James Galvin

I was in Wired to the World MacCurtain Street yesterday - the biggest netcafe & callcenter in Ireland, they claim. I sat down at the first computer, and started looking for the mouse… with no success. Slightly confused, I asked the guy next to me and he showed me how to power it on. It was about 10 seconds afterwards that I realised this was an xbox360. I shamefully sidled away, conscious of the audible hiss of my rapidly deflating ego.

It could happen to anyone, it is natural to choose the first available terminal, who would have guessed that this whole row is dedicated to xboxes? A middle-aged Polish man just entered the cafe, asking the staff if he could use this “chip” (brandishing a USB stick). I smugly observed his approach, as he hovered hesitantly above the xbox at terminal 1. With a swagger, I rose to shepard him towards a PC… but too late - he knowingly moved on himself. I was once again a chewed-up squeaky toy, in a the primitive darkness of a dog’s kennel.

I thought it was a bit strange that they would have the very first row dedicated to the xboxes… usually they hide the noisy (sometimes smelly) gamers down the back. Despite all the advancements in the availability of broadband, it seems the gaming cafes are thriving. I have never been one to frequent these establishments regularly, but I have taken the opportunity to sample most of them. Last year I was doing some contract work in the city, with three other lads who were fond of Counter Strike. Our work took us to different parts of the city, and we would sometimes spend our lunchbreak in the nearest net cafe. This is when my eyes were opened to the world of cafegamers.

I had no idea that there was an entire community, composed primarily of northside teenagers, who spent their lives inside the different cafes in Cork, moving up the rankings in the local CS ladder. There are entire clans wholely contained in this local scene. I bumped into a guy I went to school with who was playing World of Warcraft. He was level 46, with 11 days played. Thats 11 x 24 hours spent in Area51 in the space of just a few months. I tried to work out what 264 hours would cost at the standard rate, but I was too distracted by the revelation that this room was packed full of gamers on a Thursday at 1pm, and was open and active 24 hours a day.

Cork has set the standard in recent years, with the comfort of the Web Work House, the dedicated back-rooms that Wired to the World offer in three different locations, the luxurious Zeon, and most of all - the 24/7 gaming venue with Alienware machines: Area51. In comparison, Dublin has surprisingly lacked these resources, as most of their cafes would be geared towards the millions of webmailers… particularly since the demise of Does Not Compute and Nethouse which, despite being run by gamers, did not see the market as being sufficiently active to warrant the costly hardware upgrades and licence fees. Until recently, there has been nothing to cater for the market that Area51 and others in Cork depend on.

TCAL mentions a newly opened Dublin gaming cafe with 40 xboxes. This coincides with the launch of Bartizan Gaming World a couple of weeks ago in Midleton, Co. Cork, which really takes the concept of a gaming cafe to a new level. No longer satisfied with a crowded back-room with some WWII paintings on the wall, Bartizan has a luxurious VIP members-only area with biometric fingerprint access. In Russia, most gamers attend a club like this, where they compete against other gamers on LAN, rather than playing online from home as we do in Western Europe.

Here are some of the benefits of VIP membership:

• Full access 24/7.
• Full access to new games. The games you want – you want it, we order it.
• Bring a guest.
• Host your own LAN parties.
• Pre-book private rooms for you and your guests.
• Free entry to movie and games club.
• Entry to leagues and competitions.
• Opportunity to join Bartizan Clanz.
• Join members forum on line.
• Members only parking.

At a cost of €125 per year for adults, €75 for 13-16 year olds, and only €45 for children, this is valuable service. Why fork out €54 on a new game, dialup costs or hardware upgrades when you could just head down to Bartizan at any time of night and relax in the comfort of the VIP zone. In theory anyway - there is always the danger that a gang of screaming kids takes up residence. Either way, this is certainly an major development in the Irish gaming scene, both LAN and internet (as Bartizan intend to mirror their community online). With similar new venues set to open in other parts of the country, it could be interesting to see how this new trend develops.

Firearms, angry mobs, and false imprisonment… this may sound like your average Saturday night in Dunmanway, but theres a nasty twist to this particular Wesht Cark tale. Not since the days of Michael Collins has there been such tension among neighbours down this direction. Thankfully, the Gardaí have clamped down by introducing extreme measures such as urging caution. Today, they stepped their efforts up a gear, by appealing for complaints. The ringleaders are surely quaking in their crocodile skin boots now.

Dave’s article generated lots of interest a couple of weeks ago. What has changed since then? Its still spreading like a fungus, and spawning imitations all over the country. How many schemes are operating within schools, with 16 and 17 year olds forking out €800 each to take part? I wonder about the kid who started each of these. To think that I felt guilty about my premiership football sticker syndicate in 1995, which raked in up to €8 per day.

“But its legal, people choose to buy into it.” Some people don’t have a problem with shafting their friends and family; people who trust them. They are right in saying it is not stealing; it is gambling. But there is a reason why gambling is illegal in so many places. These people do not remember the horrors of Albania in 1997, where the worst case scenario did manifest itself, resulting in many deaths, economic disaster, and nearly a civil war. Seven out of ten families in Albania lost their entire life savings when their pyramid collapsed. Granted, such extremes could not be reached in Ireland, but with these statistics I cannot see any acceptable justification for the continued existence of these scams. This cannot be compared to your winning streak scratch cards, or Paddy Power… the potential damage is incomprehensible. A line must be drawn somewhere, and its time the Gardaí stopped ‘urging caution’ and said something worthwhile instead.