HERE’S more good news for the game development industry in Asia.

As Alex Villafania noted in a previous hackenslash story, the Philippines and 11 other Asian countries will sign a memorandum of intent at Games Convention Asia (GCA) 2007 in Singapore.

Now the organizers of the GC Asia Conference, which will be held together with GCA 2007 from September 6 to 9 at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center, have announced that Susan Gold, chairwoman of the International Game Developers Association Education Special Interest Group (SIG), will give a talk on “Entering the Video Game Industry.”

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By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

FIRST-PERSON shooters are getting more intense, if only for the storyline and the “scare factor.” The last FPS that really scared the hell out of me was Doom 3D and that was only because of the eerie lighting and the odd background music. Prior to this were System Shock and Deus Ex, which had a similar scary feel to the game and had really good gameplay.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of the newer FPS games that can send players jumping off their seats not just because of the nail-biting scare tactics that the game employs, but also because of a lot of flashy shootouts with humans and humanoid-like creatures in dark places. What’s more, the game also features a surprisingly good number of plots and twists in an otherwise linear storyline to the point that this seems to be a mix between an FPS and role-playing game. Side quests are abundant and the number of endings is one that has not been seen in any such game in the genre.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is an acronym for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers. Quite a long name for a title, but this largely describes people living within and outside the borders of the worst post-war nuclear disaster site, Chernobyl. As the story goes, you play the character of the mysterious, unnamed and ostensibly mute “Marked One.” You enter the fallout-riddled Zone after having an amnesia and you’re out to search for the man called “Strelok,” whose name is written in your surprisingly antagonistic PDA. So your mission is to enter the Zone, find this guy and know why you have to kill him.

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By Agence France-Presse

PARIS–A fantasy plague that accidentally ran amok in the Internet’s most popular game world, populated by nine million flesh-and-blood players, may help scientists predict the impact of genuine epidemics, according to a study released Tuesday.

Virtual playgrounds such as World of Warcraft, launched in 2004, could soon become testing grounds for the all-too-real battle against bird flu, malaria or some as yet unknown killer virus, one of the authors, Nina Fefferman of Rutgers University in New Jersey, told Agence France-Presse.

Discussions are underway, she confirmed, with the game’s California-based manufacturer, Blizzard, a unit of French media giant Vivendi, on how future updates might yield useful scientific data.

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IT’S double the fun as GAME!, the gaming magazine of INQUIRER.net’s sister company Hinge Inquirer Publications, dishes out Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne goodness in its August issue.

Check out these two cover variants.

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By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

IP E-GAMES, the online gaming arm of IT firm Intellectual Property Ventures Group (IPVG), said its advergaming business could grow from the current five percent to about 20 percent in the next two years, driven by strong interest from advertisers seeking to shift from traditional tri-media to the targeted market offered by online games.

Advergaming refers to virtual product placements within a video game. Virtual billboards, kiosks and even items that include the logo or names of a product signify advergaming. In some cases, real products can have virtual versions in a game and can be either bought or consumed by virtual characters.

Speaking during the recently held Internet & Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines conference in Manila, IPVG president Enrique Gonzalez said advergaming is still in its infancy but will be a new and encouraging field for advertising firms and their clients. Advergaming targets a specific market, which are gamers with disposable incomes.

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