Getting into Gear

Copyright (c) Noelle Adams. All Rights Reserved.

This isn’t an advice column about entering gaming journalism. It isn’t even about getting the best performance out of your PC. Rather it’s a look back at 2006 – a year when gaming shifted into a higher gear, and raced onto the pop culture mainstream, particularly here in South Africa.

For one thing, GEAR is now one year old, and improving with every issue. The local gaming scene has matured to the point where it can accommodate multiple gaming-focused magazines.

Retail chains, devoted entirely to games and related merchandise, are opening in South Africa’s main urban centres. Such franchises may be common overseas but they’re novel here, and as such are an excellent indication of gaming’s local growth, as we play catch-up to international trends.

Path of Neo and other games have enjoyed prime time TV advertising, and even car dealers have resorted to luring buyers with PSPs.

Still, we’re forgetting the two biggest gaming stories in South Africa this year. Broadband Internet access is becoming increasingly affordable. It’s fertilizer for local online gaming. South Africans can buy and play massive multiplayer games like Guild Wars and Auto Assault. In 2006, wannabe Orcs and Night Elves, from Mpumalanga to the Western Cape, celebrated the launch of South Africa’s first World of WarCraft server.

Even more exciting was the booth-babes-and-all launch of Microsoft’s next-generation console, the Xbox 360, at the end of September. When you consider that the original Xbox wasn’t even released in South Africa, it becomes clear that the local situation is rapidly changing. Corporates have realised there’s money to be made in our emerging gaming market.

No doubt there will be plenty of Xbox 360s unwrapped on Christmas morning. And if current radio competitions are to be believed, the console is rapidly overtaking the iPod as thee must-have digital gadget.

Despite all the good news, it’s important not to forget some of the bigger gaming disappointments of 2006. Xbox 360 rival, the PS3 has been pushed back into at least March 2007, and Anti-Sony sentiment has swelled with estimates that the new console will cost R6000+.

It was also announced that gaming’s most famous trade show, E3 is being drastically downscaled. Although reasons for reigning in the circus are justified, the lack of a definitive gaming show will make it harder for South African gaming journalists to find sponsorship for overseas trips. If there is no ‘Must-see International Event’ to justify the journey, writers could lose an invaluable opportunity to step outside of South Africa’s borders and gain a wider, world perspective.

Of course, the most important aspect of 2006 was the year’s gaming releases. And they far from disappointed. 2006 saw a reinvigorated Tomb Raider franchise, the jaw-droppingly beautiful Oblivion, and free multiplayer masterpiece, F.E.A.R. Combat. It says something when my biggest regret of 2006 is that I didn’t get to play nearly as many of these awesome games as I wanted.

If this year is any indication, 2007 is going to be a wild, exciting gaming ride. Fire up your engines.