5 Major Problems with gaming in India.

 We all know that India doesnt have a market in gaming, not because there are no gamers but because of to many reasons, lets discuss about it.

There are 5 major problem with Indian gaming market.

1) Piracy

2) Bad ISPs.

3) No gaming environment.

4) Extremely expensive computer hardware.

5) Bad attitude of gamers.

1) Piracy : As we all know piracy is the biggest threat for whole entertainment industry in the whole world. Video game piracy is done by uploading and downloading it on internet (torrent sites mainly) and buy cracking it selling it for Rs.100 anywhere. So why do people download or buy pirated games, are original games too expensive ? No not at all original games hardly costs Rs.250-999, thats not a big amount, as we too spend Rs.500/700 just in 2 hours in a malls, but people have a mentality that ''if we are getting an game for FREE why to even give 1 rupee for it''.

There are advantages of buying orignals.

* We get Free BETA of next game to be released

* Multiplayer support (pirated games doesnt have multiplayer)

* Virus-free games, pirated games definitely has virus which may harm our computer and even hack our email IDs and Online banking accounts.

* Some companies now gives 10-20% Discount vouchers free with copy. Which they can use to buy next new games.

Outside India  60% of gamers buy originals, Rest 40% downloads it or buys cracked version. The gamers outside India mostly believes in buying OGs, the sales of the country shows up in company accounts. So people think there are no gamers in India.

2) Bad ISPs : ISP stands for Internet service provider.

In india MTNL, BSNL, Hathway, Tikona, Airtel and Reliance provides High-speed internet. Truth is HIGH SPEED INTERNET is only for namesake. They provide very poor internet service. The basic internet plans in india starts with Rs.500-1000 monthly. People just dont get the speed promised, for example in Hathway If we pay Rs.800/month for a 1mbps plan we only get 80-85kbps downloading speed which is too low for updating your game which is nearly 3Gbs.

(This is my internet speed after paying Rs.600/month thanks to MTNL)

Only rich people can afford to pay Rs.2000/month for 400-500kbps download speed. An average multiplayer game requires 256kbps transfer speed for a lagless gameplay.

3) No gaming environment : 'Gaming is for kids', 'Games are waste of time' this is what our parents say when when we tell them that we want to work in a gaming firm. in reality gaming has even big market then movie industry and its expanding rapidly.

4) Extremely expensive computer hardware : Technology in gaming has extremely improved, new engines are introduced with very good graphical output but to play the games with such good graphics equally requires a powerful pc with lastest processor and graphics card which is too expensive in india, Recently i purchased my new pc from lamington road and it costed me around Rs.62,000 but if i would have purchased the individual parts from websites like ebay.com or tigerdirect.com i could have got a better pc for just at Rs.45000.

(Building a Gaming PC at Lamington road)

 

For buying an high-end pc parts from websites, parents wont support us or give their credit card.

Because of their low end pc they cant play latest games with high system requirements so they dont buy lastest games released even they can buy it. Outside india in US/UK they order individual parts from website and assemble it in their home.

Asselmbling pc isnt a easy job in US education system assembling computer is in their curriculum since 7th grade. Here useless things are thought in the name of IT. So cost of assembling Pc also applies along with pc parts.

If we even import individual parts from ebay.com from US, its the weird tax structure that will tremendously increase the costs, we have Custom duty, 10-12% VAT and other taxes. People are forced to play CS1.6, they too want to play Call of duty and Battlefield 3 but cant due to their old PCs.

 

5) Bad attitude of gamers : Believe it or, not Indian gamers have too much attitude when playing multiplayer game. They think they are the greatest players. This happens when we play multiplayer games such like CS1.6 and Call of duty.

I am playing multiplayers since last 8 years and have played,

Counter strike 1.6

Counter strike : Condition zero

Counter strike : source

Call of duty : modern warfare

Call of duty : modern warfare 2

Call of duty : Black ops

ARMA 2

Call of duty : Modern warfare 3

and

Battlefield : Bad company 2

Currently playing Battlefield 3 and many more.

Online, the above mentioned games do have Indian public servers and its heavily crowded with Indian players, but they have some ridiculous rules and immature 10 year old  whining admins.

For eg in Counter strike 1.6 Indian public servers

* We cant use flashbangs and AWPs.

* Cant use wallhacks, (admins uses it)

* Admins and other clan members have unlimited money to buy even banned weapons.

* Admin has 200hp whereas rest of them has 100hp.

And these rules in 99% of all Indian public servers, if you kill an admin you are permanently banned by reporting as a hacker.

Whereas this kind of rules is'nt present in US/UK/German public servers, This creates an negative image of Indian gamers internationally, that is why there is no existence of India in High-end gaming tournament like WCG and Trans-gaming.

India is very talented in gaming but cannot cope up with increasing technology financially. Tax structure needs to be changed and piracy is to be stopped, because originals are already cheap and its cant be cheap than this due to high-production costs,

Lets talk about game development here, India is very rich in human resources who can work at lower wages then other countries, for eg If a game is made for 1,00,000$-2,00,000$ in United states, that same game can be made in India just for 50,000$-60,000$.

                                           DHAVAL PANCHAL