Just what is the allure of the world of the Internet cafe? What prospects and business opportunities do Taiwan's ubiquitous Internet cafes hold? The Spectacular Rise of Internet Cafes and Online Gaming is a book for the times, a must-read for the "wired" Generations X, Y and Z.

Technology's human roots

Last year, the online and electronics world was stunned by 17-year-old Tseng Jeng-cheng's victory at the World Cyber Game Challenge (WCGC). The Taichung native made his way through round after round of qualifying trials to represent Taiwan at the WCGC, sponsored by South Korea's Samsung Corporation. The competition gathered almost 200 gamers from 14 countries, including Germany, Sweden, the UK, and France. After fierce competition, Tseng's gaming prowess carried him to victory over his opponents.

This news reignited the debate over Internet cafes. The Spectacular Rise rushes into the publishing fray to offer readers an in-depth guide into the online world.

Author Chang Chi-chao has been a software developer for almost fourteen years. Aside from his career, Chang is pursuing graduate studies at National Chiao Tung University's Graduate Institute of Management of Technology. With years of experience on both the theoretical as well as practical fronts, the author proceeds from a "management" and "e-commerce" model, seeking to redefine the value of Internet cafes and online gaming to society as a whole.

Taking the view that "technology always has its roots in human nature," the book reveals how Internet cafes and online gaming have burst onto the leisure and entertainment scene.

The author makes the optimistic as well as bold prediction that good management of Internet cafes can bring about unprecedented social and economic benefit in areas ranging from improving parent-children relations to stimulating the domestic software industry, and expanding the Internet infrastructure.

According to survey results from NetValue (an international Internet usage monitoring company), the number of Internet users in Taiwan currently stands at 5 million people. Among this number, middle-schoolers number 1.88 million. In other words, for every 100 people going online, 34 are likely to be junior high or high school students. Among the various types of online activities, this student population most favors online gaming.

The appeal of online gaming

The author groups current online gaming activities in Taiwan into three major categories. Web Games: These are simple and popular games that one can register for and access for free, including Chinese chess, bridge, and mahjong. Online gamers can play to their hearts' content in the unrestricted realm of cyberspace.

Network Games: These "real-time strategy games" involve four to eight players and emphasize group combat and cooperation. This type of game is faster in pace, and slowpokes don't win. In terms of combat strategy, players can work with each other to attack a specified enemy, fight each other, or go solo against the computer. Popular games include "Age of Empires," "Half-Life," and "Starcraft."

Online Games: These games allow up to 1,000 people online at any given time and feature instant-messaging capabilities, allowing players to feel as if they are situated in the real world. Players can make friends, get married, develop careers and engage in behavior that models real social life. Such games have attracted a good number of people who like to chat and make friends online. "Sango," "Stone Age," and "Heaven" are examples of such games.

Among online activities, network games are most popular with students because of their real-time action, combat orientation, limited timeframe, and teamwork, not to mention bloody action and vivid graphics. These games rely on high-speed broadband connections and cutting-edge computers. To such gamers, going online using a fully equipped Internet cafe computer is much more satisfying and exciting than going online with a barebones computer at home.

A new breed of Internet cafe

With the e-generation clamoring to get online, it's not hard to understand why 4,000 Internet cafes have sprung up in Taiwan within the short space of a year. According to the Market Intelligence Center's estimates, the value of online gaming rose from NT$3.5 billion in 2000 to NT$5.3 billion in 2001, a growth rate of 51%.

Chang feels that there is no limit to the potential of online gaming, which has made the Internet cafe the hottest social phenomenon in Taiwan.

Earlier Internet cafes possess rather spartan facilities, offering only online access and drink services; they rely on their low rates to pull customers in. However, a new generation of Internet cafe operators has adopted a radically different approach to the Internet cafe environment and overall business model. Apart from rejecting sex, gambling, drugs and violence, these new operators are advocating a more sustainable model of recreation for families and the general public, hoping in this way to inject new life into Taiwan's recreation industry.

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Book title:

The Spectacular Rise

of Internet Cafes and Online Gaming

Authors: Chang Chi-chao,

Yu Hsiao-cheng

Publisher: Linking Publishing Group

Date published: October 2001

Price: NT$250