Covering (but not limited to) all of my thoughts on the PC gaming scene.
...if only there was more gaming going on
Published on June 8, 2008 By Phazon88 In PC Gaming

Yesterday I went to the Sydney Gaming League event. Its basically a big LAN event where people from all over the Sydney region get together with their PCs and have a good time.


The sad truth of this event is, nearly 90% of attendees were not interested in gaming at all. Instead, they all fired up DC++ ( a file sharing program) and shared files (you can guess what kind) with each other. The other 10% (the TRUE PC gamers) were having fun playing games with each other or just playing their favourite niche / not horribly overhyped / not heavily markted game and getting passerby gamers asking questions about it (aka me).

The event has taken a few steps forward in the past year, it is now associated with Cyberslam (our local competitive gaming organiser) which is good for the competitive gamers and hosts some qualifiers for some of their tournaments there (the one I noticed was UT3 which most of the serious competitive gaming scene would probably laugh at). It also seemed to have gotten a few more sponsors this time round due to the association with Cyberslam such as EA (which had playable 360s with Battlefield: Bad Company) and various other PC hardware vendors coming along.

It was a nice event, but I really REALLY wish there were more serious gamers there. I detest what piracy has done to PC gaming in particular, my original and still primary platform for my gaming activities. To see a room full of nearly 200 people just file sharing really just irks me to say the least.

Ah well, my day was made when someone asked what I was playing (it was Sins of a Solar Empire - I'll be expecting the marketing payment in the mail Brad hahaha ). I was also immensly happy at how fantastic my new PC is compared to all the other setups out there. Mine was without a doubt the classiest and most visually appealing PC there.

Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder (I don't have a clear case window or flashy lights), but my PC is the most elegant and easiest on the eye while still screaming state-of-the-art. My friends remarked that my PC case (its a case big enough to hold a server in) looked like some sort of Necron monolith, but what can I say, I like a big case that gives everything lots of room to breath and function.

 

At the end of the day, I still had fun (minus everyone else's file sharing activities). I've added to someone else's complaint on their forums hoping to get rid of this file sharing non-sense and get the SGL live up to its name.

 

PS - A local TV show called Cybershack was there also, recording some footage. I'm hoping I make it into the file cut in one of their panning shots (I wasn't interviewed sadly - wish I was - being one of the few real gamers there).


Comments
on Jun 10, 2008
Hi Phazon,

Yep. I feel your pain mate, this is exactly what happened to the LANs I went to in Melbourne. What started out as rabid gaming fests, turned into file share almost as soon as cable filled the outer suburbs. Once broadband became the norm, the LANs actually stopped altogether.

The lure of the low ping/high player numbers was no more.

Luckily I LAN with a small group every now and then now so I get my fix, but it was sad to see the big LANs drop out. They were a blast in the beginning.
on Jun 11, 2008

Didn't think I was the only one.


If I had the time and moneytary capacity I'd organise a gamers only LAN here in Sydney for the real PC gamers out there to enjoy.

on Jun 12, 2008
Didnt know there's one in Sydney.

Would love to bring my laptop and have some games with strangers.

What games do they play?Got Sins?
on Jun 17, 2008
Didnt know there's one in Sydney.Would love to bring my laptop and have some games with strangers.What games do they play?Got Sins?


The few that do game usually only play the more popular titles (mainly DotA, CoD4, CSS etc). You can still organise to play other games but its harder to find people to play them (but not impossible).

on Jun 17, 2008
i cannot understand this.
if everybody has cable whats the point? HAve they not got everything they want themselves. I guess at least there is some lanning action going on.

I lan regularly with some mates in Sydney just at each others houses. We play sins, armed assault, lockon, sturmovik, homeworld2, dow, company of heroes, silent hunter and anything else that we feel like playing.
We are all late 20s, early 30s. So I guess mature gamers - or average aged gamers if u believe the magazines.
As u can see the kind of games we play are not what your average gamer is into - we dont really play counterstrike. But we still let the energy off with an FPS or two when the mood takes.
We are not serious but out to have a good time..... away from the professional glors (1D10Ts)
Although we do also see our fair share of online VS action and are good at it. There are a lot of life long single game dedicated specialist no lifers that spoil things with their bunny hops and stupid unrealistic BS exploits. U get my point anyway... there is a spirit to things. And it aint camping like a P!!F

Its hard to find players who are into the gear we like actually....

I really need to attend one of these big lans sometime.... I'm sick of BF2 these days though.
And doubt anybody would play stuff i am interested in...

Whats the average age of gamers at these events?