I wonder how many of you pay attention to E-Sport, let me make a small introduction of the status of E-Sport in Taiwan.

There's TeSL, "Taiwan eSports League". Currently, there're two games of competition, Kart Rider and Special Force Online.

Kart Rider is a MMO racing game whileSpecial Force Online is a MMO FPS, known as "Soldier Front" in US. Both of these games are fromKorea.

Kart Rider

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpYnRceAWxc

Special Force Online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeNzOqmXdwU

TeSL has kicked start for a pretty long while, but the main issue of it is that these two games do not conform the major competitions throughout the globe. It's like a frog hiding in the well, regardless of the immense ocean. That's why TeSL is harshly criticized by many gamers who care about the future of eSport in Taiwan, since eSport ought to be a global industry/career.

Then why not choose the exact games applied in other major esport leagues like CS, Starcraft, Halo etc? Frankly speaking, all result from fund. Gaming in Taiwan still is not provided with a friendly environment by government and society like South Korea is. From time to time, articles criticizing games appear throughout mass media, needless to say, government and society hardly think highly of eSport.

Therefore, to survive and prosper, TeSL needs to find its own source of fund. Game companies are the sponsors of the league and the teams. That's why Kart Rider and SF Online are the items of TeSL- They are carried by TeSL's sponsors. By competing these two games, they can be promoted so the firms can make more money.

That's why TeSL is flamed by gamers, since everything it does needs to consider the profit of the sponsors first.

Recently there's a voting event to increase the competition items of TeSL. What are the games?

World of Warcraft

Left 4 Dead 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Team Fortress 2

Need For Speed

NBA Live 10

Red Alert 3

CS Online

War Hammer Online

SD Gundam Online

Warcraft -Dota Allstar

There're another two items of Warcraft but I dunno how to call them in English. Anyways they are two mods of Warcraft, "Warcraft -信長之野望" and "Warcraft -真三國無雙".

From the list above we finally see some "international games", but some games apparently not suitable for esport still appear.

Korean MMO games (often called online games in TW) require players to pay cash to buy weapons and armors while after a period they will be overdue, so players have to buy again. This is a business mode for the game companies to make endless fortune. For the players, since the default weapons really don't defy the paid weapons, they often have to pay to buy if they want to win.

Take CS Online for example.Note that this is nether CS1.6 not CS Source. This is a remake by Korean game company, Nexon.Players having to pay cash to unlock rent new weapons is the difference between CSO and CS1.6. Paying cash to unlock and rent means this is not only a game about skills, but a game about the size of your wallets. What's more, the company doesn't actively take care of cheaters. Roughly speaking, CSO is very popular among young/casual gamers but when it comes to serious esport, games that require endless buying weapons will ruin the balance of the competition. The same concept also goes to SD Gundam Online as well.

Now,Warcraft -信長之野望, CS Online and SD Gundam Online take up the most percentages of the votes. Affirmatively they are the most popular games in TW now, and they probably will become the new items for TeSL, but the result won't change the esport atmosphere in TW nonetheless.

Many gamers who look forward to the change of TeSL are disappointed, but we can't do anything - that's just the environment.

I myself once look up to the development of eSport in Taiwan, but now I know were the environment not bettered, eSport in Taiwan would never make its significant step toward the international gaming competition.

Now that I have consoles, I think I won't be buying PC games any further.

The latest PC game I bought is Left 4 Dead and the other one I play is Quake Live (free).

I've been a PC gamer for a long time. Playing games on PC can be pretty convenient -- since you can switch between browsers and games with just a click. However, I run into prices as well.

Prices? Yeah, prices. First of all, system requirement.

System Requirement

I have to update the hardware to keep up the pace or I'll be left behind.

When I went into college, I bought my own PC and a video card, 6800LE. Seen old nowadays, 6800LE could handle most of the games that time, like UT2004, Half Life2, Guild Wars, etc. Until I bought this card did I find that the AGP video card has been gradually replaced by PCI-E, so my main board, AGP 8X, is actually an bit old standard.

As time went by, more and more "computer killers" has been released. Crysis is an obvious example. I realized my machine would not handle new games any further, and as I intended to keep this PC until I graduated from college, I wouldn't largely upgrade the computer (or I could just buy a totally new one instead), so I could only stick to my 6800LE.

It was not over, because my will was challenged. A famous game, Left 4 Dead, was released. I have had Xbox360 that time, but I wanted to play the PC version because mates I know all went to PC version. Knowing my 6800LE was an outdated veteran, I should look for a decent video card.

It was February of '09. Seeking a video card has become a hard quest. nVIDIA GeForce 7 series would be just fine, but every store I stepped into had already sold out and wouldn't refill stock anymore, since PCI-E is the mainstream now. The AGP 8X cards left are only 6200, weaker than my own.

Out of desperation, ATI cards came to my mind. Yeah, why not try ATI cards instead? I spent hours looking for nVIDIA cards, but ended in Radeon HD 4870 within less than 5 minutes.

Taa-Daa! A new video card, which however appeared like an old man in his mid-forties when he stood among 20-something dude crowd.

My hardware: P4 3.0GHz, RAM DDR 1GB, HD 4870 (AGP 8X). The man in his mid-forties can handle old tasks easily but fresh ones inadequately. I needed to adjust the graphic of L4D to lowperformance to merely afford a 1X Frame Per Second.

I've played Left 4 Dead and Quake Live for so many hours. I'm satisfied, but I don't want to take efforts on upgrading computer just for games no more. I'm a lazy person, not passionate enough as to keep my computer shiny and tidy.

This is the first reason why I am thinking about quitting computer games. The other reason will be in the next blog. Thanks for reading so far

Are you into FaceBook?

We all know that FaceBook is flooded with countless options of web games and mental tests and my buddies on FaceBook seem never stop playing them. In addition, FarmVille is so popular that even news and newspapers have reports about it. It has become an "everybody game" as it seems.

The games and tests are popular, fun and even addictive. People are willing to get up at 6 am only to steal vegetables from others' farms. Nonetheless, I don't think that's the initial purpose of FaceBook.

Isn't Facebook the platform for people and old friends to connect together? I add many people into my FaceBook friends list who are my classmates and friends. I joined FaceBook, only wanting to read their usual murmurs, care about how they feel, know how they've been even we've already separated into different domains of life.

The reality is, they're playing games and tests instead of leaving messages. The "wall" of FaceBook is always spammed with the results of their games and tests.

When i just joined FaceBook, I was intrigued by the games and tests as well, but after some time, I found them a bore to a fair-thee-well.

Right now I've already stopped playing the games and tests, and gave up expecting messages on the "wall". I've turned to Plurk, which is message only just like Twitter, so I can be in touch with buddies on Plurk.

The rare ones who leave messages on FaceBook will still catch my attention.

Yeah it's been a long time since the last visit here

Now I've graduated from college. On Oct 27th, I'll be serving in the military for 11 months. I'll retire in September next year.

As for gaming, I've beat some games in the "last summer vacation of my life"

Bully, Prototype, Fallout3, Call of Duty:World at Wars, Marvel Alliances 2

Now I don'r have new games to play so I've to replay the old ones. I've been thinking about getting Wolfenstein (xbox360), but not in a hurry. Probably when it gets cheap I'll purchase it (well I'll be in the military then already).

Can't say how much attention I'll put in this blog, but whenever I've something to share, I'll be here

It seems it's not even well expected by the gamers. I've not tried the Multiplayer yet, but I've heard people saying it's too much disappointing.

I don't know the reason of the poor performance of the game, and I don't even expect it to be able to change everyone's mind by the suprisingly great content during its release. Probably id's attention is all locked on Rage, and Wolfenstein is nothing but a filling of the gap of id's new games?

I have too many other games to look forward to. Since Wolfenstein seems to be an utterly disappointment, it'll not be in the option of my list.

So uh... Wolfenstein? Anyone?

Now everyone knows how furious L4D fans are about L4D2. If you still havn't heard of the event, please check:

L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2)

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/L4D2boycott

Shortly speaking, Valve promised to provide continuous updates for L4D during past interviews. Now that L4D2 is on the way, thepromised updates for L4D will be suspended, and the expected things will move to L4D2. I have a mate who said in his blog, "L4D is left 4 dead."

What's my opinion? Well, I'm not a faithful fan who pledges himself to Valve. Now that Valve is being negative, as a consumer, I think I'll stop considering buying more products from Valve furthermore, because there're just toooooo many other games for me to enjoy. Valve do offer great games, but thegames are not so perfect as to totally deny other competitors.

Also, the event makes me start to be worried about Steam. I remember when Steam is born, it's badly objected, since games can only be reached through logging in Steam. If Steam were down one day, the games we paid for would never be available. This is the main idea of the opposer of Steam.

Now that something goes wrong with Valve, it's hard not to think about its performance in the future. If (I mean if) L4D2 is the prologue of Valve'scorruption, I'm afraid that the games hooked to Steam will be in jeopardy. I buy legal games and keep the game discs carefully, but that doesn't assure a carefree availability.

Idon't expect myself to buy L4D2, since Valve makes people frown. As a consumer who cares about the products he pays for, I want to know, "What's wrong with you, Valve?"

It's been a long time since last blog

Where have I been? Well, I spent most of my attention blogging in another game site, Bahamut(http

://www.gamer.com.tw), which is the biggest Chinese game site

Let's talk about gaming. Currently I'm on Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, Quake Live, and Rainbow6 LockDown. Now I don't play games so competitively... probably I feel I'm getting old lol

About the real life, well, it's the last semester of my college life and after graduation I'll be serving in the military, which will take me about a year. I plan to buy a totally new computer to replace the old one I'm having now when I retire from the military.

Long time no see, my friends in GameSpot

This is one of the best quotes I've learned in 2008.

The motivation of this blog post starts from a spammer. In "Bahamut", which is the biggest game site in Taiwan, I've a key-pal, i'll call him X, whose personal space in Bahamut is spammed by the messages. It started from a flame war about gameplagiarizing in a thread and this dude kind of got pissed, so he kept on spamming in X's space and accusing X of insulting him (and actually X didn't).

The argument lasted for a while and they even vowed to involve some law actions. Anyway X finally gave up standing against him and merely blocked him off.

"What a moron", said the other mate. That spammer apparently flushed over X's personal space in Bahamut with countless messages. I can't understand what in his mind is. I really want to say "Get a life!" to him. What's his value or purpose of being alive? Is he more than spamming or is he not?

I'm glad that X blocked the spammer and cleared the whole messages. I never argue/flame with people cause I know it'll do me no good. I don't want to result in being spammed like this, because I know I HAVE A LIFE and it's more than arguing about meaningless issues.

Dear spammers, get a life.

As we can see, the merchandise is nothing but a peace of card, which is packed by a pretty large amount of plastic surface.I really dislike the over-packed merchandise. Come on, it's nothing but a little peace of card. The way it's packed may make it seem delicate, but the beauty can only last until it is opened. Will anyone keep the plastic pack (which is damage during opening) after the pack is opened? No, it'll merely be thrown into a trash can. Its value can never defy the value of the Microsoft Points, so why bother consume so much plastic to wrap up a tiny card? The space of this package can even hold up to three cards!Be nice to the earth, Microsoft. I wonder if I keep buying the Points, does that mean I'll be producing plastic garbage continuously?

Cliff Bleszinski Thinks Mirror's Edge Needs More Gunplay
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cliff-Bleszinski-Thinks-Mirror-039-s-Edge-Need-More-Gunplay-97493.shtml

And in the review of GameSpot, it also points out that "Combat and gunplay are weak. "

I really don't understand why lack of combat is considered the disadvantage of Mirror's Edge. From the beginning, it is already claimed as a First Person Action game. Everyone knows that the game is all about Parkour and free running, while shooting is merely for getting rid of hostile in the way.

Havn't they just been satiated by the overwhelimingly large amount of Shooter games (among which exists waves of FPS game titans clashing together) yet? I believe anyone can grab a game of extreme gunplay from piles of those. Then why should Mirror's Edge, which has its own feature, ever bounce into the fierce competition of those shooter games?

That's why those who criticizes Mirror's Edge lacks gunplay are so wrong. They are too used to shooting people and thus misunderstand the game.

Ling time ago a short while after I bought my Xbox360, I went window-shopping in Taipei (capital of Taiwan). It is called "Taipei City Mall", which is an underground market place beneath Taipei Train Station. That is a pretty big market place which offers all kinds of merchandise, including games of course.

There're many game stores and they also have game consoles for passers-by to play. The day I went to the mall, I saw an Xbox360 store offering GTA4 and other two games. A guy was playing it, with many people looking at it. They wanted to play the games as well? So did I guess. I guessed he had been there, playing for a long time, because while he was playing the game, he kept chatting with his friends, who were playing the other two Xbox360s. So there guys dominated the Xbox360s, though they should consider that other people might want to try the games as well.

Then I saw this GTA4 player entered a taxi. In the game, a player can whether wait until the taxi arrives at the destination or skip the process by paying more taxi fee. While the taxi took his game character (Nico Belic) to the destination, he did not skip, instead took out his lunch and started eating it. WTF? He kept occupying the game while letting other many people staring at his back? Wouldn't he ever feel a little bit of shame or embarrassment? No he didn't. He kept having his lunch and his friends didn't stop the games, either. I slightly sighed and walked away.

After few days, I came to the mall again. I passed the game store, and saw the same person again, who was still playing GAT4, still having many people looking. The only thing I was not sure was that if he had prepared his lunch this time.

I feel lucky that I have my own Xbox360. I need not go to the public place to wait in line to play games, and I can't imagine how dirty a gamepad that has been touched by endless people is. Hail, my friends.

E3 2008: Carmack IDs Quake Live

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6193726.html?sid=6193726&part=rss&subj=6193726

This is by far the very game that I look forward to so much

After nine years, Q3 is back! I really hope as long as Quake Live is released, along with new participants joining this prosperous feast, those veteran in the golden time of Quake3 will rise and show up again! More people means more popularity, and popularity means a new evolution of the old-style hardcore FPS!

Arise now, gladiators of the arena! Bring your weapons and armor, we're going to march toward the bloodbath of FPS game worlds, along with MIGHT and GLORY!

The Counter Strike Online is now in Close Beta in Taiwan now, and it's being badly criticized for its bad desgins being unlike to the original CS 1.6 (including buying weapons by real cash of course) and feels like insulting it in the forums of Bahamut. The discussion thread has raised so much arguement. One of the major feedback is "If you don't like it, go away."

Yeah. If you don't like it, go away. Although this saying causes another criticism for unwillingly bearing different opinions, I totally agree to it however. We are the consumers. Our wallets feed the game developers. If we want our cash paid for great value, we should be paying for really good merchandise.

I don't like Korean Online games (please note that it has nothing to do with racism, it's only an opinion from a consumer), so I refuse to pay for anything of it. I always believe that "You are what you buy". A person's purchased merchandise will relfect his or her taste. If I pay for any one of the bad games, I'm lowering my level. I'm the one that doesn't like abysmally bad games and walking away.

Reading my "angry" blog posts about Korean Online games in the past , I think I should have not been that angry cuz the atmosphere is none of my business

And if those angry gamers are really upset of the CS Online, they should as well refuse to play the game(and pay for it since the game is free but players have to pay cash to unlock the weapons) and let this thing die itself. Staying away from it is the way to express their dissatisfaction (and don't expect that consumers' opinion will change anything because those bad games don't even deserve it).

We are the consumers that should be paying for good games. We walk away if we don't like it.

Just got the XBOX360 on April 27th

After I've set it up

I'm living in school dorm so it's pretty crowded

The games now I have are Halo3, GOW, R6V2 and COD4, but after I've finished COD4 singleplayer, I mainly play R6V2.

It's a right choise to have the Xbox360. I am really having fun with it.

Take FPS games for example, which is my favorite type. On PC, whenever I want to connect into a server, I often have difficulty in trying to connect. Wrong version, wrong map (I'm often requireed to download loads of map packs), or the server itself installs some mods or plug-ins so before I enter the server I have to spend ling time downloading those annoying files of the server first.

However, those are not important at all, if I have enough patience to download. What matters most is the players. I love UT2004 and T2 so much, but these games are already dead in Taiwan and I can't find any domestic players (not to mention servers).

In contrast, in R6V2 of 360, I always can find people to play with. And there're no problems of wronf version or maps. To sum up, playing games in console is so convenient.

Also, I want to mention UT3. To me, I'm not going to play UT3 on Xbox360. I've heard that the game speed of UT3 on Xbox360 is adjusted so that it's easier to play by gamepads. Nonetheless, imo, that's not the "Real" Unreal Tournament. I don't mind playing modern tactical shooters (assault rifle, sniper rifle, shotguns) by gamepads, but I do think it's improper to fire rocket launchers and plasma guns by gamepads. Games such as UT and Quake offers quick and hasty game speed: everyone moves so fast and shoots so fast; and it's not fast enough to turn your view by gamepads. Also, in UT, people keeping moving forward by side-dodging to the front so that they don't halt when landing on the ground. But this can't be done by gamepads.

You may think keyboards can mouse can be attached to 360 to play UT3. As I've mentioned, the adjusted UT3 is no more the real UT. I think i'ts my own stubbornness

And I found that UT3 is not as popular as UT1999 or UT2004. The recent harcore games I know are only UT3 and TF2. As for the rest are all modern tactical shooters. Is this a phenomenon? Which means the unique ****of this gameplay is fading away? I'm afraid it is. Because games are made for profit purposes while these hardcore games are not friendly to new players. If the companies want to broaden their target markets, they have to make friendly games so more new consumers will buy their products - and the product life cycle will be long.

My view on shooters have changed, and that will be mentioned in another blog post. Anyway, I have happy time on Xbox360, cause it's much better than finding wrong version and maps.

btw Reetesh I've sent a friend request. Remeber to respond it plz

Just saw the news

http://gnn.gamer.com.tw/2/30142.html

"According to original game developer, Dragonfly, it still takes SF2 some time from development to publishment. The development this time aims at the global market of First Person Shooters. They think in Korea, the market of FPS is going full. In the future, to capture the market of FPS games including US and Europe, it takes competetiveness."

omg

Dear FPS players (especially from America and Europe) have you ever taken Korean online shooters seriously? Or have you ever played, or evern heard one?

To my suprise, this game has a sequal and it's by UE3

it seems like developing the games by UE3 is total fashion

What a world of wonders.

I finally have my own XBOX live id

The former one is my borther's.

My id is roan6903 (See the game tag at the profile section)

After the mid-term exam I'll start playing the 360

Games: Halo3, GOW

Later I'll be buying Rainbow6 Vegas 2 and Army of Two

Feel free to add me!

22nd, March, 2008

The first vote for president ever in my life

And then the new president is out

Someone that kept sticking to the ridiculous "green card" issue got pwned

No more idiot politicians cussing in front of video cameras while more idiots agree to them

No more revising of old issue of hatred

No more "If you don't agree to me, you are my enemy, you don't love Taiwan!"

Taiwan needs a good leader

Taiwan needs a good leader who does more than speaks

Taiwan needs a good leader who stops raising hatred between communities

Taiwan needs a good leader who can save our economy

We need a new era, new atomsphere

I look forward to Mr. Ma

But the first thing he has to face is to clear up all the nasty dirt done by a certain dirtbag

This dirtbag and his wife will soon be judged and I look forward to that

I love Taiwan, so I went for a vote

A sacred piece of paper includes my crave for renewal

Now it's done

I love Taiwan.

First off, please read my previous blog post:

Screwing up Counter Strike? WTF are they doing?

And I just found that another great FPS game, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars also fell into victim, too

Check the news:

http://feature.mmosite.com/content/2008-02-13/20080213233232865,1.shtml

I was astonished by the news of CS Online. Probably because that I have been mad already, I don't feel irritated by the news of ETQW Online this time. On the other hand, I just feel so helpless and sorry.

According to the press release, the company in charge of ETQW: Online is Dragonfly. Dragonfly is the developer of the game SF Online(a CS Clone). In SF Online, in addition to the guns, armor and grenades, you have to buy other items by real cash as well. For example, some crossairs and demo recording function. You have to buy a "tape" item in order to record.

This may seem ridiculous to you people but it's real. In most FPS games you can choose the crossair in option menu and input command to record in game console. But in SF, these two very basic element of a normal game can only be reached by paying cash to purchase. Other ludicrous merchandise are like changing player name (for once), getting more exp points for headshotting, ability to pick up dead players' weapons, etc.

Then how would it be to ETQW Online? Probably calling an air strike requires you to pay first, and the function may expire after 7 days or so. For the rest, I couldn't imagine.

I'm not furious. I just feel sorry for these two great games. What a tragedy.

Click here for CS Online game clip

Yeah~

After a long, exhausting semester full of reports and assignments, the winter vacation finally arrives. Now I have much time to play games. Life's wondeful !!!

Currently playing:

Halo3 Multiplayer: It seems that online coop can only be played by friends and invitations Now I am trying to find someone to play coop together

Bioshock: Beautiful graphic and water, psycho enemies XD Currently stuck in a level : Neptune's Bounty

Warriors Orochi: Beat for plain fun!