The Deprived Gamer

The deprived  gamer. The isolated passionate young man who hopes and dreams of making it once to E3,MLG and events equivalent to these.The closest he has gotten so far is the Expo by local telecommunications company Orange,an annual get together for mostly ICT Enthusiasts in the country with 3 consoles on display,a playstation 2,a playstation 3 and a Nintendo Wii provided by a local gamers` arcade known as Games 4 u,to the third world gamer this is not enough.More is supposed to be done and by done he needs a thorough change.

I am that third world gamer and this is the story of i practice,play and attempt to stay uptodate with the latest game releases and forums on the international platform. The only way to do this is through here,the internet.I have multiple accounts with Video Games and Computer Entertainment social sites such as Gamespot.com,IGN.com and Eurogamer and all these highlight exactly whats going on in their regions,in the end the above does not help that much as they dont and will never address the situation on ground,and thats when deprivation sets in though its just the beginning.

Hamza,a good friend of mine who lives uptown and is one of the lucky few within my circles tells me about the excitement of online gameplay,he owns an xbox console and once in a while goes online and plays games but not with the local gamers coz we have none on the servers.

It leaves me curious and frustrated about this awful situation in my country,sometimes i try to blame it on the major companies in the game including Microsoft,SONY and maybe Nintendo  I feel ignored and not because of the fact that we are far from the action,no rather because we are in a deprived region,we are poor,politically incorrect and socially backward and with that they will all assume that there are literally no gamers at all here,which to some extent is true but how will there be gamers when we lack the basic necessities of gaming,an uptodate system and all that.

Someone once told me that am a gone case,a loss to the popular culture of video games and am so obsessed with this simply as a hobby,i gave them a cold smile and said what if i can change all that and midway this article i cant help but feel like am doing my best to change that.Am trying to put it out there to probably the concerned parties if by any chance they happen to see it and probably react.you never know but am sure its what goes through the minds of fellow bloggers when writing one,right?

The setup at the 2011 Orange Expo in Kampala,Uganda

Our own E3,Comic Con or equivalent to say

Young Boy plays PES 11 for the first time in 2012

I once told an acquaintance on our first meeting that i was a professional gamer and he begged for my pardon,"Professional what?"...i said "Gamer" with a grin and he said "ok...",well i had clearly anticipated this and me too i felt it was a bluff to a certain extent,coz there is no such thing as a professional gamer in my country,video games are for young children,thats the general belief and my family helped me so much in realising it because for every time i was found playing Gran Turismo on a borrowed Playstation 2 console,my dad will be like,"at this age (18) you still play those things,when will you growup"
Earlier this year i got my PC Versions of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and i remember my auntie looking at me and saying "Shame upon you",i smiled off the comment and proceeded with Captain Price.
There is alot to be done here,i am personally doing my level best,that i know but its still a very long way that i am fully aware of and the government is both inaccesible and reluctant to findout about the issue.The gamers are deprived,the culture is growing but not in a manner it should be maintained,we lack class and where there is class its reserved for the classy and wealthier gamers which once again is a deprivation of basic gamer rights.

I know someone else is out there thinking why bother with a society so deprived of this sector,i mean even the western world faces problems of corporate greed from the big companies in the sector and my reply will be simple,i fee deprived so i will do what i have to for the situation to change or just put that outside for the world to see.

The African Freelancer

At 22 years,there are literally a million brilliant ideas and perfect projects going through your head thats if you choose to live the Elite life of an African freelancer.For starters an African freelancer will very much differ from a silicon valley freelancer in a way that the African "guy" is usually unemployed,lazy,dropout,optimistic with natural skill rather than a pile of qualifications from the university of Minesotta,Chicago or the equivalent.

Just like many out there,i have decided to live the life of a college dropout,an ICT Visionary who majored in business studies with specificity in accounting and finance.Optimism is key and as i lay in my bed typing away the pain from the bruise on my leg, i cant help but feel lucky and genius at the same time because of the irresistible feeling that someone out there will read this mess of a blog and find a meaning in there,am writing away my head this monday morning,its my first real blog anyways so no need to make it conut but one day it will,one day i will be the ultimate African Freelancer with less than a college degree at my disposal and a thousand succesful projects on my desk...i will live the dream,perhaps of a young black Zuckerberg or the equivalent....

That my friend is the zeal and hope i have seen in my work mates,the guys i work with at Cybernet Computer Systems, a non-registered company specialising in providing basic ICT solutions to the people of Seguku Village. These young men,just like me are hopeful,they dream of developing one killah app or program one day and hit the million dollar mark with it,they dream of bigger houses,Posh cars and gadgets...be it the ipad. Their jobs,however just like my job cant guarantee that,with a daily income of less than 10US Dollars a day,we cant look far enough to even establish a bigger ICT Centers and thats why we temporarily give up on the idea,though permanently stuck in our heads.

We are Freelancers

Thats what we are,looking for items to sell online,we use google trader and sometimes it works with funny profits off the items we sell. We have done so well with the google app that at one point google cited my name for an interview and that was it,one of the best consumers of the google product in the country.
This was flattering,but we hoped for more,we wanted our company supported by google atleast,we wanted feedback promising us Computer Systems just like the name states,that we never got but are we mad?No...we stay hopeful and satisfied that atleast we got the interview