About Town: Success stories in video games

2009/08/15

VIDEO games may seem like a waste of time to parents but the gaming world has proven to be a huge global market, which is estimated to be worth US$780bil (RM2.6 trillion).

In the United States, children as young as four years old are raking in big bucks for participating in gaming tournaments.

Victor M De Leon III — better known as Lil’ Poison — a professional gamer since age four, has taken part in more than 250 tournaments and has been cited in the Guinness World Records as the world’s youngest professional gamer.

His earning is not immediately known but it is believed that he would be able to afford private college education.

Fourteen-year-old Arjun Mehta, on the other hand, founded PlaySpan, which allows players in hundreds of video games and virtual worlds to buy virtual goods for small amounts of cash.

Since then, PlaySpan which is currently run by Mehta’s father, has raised US$16.8 million in venture capital funding.

Students were excited to know what projects Wan Hazmer (on screen) is working on in Japan

There are many more similar success stories of “nerds who have the last laugh by becoming content developers with fat bank accounts”.

In Malaysia, there is also a lot of room for local revenue growth; income from Malaysian creative multimedia was RM2.4 billion in 2007 and is estimated to hit RM3 billion by 2010.

The One Academy’s Multimedia Got Games event and exhibition held recently at its campus was aimed at raising awareness among students of what the gaming industry can offer.

The event was a gathering of PSP/NDS (PlayStation Portable/Nintendo DS) gamers and featured Wii game tournament for students.

During the sharing session, Multimedia Design graduates Wong Chen Li and P’ng Yi Wei shared their experience in carrying out their game designing projects. Later, guest speaker Wan Hazmer, Malaysia’s independent game developer and co-creator of award-winning games, spoke via a live videoconference from Tokyo, Japan.

Wan Hazmer is currently residing in Japan to study its gaming culture.

Students were brimming with excitement as he revealed the projects he is working on. He presented his study on the differences between the video game culture in Japan and Western countries, how the Doujin culture — which refers to a group of amateurs who create self-published manga, novels, fan guides, art collections, music and video games — had evolved into a nationwide hit, and how Japan’s independent game spirit is celebrated by the community.

Wan Hazmer was previously a lecturer at The One Academy who taught interaction design and flash programming to budding young multimedia designers. He also supervised students on multimedia final-year projects.

Multimedia graduates Wong Chen Li (left) and P’ng Yi Wei shared their experience