FROM arcades, computer shops, to smartphones, gaming has been quite a phenomenon for Filipinos over the years.
There once a time when video games in these parts were largely frowned upon. It was dismissed as a something that does not amount to anything, a waste of time, an addiction. Yet, today, even the moms and aunts who hurled these labels are spending hours on end glued to their screens. Candy crush, anyone?
Here, we look back on what the last 20 years has been for the realm of video games in the Philippines.
Level 1: The 2000’s
REMEMBER feeling excited about going to a local arcade to play Tekken with your friends? Or maybe have an intense race with them on Top Gear 2? Those were the good ol’ days of the 2000s.
Other titles that dominated then were Pacman, Initial D, and House of the Dead; Contra, Metal Slug, and God of War I and II. Teens and children would also frequent Y8.com, a website with a huge collection of free games from fighting to dress-ups.
Not to be outdone were PC gamers, who spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours on Ragnarok, Cabal, Gunbound, and Audition Online. Meanwhile, Defense of the Ancients or DOTA, a multiplayer online battle arena or MOBA; and, Counter-Strike (CS) the revolutionary first-person, multiplayer shooting game Counter-Strike, laid the foundation of the early eSports scene in the Philippines.
Level 2: The 2010’s
OF COURSE, gaming is not a stranger to scrutiny, especially in the 2010’s when the PC gaming culture took a massive leap as an online, multi-player machine.
While console games were still huge in the country, it did not get the same stature as PC gaming. With titles like DOTA and CS having their second installments (DOTA 2 and CS:GO), and other games such as League of Legends, Crossfire, Minecraft, and Grand Theft Auto, PC gaming dominated the scene by a mile. Without a doubt, DOTA was the biggest among them all in the Philippines, even having a song dedicated to it that was a staple in computer shops nationwide, ‘Dota o Ako.’
Perhaps the biggest contributor to the success of PC gaming was the Lan (local) tournaments hosted by big organizations and, sometimes, local computer shops. The trend popularized Mineski, an eSports team that became SEA’s largest eSports organization, and eventually having their own internet cafe chain in the country. Brands like Netopia and TNC followed suit, breeding a fan culture that also paved the way for the content creators to shine. Big names include Alodia, Razzie Binx, 2Staxx, Gloco, and Suzzysaur, to name a few.
The popularity also changed how children consumed online content. In a BusinessMirror report dated in 2019, titled ‘How the Filipino child consumes media’ by Bong R. Osorio, it said that, on average, ‘Filipino schoolchildren now watch less TV and spend more hours using gadgets to watch YouTube videos, Facebook and playing video games.’ It was also mentioned that Role-Playing Games (RPG) were popular among schoolchildren ranging in Grades 4 to 6.
As the industry grew faster and gamers got younger, parents struggled to keep up in supervising their children’s gaming habits.
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized ‘gaming disorder.’ It was defined as an ‘impairment of control over gaming, the increasing priority given to gaming, and continued or escalating gaming habits despite the occurrence of negative consequences.’ The situation prompted local lawmakers to file the Video Games Act of 2018, or HB 7909, hoping to regulate gaming among children, similar to how movies and shows were handled.
Level 3: The 2020’s
Like any other industry, gaming underwent a transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Out with computer shops and its shared spaces, in with mobile games that can be played anywhere.
Titles like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Wild Rift, Call of Duty: Mobile, and many puzzle games reached new heights. In 2021, Rakuten Insight provided a snapshot of gaming in the Philippines, saying that about 76% of gamers preferred mobile games.
Today, the massive popularity of gaming continues to evolve. There’s even a Bachelor of Science in Esports degree offered in the Lyceum of the Philippines University, focusing on Esports Management and Game Design Development.
If there’s anything that we have learned these past two decades in the Philippine gaming scene, it’s that no matter what, it will always evolve. After all, players would always press play.