KOMPUTERSYAP: A HOME FOR THE NEGLECTED.
Before we get to the golden era of internet cafe games in The Philippines, we must turn back time in order to understand why it happened.
Thirty or so years before the year 2000, and event happened that would make a lot of Filipinos live very miserable lives. This is of course is Proclamation No. 1081, The proclamation and the beginning of Martial law.
We will not dive deep into it and will just take key points. Martial law Tyranny lasted for fourteen years ending in the year of 1986 and while it did not end in a bloody fight, it did left The Philippines in a really bad state which would take years for it to truly recover.
As you would have guessed, these people born years before and within this event did not have a very fun childhood. These people would then become the parents of the luckiest generation, the 90s kids.
90s kids are among one of the luckiest bastards in the entire history of humanity, not only did they get to hold the most groundbreaking mobile phone in the whole history of the world, The Nokia 3310, but they were also the first to be able to stream hentai off the internet.
Okay back to topic,
The 90s, a time where most household in The Philippines have telephones, televisions, everything to have fun, it's there. The demographic which would be the parents of the 90s kids are having fun in their 20s, partying, dancing and doing other fun social activities they weren't able to when they were younger.
But of course they would also have children, and having children means you won't be able to join fun social events. the concept of daycare centers weren't fully realized yet, most 90s kids have Yayas/maids. So while the parents of the 90s kids go partying, The 90s kids are left playing Famicon at home with relatives or yayas.
You heard that right, Famicon/NES, the 90s kids have access to the first plug and play home entertainment system.
But we are not here for gaming history, we are here for KOMPUTERSYAP HISTORY!
Parents of the 90s kids have reached their 30s and with it, their capability to dance have also diminished with a risk on hurting their backs. Could you guess what social event replaced dancing? IT'S BINGO!
A Bingo Center in a mall is a social gathering of people in their 20s or 30s, and it is packed! It's not hard to imagine considering The Philippines having one of the most population dense cities in the world.
Enter Playstation 1, in the year 1995. one of the best consoles in gaming history. If the parents are playing bingo on the third floor of the mall, the children are playing Playstation 1s on the second floor. These Playstation rental charge by the hour, it was cheap alternative to daycare center. That is how it thrive! This is how it begins!
Enter Playstation 2, in the year 2000, same thing as above. But there's a new contender in the mall, Personal Computers, while games such as counter strike or Quake 3 weren't quite here yet, Virtua Fighters and Virtua Cop were! and so are a handful of Dos games.
Year of 2001, this is where everything changed. This is the year Counter-Strike 1.3 was released to the wild. teenagers(not 90s kids PWEH!) are starting to migrate from console singleplayer games to competitive multiplayer PC games, these are Counter- Strike, Quake 3 Arena, Age of Empires, Age of Wonders and Starcraft.
Heh! people were still using the best Windows Version ever, Windows 98 Second Edition.
These separated the kids from the big boys, from controllers to keyboard + mouse combo.
Years go by and PC games are getting better and better, one of them is Diablo 2, a time where people carry diskettes just save their progress.
And as years go by so did the 90s kids, now teenagers able to read and comprehend basic english words such as [Start Game] and [Press Any Key to Continue.]
But how did the KOMPUTERSHAP became a culture? Neglected children, as the parents of these children went to their social activities, the children are forced to fend to themselves, looking for love and acceptance. these PC RENTAL CAFEs became a second home to these children, a place for children to play with other children, a place to become the best counter-strike player to be acknowledge by everyone. They found Love, They found attention, They found Happiness.
And then in 2003, Ragnarok Online Cometh. Online Gaming, Online Chats, hell there's even Videocam Chatrooms by Yahoo Messenger. these socially starve teenagers have a new way to quell their hunger. Online Love Scams~ Chiksilogs~ Real Money Trading~ it's all here.
There was also an inside joke that people who plays M.U. Online are Matandang Ungas. heh.
And then in 2004, happened Dota Allstars. a game where good players are revered as gods, a team-based game that forged deep friendships, In Counter-Strike you just aim an shoot, but Dota Allstars, one game of this is like a story, an adventure, full of camaraderie.
It's not until 2007, that Dota Allstars would seal the deal as the best KOMPUTERSHAP game ever with the introduction of Garena/Virtual Lans. Specially the Shop2Shop setup, where team of five players in one KOMPUTERSHAP fight another team of five players in another KOMPUTERSHAP. Counter-Strike is essentially dead by this time, replaced by Crossfire.
That was the prime of KOMPUTERSYAP Culture.
2008, Herooes of Newerth,
2009, League of Legends,
2010, Dota 2.
three games that require you to be online, not LAN. these games have steep hardware requirements as well, not sustainable for the competitive pricing that exist in KOMPUTERSHAPS
This golden era of KOMPUTERSHAP was about to end and so begins the era of Mobile Gaming.
by 2009, Plants vs Zombies for android was released. Smartphones were getting cheaper and powerful.
by 2012, Clash of Clans~
by 2016, Mobile Legends was released and the culture of KOMPUTERSHAP was all just a novelty~
And so Ends my Story about KOMPUTERSYAP culture~
The end.
I didn't proofread.
Amazing may pa history class na naman si demo 👏
Long live Dota 1! 🥳
PS dami naman namin sa hashtag hahaha lang ya
parang church group din witty, pero sinasamba games. 😆😆😆
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. legacy moves on naman.
syempre naman, labs ko kayo. 😁
I am not sure if PC rental still a thing around SEA but seems like the culture was pretty much the same. Kids spend hours inside PC cafe playing Dota and CSGo. I remember there were also ayodance or Audition Online (or X-beat) and people spend money on it too :D the good ol time.
It's on the decline, I won't go so far to say that it's dead but yeah close enough.
I am sad to see this culture die out, it's a social community after all.
Ganda ng history lesson Demo! Pero di sya history lesson habang binabasa kk, more like reminiscing. Hahaha. Salamat, pina obvious mo sa kin yung age ko. Hahaha
Kakamiss yung nag oovernight sa internet shop para lang mag party sa GH. Tsaka yung maglalaro ng Gunbound twing Wednesday kasi maintenance ng Ragna. Tapos may biglang sisigaw na "Sinong nag oopen ng Friendster jan!" kasi biglang maglalag yung pc nung lahat dahil mabigat yung graphics nung FS profile na inopen, gigil si DOTA player eh. Hahah
Gunbound was amazing, potek may friend ako, ginagamitan pa ng daliri ung monitor para masukat ung tamang power. kakainis pero kakabilib WAHAHAHAHA.
yeah iba talaga ung pag overnight sa computer shop, may trust na talaga, better than any airBNB 😆, nung nag prom kami nung highschool, pagtapos overnight agad sa computer shop e. 😆
PA TESTI PO!~
😊
It was weird to see a little girl playing Counter Strike in a computer shop, knowing that it is a violent game (seeing blood, guns, etc.) 😆 And parang taboo siya samin dahil pang boy daw lang yung na game huhu. Pero I turned out fine today naman haha!
!PIZZA
ang dami mo siguro pinaiyak na lalaki.(sa counter strike. 😆)
traditional lang talaga noon noh, pero pocket polly toys were pretty cool.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, Di mo sure~ 😆 Nah, you are great. 😁
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@jijisaurart(4/10) tipped @demotry
Born in the 80's was part of the early generation of internet users and CS2/WCII ,WCIII then Ragnarok more the ones we played at cafes though already have setup at home. Also used to take consoles/pc to friends houses for lan parties.
I remember going to an internet cafe in Boracay where there would be maybe 10 or so computers sharing 1 56K dialup connection. Could take 5 mins just to open up an email in hotmail.
hoho. one of the big boys.😁
Indeed! sharing a 56k modem is ridiculous, the isp providers were also just as bad, maxing tops at 28k depending on the time of day. only when it was replaced with the shinier adsl technology did online gaming took centerstage.
Diablo II and Counter-Strike took a lot of my time during my college years. Those were the days.
hehe yeah. they were. 😊