The first post of 2010!!

Now I've finished two months of military training (n00b!)and will be serving in a new unit as a Corporal next monday. It's the new year's vacation and I'll head back to millitary at the end of Sunday.

Best regards to all mates around the globe wherever you come from! Happy New year!!!!!!

Since 27th, October of 2009, I started serving in the military. I'm a noncommissioned solider, which means that according to the Constitution, I'm obliged to serve in the military.

We've undergone some sorts of training, like physical training, melee, battlefield simulation and shooting. By the way, shooting with real assault rifle feels way too much better than video games

Life in the military is tough and demanding, but I know it's not the extreme. Other soldiers in other companies and battalions have undergone ever tougher and creepier experience. At least our sergeants won't yell at us and call us heads filled with turd while sarges in another company seem to take this as a daily necessity.

There are many regulation to be complied with, even though I often wonder the meaning of following them. For example, soldiers can't walk along but have to move in pairs or in a row. When walking, we should walk in straight direction and turn at the angle instead of walking in oblique direction. Are these that necessary? I never understand. All I can do is follow.

My military career will carry on until the end of September next year. I'm been looking forward to my retirement

I wonder how many of you pay attention to E-Sport, let me make a small introduction of the status of E-Sport in Taiwan.

There's TeSL, "Taiwan eSports League". Currently, there're two games of competition, Kart Rider and Special Force Online.

Kart Rider is a MMO racing game whileSpecial Force Online is a MMO FPS, known as "Soldier Front" in US. Both of these games are fromKorea.

Kart Rider

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpYnRceAWxc

Special Force Online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeNzOqmXdwU

TeSL has kicked start for a pretty long while, but the main issue of it is that these two games do not conform the major competitions throughout the globe. It's like a frog hiding in the well, regardless of the immense ocean. That's why TeSL is harshly criticized by many gamers who care about the future of eSport in Taiwan, since eSport ought to be a global industry/career.

Then why not choose the exact games applied in other major esport leagues like CS, Starcraft, Halo etc? Frankly speaking, all result from fund. Gaming in Taiwan still is not provided with a friendly environment by government and society like South Korea is. From time to time, articles criticizing games appear throughout mass media, needless to say, government and society hardly think highly of eSport.

Therefore, to survive and prosper, TeSL needs to find its own source of fund. Game companies are the sponsors of the league and the teams. That's why Kart Rider and SF Online are the items of TeSL- They are carried by TeSL's sponsors. By competing these two games, they can be promoted so the firms can make more money.

That's why TeSL is flamed by gamers, since everything it does needs to consider the profit of the sponsors first.

Recently there's a voting event to increase the competition items of TeSL. What are the games?

World of Warcraft

Left 4 Dead 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Team Fortress 2

Need For Speed

NBA Live 10

Red Alert 3

CS Online

War Hammer Online

SD Gundam Online

Warcraft -Dota Allstar

There're another two items of Warcraft but I dunno how to call them in English. Anyways they are two mods of Warcraft, "Warcraft -信長之野望" and "Warcraft -真三國無雙".

From the list above we finally see some "international games", but some games apparently not suitable for esport still appear.

Korean MMO games (often called online games in TW) require players to pay cash to buy weapons and armors while after a period they will be overdue, so players have to buy again. This is a business mode for the game companies to make endless fortune. For the players, since the default weapons really don't defy the paid weapons, they often have to pay to buy if they want to win.

Take CS Online for example.Note that this is nether CS1.6 not CS Source. This is a remake by Korean game company, Nexon.Players having to pay cash to unlock rent new weapons is the difference between CSO and CS1.6. Paying cash to unlock and rent means this is not only a game about skills, but a game about the size of your wallets. What's more, the company doesn't actively take care of cheaters. Roughly speaking, CSO is very popular among young/casual gamers but when it comes to serious esport, games that require endless buying weapons will ruin the balance of the competition. The same concept also goes to SD Gundam Online as well.

Now,Warcraft -信長之野望, CS Online and SD Gundam Online take up the most percentages of the votes. Affirmatively they are the most popular games in TW now, and they probably will become the new items for TeSL, but the result won't change the esport atmosphere in TW nonetheless.

Many gamers who look forward to the change of TeSL are disappointed, but we can't do anything - that's just the environment.

I myself once look up to the development of eSport in Taiwan, but now I know were the environment not bettered, eSport in Taiwan would never make its significant step toward the international gaming competition.