It was an interesting day in Paris as Magtheridon's Nihilum lost out to Archimonde's Millenium in their 5v5 World of Warcraft Arena bout during the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC). To level the playing field, both teams used pre-made characters and were given choices from gear limited to Season 1 PvP gear and Kael'thas PvE gear. Millenium took the match 5-0, making an impressive stand against Nihilum.

Millenium is the 4th best Arena team from the European Regional Finals while Nihilum, established in 2004, is known as a predominantly PvE guild, and consistently being the first to take down end-game content bosses.

Millenium is the fourth best Arena team (read: PvP) at the end of the Europe Regional Finals, while Nihilum is the best PvE (read: raiding) guild in the world. How would you like to see them duke it out in a 5v5 match in Blizzard's WoW?

You don't have to use your imagination to see something like that happen. Nihilum and Millenium will face each other in an exhibition match at the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC). The match will be held in Paris, France on July 6. So who's on either team's line-up?

Fighting for Millenium are Delikat (priest), Khyna (shaman), Moli (warrior), Razwa (paladin), and Sealeen (druid), while Nihilum will have Awake (paladin), Kungen (warrior), Ghorok (shaman), Rulah (druid) and Nme (mage) playing for the team. To assure balance during the match, the players will get pre-made characters, and equipment will be limited to Arena 1 PvP gear and Kael'thas PvE gear.

Hmm... Very interesting. Who will you be cheering for? Nihilum or Millenium? Which World of Warcraft style of play will win? Stay tuned.

An announcement made earlier today by Ascaron Entertainment claimed that the European game developer has just partnered with the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) Germany to provide exclusive competitive multiplayer matches and demonstrations of SACRED 2 Fallen Angel (for the PC and Xbox 360) in the upcoming Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig, Germany.

In accordance with this partnership, SACRED 2 will be made available during the Games Convention Developers Conference (GCDC) 2007 by the ESWC Germany booths on the exhibition floors. Excerpts of the title's multiplayer features designed specifically for the event can be experienced in a 16-player match-up in an exclusive arena set up by the ESWC.

A dedicated SACRED 2 registration page is scheduled to be available soon for interested applicants, and the event will periodically monitor and update rankings as the competition moves forward through the multi-day games exhibition. Nescho Topalov, managing director of Top Ideas Marketing & Events GmbH concluded the announcement, stating:

SACRED 2 Fallen Angel will definitely claim a prominent place within eSports. Many fans, including eSports fans, are already showing a high interest in this extraordinary action RPG. We are very pleased to be able to present this title exclusively to our visitors.

Europe is now set to upgrade their status in the world games market with their own set of developer conferences, starting with the Northern Exposure (no relation to the TV series, folks) Games Conference 2007 announced for a May launch. Game industry big names in the region, such as Eidos, Revolution Studios, Introversion and IGA Worldwide, are confirmed to bring forth speakers for the event.

 

Obviously the first of many more big game events slated for the region, Northern Exposure 07 will tackle opportunities for the UK and Euro company to enter in the world game Market. NE 07 now sits side-by-side with the Develop Conference & Expo coming back to Brighton in late July, GCDC 2007 coming to Leipzig in late August, and the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2007 Finals coming to Paris in early July.

But instead of focusing all on the European market, the event will also help many industries try to maintain balance between the need for profit and the need for creativity. Leaning heavily on the experience of already established developer companies, NE 07 hopes to provide a solution to the profit vs. new IP dilemma. Nina Cliff of CodeWorks GameHorizon (the organizers) said:

Spiralling development costs and team sizes in recent years have increased the pressures on studios and threatened their creative ethos. Northern Exposure 07 will investigate how – through new business models and platforms – developers can retain that characteristic sense of imagination and still make a profit.

In order to boost the developer morale in the region, other big names such as Mumbo Jumbo, Eutechnyx, Team 17, Blast Entertainment, TIGA, and Carbon Engineering will also participate in the event. Topics such as finding ways to enter Xbox Live Arcade title development, growing casual gaming markets, direct (digital) distribution, and exploring profit possibilities in in-game advertising will be discussed.

The conference will take place at York Racecourse, UK in May 10, starting from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. An after-event party is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start over at Pitcher and Piano.

Yep, straight from Aussie Kotakuite Luke from...well, Kotaku, it seems that the Asia-Pacific version of E3 was a bust. Aside from enthusiastic PC and LAN gamers who attended the show, Luke summed up the lackluster turn-out, stating, "The venue was too big, the crowds too small and the number, and relevance, of games on-show was rubbish."

With the promise of game demonstration booths, the 2007 GO3 Expo was a little underhanded to deliver, without giants like Sony and Nintendo to showcase their line-up of games for their consoles at Perth, Australia. Microsoft, as an official sponsor, did make an appearance at the show. According to Luke, the only booth worthy of note was Sierra Entertainment's World in Conflict that allowed gamers to try out the yet-to-be-released game.

While the conference period from Friday to Saturday, with Metal Gear Solid's Hideo Kojima as a guest speaker, was anything but a disappointment, the latter part of the event, which happened at the extremely roomy showroom floor, wasn't something to boast about either. In fact, with booths displaying already released games, there was nothing really left for gamers to go for.

Of course, with the cos-play competition, the LAN gaming event and the showcase of Australia's ESWC 2007 team, it wasn't such a disappointment. Well, at least not to PC fans for the most part, that is...  Click on the "Read" link below to get more picture coverage of the 2007 GO3 Expo, courtesy of Kotaku and Luke.

It's a one-two hit combo for Western Australia as the Asia Pacific region celebrates gaming over at Perth. The GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, or GO3 Expo for short, was launched by the Minister for Industry and Enterprise Francis Logan at the Perth Convention Exhibition Center, as detailed from an official press release.

 

With the Asian, Europe, and Oceanic game industry's gaming icons to participate in the event as guest speakers, the three day affair will showcase the industry's games, game hobbyists' leisurely activities, network communication and computer technology. So from March 30 to April 1, expect attendees to be able to try out games from the promotional demonstrations sported by game developers.

Not just focusing on computers, consoles will also be making a scheduled arrival at the event, with Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 demo booths to be available to excited Aussie gamers. So you could expect their little handheld cousins aren't far behind either. The region's industry celebrities, government officials, and high profile media, including but not limited to MTV and Famitsu, will be joining gaming giants in making this uniquely positioned event a great success. Guest speakers include:

• Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid)
• Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Sega Rally Championship and Rez)
• Masaya Matsuura (Parappa the Rapper)
• Goichi Suda (Killer 7)
• Feargus Carroll (LucasArts)
• Nicklas "Cece" Cederström (World in Conflict)

Aside from the Fury MMORPG PvP showcase, guests can also expect other events to tiptoe their way in the busy weekend. First up is the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2007 qualifiers showcase, who will be representing Aussies from the world over in the Grand Finals at Paris later this year.

The GO3 LAN Party will also take place at the event. For 30 hours, over 600 attendees can relive the glory LAN party days and boast their talent against their seatmates' hand-and-eye-coordination skills. This is probably one of the largest network gaming setups ever attempted in Australia.

Also making a peep show is the GO3 Cos-Play Competition just to showcase the huge subculture phenomenon in the Asian region. The competition will allow the best game-character to win an all-expense paid trip to the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Next up is the Nullarbor Game Development Competition, where budding game dev enthusiasts and serious students around Australia can present their work to a large crowd.

Visitors interested will be able to demo the games and vote for their favorite ones, allowing the best ones to bring home cash and prizes. And last but not least is the Dance Dance Revolution Competition, where Australia's best footwork masters duel it out to win more cash and prizes, plus get immortalized as the GO3 "DDR Champion 2007."

Let us go far as to say that an article like this had to be written, and we're glad that someone actually did. While blogger and PC geek dp was as avid a gamer as any of those who remain of the multi-genre gaming enthusiasts, it's not hard to see where his sentiments are stemming from.

As part of the social subculture in the world, LAN parties used to be the pinnacle of community gatherings and social structuring that allowed gamers to connect on a real inter-personal level. But now, as broadband weaved its way to the mass market, the number of LAN party attendees soon dwindled to nothing.

It was pretty fine at first, of course, as most FPS or RTS gamers who couldn't win a match (even if their lives depended on it) were noticeably the first to go. But then even the mainstream LAN gamers suddenly opted out, seeking out human flesh player pwnage glory in the likes of MMORPG PvP games. The end of the LAN party was at hand.

While broadband's 2Mbps and even 4Mbps is nothing close to the mainstream LAN party's 100Mbps (or if you've got the bucks to blow - 1Gbps), gamers opted for the laggy, increasingly unimaginative but virtual worlds that MMO games had to offer. Players didn't mind not knowing the person that they were playing with, as long as they could be played with. And then players were able to hide behind masks of alter-egos, even if it confused some of the more practical players.

So now the once-mainstream, now-brainwashed gamers spend around eight hours a day crawling around dungeons with pixelized versions of themselves, hacking away at other pixelized versions of monsters with a sorry excuse for AI. Soon, those gamers couldn't pay for their own Internet connections that they soon returned to LAN parties, only to connect their PC to the high-speed network and fire up World of Warcraft. The nerve!

Thanks to some charitable PC enthusiasts who have the audacity to shell out their money for a great LAN gaming session, or even well known game developer companies such as id Software, LAN parties still have a fighting chance to be epic milestones in the gaming community. The upcoming QuakeCon is one of the world's most awaited and celebrated LAN parties, and it's probably the only last refuge of the LAN party culture. Competitive games such as the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Cyber Games need this mechanic, and so it's not a big deal on their part.

So for game enthusiasts that are still out there, here's our calling to revive the gaming culture's biggest social achievement in world history. Let's return it to it's former glory and even seek out to bring the FPS-heads from consoles into our fold. After all, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are all capable of wired and wireless networking. And if it's not hard to ask, can we get more cross-multiplayer titles? Please?

Considered a multi-purpose, complicated PC for your living room, SplitFish takes the PlayStation 3's rep right up the game machines' alley to a spot beside your extreme gaming PC. Dubbed FragFX, this new controller peripheral will reintegrate the precision of PC control in first-person shooter style games (and third-person shooters where applicable) for your popular and expensive PS3 FPS titles.

Although not exactly the trusty keyboard and mouse combo, the FragFX (successor to EdgeFX) will sport PS3 like controls over an innovative design concept with a control pair similar to the Wiimote and Nunchuk combo for the Nintendo Wii. Prime features include:

• The right hand mouse controller has the complete set of PlayStation 3 controller buttons. The mouse is used during game play to shoot, look left, right, up and down for that same PC style game play experience on the PlayStation 3.
• The mouse is optimized for navigation within the recently announced PlayStation Home virtual world.
• A menu mode on the mouse allows it to double as a regular mouse during menu selections. A lap mouse pad and left hand grip cradle is included with the FragFX to allow for comfortable play in a living room setting.
• The left hand re-programmable grip (nicknamed the “FragChuck” by G4TV) has the full range of 6-axis motion control providing Wii-like motion sensitivity for the PlayStation 3. In games like Resistance:Fall of Man, to reload a weapon or to rifle butt an opponent, the user can swing the FragChuck.
• The FragChuck also offers a game speed dial and frag button. When the frag button is pressed it slows the mouse down to incremental movement for smooth sniper shots. The speed dial allows for instant fast or slow overall game play. These two additional features let the user get out of battles as fast as they get into them.

Once again, PlayStation 3 players will be able to bring forth the technical advantage PC gamers had in first-person games, which may only come to light in the best demonstration venues, such as competitive events like ESWC 2007 among others.

The Electronic Sports World Cup community is now reaching out over the Internet to expand its pool of competitors and to introduce more competitions for games on consoles. Gaming tournaments and world tours are the ESWC's game since 2003 and, with 36 private organizations in 45 countries, they do just that.

The launching of the portal coincides with ESWC's hope of organizing the world's competitive players into clubs and teams and sanctioning competitions for the sake of sportsmanship. The portal will also provide access to a vast database of registered players, the games they play, and their gaming statistics. And because they can do this in real-time, they can definitely certify any registered player for the World Cup.

So we guess it's safe to say that the time for professional gamers, PC or video, is at hand.

Oh and a little FYI: the next World Cup will take place this year. Aspiring competitors, this could be a great chance to see what you'd be up against.

  

How do you say "Just pwned your gaming ass, dude!" in French? Better brush up on your bonjour because the 5th Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) Grand Final will be held at the Expo Park of Paris, France July 5 to 8, 2007. ESWC 2007 is expected to attract over 50,000 visitors as the event gathers 1,000 of the best video games players of the world in the largest international gaming show ever produced.

In order to reach the finals, all champions must qualify through ESWC national selections from January to June 2007. Preliminaries for this global e-sports will involve more than 500,000 gamers worldwide on the following console and mobile games:

• Counter-Strike
• Warcraft
• Quake
• Pro Evolution Soccer
• Trackmania

Official rules and tournaments (games versions, hardware platforms, formats and rules) will be announced in December.

ESWC is a sporting project conceived, produced and managed by a European company of events production, communication and computing development, specialized in video games and electronic sports. Since the fisrt ESWC in 2000, the video games events and the activities of Games-Services have generated tons of buzz including more than 2,000 national and international press articles, more than 500 hours of TV reports, and more than 2,000,000 Internet reviews all around the world.