Game Time

The boom of Counter-Strike probably mirrors that of the entire gaming industry. If the computer industry in general is experiencing a slowdown, the gaming sector has been incessantly in high gear.

They call themselves the Apocalypse. They look perfectly harmless, with their small hands, small build and innocuous looks. But put them in front of a computer, have them handle a keyboard and a mouse, and they can blow any deadly terrorist into smithereens with pistols, assault weapons and even grenades.

Well, these are teenagers we’re talking about. They just emerged as champions in GameWorld 2001, the first national competition on Counter-Strike which, without doubt, is the most popular computer game among Filipinos these days.

Kenichi Enda, Joseph Ramin, Jericho Cabrera, James Rodriguez and Clive Canlas, aged 15 to 18, all live near Anonas street in Quezon City. They met each other at a gaming café called Game Shark and trained for a month to join the competition. Having mastered the game, they battled 127 other teams. After two days and about 12 hours of shooting and killing, they remained the only ones standing at the Glorietta Activity Center Friday last week.

Applause greeted the five when the last terrorist they had to fight fell down with the blast of a shotgun. "We won! We won!" Enda, 15, the youngest in the group, told his mother over his cell phone. High fives were exchanged and their competitors even lifted another Apocalypse member – James Rodriguez – on their shoulders.

Michael Llorin, GameWorld’s gaming director, said the Apocalypse members displayed tenacity and consistency in the way they played. "They’ve really mastered the game," he said. "And they showed superb teamwork."

Despite being labeled as violent, Counter-Strike has attracted a huge following from different ages and social strata. Just look around you and chances are, you’ll find someone who has played the game and truly enjoyed it.

"It’s one of the best strategy games available," said Llorin. "That’s why it has become very popular."

A mere modification of the game Half-Life, Counter-Strike can be downloaded for free from the Internet. It divides players into teams of terrorists and counter-terrorists in four situations like rescuing hostages, defusing a bomb, escaping from a guarded area and guarding/assassinating a VIP. With multiple levels and a variety of maps or courses, the game engages players in different sorts of heart-pounding action.

Its biggest appeal, perhaps, is the wide selection of weapons available – from knives to different kinds of grenades to accurately modeled pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, and assault and sniper rifles. Each weapon has unique characteristics, so mastery is necessary for a player to effectively use them.

Booming industry

The boom of Counter-Strike probably mirrors that of the entire gaming industry. If the computer industry in general is experiencing a slowdown, the gaming industry has been incessantly in high gear.

This industry – which includes video games played on console systems, personal computers and handhelds such as Game Boys – is poised to set new high marks this year. United States-based International Data Corp. estimates that computer and video game sales could approach $17 billion in 2003, with another $1.1 billion in revenues derived from the Internet.

"Gaming is saving the IT industry. It is the only thing that’s keeping the IT industry alive nowadays," said Lyn Barcelona, marketing officer of Axis Global Technologies, a local company that distributes motherboards and graphic cards for gaming computers. "You can see it for yourself. Now you rarely see Internet cafés. But you can see gaming cafés in almost every corner."

There are no official estimates on how many computer gamers there are in the world or in the Philippines, but Barcelona believes the number would surely exceed, by a wide margin, the two million Filipinos who are reportedly using the Internet on a regular basis.

Barcelona said the demand for gaming computers is steadily rising, thus giving manufacturers more reasons to develop faster, more sophisticated, yet cheaper hardware.

She noted that as games become more graphic-intensive and more interactive, they need more computing power to enable people to enjoy them. Some gamers, she said, even "overclock" their computers, meaning they push them far beyond their normal abilities to be able to work faster.

"That’s why our motherboards made by Abit are selling well. Gamers find them to be the most reliable and easiest to overclock," she said.

An overclocking competition was also held during the GameWorld event. Raimond Agraviador, a second year Computer Science student of AMA Computer College in Makati, emerged as winner when he built the most unique motherboard. He said he never learned the art in school. "You only learn this from other people and from the Internet. I do this to get the most out of my computer," he explained.

The gaming boom has given other people in the industry added business. Willy Yuque, who owns Hardware Labs Performance in Talayan, Quezon City, has developed a new way of cooling overclocked gaming computers which are normally prone to overheating. Taking inspiration from the automotive industry, he made a motherboard that is cooled by water not just by air. "We put a sort of a radiator there with tiny water pumps. It’s a lot better than ordinary fan," he said.

Opportunities

Gaming director Llorin noted that Filipinos have a natural tendency to excel in gaming. And he believes this tendency will translate not only into playing prowess but also into the development of new games.

He revealed that some so-called technopreneurs are already developing maps or playing courses for games like the Counter-Strike. One friend of his, a man named Manix, does these sort of things in his shop called Hobby Stop near Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

"We have great game developers here," he said. "Filipinos are natural artists and we have this knack for writing games with good stories."

Llorin said he wouldn’t be surprised if some Filipino software programmers would come up with a game inspired by the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis in Mindanao.

"It would surely make a good game. It’ll make you think, make you feel as if you’re part of the action," he said.

Barcelona agrees. She said that as games become more and more popular, businessmen would surely opt to invest in them.

She pointed out that at present, different businesses in the IT sector are already benefiting from the rising popularity of the games, particularly those than can be played remotely by many players over the Internet.

"The ISPs (Internet service providers) are making money out of network gaming and so are broadband providers. The sellers of video cards, too, are having a field day because the games we have today need so much graphics power," she said.

The biggest opportunity, however, that computer gaming presents is the chance for young people to enjoy the company of their peers without the dangers of becoming hooked into drugs or becoming involved with unwholesome fraternities.

Just like the winners of Quake III, another game featured at GameWorld that had death matches between individual players. The players all said the game gave them the chance to find a "barkada" and to be with people of their age who share their interests.

Carlito Concha, Luis Buenaventura and Daniel Cruz, students of AMA and the University of the Philippines, said computer games keep them busy, especially on weekends and during their summer vacation. "It’s certainly a better way to spend one’s time," said Buenaventura, a long-haired Fine Arts major.

And the members of the Apocalypse could only agree. They said the game gives them the chance to work as a team. When someone gets killed, that player goes to his teammates and provides coaching, shouting things like "Sa likod mo!" (Watch your back!) and "Yun! Sa itaas!" (Look! Up there!).

They said they never really go for violent games, and just value the strategy and the challenge. The violence, according to them, is just part of the game.

"We don’t really look at it as violent. Hindi naman talaga kami nagpapatayan dito (We’re not really killing each other here). We’re just playing and enjoying. And we’re working as a team, as a unit," said Jericho Cabrera, 18, the oldest of the group.