Probably gonna be the last update of the year. Had lots of stuffs to do after I came back from China. Finally got the time to do this!

This interview was done completely with Japanese. I cant speak korean and Shinz couldnt speak english. We had to communicate through Japanese. Shinz cant speak Japanese very well. We tried our best! Hope everyone like this interview!

Tetra: How long have you been playing Virtua Fighter
Shinz: Ever since Virtua Fighter 1. I only played a bit during VF1 days.

Tetra: Do you like the direction the game has gone so far/do you think each new Virtua Fighter has been better than the last?
Shinz: I prefer VF5 the most. I didnt really like VF3 as much compared to VF4. In order of preference VF5 > VF4 > VF3

Tetra: Over the last year or so, do you notice the number of new and younger players playing Virtua Fighter increasing? Or have the names and faces stayed the same.
Shinz: I am busy with work. Very little time was spent playing games. I dont know about the current korean Virtua Fighter community

Tetra: How much time do you spend training a week?
Shinz: None recently. Around 2 years ago, I play around 10 hours a week.

Tetra: Does it ever get in the way of other obligations in your life?
Shinz: Nope. Previously I was doing freelancing. That is the reason I had more time to spend on gaming. Right now, I gave up most of my gaming time for a full time job.

Tetra: Who do you think are the most difficult opponents you’ll have to face?
Shinz: Fuudo.

Tetra: Have you ever played VF5R?
Shinz: I havent played VF5R. I havent been to Japan for a really long time.

Tetra: What do you think of Tekken 6, SF4, BlazBlue and any other big name fighters around right now, and how do they compare to VF?
Shinz: I tried playing a little SF4. SF4 isnt a suitable game for me. Tekken is big in Korea. 80% of the players in arcades play Tekken. 10% plays SF4.

Tetra: Do you have or have you had any issues with the seeding involved in the tournament?
Shinz: Group B’s players are definately too strong.

Tetra: What do you think about not having VF5R outside of Japan?
Shinz: No more tekken please! I am ok with VF5R not outside of Japan. But please release VF6 outside of Japan arcades.

Tetra: What type of training did you go through to becoming one of the strongest VF players of all time?
Shinz: I practiced 8hrs a day during VF3 days.

Tetra: What category would you put your style of play in?
Shinz: Stepping and technique type.

Tetra: At Kakutou Shinsheiki II you and POS Akira had featured exhibition matches against famous Japanese player Kyasao. How did Sega AM2 contact you about coming to Japan for that event?
Shinz: Sega Japan and Kyasa contacted me about the event.

Tetra: What is your favourite Virtua Fighter in regards to system.
Shinz: VF2. VF2 can play very offensively. Offensive style is better compared to defensive gameplay.

The World Cyber Games is looking for the next set of games for the 2010 season!  The WCG wants to hear from YOU!  What fighting game do you want to see next year?!  Make sure you vote by clicking below!

• VOTE FOR TEKKEN 6 – World Cyber Games 2010 !

The young man from Costa Rica, Federico Beeche, won fourth place in the World Cyber Games (WCG) with the game, Guitar Hero.

Guitar Hero is a game in which a person must play a series of songs with a control that simulates an electric guitar.

As the player moves between different tracks and levels of difficulty, ever larger scenarios are presented as a symbol of a journey to becoming a rock star

The WCGs were held from November 11 to 15 in the Chinese city of Chengdu with representatives from 74 countries.  With nine years of existence, it is considered one of the biggest events of its kind.

Congratulations go out to this young man from Costa Rica.  Even though this is not a real sport to many, it shows that you can achieve great things through dedication and hard work.

Gonna be gone for 9days.

Team Singapore will first be going to Kuala Lumpur. We will be sleeping for the night there. On the 10th of November, we will be flying off to Chengdu, China reaching at about 1.40pm.

WCG will be providing us with accomodation at a 3 star hotel, 18 steps island hotel. Yes its a chinese brand hotel……. You can check the website @ http://www.18budao.com

I heard about the spicy and oily food there. Its terrifying. Food that uses a bottle of oil to cook. Food that are so spicy and gross that it leaves bad after taste in your mouth. I have a feeling fast food will become my best friend in Chengdu.

7 more hours to go before I fly! I will be updating my blog in China if there is internet connection in the hotel. I checked their website, seems like there isnt any! Let’s hope for the best in China!

Shame on you Channel 7 for letting this air! Oh, who am I kidding. Your researchers have the intelligence of 12 year olds and the conviction of a pine nut. Heaven forbid showing unbiased, truthful (as possible) reported facts that may go against the grain of conservatism so as to effect the ratings of Sunday Night. I suppose you would get more over-hinged criticism from the thoroughly uneducated and overtly conservative audience if a more balanced story was shown (save the children! Who will tell us games are bad!).

I viewed Game On! thinking you would cover the aspects of Australia’s participation in the World Cyber Games, however, sadly, this was just a thinly veiled cover for the real story of Ross Coulthart’s video game bashing on the issue of addiction.

The fact is:

1. To master anything requires an incredible amount of time and dedication (take for example Gladwell’s rule of 10,000 hours, not particularly scientifically correct, but often used as a yard stick), often multiple hours of practice a day for many years. So does aspiring to become a player at the highest level and putting in the effort behind it (as is seen in WCG) a demonstration of addiction? If you said yes, then, by that logic, your favourite footballer would be considered an addict of football. Rubbish? Well consider the hours of practice required, consider the dedication, consider the ambition. They are fundamentally the same.

What, but the computer gamer doesn’t sweat or work out, gain muscle mass or cardiovascular endurance, I hear you exclaim. But the measure of a humans growth is not merely limited to physical aspects (far from it, I would argue, the accumulation of knowledge and development of intelligence is bound to last longer than physical prowess for the vast proportion of the population. I would rather be a Nobel laureate than win the Brownlow Medal in AFL any day). In fact, research as far back as five years ago shows cognitive benefits from gaming (Gee, 2005) with current research investigating the extent of this cognitive enhancement (Steinkuehler, 2006).

The quote, “What is lacking in sweat is made up for in sheer numbers” is, frankly, insulting. The best gamers in the world have highly developed cognitive processes developed through gaming such as pattern recognition, system thinking and  highly enhanced reaction processing.

2. I agree that there are a very small number of people who “over-use” games and there are even an astoundingly small number of people of have died from unnaturally long continuous bouts of gameplay. However, the vast majority of gamers simply interact with the medium as they would with any other media. In fact 63% of the US population would be considered a gamer (NPD, 2007), spending at least 10 hours a week on gaming and gaming related activities (while this isn’t the Australian population, we don’t really have any studies. However, if the Australian Parliament Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (2008) uses this as analogous to our situation then so will I). So, would television viewing habits require the use of television addiction boot camps? If we applied the same principles of consumption as we do to television we would see many times the number of television “addicts” compared to video game “addicts”.

What researchers can agree on at this time is that the vast majority of the current research being done on the psychological effects of gaming particularly addiction is ineffective and irrelevant. In fact, despite all that is being said in the media and by lobbying groups, there is yet to be a definitive clinical definition as to what defines “video game addiction”

Applying criteria related to gambling addiction does not work. For example, someone playing an MMO, especially if there was issues with guild relationships that he or she may be involved in will of course think about the game outside of playing it. He or she has already emotionally invested in the game. The relationships made in that environment are real, never mind how shallow or wide they are. The hype surrounding this issue is also skewing results unfavorably, Dr Richard Wood writes in his book The Myth about Video Game “Addiction”,

“Some people are being mislabelled addicts by concerned parents, partners or others when they have no problems with their game-playing behaviour… Some people who are concerned about their own behaviour… end up labelling themselves as video game addicts.”

And, really, humans are inherently addicted to things. Our evolutionary survival instincts dictate that we love to eat too much, we are obsessed about sex and anything that provides reward from input is bound to provide more reward from more input. While the comparison to gambling, smoking and alcoholism are all valid comparisons, however, I won’t stoop to that level to beat the drum, but, just say, addiction is part of human nature and gaming is a relatively less harmful than a lot of other possible addictions (if research results in a clinical definition) out there and the amount of media frenzy it attracts is unwarranted.

The use of a respondent in the programme who claimed to spend 15 hours a day gaming is highly sensationalist.  For all I know he really does spend 15 hours a day gaming, but in a survey done by Nick Yee in 2005 of over 3000 world of warcraft gamers only 2 respondents spent 15 hours or more a day gaming. This is a minuscule proportion of the respondents, in fact, the average number of hours spent playing World of Warcraft among all 3245 respondants was 22 hours per week, which is in fact similar to the amount of time the average Australian spends watching TV (26 hours per week), indicating that gaming is possibly replacing television time in these respondents.

Something in the back of my mind is thinking this report is a reaction to the amount of time people are now spending on games rather than television. In a recent survey by Roy Morgan (2008) the average Australian (over 14) still spends 43% of their media viewing time glued to the television with computer usage coming second at 21%. However, the most telling statistic is in the younger portion of the people surveyed where the gap in the two mediums was much less apparent. Respondents aged 18-24 almost had no different with 36% of their media viewing time spent on the computer and 37% of it spent watching the telly. Something I suppose would be a scary statistic for networks about the projection of TV influence in the future.

3. “…they’re just games”

This was the most infuriating thing said on this program. They’re just games. Well. If they were “just games” how come the games industry dwarfs the movie industry and yet, in Australia particularly, attracts comparatively little government funding in comparison to the film industry. If they were  ”just games” how come the average gamer in Australia is now over 30 years old and, yet, we have no R18+ rating classification, even with 98% of the population (IEAA, 2009) seeing the benefit such a rating would have (such as educating parents on what content is applicable for their children, the argument many of the opposition peddle, which is baseless because 92% of surveyed parents say they know what their children are playing. And, even if kids these days are more savvy (which they are), they aren’t telepathic, they are not going to spend hours devising and implementing brute force algorithms to break a 4 digit code placed by their parents to play a game rated above their age).

Such a view that games are juvenile and puerile has no statistical weight. It seems this form of technophobia is nothing new, television caused the silver screen industry to spew propaganda dismissing the television as harmful to family relations as a survival technique, and now they are ubiquitous. Such is the same with games, the arguments against addiction, violence in games and social degradation are scapegoats we have all seen, petted and then subsequently roasted before.

We are in an age of unprecedented media saturation. Our views are unfortunately disproportionately shaped by what we see, which is often a reflection of popular views, further distilling it. I would think, however, that we were all intelligent enough to see everything through a critical frame of mind. But, the saying rings true that 90% of a population is moronic viewing media almost as a form of blind faith, if a current affair programme says this, it MUST be true, never mind there maybe underlying agendas, never mind there may be mitigating factors, it is black and white.

While we are media savvy, it seems the majority of the population is not savvy enough to distinguish sensationalist “newstainment” (which, unfortunately, is more economically viable) from truly factual and unbiased reporting. It is a trend that is worryingly becoming more apparent (we need more Media Watch).

So, Sunday Night, under your guise of “award winning unbiased presentation of facts”, don’t muddy the water of a new and already overly contentious issue. It does more harm to a growing and influential Australian industry and the culture surrounding it, than it benefits Channel 7’s wallet.

P.S. I’m going to get a call from my mum probably later tonight telling me to stop studying games now =_=. Thanks Channel 7 for bringing further doubt into my parents minds about my future. They weren’t exactly confident to begin with.

Watch the video here (notice the complete lack of even basic scientific grounding. Dr Tao Ran’s use of anecdotal evidence explaining the condition of 15 or so kids and then linking it with the “health of Chinese youth” is farcical . If you are going to use a scientist, at least use someone who is recognizably knowledgeable in the subject… Not some random who is willing to spout anything to get on television (DONT YOU DARE DEFLECT THE ISSUE ONTO RACISM))

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunday-night/video/#fop
(3rd one across in the gallery)

P.S.S. I am waiting on the transcripts to be released for me to more accurately quote Ross.

Uploading the match videos first since its the easiest thing to do right now.

Rikojjang(Akira) – Korea vs Stprock(Leifei) – Germany
3rd Placing

Llanfair(Pai) – Canada vs Rikojjang(Lau) – Korea
Group A qualifiers

Tetra(Vanessa) – Singapore vs Fuudo(Lion) – Japan
Group B qualifiers

Tetra(Vanessa) – Singapore vs Shinz(Jacky) – Korea
Group B qualifiers

Flash(Wolf) – USA vs Tetra(Vanessa) – Singapore
Group B qualifiers

Flash(Wolf) – USA vs Shinz(Jacky) – Korea
Group B qualifiers

Stprock(Lei Fei) – Germany vs Llanfair(Pai) – Canada
Group A qualifiers

Shinz(Akira) – Korea vs Gama(Kage) – Mexico
Group B qualifiers

Shinz(Jacky) – Korea vs Fuudo(Lion) – Japan
Finals

More soon!

Zapewne wielu z Was czeka na chwilę, gdy na największej growej imprezie na świecie, World Cyber Games, zagości któraś część z najpopularniejszej serii bijatyk, czyli Tekkena. Teraz nadszedł moment, kiedy to od nas, graczy, zależy, czy Tekken 6 znajdzie się wśród listy gier, w które rywalizować będą najlepsi podczas przyszłorocznych finałow WCG 2010. Pod TYM ADRESEM możecie głosować na poszczególne tytuły w różnych kategoriach. Wśród bijatyk znajdziemy następujące produkcje: Dragon Ball: Raging Beast, Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter 5 oraz WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2009.

Czy muszę coś więcej dodawać? Myszki w dłoń – głosujcie!

źródło: forum Tej-City Team

YES! Finally back!

Will be uploading all the pics, VF5 match videos and my blog soon.

Lots of stuffs to do. Gonna have to work tomorrow. China was really cold. The people there are really nice though! EXCEPT for most of the taxi drivers… !

Even though I lost, what matters is the journey was a fun one.

Unfortunately, I lost on the last 2nd day in China… Lots of contacts lost sigh.

by v000nix

In diesen Tagen trifft sich die Spielerelite der Welt bei den World Cyber Games in Chengdu, China. Eines der 12 Spiele im Veranstaltungskalender ist unser aller Lieblingsgame: Trackmania Forever!

Auch 2 Deutsche Spieler, namentlich Pascal “gaLLo” Jager und Stefan “BOmBz0r” Kopper, sind mit von der Partie.

Ob sie es bis ins Finale schaffen werden, kann ich als Aussenstehender nur schwer beurteilen. Aber wer weiß, vielleicht hilft ja fleißiges Däumchen drücken. Wie es dann wirklich ausschaut, könnt ihr im laufe des morgigen Tages auf dieser WCG-Übersichtsseite erfahren.

Wenn sie es in das Finale geschafft haben, könnt ihr euch das Endmatch im WCG-Livestream anschauen. Allerdings findet es von 11:30 – 12:30 statt, sodass ein Großteil der Trackmaniacs nicht zuschauen kann.

Jedem anderen bleibt dann auch wieder nur die bereits erwähnte Übersichtsseite, um sich zu Informieren.

Ausserdem ist vor ein paar Tagen die Spiele-Abstimmung für die World Cyber Games 2010 in Los Angeles online gegangen. Trackmania hat auch diesmal wieder harte Konkurrenten wie NFS, Burnout und Gran Turismo. Mit eurer Stimme können wir es jedoch schaffen und Trackmania noch bekannter machen.

–> Zur Abstimmung

Zum Abschluss nochmal ein fettes “Toi Toi Toi!” an unsere 2 deutschen Kameraden!

I lost in last week’s SF4 2v2 tournament and Dreamhack tournament. I didnt do too well in 2v2 tournament. Really sorry to my partner Gackt

I did better in Dreamhack though. But sigh, Sagat is too strong! I need to get better in order to beat the top sagats in Singapore.

Fuudo(WCG Japan 2008 champion)  just added me on Mixi. I heard that he isnt that friendly with foreigners. Guess he is a pretty nice guy to foreigners too

So, if you’ve been keeping up with things on the Ukwelii Blog, a couple weeks ago, I told you about the WCG Kenya Team Finals happening at the Village Market.

They went down, and we’re pretty successful. For those who were unable to make it, and those who want to cheer the Kenya team, they leave in around 2 weeks for China to represent Kenya at the World Cyber Games.

There’s an official website for Kenya and Facebook group now so you can keep up with all the action.

It was sponsored by D Link, Mecer, The Village Market, and the awesome guys behind The Lwanda Magere Comic,

Don’t forget to check out the video below for all the action from the Village Market.

The event was the first of its kind and is called the NexGen Gaming Tournament.

Seems gaming’s taking good footing in Kenya, I wish Erix, Nathan, Deen and the gang all the best.

WaKenya eeeeeh!!!! WaKenya aaaaaahhhh!!!!

Go Kenya.

Wonder if they’ve got a name – like Shujaa – 7’s team, Chipu – short for Chipukizi – under 20 7’s Rugby team… WCG Gaming Team – Chezo? I don’t know

Fuudo will be my opponent in my group stage for November WCG Grand Finals 2009 china. He is VF5R champion for Tougeki 2008… He also performed really well for a number of big name tournaments in Japan. Basically a crazy ass opponent. But the good thing is, he also plays SF4. So I will be talking with him about SF4 stuff as well. Hopefully, he will be nice enough to play some casuals with me

If anyone needs to ask Fuudo any questions, please feel free to let me know!

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1228867_1124.html

The results are out. I will be playing in group B for WCG 2009 grand finals in China. In short, I got the worst group in my whole WCG life. For the record, I have never gotten a easy group before. Thats fine and all. But this year, I noticed WCG changed how the seeding works.

IF you participated in WCG Grand finals last year, you will get seeding for this year. But realize how stupid that is when so many of the names are EMPTY! They are only countries because they havent had their national qualifiers yet! This screws up the seeding PLUS it makes no sense when we are representing our country not as an individual. Why are we seeded as a player and not country? Out of 12 players, 5 players’ name isnt even up. If they really want to do seeding based on players, at least please wait for everything to be over before doing the seeding.

As a player who is given a seeding, what did I get? I get to NOT play against German player Darius. Cos seeded players are spread out. So Germany is in Group A, naturally I will be given Group B. Any person who is sane will tell me that, they rather play against Germany than top 3 medalist countries in Group B rite?

So we have America who is 3rd, Japan who is 1st is World Finals last year and Singapore who is 2nd last year. We are all in the same group, isnt that a bit too much fun to begin with?

This happened to me before in WCG Grand Finals. This has happened yet again. Yes, I conclude WCG doesnt like me at all for participating too much over the last 5 years

So Kenya’s going to give the World Cyber Games a shot, and they’re putting together a team to represent the nation in the Gaming Olympics, so to speak.

Go Kenya Go!

For any gamers out there, the details below.

Date: 17th of October 2009

Venue:The Village Market Pool Hall

Time: 10 AM to 10 PM

Le Damages:  Ksh. 1,000 for Competitors and Ksh. 100 for Spectators

Games: Starcraft and FIFA ‘09

And they’re seriously looking for the best competitors at both.

There’ll also be a couple rounds of Call of Duty 4 (LAN) with some Xbox 360s for those who want to console themselves (pun intended).

Just to let you know a little about the WCG Games – this year’s Prize money is $500,000 so just the same way Kenyans do the marathon, we’re about to run the Gaming world.

Other games to be played at the WCG include Guitar Hero (Why Kenyans aren’t already going crazy over this game, I still don’t know)

It’s been organised by the most passionate Anime fanatics in East Africa (The whole continent in my opinion) – the Anime Anonymous Group on Facebook, chock full of Bleach, Samurai X and Manga Fanatics (Like you wouldn’t believe)

They meet up monthly and have got over 800 members in the FB Group and even have an Official Facebook App – And a pretty good one I might add.

]]> http://tetrasg.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/world-cyber-games-2009-grand-finals-group-drawing/ Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:15:35 +0000 tetrasg http://tetrasg.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/world-cyber-games-2009-grand-finals-group-drawing/

WCG committee will select 2~8 competitive players (team) per game, based on their reputations and previous records, will be given a special seeding. List of the ‘seed players (teams)’ for each game title will be announced on October 13th, with map rotation information.

Let’s hope I get a special seeding this year

Forgot to mention that I found a sponsor to send me to WCG Grand Finals! The bad thing is, Danny couldnt go with me cos of his work commitment

This year the Anime Festival took place, once again, at the Javits Center in NYC (which seems to be where every awesome convention occurs).  Overall, it was a really good con.  There where of great cosplayers, booths, artists, and talent.  I got to meet the great guys over at REGRBL, a satiracle web comic.  If you haven’t read this comic before, I highly recommend it.  The comics are funny, the art is great, tons hidden references to Comics/Video Games/Anime, and many reoccuring jokes.  The sketch down below was drawn by Red, which is one of my favorites in my collection.  The World Cyber Games where taking place during the convetion which was a pretty nice surpise.  I’ve never seen more video game skill in one room at one time during my entire life.  Honestly, if Curlers are considered athletes, so should cyber athletes.   I got to meet Laura Bailey, who has voiced probably half of the characters in Anime.  She voices Shin Chan, which was reason enough to meet her.  I was able to pick up a bunch of random keychains and zipper pulls, imported straight from Japan.  I also bought my own Tagdog so keep an eye out on my Flickr.  The picutres from the con are what make the event.  This will be mainly a picture post so you’re welcome.  Enjoy!

ReGrBl Commision (Notice Green’s “I Like It Rough” cut off shirt)

One of the Greatest Games of All Time

Down to Forward + Punch (Also, V Photobombed Us)

She Was Doing A Photoshoot & I Totally Mooched In For A Photo

Domo!

O’ The Internet (Gotta Love 4Chan)

Green, Red, Me, & Blue

* I probably dropped over 100 forward peace signs during the day.  It’s just what you do at an Anime event. *

Câmeras para todos os lados; pessoas torcendo fervorosamente pelos seus favoritos; emissoras importantes, como Band, Globo, Sportv e ESPN cobrindo o evento e entrevistando todos os competidores. Não estou falando de São Paulo x Corinthians, que também aconteceu hoje, e sim da final nacional da World Cyber Games (WCG), a olimpíada dos games.

Gamers de todo o país competiram hoje em jogos como FIFA, Couter-Strike e Guitar Hero para decidir o número um que representará o Brasil na final mundial, que vai acontecer na China.

Tá, mas isso tudo você provavelmente já deve saber, certo? O que eu notei de mais interessante no evento foi a importância e a influência que os games exercem na nossa cultura, e isso não se dá só por causa da cobertura que as emissoras fizeram, e sim porque um evento como o WCG não é restrito aos gamers que treinaram muito para competir e aos gamers que estão lá para ver boqueabertos a performance desses caras; as famílias e amigos dessas pessoas estão lá assistindo tudo.

A maior prova disso foi em uma das classificatórias do Guitar Hero: enquanto os dois competidores jogavam (e muito bem), o pai de um deles filmava tudo e gritava: “vai lá filho, concentra! Isso, continua assim!” Quando os games conseguem atingir jovens, velhos, homens e mulheres de diversas famílias,  a visão de que games são “coisa de criança” vai pro espaço, e é possível perceber que eles estão se tornando um artigo cultural importante e presente na vida das pessoas.

Ver famílias torcendo para que seu filho vença uma partida nos games era algo impensável há alguns anos atrás (meu pai nunca torceu pra que eu vencesse num jogo, buáááááááááá), mas hoje, por conta do amadurecimento da indústria e da diminuição do preconceito das pessoas com os games, isso se torna mais comum, pois mais pessoas começam a jogar e a ter contato com o mundo dos games, nem que esse contato se dê através dos jogos casuais. De qualquer forma, parabéns a todos os competidores (e suas famílias), boa sorte aos que venceram, e que venham outros WCGs!

Vídeos do WCG 2009

Final de FIFA 2009

Esse é um trecho da partida final de FIFA 2009, com a narração de Dominico Gato. Confesso que não sou fã de futebol e nem de jogos de futebol, mas assistir essa partida narrada foi sensacional!

Final de Guitar Hero

A música é Hot for teacher, do Van Halen. Depois de ver esses dois, eu desisto de jogar Guitar Hero (eu jogo bem na dificuldade normal e olhe lá). Estou vendendo o meu jogo e minha guitarra, quem tiver interesse é só me dar um toque

PS: peço desculpas pela qualidade dos vídeos, mas o telão era ruim e minha câmera só atrapalhou as coisas

Quem quiser comprar um imóvel com Romeu Rizzo talvez tenha que esperar ele terminar uma partida de videogame para poder ser atendido. Isso porque o corretor de 47 anos precisa treinar enquanto trabalha para tentar vencer os seus rivais, a maioria na faixa dos 17 anos, na final brasileira do World Cyber Games 2009 (WCG). A final nacional do evento, considerado a Olimpíada dos games, ocorrerá neste final de semana em São Paulo.
Rizzo compete no game de corrida “Trackmania nations united” e, mesmo com a idade bem acima da média dos seus rivais, é um novato na competição. “Fui convidado para assistir a uma eliminatória do WCG por um amigo e, quando estava lá, ele me disse para jogar. Tinha 10 minutos livres antes de voltar para o trabalho”, conta.

Quando Rizzo ganhou a eliminatória, seus rivais não perderam tempo e começaram a chamá-lo de “tiozão”, apelido que ele gosta e está acostumado a ouvir dos seus colegas de jogo. “O resultado foi uma surpresa e estou acostumado com esses comentários, principalmente quando jogo on-line”.

O jogo de corrida é diferente dos tradicionais. Em vez de focar no realismo dos veículos e pistas, “Trackmania” foca na precisão e nos reflexos do jogador para terminar as corridas com carros que parecem de brinquedo no menor tempo possível. Mesmo com outros competidores nas pistas, que são criadas pelos próprios usuários, os carros não colidem uns com os outros, permitindo  concentrar-se apenas na sua prova.

Em sua primeira final em uma competição de games, Rizzo admite que, por ter que trabalhar inclusive nos finais de semana, pode não ter grandes chances de ser campeão e de conseguir uma vaga na final mundial do evento, que acontecerá na China. “Treino no trabalho com o meu notebook enquanto espero por clientes. Isso dá em média umas duas horas de jogo por dia”, explica. Um competidor profissional de games treina até 6 horas por dia perto de uma competição. “Conheço minhas limitações e sei da capacidade dos outros mais jovens. Será difícil me tornar campeão, mas, certamente, não serei derrotado por conta da minha idade”.

Para aliviar o estresse

Os jogos de videogame sempre fizeram parte da vida de Romeu Rizzo. Pai de uma filha de 20 anos, ele começou no Tele-Jogo e Atari. Hoje, é viciado em jogos de corrida e usa estes games apenas para aliviar o estresse da semana. “Conheci Trackmania há 3 anos e me tornei fã. Comecei a jogar contra outros gamers on-line e criei uma equipe, a xoxoteam”, conta. “Ela começou a crescer quando as pessoas ficavam sabendo da idade”.

O corretor de imóveis, que passou por todos os consoles desde o Tele-jogo, um dos primeiros videogames, hoje joga apenas no PC. “Gosto de ‘Need for speed’ e de ‘Grand prix’. Os jogos de corrida trazem um desafio único, que exige apenas do jogador em si, de ninguém mais”, afirma. “Muitos dizem que os jogos de videogame prejudicam na concentração e no trabalho. Acho que todos os jogos trazem coisas boas para quem quiser absorver esses aspectos positivos. Além disso, podemos conhecer muitas pessoas no mundo on-line”.

Competição acirrada

Em sua sétima edição, a final nacional do World Cyber Games receberá 172 competidores neste sábado (26) e domingo (27), das 10h às 22h, no Shopping Eldorado, em São Paulo. Eles disputarão uma vaga na final mundial, que ocorrerá entre 11 e 15 de novembro na cidade de Chengdu, na China. Os games que entram na disputa são “Counter-strike” (tiro), “Fifa 09” (futebol), “Trackmania Nations” (corrida), “Carom 3D” (sinuca) e “Guitar hero” (musical). Cada vencedor ganha a viagem para a China como prêmio.

Fonte: G1

Em horas como está que eu queria morar em São Paulo viu, po aqui onde eu moro nunca acontece eventos como este, e em BH também é meio dificil, então é foda pra mim ir viu, mais um dia ainda irei morar em São Paulo ou nos EUA pra ir neste eventos tudo, .

Mas a questão aqui é que dia 26 e 27 de Setembro, irá acontecer em São Paulo o WCG Brasil 09, World Cyber Games. Na verdade é a etapa final do nacional, onde os jogadores iram dispultar vagas na Delegação Brasileira, para participar da etapa final do campeonato em Chengdu, na China.

O campeonato será realizado em dois locais: Shopping Eldorado e O2 Lan House. Veja abaixo a lista dos jogos que seram disputados nos dois locais.

Shopping Eldoradoe

FIFA 09
Guitar Hero World Tour
Trackmania Nations Forever
Carom 3D

O2 Lan House

Counter Strike 1.6

É galera se eu morasse ai em São Paulo não iria perder este evento por nada, já que a entrada para visitante é franca em ambos os locais. Seram dois dias muito loucos e de pura adrenalina e habilidade. Se caso você for, e depois quiser escrever uma matéria dizendo o que achou e como foi, nos mande por e-mail que iremos publica-la com o maior prazer, te dando créditos claro: contatorockgames@gmail.com

Veja abaixo a Programação da WCG Brasil 09:

Quando: 26 e 27 de setembro

Local 1: Shopping Eldorado
Av. Rebouças, 3.970. Pinheiros (mapa)
Modalidades: FIFA 09, Guitar Hero WT, Trackmania e Carom 3D

Local 2: O2 Lan House
Av. Brigadeiro Luiz Antonio 1804. Bela Vista (mapa)
Modalidade: Counter Strike 1.6

Contato:organizacao@worldcybergames.com.br

Você se lembra de Trackmania, o jogo que surgiu em 2003 e que era gratuito, o jogo criado pela Nadeo e ganhou fama mesmo no WCG, World Cyber Games.

Pois é, a Nadeo agora anunciou Trackmania 2, durante um evento de games na França. Segundo a empresa o jogo está sendo produzido a 3 anos e será lançado exclusivamente para PC, com data prevista para 2010. Com o grande sucesso que o primeiro jogo fez, creio eu que este segundo também irá fazer. Clique aqui e veja o web site oficial do game.

Veja abaixo um video do jogo.

Life has been a little hectic since I’ve returned from my trip to the World Cyber Games in Chengdu, China.  I’ll spare you my touristy run-down of airport delays (Beijing rockets silver iodide into clouds to make rain, but ended up blanketing Beijing in an unseasonable blizzard), sleep deprivation (left a forehead print on the glass revolving door, poured noodles on my partner’s laptop trying to show my mom my breakfast over webcam), internet restrictions (no Wikipedia, no Facebook, no blogs, no Youtube, and a very sensitive IP blocker), and personal excursions to different corners of Chengdu (the mountain where Daoism was founded, tons of street market haggling, and harrowing cab rides).  I will, however, name-drop it like it’s hot.

TorcH and I sat across the aisle from SirScoots, a well-known personality in eSports, and MoB Shift, one of the two Guitar Hero players for USA.  The flight was uneventful save for my sudden and unparalleled achievement in Pokemon Pinball: access to the Mewtwo Bonus Level and an all-time high score of 1,517,277,700 on the Blue level (which after some research I’ve discovered is not a very impressive score… let down).

Waiting in the Beijing airport, I lost track of TorcH and glommed onto the group surrounding the US WCG managers, Paul, Aaron, and Natalie.  Also in that group were Jamal, an Ultimate Gamer contestant, and one of my new friends, Sean “Wraith” Snack.  Paul ended up saving the day and getting us to Chengdu that night whereupon we were greeted by… a gaggle of uniformed volunteers speaking English, offering bottles of water, and encouraging us to relax in a special seating area while we awaited our shuttle!  It was our first taste of celebrity, and it was pretty neat.

At the hotel, the lobby was set up with tables dedicated to registering teams.  There were uniforms and meal cards and room keys for the players who all shuffled off to bed by 2am China time (all of China is one time zone). I had been awake for 25 hours and most other for much longer than that, so I was determined to sleep as long as possible.  Fortunately I didn’t because then I would have missed the players’ tour of the Panda Research Base the next morning!

Ah, the day of the police escort…  For the 30 minute ride to the panda base, we had a cop leading our bus the whole way (as a note, the banners for WCG still lined the road two full miles from the venue) and other cops along our route blocking intersection traffic so we could pass.  We were rushed around the base by our volunteers/herders and tour guide, but the pandas were epically adorable.  On the ride home, I sat with a group of referees in panda (excuse me, pander, as the Chinese pronounce it) hats and got to know Nicholas White, an Australian ref who has attended several WCG final events.

Upon returning to Century City, the combination hotel/event hall, we got our passes and entered the venue for the first time.  And here, we come to our agreement from my last post.  These aren’t the original “scantily-clad ladies” I was promising, but readers, feast your eyes on the lovely booth girls of Samsung!

These beautiful girls (and several very attractive guys) populated every exhibitor booth in various teams of costumes.

There were futuristic soldiers, elves, school girls, deal-or-no-deal types, space aliens, airline stewardesses, and even some cat-girls… whatever best related to the individual products (however tenuously).

What’s more, they all spoke at least some English, and were always eager to help me understand or get me to participate.

So suck on it, boys… I got to be around tons of hot Chinese girls and you didn’t.

Coming next installment… how Team USA fared and who owned the most face! (hint: it wasn’t us)