online games

Level Up! Games now brings us this year's biggest and hottest gaming event of the year with LEVEL UP! LIVE 2009.  With the tagline "United We Play", this promises to be an event every gamer and even non-gamers will surely enjoy.  The event will be held at the World Trade center, along Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City this weekend November 7 and 8.

To enter all you need to do is bring an unused P50.00 top up card.  This will serve as your ticket to the event.  For those who are unable to purchase cards, they will also be selling the top up cards like in previous events.  There will be an Early Bird Promo for the first 500 registrants at the event as well.  They will receive cool freebies so I suggest you bring your own card and come at the crack of dawn. XD

One of the most popular series to come out of Japan in the 90's is now getting the online game treatment with the announcement of Slam Dunk Online. 

Slam Dunk is a sports-themed manga authored by manga artist Inoue Takehiko and was first published back in 1990.  It then had a wildly popular anime series that initially aired in October 1993 and ran for 101 episodes and 4 OAVs.  It spawned a cult following with fans all over Asia, North America and a huge following in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.  Slam Dunk follows the story of one Sakuragi Hanamichi as he joins the basketball team of Shohoku High School and dream of winning the national championship. 

In October 22, Korean-based company Goorm had announced that they would be developing an online game of this series with another Korean company, DaewonMedia.  Inoue Takehiko has also been brought on board and will be supervising the game creation and development.

With the recent uproar caused by the proposal and passage of what is now known as the "Hentai bill,"  another member of the house representative has seen fit to attack online games.

"DOTA, or any role-playing game for that matter, may be fun, but it won’t be able to teach you the skills you need for your first job, or for higher education."  This was an excerpt from the recent speech made by AKBAYAN reprentative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel during the commencement excersises of University of the Philippines Cebu College. 

In her speech, she actively voiced her opinion against online games and that it should only be treated as something addictive.  She goes on further to state that unless you are on the verge of game development, that we won't learn from them and should simply keep it in moderation.  She even stressed the need to be physically fit as opposed to playing online games.