Online PC Gaming, is there a future?

Coming from a developing country which is actually ahead of many developed nations when it comes to cellular and Internet infrastructure, one gets to think that with all the broadband bombardment and rates hitting all time low, is there a future of PC based online gaming in between all the speed. I have been from old school PC based gaming (yes I am quiet old), where I played my first actual PC game in 1995. Before that it was all Atari and nothing else (good ol' days of space invaders and Pac Man). I saw the PC gaming revolution in the making first hand and from Doom to Doom3 and from Heretic to Crysis, the PC gaming has come a long way. Right in the middle of everything, multi player online gaming was introduced and Valve being the pioneer in making revolutionary Half Life and then on the same engine making Counter Strike, gave us popular titles. By an independent estimation, Counter Strike 1.6 is still the most played FPS multi player game in the world. Although there are RPG titles like World of Warcraft (WOW) and Starcraft but non is so popular and related to the avid gamer than CS 1.6. 

Coming back to the online gaming scene in Pakistan. First emerged on the scene in the early 2000, Quake broke the grounds and established Pakistan as one of the emerging markets for MPFPS. With the growing popularity, Pakistan Gamers Association was formed and for the first time, World Cyber Games preliminaries were played in Pakistan. Although after so many years, Pakistan still has some way to break into international recognition, but that was a start which no one saw coming. PGA lost its charm and its management in the next year and slowly started the emergence of gaming cafe's. Internet cafes were already on a booming trend but almost all of them were being used by the teenagers as an exit from the real world and entry into the world of fantasy. Over 90% of the Internet cafes were involved in letting their customers surf the web for porn only and it resulted in a very famous scandal in the mid 2003-04 where customers were filmed by a cafe watching porn and practically using those newly learned skills.

The gaming cafes for the last few years have mushroomed all over the country and right now there are over 200 gaming cafes all across Pakistan. But that is all LAN gaming, what about online gaming over the Internet. I guess, the only company to truly capitalized on this scenario was Multinet in 2006, when they launched the first ever live online gaming servers. Now in 2008, Wateen is coming up with similar service and from what I hear, it will actually blast every other gaming service in Pakistan. They have taken the route of subscription based model where users pay to play on their servers. By looking at the population on their test servers http://www.game-monitor.com/search.php?country=PK&public=&order=IP I was truly impressed. I did play on their servers a couple of times and the issue of lag and latency was almost non existent (Avg latency of about 80ms over the broadband connection). I did manage to talk to the Product team in Wateen, responsible for this service and from what I hear, people you are in for a great ride. Wateen also secured the license for holding Pakistan preliminaries for WCG 2008 and they are expected to execute the event within this month. Lets just hope that they don't fall victim to the age old habit of no-innovation as if they did then there is actually no future for multiplayer online PC gaming in Pakistan.

Apple & M$... War of the Pods

So it doesn't come as a surprise for me at least that MS has increased its involvement in their music juke box Zune. The latest upgrade to the music player has left most of the tech world in a surprised state as they are now actively competing Apple's prize jewel, the iPod. With additions like tagging the music files users have already heard on the Zune FM and download facility (legal) through MS, competition has become stiff. For me, neither of them are attractive as being from old school, I prefer burning my collection on CD as it is not only cost effective but also easier to manage. Not everyone would agree with me on this one.

Anyway, here are the details of what's the latest between the two. 

http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/2225711/microsoft-tweaks-zune-players

Pains of Running a Technology Review Site

Recently a friend of mine forwarded me an article written by the owner of http://www.bit-tech.net/ and it was on the similar lines as the subject indicates.

Its been quiet a number of years that I have been involved in projects (freelance) for running a technology oriented website which offers product reviews and insight to the general public. Now I can easily say that running a technology review site is not a bed of roses as it seems. There are surely the perks coming in with this type of business i.e.

1. Free goodies (samples)
2. More free goodies (samples)
3. Friends (who will stay with you until supplies last)
4. Fame (in the tech circle around your house)

What generally people do not understand is that all the glitter is not gold. Just like how Axel Rose (Guns and Roses lead singer) was idolized by millions in the late 80's and early 90's but little did the public knew, Axel Rose lived a very disturbed life which lead to the breaking of the group and him being lost somewhere. Running a tech review site is the same. Getting the samples is good till the days that you are piled up with the samples and do not have enough reviewers to do a good job in time. The companies which provide you with samples expect a good word out of it and then there's one group of people who read the reviews and instantly brand your site as "fan boy" of a particular brand or company. Understand this, when a company provides samples, it makes sure that only the top of the line products are given for review and not the ones which are available dime a dozen. Secondly, these companies normally send the samples which are not yet in the market but the reviews are used to create a marketing hype. Most importantly, a good review will win more contacts with more companies but then again, in Pakistan it is very hard to actually get any of these companies to trust a local business or site that it can provide a quality review.

I have seen sites like pakgamers.com and wccftech.com doing the same on two different ends. Pakgamers.com provides reviews on games only (PC / Console) and wccftech.com is purely hardware based review site. Although, I personally go to sites like tomshardware or anadtech or bit-tech for latest reviews but in recent times these sites have really brushed up their reviewing skills as well.

Back to the pains of running a tech review site. Here are the top pointers you should know, whenever you now go and read a review on a tech review site.

1. Samples are free but storage is not
2. Normally technology for review is either too new for the local market or too expensive
3. There are no quality hardware reviewers available in Pakistan. Those who are there never come in front (contact me as I need good reviewers)
4. Running after the reviewers to post the review in time is like running after your kids for making them do something you want (Kids never want to do something you want them to)
5. Without advertising, just putting up reviews is not going to pay for what the reviewer demands
6. Local companies do not believe in online advertising so there is no money there

Heroes can only last till the time they have money to spare and cash to burn (you must have not seen any bankrupt or broke hero)

So people, next time around, when you are reading a tech review put up by a local site, appreciate their effort and try to maximise the word or mouth for their promotion because we as a nation are failing to support each other. Without support, we will fall, as we are moving towards it already.

Ciao!

Adsense Secrets 4.0

I have been an adsense user for almost a year now and my adsense revenue never crossed $150 a month. Now what I never understood was that how was it possible for me not to have a huge amount of revenue when the traffic and page views were more than a normal Pakistani website. Anyway, today I was searching the internet to see what were the better methods to increase revenue for adsense and I came across this website: http://adsense-secrets.com/ and then I got intrigued. I further searched about the integrity of this author and book and actually came across quiet a number of people claiming that this book helped them increase the revenues from just $20 a day to $200 a day. Amazing I must say. I still am reading this book so would let you know sometime soon whether this book actually delivers what it claims or not. For now its a myth, may become a fact if my revenues actually increase after applying the tips and tricks from Joel Comms Adsense Secrets 4.

Bringing the Inside News

I have been writing telco and tech blog for almost a year now and I have tried to bring in the news which you do not find anywhere else on the telecom and tech blogs/forums in Pakistan. Yet there has been some older blogger who do no agree with me with some of my news (Mobilink shares being sold). Well, I appreciate the criticism and I must tell you that its not that I am claiming to be 100% correct but I do research on the news and gossip which comes my way. Here's a recap of what I announced before anyone else and it was true.

1. Warid Launching Blackberry service

2. Naveed Saeed joining PTCL

3. Mobilink launches WiMAX in Karachi

4. Wateen changing their Online Gaming vendor

5. Zong Launching Chinese Mobiles with its service

6. Warid Selling more shares to Singtel

7. Warid relaunching with a new face

8. Telenor internal issues with FnF packages

9. Zong internal network issues

I must tell you that although I am not that regular on blogging but whatever I bring to you is based on facts and not some drawing room gossip. So I must request all the readers that although my news maybe a little advance than when it actually breaks in the market but it is true. 

As for Mobilink selling 26% shares. You will know it pretty soon that it was true :)

Happy reading!