KATHMANDU, May 5 -- An AK 47 in a soldier's hand, all of a sudden, runs out of ammo and there is no time to lose, for he is held at the gunpoint of his foe. The soldier, in no time, produces a sharp edged knife and butchers his enemy. Blood gushes out.
Now he (the soldier) makes his way through the marble pavement. The way he is on is like a maze. Therefore, he has to make a slow, deliberate movement as the deafening sound of the rifle can be heard in close range. Even a slightest impetuousness could mean his life. However, what is not desired happens-he peeps out but is abruptly beleaguered and is shot to death.
"Shit!" Bijay jerks in his chair. This teenager hits some keys and resumes the game, Counter-Strike 1.6, which he has been playing for eight years.
With an easy access to high-speed internet, online gamers have increased in number in the metropolis significantly. Games like Counter-Strike (CS), DotA (Defense of the Ancients), FIFA, WoW (World of Warcraft) have become an obsession with many youths.
"There was a time when Bijaya would be glued to CS from morning till evening," Aman, the boy's friend and owner of the Basantapur-based PC Plus cyber cafe, shared.
PC Plus cyber teems with boys who come here either to be a part of the game or others who come to cheer their friends. This cyber has a generator standing by, so that the gamers can continue even during load-shedding hours. However, the price gets increased by Rs 5 from 25 when there is power outage.
Like Bijay, there are 10 boys right now, all of them apparently glued to their sits, head-phone on their ears, their gaze fixed on the computer screen. All the computers are connected to the LAN. Five of the team members are playing as terrorists and the rest as counter-terrorists. Bijaya is a counter-terrorist and his mission, right now, is to diffuse a bomb planted by the terrorists. Hence, his adroit fingers run swiftly on the keys, basically, ASDFQWZE2, SHIFT and SPACE.
"We can use Garina software to play this game online, with friends all over the world," Bijay says. He boasts that he has many friends from Singapore and elsewhere, and, more interestingly, they recognise each other just by the name of their players or names of the team. "We hold tournaments in which the winner gets up to Rs 10,000," Aman, who is himself obsessed with online games, said. "But, mostly, the gamers bet among themselves and go on playing for hours and hours. This also supports the player for spending on the games." Anmol Cyber at Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur has 21 computers connected to a LAN for online games. Maheswor Simkhada of the cyber said DotA is the most famous game in his game zone. They have a generator as power backup.
"If I don't play game for a day, I feel as if something were missing," Niraj Shakya, who is a regular player at the cyber shared. Shakya remembers a day when, in his own cyber, he played DotA for more than 18 hours.
This cyber, too, has so far conducted three online game tournaments with Rs 7,000 prize for the winner. That online gamers are on the rise is a global phenomenon. The number of online gamers in China surged 33 percent to hit 66 million over the past year, the Daily Star reported earlier.
Published by HT Syndication with permission from EKantipur.com.
For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment