{"id":33,"date":"2004-02-10T21:43:37","date_gmt":"2004-02-10T21:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newblog.odedsharon.com\/?p=33"},"modified":"2012-11-30T12:08:29","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T09:38:29","slug":"taiwan-days-15-18-05-080204","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan days 15-18 05-08\/02\/04"},"content":{"rendered":"

The TGS \u2013 Taipei Game Show 2004<\/u>
\nThe TGS is very much like E3, only very much different. The size of the show is about 1\/3 of what E3 is, but the number of visitors is more then twice. So this show was SO full of people you\u2019d get stuck in human traffic just trying to get back to your booth. Unlike E3, I didn\u2019t find any games that made me want to play just by going around and looking at games. Most of them are only in Chinese and even those who aren\u2019t originally in Chinese, like Lineage 2, aren\u2019t so temping, because if you\u2019ve played one, you\u2019ve played them all. And the \u201ceye candy\u201d of all the games is pretty much the same, there aren\u2019t any breakthrough graphic improvements, and by just walking amongst the booths nothing captured my attention. Bob told me that I was right, and the main goals of the game companies aren\u2019t to make people directly play the games, by showing them the game but exactly the opposite. They brainwash you by repeating the company\u2019s or game\u2019s name over and over to you. But how do they manage to keep you by their booth for long enough for you to hear the company name a few hundred times ?
\nBooth Babes. Or Show girls, as they are called here. If you\u2019d havn\u2019t figure out what they are, and I must explain, they are models, wearing a company issued outfit, which makes you want to keep looking at them. If still you don\u2019t know what I mean, then you\u2019re a lost cause.
\nI must say that the show girls in TGS are far more effective and good looking then the ones in E3. Compare pictures if you wish. I know I took a lot of pictures of show girls.
\nThe other thing that keeps the audience still standing at the booths, or stages, are free gifts. After all, who can stand and look at the same, minimal outfit girls, for hours ? and what if you are a girl yourself (there are a lot of girl visitors to the show) ? Bob also agreed with me that the main reason people come to the show is not the games, but the gifts. They don\u2019t care if they\u2019re standing next to the Wayi booth or Ballerium booth, and long as they know that if they\u2019re standing there they might win a new expensive GeForce video card, or a pen. You wouldn\u2019t belive the way they fought about pens!
\nSanctum gave away these nice sponge made swords, which were made by one of Bob\u2019s friend\u2019s factory. I took a bunch of those swords and walked around the other booths and did a lot of trading. I gave them swords and I\u2019d get all sort of cool stuffs in return. T-shirts, dolls, make-up (!!!), and other knick-knacks. That\u2019s what I like. That\u2019s why I go to those shows. It always have been. Just like in the Tel-aviv University job fare. I\u2019d hand out 100 copies of my resume to companies just to get a free toy, even tough I had a very nice job which I never meant to quit, at the time.
\nIt\u2019s amazing how show girls loose all their charm once the clock hits 17:00 and the show ends. They wear their regular clothes and they turn into regular girls you wouldn\u2019t turn your head over when walking past them in the street. Clothing and make are obviously important. But I never saw it to this extreme, other then the first day of summer when you go to the beach and there are girls in Bikinis, which is a sight you\u2019re not used to see everyday. But then when you get used to it, it goes right through you. At the last day of the show I couldn\u2019t care less about the girls, but only about this toy I wanted. The second most successful game in Taiwan right now is a game called \u201dSeal Online\u201d<\/a>. It\u2019s basically an everyday MMORPG (god knows that there are a thousand more of those out there), the only difference is that the characters and the environment is Cartoonish-Anime looking. I\u2019m 100% sure that if there was an English version to this game I\u2019d be online right now playing it. It\u2019s so cute! Their mascot is this cute bunny-rabbit with sharp teeth<\/a> that goes like rwwaawwr<\/a> (imagine me doing that thing that Tim the wizard does in \u201cMonty python\u2019s Hole Grail\u201d). They gave out dolls of that bunny-rabbit to their game members who attended the show. I tried to trade some sword for one, but they told me that they couldn\u2019t spare any, and I should check them out in the last day of the show. I did, and I got myself one of those, without bringing any sword to them, just by being nice, and say please. In English. A language most of them didn\u2019t understood. But pointing to the rabbit doll and saying please worked. I then went back to the Sanctum booth and brought them a bunch of sword, just because they made me feel good.
\nI have no idea how the people in my old work place always said that they can\u2019t understand the Taiwanese or why they like these kind cute of games. But then again, almost no one there played the SIMS and it\u2019s one of the best selling games, and also no one but me likes Jar-Jar Binks. I\u2019m different. I\u2019m better because of that. Jar-jar rules. Yousa Kwazy.
\n
\nA lot of pictures can be found In my picture gallery here<\/a><\/p>\n

FIRE IN SANCTUM!!!<\/u><\/b>
\nOH MY GOD !
\nI\u2019m just coming back from the second half of the office, where there was an actual fire, and smoke, and blazes of hell!
\nI was watching smallville<\/a> in the conference room on one side of the office and I hear this noise that sounds like a car alarm. Being used to hearing cars annoy me all of the time, and not owning a car with an alarm myself (or any car here in Taiwan), I simply ignored it. Apparently it wasn\u2019t a car alarm, but the office\u2019s smoke alarm. When the show was over, I stayed here for a few more minutes, and then the phone rang, luckily the woman on the other side managed to say something about her living in 3rd floor and smoke alarm coming from the office. I told her I\u2019d go check it out. The entire other half of the office was filled with thick smoke, and the alarm was indeed beeping. I started looking around for the source, but didn\u2019t see it at first since everything was dark. I gradually turn on very cautiously the lights. I get to my room, which was the only one that was lit when I came in, and is in fact in the furthest corner of the office from the direction I\u2019m coming, and I was afraid the fire was caused by something I did. I moved my computer from my room to the conference room, so I could watch Smallville, so I was afraid something I left there cause a shortage and a fire. I looked in my room for a couple of moments but didn\u2019t find anything! I decided to turn some more lights. After a while I saw that the glass between Bob\u2019s room and Mark\u2019s (and sterling\u2019s room) wasn\u2019t clear as it was before, but instead BLACK, opaque and it\u2019s lower half \u2013 broken. No fire, only a lot of smoke. Luckily for me, the fire probably calmed down and exhausted by the time I got there. I called Bob, and with the help of Ivy, one of Bob\u2019s bagel shop workers, and a local resident of a small room here in the office, I managed to switch off the power supply to that room and opened all the windows. Since there wasn\u2019t any actual fire, and it\u2019s not the first time I\u2019m encountering fires, I didn\u2019t bother to panic. Plus I don\u2019t usually panic anyway, unless there\u2019s blood involved. Ivy was a bit nervous. It\u2019s her first fire. And, well.. after all, My bible says \u201cDon\u2019t Panic\u201d on it\u2019s rear cover, in nice friendly letters. I am very lucky nothing worse happened. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The TGS \u2013 Taipei Game Show 2004 The TGS is very much like E3, only very much different. The size of the show is about 1\/3 of what E3 is, but the number of visitors is more then twice. So … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-taiwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newerblog.odedsharon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}