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- |Changes [Feb 26, 2009]
The camera
He scolded my cousin for playing WarCraft III with my brother and me. From the tone of his voice, all three of us could tell he was not in a good mood so we just kept quiet- like always. I watched him as his angry eyebrows loosen and his breath soften before I asked him what had happened. But to be honest, I was surprised he even scolded his son. Not simply because WarCraft III is my favorite game- but do you gain anything from Lineage? Isn’t this all just for fun?
Apparently what had happened was while he was fighting monsters, he got ambushed by another player from behind and died. Getting killed and losing gold was bad in itself but experience points drop when you die and that takes a day or two to gain back. On top of all that, my cousin was not playing Lineage and thus, not there to help him fight. But even after he calmed down, he made it a point that he couldn’t understand why my cousin played WarCraft III or any other game aside from Lineage for that matter.
Blizzard Entertainment, before developing World of Warcraft, was well known for developing one genre of games and that was real-time strategy games (RTS). Although this genre of games dates back to the 1980’s, Dune II (1992) was the first to have the key core concepts of RTS games today: resource-gathering, base-building, technology development and direct unit control. Then in 1998, Blizzard released StarCraft, the most popular RTS of all times selling over 9 million copies by 2005 in an industry where half a million copies is considered a large hit. Finally, in July 2002, Blizzard released WarCraft III, one of the most anticipated and popular video game releases ever with 4.5 million pre-order copies and over 1 million sold during the its first two weeks.
But StarCraft and WarCraft III has reached even higher popularity than mere number of copies sold, numbers part of a revenue formula. They have created a whole new community, a whole new sport, and a whole new culture. An excerpt from Wikipedia:
“Though a best-seller all over the world, the game is especially popular in South Korea, with nationally recognized tournaments, training groups, professional players, and televised cable-access competitions that often broadcast live tournaments, leading some to refer to the game somewhat jokingly as South Korea's national sport.” (Source 6)
Aside from dedicated TV channels in South Korea for gaming such as MBC Game and Ongamenet, the game has become such a sport that players are receiving contracts and sponsorships. Some players can earn a good living from TV-contracts, tournament prizes and sponsorships. The highest paid StarCraft player ever is “SplayerS ‘BoxeR”, making US$780,000 in three years; this is absolutely phenomenal and certainly more than one could ever make in Lineage.
Henry mentioned competitions and TV channels dedicated to StarCraft and WarCraft III. But this is definitely something everyone must see with their own eyes to understand. World Cyber Games (WCG) is the equivalent of Olympics for sports. This year, WCG is giving out over US$400,000 in prize money for six games- two of which are StarCraft and WarCraft III. The official WCG website is here and if you have time, definitely take a look at the final rounds of WarCraft III [link].
I really wanted to tell my uncle and convince him that my cousin should play WarCraft III because it is much more skill based and even widely accepted as a sport. Instead of Lineage where you spend most of your time with mundane farming routines and realize gold farmers are everywhere, WarCraft III has a very strong creative and strategic element to it.
But at the end of the day, my cousin is still twelve and what a twelve year old should be doing is studying. He should be studying to get into a good high school, good college, and ultimately, get a good job. But what he sees around him is a person who is trapped in MMORPGs. How can he concentrate on academics? How can he mature? All these questions keep circulating my mind every sentence I write in this journal.
