alright, earlier today i went to a seminar all about gaming as a potential career, since i am in the field + a gamer seems perfect.
it touched on the subjects of, MMOs, Gaming as a culture, as a hobby, profession, the gaming community etc.

oh and by the way this was conducted in the philippines, i am here at the moment for school and stuff...and yes i am asian and a filipino.

one thing that struck me most is the issue about piracy, i know its been a touchy subject on these boards for a while now but here' s one thing you might find interesting.

according to the 3 major companies( microsoft, sony and nintendo ) the philippines (even though it has a massive gaming population) is not considered as marketable territory. yes, after all the craze, years and games the state of console games at the moment on this island is "non-existent". No xbox philippines, or anything like that. since it is not officially their market it means it does not exist if it does not exist then, you are considered as a smuggler if you have a console like that on this island. Due to that issue it is now LEGAL i repeat LEGAL to purchase pirated video games, why? how? how can you pirate something that isn't real? this fact actually blew me away and i decided to check it out on my own.

i went to one of these stalls at a flea market where they sell pirated stuff, i can see the stacks of wii, ps2, xbox and 360 titles out on the stand while the software such as photoshop, MS office, or Vista CDs are stored hidden in a box.

im guessing that this is not only rampant here but other places as well. as long as you don't see your country when you first turn your console on then it's possible to get things illegally.

now, as a gamer i really can't see the problem here. i mean believe it or not, the arcades do extremely well here, they actually have a world tournament of tekken 6 in one massive arcade at the mall. pc gaming and MMOs are a craze you can ask about any kid or teen they have an MMO or 2 that they currently play. i know a bunch of people who buy imports and stuff as well, in fact there is only ONE yup ONE store (with franchises) similar to gamestop in the country...

when you think about it, its practically their fault that piracy has spread this far...

i saw a some news that nintendo will make a base here next year hopefully things would change...

discuss...