Moody Gamer

Well, it seems we have been discovered! Not sure if it was the first time or not but a recent report has been written about gamers in the middle east, more specifically in the Gulf area by rockpapershotgun. A website that has been around since the eighties!

I couldn’t have written about gamers (well the general gamers, not the “literate”) better than this. Since most who call themselves gamers around the region play one or a combination of the following: Counter Strike, WoW, C&C Generals and Dota. While the console gamers play Pro Evolution Soccer (especially modded ones which I came across personally). Regarding PES, it is widely known around the gulf as “Konami”. So don’t look puzzled when someone asks you “hey, wanna play Konami?”.

The report also mentions about the censorship here in the region which is true and many times are properly applied yet I fail to see why ban CoD4 and on the other hand watch ten year olds playing GTA4. With my own eyes I saw a mother buy a “P”ed GTA4 game for her son which was in that age range. Imagine how many bought it that i did not see. I played CoD4 and I don’t see it different than the many war books that you can easily find in the libraries.

In regards to the “P” word, the government tries to fight it, on PC only! It is so easy to find bootleg PS3 or Xbox360 games displayed at many shops at 10 times cheaper than the original’s price.

All in all, I recommend anyone who wants to have a current view of gaming in the Middle East to read the report at rockpapershotgun. Oh and laugh out loud at the “Really, All your games are original? Why?”.

Am sure many are very familiar with this Warcraft 3 mod map. Choose your hero, start at the opposite side of your enemy’s base, help your creeps by killing the others and cooperate with your friends to beat the other team by destroying their base. Simple idea, nice balance between the heroes and fun for quick games.

So why would I hate such a mod? Why are there even a lot of people who also hate it? Below I list some very strong reasons why I hate this very mod:

• It is the same map layout over and over again. Where is the diversity?
• Yeah lots of heroes, but controlling one character from a top view isn’t really strategic.
• New people get hooked to it so much that any other complete (read not a mod) game isn’t cool.
• A huge number of players play it yet never heard of Warcraft 3!!!
• Matches almost always take a very long time to complete, easily above 30 minutes and I estimate 1 hour on average for a single match.
• For crying out loud, you are just controlling a Warcraft 3 hero unit!
• Level up above the others and you are invincible!
• It is fun for a week or three months (I am even going too far with that) but years are too much, even WoW players don’t get that hooked.
• The PC has no other game except DotA?

Around here, the biggest contributors to DotA’s success are the LAN gaming centers. Why should they go and buy “expensive” 8800 GTs or 4850s to play modern and cool multiplayer games when DotA requires PCs which you can buy on wholesale or cheap (50$ PC anyone) that have year 2000 or up to 2003 specs. There are players who play DotA, who tell their friends how cool this “game” is and that it is available in your average Internet Cafe too! Get the picture?

It is indeed a great mod, but taking it too far like that is really sad, honestly.