The background:
The History Channel has been promoting certain shows on its channel by organizing gameing nights in major cities in India. It started off with the Dogfight Nights gaming events in Delhi and Mumbai earlier this year and now they are hosting Human Weapon Gaming Nights with Bangalore playing the host.
To begin with, I didnt have many hopes from the event. It was woefully under-advertised and we only came to know of it because one of our members got a press invite. The theme continued when I reached the venue because there were no cutouts or advertisements outside the location promoting the event. Things didnt get much better inside. There was a small turnout and I would estimate that hardly 30-35 participants showed up.
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There was a total of eight 37″ LCD TVs and 4 kiosks with 26″ LCD TVs with 12 consoles, which is a very decent setup and kudos to the organisers for this. But the biggest disappointment was the fact that the event which was supposedly a promotion for Gears of War 2 didnt have any Gears 2 promos at all. The event began with a deathmatch with 2 people per console and 8 teams in total. Last Avenger and I were in one team. I wasn’t captivated and in middle of my game I decided to hand over the controller to Arun360 who has just arrived.
The four 26″ kiosks had SvR 08, PGR3, Ninja Gaiden 2 and Gears of War running on them. I decided to seek out a representative of Microsoft, who were co-hosting this event, so that I could get some sound bites. Unfortunately, none of the head honchos were present, so I have nothing newsworthy from the proverbial horse’s mouth.
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The good thing about the event was I think the sponsors “History Channel” who have recognized gaming as a mode to promote there new Show – “The Human Weapon”. It is good to see gaming being recognized and being promoted too. The event was also sponsored by Red Bull Energy Drink and there was free Red Bull for all the participants. I met a PR representative, who admitted, with a little prodding, that the event was not up to the mark. And if you think that you missed on swag, dont be disappointed as there was none.
There was also “Free for all” competition and IndianVideoGamer.com member Gizmo finsihed as the runner up. The winner got a XboX360 Core console while Gizmo received a World Cup 2006 T-shirt, Xbox Live T-shirt and a XboX live cap. LastAvenger later confirmed that the same goodies were given to people who pre-ordered Xbox360 Core model in 2006 back then during the launch of the console in the country. The policy of old stock being dished out in India is certainly not limited just to the consoles then.
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In conclusion, I cant help rueing the missed opportunity. With a little bit of sensible marketing, this event could have pulled in some serious participation numbers and done its bit for pushing gaming that little bit further up the Indian social ladder.
Until Next time.
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