A lot of people will contradict with me after reading the article header. Yes, we have come a long way in the past five years. There has been significant progress in the gaming community and local events. The mere standard of it all has been given a high boost. I remember the days when tournaments were held with Rs.500 per team and the winning team got Rs.1000 to take home. This was done in the vicinity of an underground cave of sorts with heavy cigarette smokes swimming away in the dim lighting. The leather on the chairs stank of sweat and your mouse pad probably had Pepsi stains on it while the keyboard had a number of keys that were not functional, it was called a gaming cafe.
If we glance at current trends then we stand witness that the bar has been raised. Minimal fee for average tournaments go from Rs.1000 to Rs.1500 while major events will charge Rs.2500 a team. The winnings get a nominal increase too as does the idea behind setting up a premises for a major event.

The road was rising and the community was prospering. However, this gradual rise has met with a brick wall now and won’t be able to survive much longer if things go on as they are.

A Standard Must Be Set For All Games:
One of the problems gamers face is that the community is broken down between cities and main event hubs. This sees to a difference in rules, game-play, mods set for the same game playing in all cities. Lets take an example, the game Medal of Honor which is wildly played all over Pakistan is sadly broken down between two of its versions. Medal of Honor Allied Assault, which is extensively played in Islamabad/Rawalpindi while Medal of Honor Spearhead, which is preferred in Lahore. Now we must realize that our community does not conceive of a thousand members. The number of gamers are minimal and they are further broken down between cities. Instead of having a nation wide event for Medal of Honor where all the teams unite for a stand down we see them divided. The Lahore gamers will keep to their Spearhead events while the Allied Assault ones will side with theirs. They are not to blame, they were brought up with their specific titles and they have spent time honing their skills for that game. So why should they drop their title to come play another version which might have the same name but different game-play.

Same is the case with Call of Duty 4. The largest community for Call of Duty 4 is online. We, from the online community are following the rule set which is being enforced globally. But Lahore is promoting the game with another set of rule sets while Karachi is promoting it with another. So what do you get when you call teams for Call of Duty 4 for a nation wide event? Off course you get in a heated argument involving how they play the game differently than the others and each side will want their rules to be enforced.

If a standard is enforced right now then we will see a gradual rise in the number of teams for future events for sure. Greater number of teams mean more competition which in turn will see to a rise in our game-play standards. Better revenue for gaming cafes and definitely more gamers presence in events.

Biased Administrators Leading To Biased Pools:
Every game has a person in charge for specific events. And that guy always either belongs to a registered team for that tournament or he has a favorite team. At the time for making pools, he will always have the toughest team play amongst themselves while he’ll pick the lesser skilled teams as opponents for himself. What effect does this have on the community?

Gamers are not fools, they will know or eventually figure out they are being screwed. Most of the teams come to tournaments for fun and they do not like it when they are put against stronger teams and get knocked out right in the start. Eventually teams will stop attending tournaments that are being conducted by such biased managers. Result is that the community further divides.

So it’s best if the teams ask for a fair pool. Random pickings of tickets with team names from the basket works good if the tickets are taken out by random people. Marked tickets are not unheard off…

Biased Administrators Focusing On Their Favorite Game Only:
This factor has caused a lot of concerns in the community. When someone announces that he is hosting an event that means he is to work to keep the gamers contented. They have paid for their team to take part in your event, it’s only natural you hold your part of the bargain. What we see is that the event management will give their time to a specific game while completely ignoring the other games. This leads to a lot of confusion, anger and discomfort for the gamers who have no idea when their part of the tournament starts, who is making the pools, any last minute information they should know, which computers will they be using, the list goes on.

Call of Duty 4 is a prime example for Karachi. This has happened twice now, the organizers have no idea what they have to do with this game. The rest of the event goes on while the teams for Call of Duty 4 sit in one corner waiting for their turn. The wait will take them through the night when finally the gamers themselves will have to take the initiative and conduct the game themselves. I heard that in the last event the players had to even set up the computers themselves which is really shocking.

I believe this to be so because Call of Duty 4 is considered a minority in Karachi. There are not many teams and as I mentioned earlier in this article that no standard rule set is defined. So organizers have no experience in handling these situations. My advice is to get someone from the community who knows the game. Do a meeting with him, talk on each aspect of the event and he’ll help you setup everything the gamers need.

Gamers Being Lied To:
Trust plays an important role in every thing. Anyone whose hosting a tournament naturally wants a maximum number of teams showing up. What they do is feed gamers with information that will reel them in. The teams are disappointed and feel betrayed when they turn up only to see the bigger picture.

Stories of a large prize money is usually the main course. Teams will travel from other cities on their own expensive to come play for a prize that won’t even cover their food cost. No one is going to blame a tournament holder for a small prize pot but at least don’t lie to have us go through much for nothing.

Awareness Is A Powerful Weapon:
Not many believe in this and they have no idea what a powerful tool bringing awareness to the local populous can be. I’ll explain this further in the next portion of this article. Let’s stick to basic promotion for now. We look to the international gaming community and see a common trend. Every team has a website with over a 1000 minimum followers. There are other forums and web presences bridging communities together. We don’t really see that happening in Pakistan. Now we can’t see a 1000 followers for a single team but what we can see is having a single platform made for the whole nation and for every gamer for every game. We have many game forums and sites in Pakistan but none of them deal with Lan. Imagine such a stage setup and in its prime, every gamer mingling with other gamers from the nation exchanging news, game-play tips, gossips, updates, reviews, previews, thoughts on something etc. It would be a perfect place for sponsors to show up too.

The Incentive And Sponsor Tag:
I talked about awareness above, little do people realize that it can help us in reaching sponsors and endorsements. We once again look at the International community. Brands are practically dying to sign up good teams to advertise their products. You see your favorite gamer using a specific gaming hardware and you have to buy that too. This has been happening for a long time and I don’t see the chain breaking any time soon.

Now we can’t possibly have a similar trend in Pakistan because we would need those brands to have official outlets here. What we have here are retailers who buy and sell. There’s a difference and its a big one. What we can have is that even those names come forward and promote themselves through us. Instead of “I have to buy that gadget from its makers” we can have “Where did you buy your gadget? Okay I’ll buy it from them too.” Everyone is happy in the end.

However, sellers wont see eye to eye on this topic because they don’t realize the potential. To them it strikes as giving a bunch of kids free equipment or privileges. No one can promise an instant return or results. Anyone in any business knows of this but someone has to take the first step so that others follow.

Helping out teams triggers a growth in the community. Everyone wants to reach that stage and will strive to do so. Number of gamers start increasing, more teams are formed, more presence in events leads to more marketing of products which finally ends in good coverage for store owners.

Unity Is A Thing Of The Past:
With already a handful of teams we see teams breaking up more than new teams being formed. Instead of having 20 teams we will see to 15 because five of them had internal issues and broke up. A major factor is over recruiting. Every team wants the best players to play for them but why recruit ten from the cream of the community when only five will play in any tournament. This also disturbs the balance of the community. Remember that good competition gives way to better skill. Beating lesser skilled teams because you recruited all the good player is of no use. Give them a chance too and recruit only when needed.

No Bridges Between Sub-Communities:
Pakistan definitely needs a government for the gaming community. An organization to setup all rules and black list trouble makers. It will help shape up players and keep them in check while making the community progress in a homogeneous fashion. In the end we will always need a higher up with authority to unite everyone for a single cause.

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