Paws

Something unusual that happened

While I was still coping with the death of my beloved grandfather, I joined a competition known as the NEGC (National Education Gaming Competition). Training started on friday, 22nd January. As soon as school was over, my teamates and I had a really great lunch at the expensive Subway. The sandwiches were really great, but it burnt a big hole in my pocket.


My teamates! The guy in the middle is avoiding the camera

The LanShop was located at H.I.G.H cafe, a cafe which I had never heard of. And as a result, we got lost while trying to locate it. Initial instructions were given, which told us to find the cafe at Roxy Square. However, we scanned through Roxy square to no avail. We later crossed over to the coffee shops opposite Roxy Square through the overhead bridge. Fortunately, we met Benjamin Leow, who happened to be looking for us. It was really lucky that Benjamin appeared there looking for us, if he had missed us, I doubt we would have ever reached there.

Benjamin escorted us to H.I.G.H cafe. At the entrance, we were "greeted" by a few shabbily dressed gangster-like people who were smoking. Now I have a very bad impression of the LanShop. I used to think that all Lanshop used by the Ministry of Education was rather clear of gangsters or hooligans. We proceeded up the staircase into the LanShop.

The Lanshop was rather big, although not as big as compared to the one at Bugis. A staff led us to our seats, where we settled down. We sat beside the window, which provide very good lighting! I examined the mouse and keyboard provided at the Lanshop. The mouse was fine, but the keyboard seemed too exotic to me. The keyboard is supposingly ergonomic, but perhaps I am too used to using laptop's keyboard.

The very same staff that led us to our seats where we tried to start the official game for the competition, Virtual Battlespace 2. Actually, Virtual Battlefield was first created by an Australian company. Singapore then used it to simulate an army combat for soldiers to play and learn. Somehow, Ministry of Education used it and introduced NEGC.

We were told to read the rules and regulations. I handpicked the 2 rather unreasonable ones:



Every tournament of almost every game does not have this rule because most people are accustommed to the keyboard,mouse or headset that they use everyday at home for their daily work or competetive gaming. Allowing this rule to take place means that gamers will have to start from scratch and attempt to get used to the new mouse provided. This also means that all their skills acquired over a long span at home may not be applicable since the device is different.



Why can't we bind keys? It does not affect the game internally since the binding of keys is a feature offered by the game itself. Not being able to bind keys is like not being able to assign the different channels for the different remote control buttons; it must be default. As wrong as it sounds, we still have to follow the rules.

Soon, students from other schools came to the Lanshop to train as well, namely Catholic High, Singapore ITEs. Why did they allow ITEs to take part with the Secondary schools? The age gap is certainly to large. Now I am unsure of victory. Who knows they might be hardcore gamers froum young that undergo intensive training everyday to secure their rightful victory?

Soon, instructions were given to launch the game. And there was an error message. This went on for about one hour! We were so fed up when we kept attempting to launch VB2 but in vain. While we were told to wait, my teamates and I could no longer do so, so we decided to play other games available instead. It was the first time this group of friends ever played with me side by side, and it was a really great experience.

After an hour, a staff told us that they were experiencing techinical difficulties and they had to POSTPONE the training session. My heart almost sank when I heard that, because I had purposely postponed my tuition so as to attend the training session. We were not allowed to stay anymore. I feelings were mixed with anger and disappointment. Sigh.

We went home with our heads hung low. The last minute cancellation of the training session shocked me and caused great inconvenience to me. Although technical difficulties were unusual, I was still sad that I didn't get to practise the game I estatically wanted to play. I do not blame the technicians for the unexpectated error though. But they certainly wasted our time in one way or another, isn't it basic for them to apologise?

All images regarding the rules and regulations of NEGC are taken from the NEGC website : www.negc.sg

posted by Ryan :D @ 12:31 AM