Don't hate the player, love the game

Gamers are born with controllers lodged into their hands. Carpal tunnel at 10? No problem, I was born to play. Adding more and more games as the years strolled by.

My father taught me my first game of chess at the age of five. It took me five years before I won my first game against him. It was a rite of passage of some sort. Then I went digital. It was only natural for me to get into first generation video games such as Pac-Man, Atari, Contra & Leisure Suit Larry. I subsequently outgrew these games when we moved to Hong Kong and I discovered the more immersive world of video game arcades.

It was a subculture where I could be whoever I wanted in those few hours that I was manning the console. I was my own superhero. I was my own hero. I was anything I wanted to be. At a young age, I knew what power felt like. It was intoxicating.

I would justify my daily tribute to the god of gaming by citing the role of games as a form of meritocracy in the Greek and other ancient civilizations. It was all about skill and not about provenance. Everyone, if they’re good enough, is a winner.

At least that’s what I would tell my parents when they would question my five-hour daily video game sessions as a young boy.

Video gaming in Hong Kong, (where I grew up), in the late ‘80s was serious stuff. Most video gaming halls where located in smoke-filled basements of buildings — a stone’s throw from the crowded streets of Wanchai or Causeway Bay. You had to love it to be there.

The more dingy halls, in shady back alleys, served as recruitment centers for Triad gangs. This obviously didn’t dissuade a young boy of 10 from participating in no holds barred mano y mano (Street Fighter) tournaments. Winner takes all. This is how one earns a Ph.D in gaming. In hindsight it added to the seduction of gaming.

For those of you who haven’t heard or played Street Fighter, this is the granddaddy of player versus player (PVP) arcade games, which have now evolved into a diverse range of award-winning titles such as Tekken (1, 2 , 3 and 4), Dead or Alive, Mortal Combat, and Ridge Fighter.

Going back to Street Fighter tournaments, this game served as the great equalizer, a level playing field. It is democratic in every sense of the word. Gamers would converge to prove their skill and mettle in this game. The amalgam of skill, balls and luck proved to be the clincher for any serious participant. Players and spectators alike developed a deep appreciation of the perfectly executed gut-wrenching combinations, and impeccably timed kill moves. My personal favorites would be a hadouken (fireball) at close range quickly followed by a spin kick, or a shoryuken (dragon punch uppercut), which is as close as one can get to disemboweling your opponent on-screen, as well as breaking the confidence of even the most determined player.

I learned to truly appreciate the digital bloodbath that ensued as in the real world, I was also drawn to the world of martial arts and kung-fu. The courtship of both in my life proved to be almost poetic. We’ve gone a long way since chess.

Gaming today is not just a thing you do in your free time, its serious business. With significant advancements in technology, as well as wide adoption of digital devices, one can play video games from the TV, PC, phone, cell phone, console machines, or any connected device for that matter. It’s everywhere. Going in stride with the App mania, I am planning to buy myself (finally!) an iPhone. I’m already salivating over game apps, which include gunning down terrorists and lobbing grenades into unsuspecting enemy territories. Blackberry for work, iPhone for play. Life is good.

The global video gaming industry’s turnover is estimated to reach $48.9 billion by 2011, according to Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC). This is larger than the entire global music, and entire global movie industry. I’ll say it again: gaming is not just a game, it is serious business. Take that Weinstein and David Geffen.

It has left the alleys and has now hit the stock exchange.

You can say that my thousands of hours of game-play session were the foundation of my online gaming company in the Philippines that was just publicly listed a few months ago (PSE Ticker Symbol: EG). It is a feat for game geeks all over the country. It is the revenge of the player. What have become of those frat boys and their kegs for cheerleaders? We’re the real players!

I conclude my first article by commemorating the five best games of all time:

1. Streetfigher for nostalgic reasons, and it did start the PVP Genre.

2. Tekken for taking the streetfighter experience to the next level — the ultimate PVP game in my opinion.

3. Grandtheft Auto (GTA). Any GTA player will attest this ultimate stress reliever.

4. Counterstrike for all of you FPS fans.

5. Resident Evil. Try playing this in the dark for the full effect. I was glued for days.

So what kind of player are you?

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E-mail me at egtheplayer@gmail.com.