IeSF Newsletter - vol25 www.ie-sf.com 2012. 3. 10

New Recruit at IeSF Secretariat

Global Data

IeSF Headline

As starting the new businesses of2012, IeSF welcomes a young andambitious man as a new member ofstaffs. We introduce him to all of youto get to know this fine talent. So, wewould like you all to welcome thisfresh member of ours, Jay Shin.

1. Please introduce yourselfbriefly to other e-sports family inthe world.

- My name is Jay Shin. Before Ijoined IeSF as a staff, I had workedat Korea e-Sports Association(KeSPA) for 3 years, in charge ofmanaging National Amateur e-SportsGames and Pro-league. While Ibelonged to KeSPA, I had alwaysbeen eager to work globally andintroduce Korea e-Sports, which Ilove so much, to other countries. Iam very pleased to become one ofthe members of IeSF Secretariat, andhope to set up a good relationshipwith our member countries. I amnow in charge of promoting theInternational standardization.

2. Please describe little bit aboutyou.

- I used to be crazy about playingand watching games. I wanted thatpeople around me think game is notso negative, but one of the leisureculture.

That was the reason I made myselfjumped into e-Sports. What Iusually enjoy are Starcraft andTekken.- I also love dancing, especiallyimpersonating Michael Jackson. Ihave led Korea Michael JacksonFan Club for 5 years, withpromoting flash mob. Before Iworked in e-Sports field, I had haveperformance on the stage and itwas my best time in my life.

3. Please tell us about your Missionand Goal in IeSF.

- As I mentioned above, I want tocontribute to minimize people’snegative perceptions about gamethrough boosting e-Sports. In orderto do that, I think e-Sport has to beregarded as one of the official sportsinternationally. I will support IeSFto be affiliated to Sport Accord byimproving IeSF as good as othersports organization. Moreover, Iwant to create lots of new businessfor e-Sports with all membercountries in IeSF

- Alex Lim

[ Member Nation Reports ]

Namibian

Korea

SA

[ Interview ]

Kwan-ho Choi, a president of KoreaAssociation of Game Industry(KAOGI)

[ Zoom-in ]

Pluto Games

[ Opinion ]

- Silent Walking

- Direction of policy that IeSF shouldpursue to lead the global e-sports tobetter future

Malaysia

2012. 3. 10 Member Nation Reports

Land of the Brave Gamer Brendan Ihmig / Founding President of the Namibian Electronic Sports Association (NESA)

Namibia reports

Namibia is renowned for its spectacular landscapes, abundantwildlife and indigenous people – iconic symbols of Africa. From thebreathtaking views of the tallest sand dune and the largest salt panin the world, to the magnificent collection of Africa’s ‘Big Five’,Namibia is without a doubt one of the most inspiring locations onearth. However, all this natural wonder and beauty has not exactlybeen the setting for the most ideal competitive gaming environment.In previous years while gamers from New York to Seoul andSydney to London were enjoying high speed broadband Internet -allowing for near lag-less play on First Person Shooters likeCounter Strike and Call of Duty or Massively multiplayer onlinerole-playing games like World of WarCraft and Guild Wars -Namibian gamers were still on dialup and LANing in garages andschool halls. As is the case with most African countries, Namibiahas sluggishly trailed behind the developed world with regards toavailability and adaptation of technology.Tackling these challenges and developing a platform for Namibiangamers to not only participate in competitive gaming but to haveelectronic sport recognized as a nationally sanctioned sport wasalways going to be a difficult quest. A handful of ‘brave’ localgamers took the initiative to establish eSport in Namibia and tocreate the platform for Namibian gamers to compete on the globaleSport stage and obtain recognition locally for the sport.Beginning in 2006 with regular, competitive LAN tournaments witharound forty participants, the foundations were built, and in 2008the first national organized eSport event was hosted. After a periodof five years that required much of the proverbial blood, sweat andtears, eSport was officially recognized in November of 2010 as anationally sanctioned sport with the Namibian Electronic SportsAssociation (NESA) as the governing body of eSport in Namibia.In December of 2010, Namibia gamers were given the opportunityto experience the exhilaration of competitive gaming on theinternational stage when NESA hosted the first ever internationaleSport tournament against South Africa’s national gamers.

Although nerves and lack of experience got the better of theNamibian gamers, their debut on the international eSport stage wasboth historic and memorable, putting Namibia officially on theglobal eSport map.It is an unavoidable fact of life that growing pains will accompanyany new organization as it faces new challenges and puts intomotion systems and processes that will help establish it, and to fulfilits mandate. 2011 saw eSport in Namibia and Namibian ElectronicSports Association (NESA) overcome many challenges faced withthe growth and spotlight of being a national sport and competinginternationally. These challenges would have seemed daunting foranyone at the helm, but the rewards being worthy payouts. TheNamibian Electronic Sports Association (NESA) being accepted asa member of the International E-Sport Federation (IeSF) being onesuch reward.The future of eSport in Namibia is on course to grow inparticipation and competitiveness and Namibian gamers can lookforward to more gaming than ever before and more opportunities toprove themselves internationally. Namibia has yielded ‘diamonds’from its ‘rough’, with the likes of Michelle McLean and FrankFredericks, and there is sure to be a brave gamer from thismagnificent ‘Land of the Brave’ that will reach such heights ineSports.

2012. 3. 10 Member Nation Reports

New Chairman of the e-Sports Board of ControlMind Sports South Africa (MSSA)

South Africa reports

Mind Sports South Africa is without doubt the oldest member of the IeSF havingbeen founded on 14 December 1985 as a non-profit Association.As an Association, the MSSA is governed by a committee that is elected at itsGeneral Meetings. In order to create stability in the Association, elections for theposts on the Management Board are staggered so that the entire ManagementBoard does not change at the same time which would result in a loss ofknowledge and experience.Obviously, the Chairman of the eSports Board of Control has become more andmore important with the massive growth in eSports in South Africa. In the pastthe position of Chairman of the eSports Board of Control was often held byregistered players who had a keen interest in eSports, but had not reallyparticipated themselves in competitive leagues.2012 saw a new era being ushered in with David Webster being unanimouslyelected in to the position of Chairman of the eSports Board of Control.David already has received Protea Colours from Mind Sports South Africa (1997to 2001) as well as from Shooting South Africa for the game of Paintball (2010and 2011). However, it is his work in eSports that is relevant to his credentials.David Webster was one of the founding members of the second oldestCounterStrike 1.6 clans that we have in South Africa – Bravado Gaming.

Bravado Gaming has done much to improve the standard of competitive gaming inSouth Africa, and is the only South African team to have played against theSwedish team SK Gaming in CounterStrike 1.6.In taking up his position on the eSports Board of Control, David brings with himyears of experience of competitive play as well as a youthful enthusiasm thatgenerates confidence and participation.

Spotgamers Gaming Conference 2012- Uniting The Gamers

Malaysia reports

All this while we have been going solo. Each of the gaming community is nottalking to each other. In fact, there is hatred and jealousy among us. But lookwhere it lead us to now? Obviously we are nowhere near the big dream, to make e-Sports a reality.Therefore, MESF & Spotgamers has taken the initiative to host the MalaysiaGaming Conference 2012. The main agenda of the conference is "How to unite thegaming community and why?". This would be the 1st time that we have a roundtable discussion with all gaming communities to find the best solution and to uniteall the gaming communities in Malaysia.If we want to grow the gamingcommunity, we have to unite the gaming community. To make e-Sports a reality inMalaysia we must first start to unite all the gamers in Malaysia.Malaysia Gaming Conference was be conducted by Spotgamers Founder & CEO,Rinie “Si_Jali” Ramli and speeches was given by various speakers from diversebackground sharing their point of view on why is it important to unite the gamingcommunity. We will be having gamers, organizers, medias and sponsors on thestage and this would be a great opportunity for all of us to share our ideas on howto make the gaming community better. At the same time there will be Q&A sessionso you can ask away any question. The list of speakers are as follows:Mr. Rinie “Si_Jali” Ramli - President of MESF & SpotgamersMr. Izzat - Commitee member of MyCOREMs. Tiffany Chung - WCG Malaysia ommittee member from PIKOMMr. Iven Loh - Product Manager of MSI MalaysiaMr. Frank Ng - Director of Orange e-SportsMr. Eric Lee - Representative of Team Troll Casting

The conference was held at Eastin Hotel Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia and sawmore than 80 gamers from various games attending showing their support for unityin the gaming community. The conference has succesfully united various games andcreated a better understanding and mentality on what is needed to push e-Sports toanother level in Malaysia. Check out more photos below:Its time for us to unite. Its time for us to make e-Sports a reality in Malaysia!

Rinie Ramli / President of Malaysia e-Sports Federation

2012. 3. 10 Member Nation Reports

Minimize side effects of game and develop it!

Korea reports

Jongmin Kim, the chairman of board of Game Culture Foundation, attendedat the opening ceremony of “Excessive Immersion to Game” Treatment andCounseling Center in Yongnam held in Busan IT Industry PromotionAgency and said that there has always been a war for establishing mediacultures. It’s just a transitional period.

He said, The amount of Korean film exports leading the Korean Wave was794 million dollars at their highest last year; that of game exports was2.2billion dollars and it’s over twice more than that of film exports. Thegame plays the leading role to export contents as our crucial industry of nextgeneration.

The number of annual car accidents was 25million causing 30million ofinjured patients and 6000 of deaths. But no one gets rid of his car despitelarge number of injured people and death rates. People try to decrease thenumber of car accidents, prepare for accidents continuously.

He said "We should shed new light on game with this point of view. Theeffort to deal with excessive immersion to game is the first step to take, nota control. Game has increased both exports and employment rates."

Although automated system has raised unemployment rates, game industryhas always given lots of chance to the young.

The game would be the great industry because it creates new kind ofentertainment requiring creative mind from the young. “Korean users areover 20million so far. Over 25% of people enjoy games. They regard thegame as a kind of culture. We’ll do our utmost to minimize side effects ofgame and develop game as a sound culture.”

Jongmin Kim, the chairman of board of Game Culture Foundation

IeSF Notice for Members

Dear all members! First of all, we appreciate the members for active andpassionate cooperation, who have submitted requested materials in time. Ifyou are still missing materials to be submitted, please make it done at yourearliest convenience.

Global Media Network Building ProjectNoted with thanks to those have shared the information of Media Resourcein their countries. As we have notified, we are attempting to create GlobalMedia Network Group for e-sports, which will enable efficient and stablepromotion of activities of IeSF and its members. With regards to thisproject, we courteously ask all of you the following:

1. Select one press and one broadcaster, who can represent your associationas e-sports media group, and who are capable of covering properlyactivities of IeSF and your association.

2. Find a person in charge from both selected press and broadcaster whowill handle IeSF matter.

3. Send the contact information (phone, e-mail and etc.) of the person incharge to IeSF.

Please note that the selected press and broadcaster will be invited to IeSFWorld Championship with the full support of IeSF. We will remind you allwith this issue via group e-mail. There will also be a certain format that youcan fill with applicable information. Once again, we stipulate this project isvery crucial for both IeSF and our member associations regarding futurepromotion and profit model.

All rights reserved, No contents may be used withoutprevious permission of IeSF.

You are allowed to post IeSF’s newsletter on thewebsites, game blogs or media etc as quoting thesource.

Please feel free to contact Alex Lim(limcw@ie-sf.org)if you need any files, related materials or anything else.

2012. 3. 10 INTERVIEW

Current situation of gameindustry is like a soldierwithout weapons and shieldsin the war

Kwan-ho Choi, a president of Korea Association of Game Industry (KAOGI)

As a few media announced malicious and biased reports of the game, he worriedthat a motion of Cooling-off (a bill that teenagers must not play the games for morethan 2hours a day consecutively, limited for 4hours a day) submitted by Ministry ofEducation, Science and Technology might discourage game development.

Kwan-ho Choi, a president of KAOGI, said “Although we implemented a Shutdownsystem and accepted a selective Shutdown system, implementing Cooling-off againis like a soldier without weapons and shields in the war.” We’ll respond stronglyagainst excessive control representing game industry as well as take the lead indealing with side effects like Excessive Immersion to game and preventions.

Kwan-ho Choi posted a note titled “no links between game and violence” on hisSNS site. He suggested that it was simply temporary and wouldn’t be proved to bescientific.Regarding suppression over regulation of game, he thought it’s due to recognition ofanti-game from parents and expanding negative awareness among the public. He hastried to focus on making scientific refutations about it.

<If It happened in USA, it could be blamed>He is being swamped with heavy workload these days, especially he’d like to try tofind the best solution of this problem with officials of Ministry of Culture, Sportsand TourismHere is a clear reason why he attended at “Excessive Immersion to Game”Treatment and Counseling Center in Yongnam on 7th, Feb despite his heavyschedule these days.“Excessive Immersion to Game” Treatment and Counseling Center is given a greatdeal of weight on business of Game Culture Foundation, I strongly believe it will bea great part of preventing and treating excessive immersion to game. As a presidentof KAOGI, I don’t think I skip this important event.”On my way back home, I was absorbed in the thought of Cooling-off systemreleased by Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. I made my conclusion,not accepting it because this regulation is too much.

He said “What would happen, If this bill was released in USA? Maybe they thoughtit to be crazy. Except Shutdown system, there is another selective one. I couldn’tagree with Cooling-off system at all, even parents could control the amount of timefor children to play the game. I’ll make a close cooperation with the authorities incharge and block the passage of the bill, even if I have to meet every congressman inperson.”

<Launching Game Behavior Brain Research Forum next month>The game industry making 2.2billion dollars (2.5 trillion won annually) exports andhiring more young men is facing a serious crisis. Game has been undervalued andbecome a subject of criticism like a drug. Even a few game developers are seriouslyconcerned about this situation, thinking whether they have to keep operating theircompany or not.

He said “It is true that there would be a fierce controversy until every culture iscompletely established. Comics and animation were also criticized for a while. Wecouldn’t help denying this and I think It’s a kind of part of development like havinggrowing pains. But it’s possible to discourage all of game officials too much. All ofthese are potential drags on the growth of game industry.”“Overgeneralizing a part as a whole makes me embarrassed. I thought I was also toblame for it “How fragile our game industry is!” We’ll have been establishing responsestrategies based on scientific proofs.

The first study is to prove relation between game and related problems. He’s planningto launch Game Behavior Brain Research Forum next month which will study how thegame affects children’s brain in many aspects inviting many outside experts like kidscounselors for kids, psychologists and etc.We’re supposed to prepare for next steps depending on the results of how exactly gameaffects teenagers. Even if there might be a harmful effect, we’ll do our utmost to comeup with a great solution based on scientific proofs and thorough study.

“Shutdown and then Cooling-off system, I can't imaginethese things being done especially in Korea consecutively.”Kwan-ho Choi, a president of Korea Association of GameIndustry (KAOGI), expressed regrets on game policies at anopening ceremony of “Excessive Immersion to Game”Treatment and Counseling Center of Yongnam held inBusan IT Industry Promotion Agency.

2012. 3. 10ZOOM IN

No more military! PlutoGames bets `Fusion'

‘Mercury:Red’ is sparking a fad for FPS’s new trend in 2012. Its popularity is growingexplosively, making a new impetus to Korean domestic FPS market. Moreover, artisticgraphics makes the game more than a game with a Cartoon Rendering method.Pluto Games said “We have been only focused on making a unique and special FPS game, thismakes a today’s game. We are also making various strategies to be a global developer. Closeconnection with various people made us overcome many difficulties, though we had lots ofdifficulty working at first.Pluto Games has been continuing its utmost efforts for a success of ‘Mercury:Red’ with 30developers since founded in 2008. It is very impressive for developers to work voluntarily andpassionately as their first title. Employees trust deeply their main executives like Jinsan Kim(CEO) and Seung Kim(Director) because they did the unpleasant work without anycomplaints.

[Developer, Founded with close ties]Pluto Game was founded only with strong aspirations of Jinsan Kim(CEO) and Seung Kim(Director) who lead various projects very successfully and used to be fully guaranteed withsecure future.Especially, the things that there weren’t plenty of entertaining factors except battles madethem challenge to create a new trend of FPS even though previous FPS games were excellentat speed and excitement. The first start was not that easy to Pluto Games as many companieswere. It was the most difficult to choose the right person of theirs. It was also hard to hiretalented people only with youthful and challenging mind, with no guarantee of high salary andsecure future.The close connection has always raised them up whenever they come to face hardship. It wasamazing that the prototype was completed within only 7months with helps that one cartoonistof his acquaintances joined his team as an art director and one animation company of hisacquaintances was in charge of graphics. It was also dramatic to meet with Choirockgamespublishing ‘Mercury:Red’ now.Main executives of Choirockgames found the prototype Mercury:Red’ in 2009 and Decidingto invest money in Pluto Games living in a humble studio apartment shortly after a briefmeeting has still been on every employee’s lips.

[To be a world-famed global developer]Their vision is huge with ‘Mercury:Red’, the goal is to be a world-renowned developer. Infact, ‘Mercury:Red’ is estimated to be a big hit all over the world as well as Korea.‘Mercury:Red’ has Cartoon Rendering style’s graphics suggesting Marble Comics, uniqueweapons and costumes, in pursuit of emphasis on a class, not a war. Experts said that thesefeatures increase global possibility to be a big hit because Hyper and Fusion FPS is also wellestimated in the overseas market.Although Global strategies are not proceeding yet at the beginning of service, they have aambitious plan to be a world-famed global developer through diverse distribution channels toopen ‘Mercury:Red’ all over the world. Additionally, they are planning to extend to a widerange of game contents with varied business plans.Their plan to promote character business is visibly stepping forward now, using their classwhich can hardly be seen in the other games.They want to show their wholehearted characters with a different form, not only in a game.Pluto Games has their own definite vision about continuous development and making its I•P todo a lot of business, even Pluto Games has just released their new title. Huge attention is beingfocused on its journey to go further with ‘Mercury:Red’.

[Pluto’s KeyMan] without prejudice, more interestingHow about user’s response?

-There are many users who still feel awkward due to unique concepts differentiated fromcurrent Military FPS. We’re going to make continuous updates to get rid of entry barrier. As‘uniqueness’ is a key to ‘Mercury:Red’, we hope you can enjoy playing the game with open-minded.

What is a strong point of ‘Mercury:Red’?-It is a class game. We put great emphasis on characters compared with war focused FPS. Wegive our players exciting choices to select a character since total 5 kinds of characters havedistinct individuality.

Overcome a crisis with a close bond atthe beginning - Aim at being a world-famous global developer

2012. 3. 10 OPINION

Somehow as a trend, it seems that people get recognized better as gettingmore uproarious and more outstanding. The majority who are making aliving as taking their lumps silently does not appeal their existence a lot.Certainly, there must be a lot of people occupied with somewhatmeaningful businesses, but we don’t know, and don’t even want to know.At the period of crisis and chaos, truly important thing to us might be asilent step forward rather than an aimless commotion. There are thingscan be done by simple effort, but also things can be done within patiencefor a long period. However, it seems that people don’t see the slow-but-steady steps as they make all haste.Including Korea, the suzerain of e-sports, global e-sports field is facing atough and chaotic period. There are still somehow significant trialsongoing, but, yes, it is a chaotic period now for sure. Even for Koreanmarket, being the victim of aimless showoff, it is pitiful that generalperception on games is being negatively generalized as overlooking thedeliberation on its nature. Excessive control or micromanaging derivedfrom negative bandwagon may consequently turn all parties as victimswithout any alternative. The correspondence between problems of theyouth and gaming is, of course, a crucial social issue, but people, basedon the confidence among members of the society, should respect the fieldas it keeps the social agreements rather than prescribing ostrich.The economy curve seems as one cycle when looking at it in thedistance, but if you see it closer, it consists of numerous of small climband dive curves. Likewise, even if it feels like a wane or a sinking boat, itcould actually be the slow and steady upward curve when looking backafter a while. Thus, people who get frightened beforehand and jumpoverboard cannot obtain the fruition of endurance. I carefully hopepeople may put at least half of the passion for arguments onunderstanding each other.Sometimes I also feel restless; however, I may regret to the death if I stopdoing this now. Recently, a major company in Korea came to ask for anadvice and support on their abroad expansion project related to e-sportsmarketing. There, again I found it worth working in this field with thefact that common and minor part we have can help somebody in hugemanner. The capacity of our organization, IeSF, as comprised of nationalassociations with their governments’ approval might be a lot moresignificant than we think, and it encourages me.

We can definitely tell we can encourage our member associationsstrongly only when IeSF makes success stories. Also, since we have beenemphasizing to create e-sports base as Korea, or to establish structure andnetwork just as Korea. Thus, regardless of recent crisis, we need toovercome all the trials and create another success stories on this land inKorea. There, we should be able to approach to all the young people inthe world who glow with enthusiasm for e-sports as future-orientedsports and culture. We need to accept all the criticism toward us in ahumble way, however, at the same time, we should not forget thecapacity that we have accumulated.With the insight that all these issues are resulted from lack ofprofessionals and specialists in this field, we have started e-sportsinternational human resource training project through academic-industrial cooperation. Although it is just small stride for right now, wehave great expectation for it since our goal is huge. We are planning toselect fine resources among the pool completed the course, and put themin the field as encouraging related organizations and companies toemploy them. It may take time to earn practical result, but undoubtedly itwill bring more and better young with abilities into this field.In the near future, when the time each government recognize e-sports andstart manipulating it directly or indirectly comes, it may become harderto host events and their related activities, which are a lot easier now.When this control happens either with the name of sports or culture,human and material capacity and network that we accumulate will proveits real worth.It took 10years to invite Winter Olympics to Pyongchang, Korea. Itrepresent that it is not that easy to drag outer world into ours. Therefore,as we have chance to bring all parties into our stake through making ourown world with our own standards, burning with our passion must beonly mission that we have for right now.It is time to look around and encourage our comrades who are carryingon their mission silently. A Little concern may turn to be fuel for them tomove forward. For those who are carrying on things cannot be explainedwith the politics or economical logics of the current, calm and still regardcommuning with their vision must be of huge help for them.

Silent Walking

International e-SportsFederation, SecretaryGeneral Won Suk Oh

It is common knowledge that the audience of cyber games' fans growsevery year. The profits of game developers have increased steadilydespite the overall decline following the 2008 financial crisis andcurrently constitute approximately 65 billion dollars (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/28/us-media-summit-videogames-idUKTRE7AR18E20111128). One could argue that both mass interest incyber games and large profits should cause significant influx of people ine-sport but this not the case in world cyber sports. IeSF has alreadyannounced its activities that will aim at the popularization of the cybersports as a social phenomenon. These activities include the establishmentof uniform standards in relation to organizing and conducting the cybersports events, refereeing, general rules for every discipline, and mainlyaddressing Sport Accord regarding the registration and acknowledgementof cyber sports as an official sports discipline. There are also otheractivities that will be brought to IeSF's attention.

The stability of cyber disciplines on championshipsHaving conducted cyber sport events in my country I can state withconfidence that the players' principal concern is whether their particulardiscipline will be among the final ones included in the forthcomingchampionship. Certainty in a positive answer gives players sufficientmotivation for timely and prolonged trainings, which in their turnproduce a much more qualitative and advanced results. This aspect is oflesser importance for the professional cyber sportsmen and teams whichpotentially have a bigger chance of participating in various tournaments.It is suggested, that it is necessary to strive for a long-term planning indiscipline selection and work organization with the publishers.

Prize-winning placesA rather negative tendency regarding the well-established disciplines isthe decrease in prize money. The distribution of the prize money onWCG 2011 was a good example of that. The money prize for the 1stplace in still popular Counter-Strike comprised USD 25.000 (in 2010),and the 2nd and 3rd place received USD 6.000 and USD 3.000accordingly (against USD 10.000 and USD 5.000 in 2010).

As the same time, the winner of Asphalt 6 (on mobile platform) receivedUSD 40.000 for the 1st place. The publisher's interest in thepopularization of the new games is natural and the expansion of thenumber of official disciplines is to be commended. But the drawback isthat the players lose interest in the old games due to the lack financialstimulation. This contributes to the above-mentioned lack of stability.The solution to this problem could become long-term sponsor contractsand contracts with the publisher regarding the guaranteed prize money.

Popularization of cyber sports and the role of mass mediaIt is hard to overestimate the ubiquity of mass media and their influenceon the modern society. It is suggested that mass media should get moreinvolved in covering e-sport events. Mass media should also be used tomake the population aware of the fact that e-sport is a popular trend inthe modern age of information technologies and is one of the componentsof a healthy way of life.

Ramil Aliyev(President of AzerbaijanCybersport Federation)

“Direction of policy that IeSF should pursue to lead the global e-sports to better future.”