It was an interesting day in Paris as Magtheridon's Nihilum lost out to Archimonde's Millenium in their 5v5 World of Warcraft Arena bout during the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC). To level the playing field, both teams used pre-made characters and were given choices from gear limited to Season 1 PvP gear and Kael'thas PvE gear. Millenium took the match 5-0, making an impressive stand against Nihilum.

Millenium is the 4th best Arena team from the European Regional Finals while Nihilum, established in 2004, is known as a predominantly PvE guild, and consistently being the first to take down end-game content bosses.

Millenium is the fourth best Arena team (read: PvP) at the end of the Europe Regional Finals, while Nihilum is the best PvE (read: raiding) guild in the world. How would you like to see them duke it out in a 5v5 match in Blizzard's WoW?

You don't have to use your imagination to see something like that happen. Nihilum and Millenium will face each other in an exhibition match at the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC). The match will be held in Paris, France on July 6. So who's on either team's line-up?

Fighting for Millenium are Delikat (priest), Khyna (shaman), Moli (warrior), Razwa (paladin), and Sealeen (druid), while Nihilum will have Awake (paladin), Kungen (warrior), Ghorok (shaman), Rulah (druid) and Nme (mage) playing for the team. To assure balance during the match, the players will get pre-made characters, and equipment will be limited to Arena 1 PvP gear and Kael'thas PvE gear.

Hmm... Very interesting. Who will you be cheering for? Nihilum or Millenium? Which World of Warcraft style of play will win? Stay tuned.

Yep, straight from Aussie Kotakuite Luke from...well, Kotaku, it seems that the Asia-Pacific version of E3 was a bust. Aside from enthusiastic PC and LAN gamers who attended the show, Luke summed up the lackluster turn-out, stating, "The venue was too big, the crowds too small and the number, and relevance, of games on-show was rubbish."

With the promise of game demonstration booths, the 2007 GO3 Expo was a little underhanded to deliver, without giants like Sony and Nintendo to showcase their line-up of games for their consoles at Perth, Australia. Microsoft, as an official sponsor, did make an appearance at the show. According to Luke, the only booth worthy of note was Sierra Entertainment's World in Conflict that allowed gamers to try out the yet-to-be-released game.

While the conference period from Friday to Saturday, with Metal Gear Solid's Hideo Kojima as a guest speaker, was anything but a disappointment, the latter part of the event, which happened at the extremely roomy showroom floor, wasn't something to boast about either. In fact, with booths displaying already released games, there was nothing really left for gamers to go for.

Of course, with the cos-play competition, the LAN gaming event and the showcase of Australia's ESWC 2007 team, it wasn't such a disappointment. Well, at least not to PC fans for the most part, that is...  Click on the "Read" link below to get more picture coverage of the 2007 GO3 Expo, courtesy of Kotaku and Luke.

It's a one-two hit combo for Western Australia as the Asia Pacific region celebrates gaming over at Perth. The GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, or GO3 Expo for short, was launched by the Minister for Industry and Enterprise Francis Logan at the Perth Convention Exhibition Center, as detailed from an official press release.

 

With the Asian, Europe, and Oceanic game industry's gaming icons to participate in the event as guest speakers, the three day affair will showcase the industry's games, game hobbyists' leisurely activities, network communication and computer technology. So from March 30 to April 1, expect attendees to be able to try out games from the promotional demonstrations sported by game developers.

Not just focusing on computers, consoles will also be making a scheduled arrival at the event, with Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 demo booths to be available to excited Aussie gamers. So you could expect their little handheld cousins aren't far behind either. The region's industry celebrities, government officials, and high profile media, including but not limited to MTV and Famitsu, will be joining gaming giants in making this uniquely positioned event a great success. Guest speakers include:

• Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid)
• Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Sega Rally Championship and Rez)
• Masaya Matsuura (Parappa the Rapper)
• Goichi Suda (Killer 7)
• Feargus Carroll (LucasArts)
• Nicklas "Cece" Cederström (World in Conflict)

Aside from the Fury MMORPG PvP showcase, guests can also expect other events to tiptoe their way in the busy weekend. First up is the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2007 qualifiers showcase, who will be representing Aussies from the world over in the Grand Finals at Paris later this year.

The GO3 LAN Party will also take place at the event. For 30 hours, over 600 attendees can relive the glory LAN party days and boast their talent against their seatmates' hand-and-eye-coordination skills. This is probably one of the largest network gaming setups ever attempted in Australia.

Also making a peep show is the GO3 Cos-Play Competition just to showcase the huge subculture phenomenon in the Asian region. The competition will allow the best game-character to win an all-expense paid trip to the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Next up is the Nullarbor Game Development Competition, where budding game dev enthusiasts and serious students around Australia can present their work to a large crowd.

Visitors interested will be able to demo the games and vote for their favorite ones, allowing the best ones to bring home cash and prizes. And last but not least is the Dance Dance Revolution Competition, where Australia's best footwork masters duel it out to win more cash and prizes, plus get immortalized as the GO3 "DDR Champion 2007."

Let us go far as to say that an article like this had to be written, and we're glad that someone actually did. While blogger and PC geek dp was as avid a gamer as any of those who remain of the multi-genre gaming enthusiasts, it's not hard to see where his sentiments are stemming from.

As part of the social subculture in the world, LAN parties used to be the pinnacle of community gatherings and social structuring that allowed gamers to connect on a real inter-personal level. But now, as broadband weaved its way to the mass market, the number of LAN party attendees soon dwindled to nothing.

It was pretty fine at first, of course, as most FPS or RTS gamers who couldn't win a match (even if their lives depended on it) were noticeably the first to go. But then even the mainstream LAN gamers suddenly opted out, seeking out human flesh player pwnage glory in the likes of MMORPG PvP games. The end of the LAN party was at hand.

While broadband's 2Mbps and even 4Mbps is nothing close to the mainstream LAN party's 100Mbps (or if you've got the bucks to blow - 1Gbps), gamers opted for the laggy, increasingly unimaginative but virtual worlds that MMO games had to offer. Players didn't mind not knowing the person that they were playing with, as long as they could be played with. And then players were able to hide behind masks of alter-egos, even if it confused some of the more practical players.

So now the once-mainstream, now-brainwashed gamers spend around eight hours a day crawling around dungeons with pixelized versions of themselves, hacking away at other pixelized versions of monsters with a sorry excuse for AI. Soon, those gamers couldn't pay for their own Internet connections that they soon returned to LAN parties, only to connect their PC to the high-speed network and fire up World of Warcraft. The nerve!

Thanks to some charitable PC enthusiasts who have the audacity to shell out their money for a great LAN gaming session, or even well known game developer companies such as id Software, LAN parties still have a fighting chance to be epic milestones in the gaming community. The upcoming QuakeCon is one of the world's most awaited and celebrated LAN parties, and it's probably the only last refuge of the LAN party culture. Competitive games such as the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Cyber Games need this mechanic, and so it's not a big deal on their part.

So for game enthusiasts that are still out there, here's our calling to revive the gaming culture's biggest social achievement in world history. Let's return it to it's former glory and even seek out to bring the FPS-heads from consoles into our fold. After all, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are all capable of wired and wireless networking. And if it's not hard to ask, can we get more cross-multiplayer titles? Please?