest moment in their life. It is just same Won-suk Oh Secretary General of IeSF for me. Although we dimly feel it is not the correct answer, why do we force the not verified answer to our children?

I wish our society may become one respecting various lives more.

As I get older, I gradually realize that there is no certain answer for a life. There are too many kinds of lives to brag about the life for possessing more, living longer or being more educated. We should look upon each other’s life. There is no such thing that “I am the only answer.”

If I can still dream of something, isn’t it right that I should recommend our children to keep challenging for anything? As a parent or an older generation, I wish I could position myself rather as a mentor than as a leader who can hold hands or borrow a shoulder when they are fallen or depressed for a failure.

In the same manner, the current overprotection for the youth is a great pity. There must be own agonies and pains for the youth, and it must be differed by the generation. However, we are still standardizing it with the perception of the old fashion although we do not perceive exactly what their lives are like.

I have such complaints on current older generation with impatience. It seems that they attempt to wrap all these matter rather which are ours and complex, than which are not children’s or simple.

Matters of the culture or the society shall be solved within a long period with lots of efforts. However, those older generations attempt to resolve it with the easiest way, then, comfort themselves that they have done their roles. These incomplete resolutions seem truly worried.

If one does not low oneself or does not sacrifice, there will be no true communication. We should make time, visit personally, listen first, and understand, then, we can set up a certain table for communication where all generations can feel sympathy.

I was once treated as a trouble maker. The chance that I could get back on the right track was my mother who had waited and trusted me without a certain word. Once I made a serious problem in school, and my mother was called in. A sentence she told me when she was back from the school was “I trust you.” It was more powerful than hundreds of words or thousands of lashes. If she rattled nitpickings, or infused rules compulsorily, I would not able to get back on the track that fast since it would add the fuel on my pubescent rebellion. Anyways, it still remains in my memory as a deep impression, and becomes my motto to be dwelled when I am stuck in the life’s obstacle.

I think, now, we need the wisdom in the same manner with the true affection that we can wait and see in the distance with trust. We may need courage and patience to observe in the distance, and step up when they are in trouble or hard pressed.

Excessive immersion on game is not a simple problem that we can easily resolve. It is not only problem of the youth but for all of us. If we truly desire to resolve this issue, the older generations should approach rather as a mentor or a supporter, and look for a role that we can help them practically. Only when we approach this issue as spend plenty of time and effort, we may be able to eventually find the solution. It must be not a problem which we can solve with the law.

Everyone can make a game The Audition craze is sweeping Korea now. A certain time passed, not exactly right now. Everyone including audiences and common people having a talent to sing well could sing a song for people even he or she is not a professional singer. A ‘song’ could be a part of culture, hobby and life because it has been sung by lots of people for a long time.

Especially in Korea, there is a special place to sing a song in a room called “Noraebang”. It seems that Korea has a great infrastructure to be a singer, make people dream and provide a small stage called :"Noraebang".

These days, An argument that everyone could make a game like being a singer from audition program on TV or making a band is creating a major issue in U.S.A. Anna Anthropy, a famous indie game developer, complained that there were only a few games to make people touched on the technology news site named ‘The Verge’. She thinks this is because developers have regarded a game which is a complex combined with all arts as a product to sell.

Anna wrote a book “Rise of the Videogame Zinesters”, suggesting that everyone should make a game. To make games be recognized as an art and be a part of culture, she said that a game should be another medium of expression with personal thoughts and experiences rather than a commercial product by a company.

In an age of mainstream role-playing or shooting games, people should do something without any breaks on the cyberspace. Developers can’t keep up with player’s needs, although the number of game players increase and people want to play various kinds of games.

Additionally, she thinks everyone can make a game and it doesn’t necessarily have to work for a game company when you want to make games. It doesn’t mean that only special people are able to make games like an example of singers as above since there are lots of successful kim dong wook examples such as a crowd funding or diffusion of developing tools khgames director with reasonable prices or for free.

She’s not forcing common people to finish making games and distribute them even common people make games. The key point is that there could be much more creative games when people get a new experience by making games. In this way, she emphasizes that especially teens having lots of potential creative ability should experience ‘what making games is’.

It’s like playing the piano as a player wants to and painting a picture as a painter wants to. Children can get interested in art and music through this experience. It’ll be a meaningful to experience ‘what making games is’ because there would be lots of negative recognition toward games in Korea nowadays.

I hope there would be better environment that everyone could make games regardless of whatever they make.

Opinion

2012. 6. 10

Video Game Addiction (Video Game Overuse) part 3

Searching for the term “video game addiction” or “video game overuse” returns a myriad of results, mostly from websites dedicated to dealing with problems related with spending too much time playing games. What all of these have in common is that they deal with MMORPG’s (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) and to some degree with flash games that can typically be found on social media sites. Sports games, FPS’s or strategy games are almost never mentioned. It seems that these games pose less of a threat than the others. Why is this?

Some games are free to play, where you only pay small amounts for upgrades or to accelerate progress. Others are subscription based, where you pay a monthly fee to play. The traditional way of paying for a game once seems to becoming less popular these days. It can be argued that getting the user to play your game for a small fee, or letting him play for free, only to pay small amounts every now and then is a very lucrative business.

Developers use various techniques to make their games more compelling: Variable Ratio Reinforcement This is similar to how slot machines work. Rewards are issued according to a random schedule.

The “symptom” the users experience would be that he hopes that playing “just a few minutes longer” result in them receiving that item they have been “hoping for” for.

Avoidance Some games, especially flash games found in social media, use this technique to almost force users to check in and play every few hours. Users are practically punished for not playing on a regular basis. Either their crop is lost if it is not cared for or harvested regularly or buildings fall apart and become useless if not maintained.

The “symptom” the users experience would be that they cannot leave the game “unattended” for too long, otherwise their “hard work” would be “lost”.

Compulsion Loop This technique is being used in most games in fact. It is mentioned in most game design manuals and forms the basis of game design. The Compulsion Loop makes use of achievements, to make the user feel rewarded for their efforts and the time spent playing. Achievements usually unlock other content, levels, tools or weapons or features for the game.

The “symptom” the users experience is that they “just need to get a few more points” to reach the set target.

All three techniques make use of normal human behaviour.

Every human wants to feel like: • Luck is on their side (Variable Ratio Reinforcement Technique) • Someone depends on them (Avoidance Technique) • They are achievers at something (Compulsion Technique)

Kai Eysselein President / The Namibian Electronic Sports Association

Many papers written on the subject of excessive gaming have in common that playing games makes users feel good about themselves because they feels lucky, they feels needed and they can achieve goals.

The medical community agrees that these factors can lead to addiction or compulsive behaviour similar to gambling addiction or even the obsessive behaviour found with some endurance athletes. It is agreed, however that only a small percentage of gamers are prone to become addicts or compulsive gamers.

Recently published studies show that the problem is more of a social nature. Modern society and everyday life no longer provide for psychological and emotional needs of people. People turn to games to find luck, feel depended on and to achieve goals.

Healthy gaming requires a healthy, balanced life style. Finding luck, being with friends and family that depend on you and succeeding at school or work are real life quests.

Contact US All rights are reserved by IeSF. Now we are attempting multinational global correspondents with medias from all over the world to lead global trend.

We would welcome any posts of our contents in IeSF’s newsletter into the personal blogs or the press. Copyrights should be marked with your posts.

Please contact us with the POC stated as below if you need contents. Texts of all contents could be provided.

We would appreciate your cooperation.

Sophie Jeon (sophie@khplus.kr), Alex Lim (limcw@ie-sf.org)