Nyx used to be my favourite cafe because it had something which I haven't seen in any other cafe in India; it had an atmosphere. Nyx was a place that I could just go to, to chill and relax. It also had a variety of consoles and a proper PC setup for serious gaming. It was just ideal. But sadly, Nyx was closed a few months back and Blur became my new dream cafe. But Blur is targeted at the general public and the horde of people who already visit the complex for movies. Though I appreciated the new approach, I was upset at the way they ignored the hardcore gamers.
The Blur management basically refused to provide the games like DotA, Counter-Strike, Trackmania etc. which are played by the hardcore gamers. They said that if they install these games, the pros would scare away the newcomers. If you read my previous post, then this would actually make sense in a city like Chennai. This worked very well at the start and the huge cafe was full most of the time. But I think the crowd started to decrease after a while. Now the irony is that they sponsored some college tournament by giving away free play-time at Blur for the winners of the very game that they refused to support - CounterStrike.
Today, I finally managed to spend some hours at Blur. Weirdly though, I was rather disappointed. The computers had an awesome configuration but the number of games were rather limited. For example, there were only three racing games (Grid, NFS MW, DiRT) in the computers. Come on, there are lots of awesome high-graphics racing games out there and what about the steering wheel or at least a bloody gamepad? Ok, Blur was anyways not meant for pro gaming and so, lets talk about the consoles.
The console section is located on the same floor as the arcade section which means, the place is deafening with sounds of machine guns and explosions even if no one is playing anything. I was looking forward to those awesome rocking seats with built in speakers and what not! Sadly though, all the consoles and thus the seats are placed one after the other and thus, you hear every god-damn game that everyone is playing over there which when combined with the arcade noise, is hell. I was looking forward to playing some good co-operative mode games but sadly, I couldn't even hear the guy sitting next to me.
Even the maintenance was rather poor. Some of those chairs' speakers weren't working. Nintendo Wii had very few game titles. To top everything, the cost varies from Rs.40 to Rs.80 per hour. Even Nyx's price was only between Rs.25 to Rs.40. For such a premium price, I would expect top notch service. I would expect a stampede of games and a perfect atmosphere. I should at least be able to try the different games to their fullest. But sadly, none of the games had a finished profile, meaning that, if for example I wanted to try Gran Turismo IV, I would have to drive a Lexus instead of Ferrari or Lambo. The least they could've done is put up a banner displaying the different games they provide. But they were rather keen on asking my friend to not take pictures inside the cafe.
All things considered, Blur is a huge disappointment for me. Though it could provide some good fun for everyone, it is rather a superb opportunity wasted thanks to vision-less management. More than that, they charge premium price for a mediocre product. Like they say, never meet your hero because you would only be disappointed.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Gamers or Spiritless timepassers?
According to wikipedia, gamers are people who spend much of their leisure time playing or learning about different games. Then again, people from different walks of life have different opinions about this. For example, my HoD claimed that gamers are drug addicts and a parent that I know believes that gamers are gamblers. But to me, gamers are people with time in their hands & passion for competition running through their veins. I will accept that I wouldn't have become a gamer if I was busy in dance classes & cricket coaching. But, if it wasn't for the competitive spirit that was burning inside me, I wouldn't have become a gamer at all. Sadly, today's gamers don't seem to have this spirit. In fact, today's gamers are people who like to hide behind a cupboard till the storm passes & then claim that he did his part to save the old man who was caught outside; basically, they are spineless cowards.
Why such harsh criticism against my fellow gamers? Well, its because I'm growing tired of this attitude shown by today's gamers. In the past year, there hasn't been even a single cafe/national gaming event in Chennai. Why? Because the only two games popular in Chennai (DotA & CS) already had clans a couple of clans who are good it. No one had the guts to stand up & fight against these clans. So, there were only two teams competing in events & thus, even a good cafe like Zap was forced to stop conducting events.
This is an age old problem now and there is no point in continuing that argument. But still, what pisses me off is that, even those special few gamers who still play in this dead city, are such cowards. Best example is probably the players at our local cafe, Zion. Except maybe one or two, everyone plays purely for fun. Of course gaming is for fun, but it will became a mindless cartoon if we don't add the element of competition in it. After a couple of failed attempts, they just give up and claim that they are playing for fun or that they don't like the game. They don't fight, they don't play their hearts out, they don't sweat, they don't research, they don't apply their mind or take any effort. They think that I'm better than them just because I have a clan of my own. Any person with a brain that works would figure out that I'm not natural at video games. I reached this level, purely because of my competitive spirit.
The irony is, I was once, in their shoes a long time ago. Me, Vijay (Maxi) and Karthik (fRosT) were just a bunch of new kids that visited a gaming cafe. We played against a guy who beat us 4 on 1. We got really pissed and planned for weeks together to beat him, in 4 on 1. Then, we improved in leaps and bounds to face them 1 on 1. I can never forget the top team back then, which was called Ashes. Praveen (Spk) and Riaz (00) belonged to that team and they were unbeatable at Age of Mythology.
Then, there was an expansion pack for that game which brought in new civilizations and powers. This was enough to motivate me & Vijay to practise our ass off in the newly updated game in a hope that we could catch them off-guard using the new strategies that come up with the additions. We literally studied international replays, took notes, mugged up strategies and trained like mad men. We then challenged them and played two games every day for a week and lost all the games. After a week, we started to win and then, we were almost unstoppable. Later, when Ashes collapsed, those two players and one more joined force with our little so-called team and thus, my team (Guardians) was created. My team might not have achieved much in the national arena, but I still have that sense of satisfaction because, we worked hard with a dream and we reached it. That is what gaming is really about.
Gamers in our cafe refuse to play in tournaments. Just to make them play, we are planning to introduce a rule by which, the winner is selected almost randomly, regardless of who won the game. That is how bad the competitive spirit really is, in today's gamers. The biggest joke of all is probably that, the parent's words that I quoted earlier, is almost gonna come true. To encourage competition, if we go ahead with this fun-tournament format, we will turn gamers in gamblers..
Why such harsh criticism against my fellow gamers? Well, its because I'm growing tired of this attitude shown by today's gamers. In the past year, there hasn't been even a single cafe/national gaming event in Chennai. Why? Because the only two games popular in Chennai (DotA & CS) already had clans a couple of clans who are good it. No one had the guts to stand up & fight against these clans. So, there were only two teams competing in events & thus, even a good cafe like Zap was forced to stop conducting events.
This is an age old problem now and there is no point in continuing that argument. But still, what pisses me off is that, even those special few gamers who still play in this dead city, are such cowards. Best example is probably the players at our local cafe, Zion. Except maybe one or two, everyone plays purely for fun. Of course gaming is for fun, but it will became a mindless cartoon if we don't add the element of competition in it. After a couple of failed attempts, they just give up and claim that they are playing for fun or that they don't like the game. They don't fight, they don't play their hearts out, they don't sweat, they don't research, they don't apply their mind or take any effort. They think that I'm better than them just because I have a clan of my own. Any person with a brain that works would figure out that I'm not natural at video games. I reached this level, purely because of my competitive spirit.
The irony is, I was once, in their shoes a long time ago. Me, Vijay (Maxi) and Karthik (fRosT) were just a bunch of new kids that visited a gaming cafe. We played against a guy who beat us 4 on 1. We got really pissed and planned for weeks together to beat him, in 4 on 1. Then, we improved in leaps and bounds to face them 1 on 1. I can never forget the top team back then, which was called Ashes. Praveen (Spk) and Riaz (00) belonged to that team and they were unbeatable at Age of Mythology.
Then, there was an expansion pack for that game which brought in new civilizations and powers. This was enough to motivate me & Vijay to practise our ass off in the newly updated game in a hope that we could catch them off-guard using the new strategies that come up with the additions. We literally studied international replays, took notes, mugged up strategies and trained like mad men. We then challenged them and played two games every day for a week and lost all the games. After a week, we started to win and then, we were almost unstoppable. Later, when Ashes collapsed, those two players and one more joined force with our little so-called team and thus, my team (Guardians) was created. My team might not have achieved much in the national arena, but I still have that sense of satisfaction because, we worked hard with a dream and we reached it. That is what gaming is really about.
Gamers in our cafe refuse to play in tournaments. Just to make them play, we are planning to introduce a rule by which, the winner is selected almost randomly, regardless of who won the game. That is how bad the competitive spirit really is, in today's gamers. The biggest joke of all is probably that, the parent's words that I quoted earlier, is almost gonna come true. To encourage competition, if we go ahead with this fun-tournament format, we will turn gamers in gamblers..
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