Virtual Lifestyle

0

Tweet

This article first appeared in The World at www.theworldonline.ae

College student Shitij is a case of split personality. One is his real identity and the other his gaming one. People in the gaming world know him as "Euphi" and his gaming clan is called "Revolution".

"In the gaming world no one knows what I do or who I am. They only know me by my gaming name and my scores," he said obviously relishing his anonymity. Shitij is one a growing global tribe of computer gamers for whom gaming is not just another activity. It is almost a lifestyle. A virtual one at that.

On average, Shitij spends 8 hours a day playing his games, armed with an array of high-tech gadgets: special headphones, mouse and mouse pad "to give me ultimate gaming experience." This young man is in India but with a global visibility that would be the envy of corporate brand builders.

And corporates groom them from behind. A large subculture of gamers now exists in countries around the world, thanks to the efforts of hardware manufacturers and software companies that have spent billions of dollars to create a globe-girdling market for the gaming business.

According to Ashish Gupta, owner of Extreme Gaming: "The last two years can be said to be the turning point in the gaming industry. Gamers were never this serious. Last month we organised a gaming LAN party for two days and attracted players who were glued to consoles for 48 hours without a break."

For tens of thousands of teenagers and twenty-somethings from India's affluent middle class electronic games have become a must-have possession. Companies like Zapak and Sify have established gaming cafes linked via the internet in major cities.

Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd belongs to one of India's top business houses, the Anil Ambani-led ADAG group. A year ago it unsuccessfully tried to acquire Sony Online Entertainment, but has since continued to grow. It is now planning to open a casual online gaming business in Russia which has an online population of 31 million.

The company claims 5.1 million registered users on on its online platform, Zapak is loaded with 12,000 casual games.

India hosts four international tournaments a year, including World Cyber Games (WCG) and World Grandmaster Tournament. YY Kim, marketing director, Samsung, the official sponsor for WCG said, "Gaming is emerging as a very strong entertainment platform across the world" and his Korean company plans to utilise this e-platform to help fuel the gaming industry globally.

The Middle East is integral to this online onslaught on game enthusiasts. According to Hilal Saeed Al Marri, director general, Dubai World Trade Center, "digital gaming has turned out to be a very important market, with not only the young population of the region but a wider adult audience increasingly investing a higher proportion of their disposable income in specialised gaming hardware and software."

In terms of revenue, gaming for the Personal Computer (PC) sector alone earned a staggering US$8.2 billion in online and retail sales in 2007, according to market-research firm DFC Intelligence, which predicts that the market will grow by more than 80 per cent in the next five years.

The War of Consoles reached a new height last year with the launch of Sony's PS3, Microsoft's, X-Box 360 and Nintendo's Wii. The UAE gaming console market reported sales of 4.45 million units worth AED 17.78 million from January to May this year. Shyam Rup, an MBA student in Dubai, says gaming has grown because in the UAE "internet connection is great and computers are really nice".

And gaming is becoming "social." Microsoft's Ashim Mathur observes: "Eleven million people using the X-Box would mean so many people interacting with one another around the world."