By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net
THE ASIAN Gaming Journalists Association Workshop at Club Manila East in Taytay, Rizal set the stage for encouraging further development of the country’s gaming industry and more media coverage on the gaming scene in the Philippines.
It also opened more opportunities for collaboration between the local gaming media and the video game industry in the Philippines. The two-day event is the first workshop of AGJA since it was founded as a way to strengthen and legitimize video game industry coverage across Asia.
AGJA founding president and INQUIRER.net multimedia editor Joey Alarilla started the ball rolling with a talk on the purpose of the workshop, which is to gather the country’s video game journalists and come up with methods that would help improve the quality of writing and uphold journalistic standards in covering the gaming scene.
Meanwhile, Ed Geronia, currently the editor in chief of T3 Magazine, narrated his experiences as the then editor in chief of the first Philippine multi-platform gaming magazine GamesMaster Philippines. He mentioned some of the difficulties in convincing the market about gaming even before the first online games arrived in the country.
INQUIRER.net technology reporter Erwin Oliva talked about the things to keep in mind when writing gaming industry news. He also tackled the challenges of drawing the line in friendly relationships with the video game vendors and the media when it comes to reviews and industry news.
Cebu Daily News gaming columnist Badong Reyes discussed how to review games, giving an overview on the structure of a game review, as well as the different challenges depending on genre, platform, and availability of titles.
Two of the biggest players in the Philippine online gaming industry were also present at the workshop, Level Up! Inc. and IP e-Games.
Level Up! gameboss Ben Colayco discussed “advergaming” or advertising on a video game. Colayco said traditional advertising has gradually engaged the huge niche market among the community of gamers. Advergaming will also create new businesses that will benefit traditional advertisers and publishers who will reach more people.
For his part, IP e-Games president Steve Tsao talked about the growth of the gaming industry in the Philippines and throughout Asia. He stressed that Asia will remain a huge massively multiplayer online gaming market, which will encourage more opportunities not just for the publishers and gamers but also for other businesses.
Other topics discussed in the event were the creation of a code of ethics that will set the standards in covering the gaming industry, a video game library where members of the group can lend and borrow titles for review, and the launch of forums on different gaming industry topics.
AGJA member and Manila Times editor Jing Garcia of the Manila Times raffled off two car dioramas and an Asus motherboard courtesy of his Tech Times section.
Here’s Jing with winners Ed…
Badong…
…and Lio Mangubat of K-Zone.
Meanwhile, INQUIRER.net/hackenslash raffled off a Nintendo DS Lite, which Ed won, and a Sony PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite, which was won by Badong.
The prizes came as a pleasant surprise to AGJA members, who were not told that a raffle would be held when they were invited to the event.
The first AGJA workshop was sponsored by INQUIRER.net/hackenslash, IP e-Games and Level-Up! With a report from Joey Alarilla, INQUIRER.net
Editor’s note: Photos by Alex Villafania
