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pic courtesy of Games in Asia

Was invited to speak on the panel of the Games in Asia Meet Up, which was held at the Wargaming HQ at Dhoby Ghaut MRT.
AND I LOVE THEIR CHAIRS. SOMEONE PLEASE GET ME ONE. I’LL GIVE UP MY BENCH FOR IT.

The time passed pretty quickly and I felt that certain issues weren’t discussed in detail, but I think that’s more because everyone had an opinion, as opposed to scheduling problems.

I noted down a few things in my book which follows me everywhere. I’m very big on writing.

QN : What do you think of eSports in Singapore?
I think that as with everything else in life, if you want something, you have to go ahead and get it. Those on top can only do so much for you, the rest of it is up to how much you want it, and what you’re willing to do to get there.
As a gamer you need to take yourself seriously, there has to be a level of professionalism. If you don’t even believe in yourself, that you can make a living and a future out of doing what you love, how are you going to convince everyone else around you?

QN : Is drive nature or nurture?
Drive isn’t something you can nurture. It comes with knowing what you want in life, and wisdom to know how to get there. Then all you need to do is create the opportunities, or wait for them to open up.
It all starts with WANTING something badly enough for you to go and do something about it yourself.
eg. Chawy isn’t exactly a personality, but he’s been finding a balance between knowing that his fans want to know more about him and being an excellent player.
eg. Ant doesn’t have the drive to succeed in gaming because he has other avenues in life that he would rather focus on, and that’s perfectly fine, by the way.

QN : Any tips on how to build the attitude that will lead to drive?
I think this is the million dollar question that everyone is asking. Even people in the Ministry of Education would like to know how to put drive into the kids nowadays. They can make it gradable, they can set up courses, but in the end, you can’t really build drive. And here in Singapore, everyone is just born with a silver spoon in their mouths, everything handed to them on a silver platter. There’s nothing to fight for. Everyone is just tagging along for the heck of it, and waiting for someone else to make the first move.

QN : Do we need the support of the government in Singapore?
As Jasper said, if you can’t even get something going on your own, why should the government set up something to regulate something that doesn’t even exist?
The government might be seen as an invincible entity in Singapore, but there are many aspects in which they cannot interfere with, your own desire and drive is one.
We can look at getting cooperation from the government, so that leave from NS, Schools, and work is easier, if we need to attend competitions, but what more do you really want from them? As Wanda mentioned, we have all the infrastructure, cheap LAN available, affordable internet, there’s nothing stopping us from doing what we want. As for 2 years of NS, a player who thinks about the game the most, is more likely to do better. Spend your book out time focussing on your game instead of your entertainment and life, spend your book in time thinking about strategies or memorising damage output, mana cost, skill upgrades, armour stats, reading changelogs etc (all of which iceiceice used to do in camp!)

QN : What is the first step towards getting one of the eSports regulatory boards set up in Singapore? (Jensen/Donovan)
I don’t actually think anyone answered Jensen properly on this one. I think it’s possible that we can do it Taiwan style – have a few organisations grow huge enough (eg, Asterisk*, iSg, SCOGA maybe… Scythe, FCG) and then decide to band together to become an informal regulatory board.
So Step 1 would be growing independant organisations to a level that they are influential, Step 2 would be getting them to cooperate with each other to form a board.

QN : How do you fix the misconceptions about eSports in Singapore? (Pokemon guy)
I really didn’t manage to catch this guys name, but I know he holds events for Pokemon. So to me, the greatest misconception not just in Singapore, but globally, is that eSports is for kids who like to play games. In actual fact, eSports is for adults (like any other career, or job), or for kids who can think like adults.

So these are the questions that I felt like emphasizing. I think that what Games in Asia is doing is great, and you all should go support them at https://www.facebook.com/GamesInAsia?fref=ts !

Looking forward to the next meet up, perhaps this time as a spectator =)