neils clark

Tonight I set out at about 11 PM on a quest to find Singaporean gamer cafes, and find them I did.

Before I get into the boring details of the night’s culture spelunking, which is more an acquired taste, I’ll throw out my favorite quote.

Neils: “how late do you stay open?”
Attendant: “until the cops come.”
Neils: “hah hah, no really.”

…

Attendant: “well, the doors close at 3am…”

Somebody call the cops.

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Neils Clark :: Sep.06.2007 :: Games, General :: 3 Comments »

That was the first time I’ve had an MP5 (or any kind of machinegun, for that matter) pointed at my forehead. Try everything once, I say!

“You know,” Evan was telling me, “they only have one bullet in those things. Just for firing a warning shot.”

It was the tourist police. And as this officer swayed side to side, amicably chatting up the hostel attendant, the gun strapped around her torso seemed to be permanently tracking the top of my head. Ok, ok. Maybe I’m being a bit skiddish, but those things have been known to go off uninvited!

Last night, for at least the fourth time, I said goodbye to Dave and Chris, a couple of righteously dorky Englishmen. This last one was probably my favorite in a long stream of goodbyes. I was in the shower, when I heard, “Open the door, bitch!” Cheeky banter followed, and they shook hands with a towel-wrapped, moistened Neils. Probably won’t see them again, since they’re headed to Phuket and I’m going back to Singapore for more briyani and ginger tea. They’ve been off for 11 months now, and haven’t many weeks before they wind up back in jolly old England. Last night, along with Casper the friendly Dane, we had pizzas, beer and vodka.

Beyond sexy hostel parties, Shavaun has been helping me to get acquainted with more developmental/child psychology. We decided that the book proposal’s other sample chapter will probably be on the whys and hows of healthy playing in children. And if we can make a topic like that an easy and enjoyable read… then…

Go us.

We sent out our query letters starting about four days ago. The actual book proposal is finished, 20 pages double spaced, and polished a little. The first sample chapter is finished. It’s entertaining, and something that could teach my grandma about games, though I want to make it read like a gripping thriller - if I’ve got the time.

Still, my serious adventure was going between the jungles of Malaysia and the hostel in Singapore, because the train broke down. More on that later.

Neils Clark :: Sep.04.2007 :: General :: 6 Comments »

Tonight I’m lucky enough to be staying in a guest house with a serious Malaysian gamer, Evan. He’s got the perfect job for it – he mans the night shift and has constant access to a computer. While we’re in the middle of Malaysia’s capitol, KL (Kuala Lumpur), and not one of the residential areas where you’d find serious gaming cafes, Evan was really cool about answering a bunch of my questions about how games are played throughout the country.

Gaming Skill and Fistfights

If you start playing with gamers you’ve never met, and you’re not in your home café, then people are going to expect you to be good. He said, “We use the term noob.” Unlike some of the other places I’ve gamed, noob has serious derogatory connotations. As with Flo Chee’s work on Wang-tta, the Korean concept for the “weakest link” on a gaming team, there are serious consequences for playing out of your league.

Games like Starcraft and Counter-Strike are popular, but reserved for the truly elite players. “If you’re on a team with somebody that you’ve never played with before, and you screw it up, then expect somebody to walk up to you and scream in your face.” Said Evan. “That’s when the fistfight will start.” Sometimes it won’t be so brutal, and poor players, or less than sporting players will simply be removed from the game.

Game Localization and Micro-transactions

There’s also a serious MMO/online gaming scene. As with a number of Asian games, rather than charge a monthly fee, they operate on micro-transactions. Players will spend smaller amounts of money on powerful items or weapons. “People all want to be in that elite upper group.” Said Evan. “I’ve spent 13,000 Ringit ($3,713) on my character.” He then noted that most people won’t want to leave after that. They’ve spent too much time and money to switch games. It also seems to make sense that with the intense emphasis on performance, that starting from scratch with a new game may not appeal to very many people who are already accomplished

His game of choice, “Risk Your Life,” was originally from South Korea - where it went bankrupt. A Taiwanese company then purchased it, and a Malaysian company then started to run a server of the game. Maybe I’m the only one fascinated by this. Maybe.

Thailand as an Aside

Some other backpackers who’d recently been to Bangkok mentioned the intensity of playing in the city itself. This reminded me of the ethnographies done by my friend Dr. Aaron Delwiche, who spent a month each in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. According to the backpackers, some cafes fill up entire levels in shopping malls, providing hundreds of computers for gaming, and a number of sectioned-off rooms with televisions and couches, made for groups of people to relax with friends. One backpacker noted that these massive cafes were, “Absolutely full of boys having fun.”

Cool. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see some Malay and Singaporean cafes firsthand.

Neils Clark :: Sep.01.2007 :: Games, Research :: No Comments »

“Is this going to make my head explode?”
“There are worse places to die.”
“yeeeeeaaarrrrccchhh!”
“My chiropractor is going to kill me.”
“You can crawl on me, but if there’s penetration I’m going to scream.”

Yeah, so while writing I was coaxed into going to get a pretty good, pretty cheap 1.5 hour massage. It was reflex/back-crackology, split into a 45 minute foot massage and a 45 minute spinal blitz. Back to sitting poorly and churning out charming game addiction literature!

Neils Clark :: Sep.01.2007 :: General :: No Comments »