Hi all,

Its becoming very common these days to walk into a living room or a café to find a table that is seggregated with an invisible line... Guys glued to an LCD fidgeting their fingers on a joystick/pad, girls either watching the game in utter boredom or just lost hope on the guys and decided to start a discussion... If you see this, then you have 2 couples infected with WES; Winning Eleven Syndrome...!!

In the next couple of paragraphs, i'll take you through the history of gaming, how do you know if you're a gaming addict and how to get back to track to the real world!
Its quite interesting how some statements come back to haunt you, after you thought you'd never hear them again... EVER!
Lets face it, back in the late 80s ands throughout the 90s we all grew up listening to moms/dads complaints, preaches and sometimes commands such as:

- Am locking the Supernintendo in my cupboard when school starts
- Etfi el zeft da w enzel el3ab ryada aw e3mellak ay 7aga mofeeda..
- Inshallah 7aygeelak takhallof men Mario bta3ak da
- Seeb el gameboy w o33od m3ana shwaya yabni..

And after endless attempts to try and convince our parents that video games are actually "beneifical".. (that Tetris makes u smarter for example), but yet our best efforts did not avail.. parents still hated them, kids can never quit playing them.
And when we thought all our troubles became over after we grew up, moved out/got married/branched from our parent's lives, the dilemma began again. This time however, with the wives, girlfriends and fiancées.

The statements we thought we'd never hear again (and were quite happy they vanished) got amended a bit but still kept the same motto.. Below are some statements that might sound too familiar:

- U've been playing since u got back from work.. mesh kefaya b2a?
- Ahmed (or whatever the name is)... Ahmed... AHMEDDDDDDDD... can't u hear me?????
- Khalli el PS tenfa3ak..
- Momken teseebo el PS w to33odo m3ana shwaya b2a (in case you have a fellow-couple over)

The evolution of a gaming generation:

Fact is: videogames have become an essential part of every 1970s-1990s born males in the country, since childhood till date.. The generation who've been fed "Mario Bros, Street Fighters, River Raid and Sonic The Hedgehog" to earn the name "Ninten-kids" have now evolved; passing through phases of "Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Pro Evolution Soccer and Winning Eleven" to rightfully own the name Ninten-dads.. Yes.. Nitendads!

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the average gamer's age has been plotted at 10 years old in 1990... In 2009, these numbers have jumped to 23 years old in the UK and 39 years old in the US.. where the average gamer has been playing for the past 12-15 years.. I believe Egypt and the MENA region would be in-line with the UK at the early 20s.

Shocking figures?? I don't think so... These figures follow the same patterns of any natural evolution theory you can relate to (even Darwin's for that matter). Just like our passion for Football/Sports has stuck to us, and our love for holiday season/Ramadan has grown on us since childhood... So do our gaming habits!
What our beloved parents and partners do not understand is that gaming isn't just a phase that we passed through in our childhood and its stopped there. As they're non-gamers (or occasional gamers if you're too optimistic), thus they never understood why you were so excited after killing Bowser for the first time in 1993, just like they'll never understand why you're hooked infront of the LCD while playing the final of the Champion's League on PES (for them its just another match on the same dam green pitch)!!

Symptoms of an addict gamer and consequences:

You don't neccessarily have to be a gaming addict for life, but you definitely passed through some of the below symptoms at one point in time (at least one point in time):

Symptom:
- Playing 12-15 hours a day straight
- Utilizing a long weekend to just sit and play, nothing else (a personal experience: I once played 75 hours out of the 96 hours of the 4 day long weekend)

Consequence:

- Drowsiness and headache
- Introversion: Where you don't want to see, hear or meet anyone outside the game's context.. Even going out with your bestfriends is not fun anymore, as you'll always want to run home and play till the last day in your life (your REAL life, not game life)!
- Hallucinations: You'll start mixing between what's in the game and  the real world, where you start thinking that your dad is Nico Bellek or that any visible projectile as a hand grenade coming at you (usually followed by ducking or rolling on the floor and shooting with a finger-gun)

Symptom:
- Sensual system shutdown: where you literally shutdown ALL your senses and only focus on seeing and hearing the LCD and feeling the pad in your hands.. thats IT!

Consequence:
Domestic disturbance: Whereby family members would get the impression they're being intentionally ignored/disrespected.. This is where statements such as "Cant you hear me??" arise.
Gamer's widow: This consequence is the latest stages of sensual shutdown, where the wife/girlfriend feels a loss of her partner although his heart is still beating... However, his mind and soul are completely owned by the gaming console.. this is where the lady decided to smash either the console or the LCD, resulting in the gamer awakening from his "trance" and realizing that he's actually a normal human being, not a car/vegetable/special forces squad member!
The results of the gamer's widow reactions cannot be predicted because either:
1. The males become very appreciative to their partners for getting them out of the trance.. and they live happily everafter!
2. A major fight erupts, causing discontent on either or both sides. (most common)




The solution:

1. Please be more considerate to your partners, 2 hours a day is quite enough... No need to spend the whole weekend playing (I know its a bliss... but just give it a shot.. in the name of love... lol)
2. When your partner calls you, just answer.. it makes them feel better.
3. Do NOT try to involve your partner in your gaming habits, because there's one of 2 consequences there:

         - She'll like it in the beginning, then you'll assume she likes it so much until she confronts you with the fact that she's only playing just to share something with you... And that you do NOTHING together now except playing games... which will piss her off even more.
         - If your partner is a sore loser.... Well, just watch the below



To sum up, we know gaming addiction is a bad thing, we know we shouldnt be doing it as often as we do... But hey, we're no angels; nor are you!!
We still accept your imperfections of endless best-friend phone chats, suffocating us with your nailpolish aroma in the car (with the windows closed) and constant chatter about anything and everything that happened throughout your day!!

No... we dont love our PSs as much as we love you.. its just that its a complete disconnect from all life's pressures and noise. We promise not to play as much as we do and to be more considerate.

And girls... give your men a break... you know they need it after working their asses off every hour on the hour to support you.. A romantic dinner for two is not always the kind of pampering he's looking for... Guys appreciate their "Me-time", in this instance "Wii-Time" (note the pun, lol).. so make sure you give them that!

I'll shut this one off on a happy note, watch the below, it'll definitely make you smile! :)

Adios amigos,
3omda

PS: Iman, thank you for being so patient and tolerant.. I love you! :)

Good afternoon 3la "Ahl Cairo" :)

Its nearly end of Ramadan, most of the ads are released already so it can get kinda tough to dig out new ones...
I'll only include one review at the end of the article but I want to share something else.

Remember the first real post on this blog, talking about the status of the advertising industry in Egypt and how it grew over the past 3 decades.. Well it doesn't just stop there, because over the past 2-3 days, there's been some articles by renowned journalists about the same topic, but handling it from different angles..

A journalist in Al Dostoor newspaper shared an article about the strong performance of the Egyptian advertising scene and that the collective efforts of the different agencies have raised the bar to the extent the people now watch ads more than they watch TV serials (a bit of an exaggerated statement I'd say)..
Nevertheless, this shows that the scene is becoming stronger by the day, to the extent she urges movie and series producers to watch and learn from the ad industry professionals..
Check it out here

However, Renowned journalist and author Dr. Lamis Gaber takes this to another level in her article "هما الوزراء بيشتغلوا إيه؟" "What do the ministers do for a living?". In this article, she picks one particular ad "Fantaloup" and debates how this reflects the current political scene in Egypt, whereby ministers always have a poor "Misil7i" to dump all their sh*t on and get them fired to keep their seats in the cabinet.

So what does all this tell us??
In my view, I see the advertising scene as a pure reflection of what the country is going through, just like books, movies and music.. Its as art of its own, a passion, not just a dayjob that pays the bill wa shokran.. And thats what makes it so special... dedicated people who actually LOVE and ENJOY what they do!

Way to go for all professionals who helped such articles to be posted by doing their homework and research well...

Now for the ads

By now we probably all saw Coke's first 2 "Happiness strikes" in the supermarket and cafe... Now Coke strikes in City Stars..

Check it out below....



Its an idea that would blow your mind when you see it while taking a stroll through the mall.. Great execution, and the fact that it also moves is awesome...
My only problem is that this is a miniature copycat of the US activation launched earlier this year (below)... They kicked off on a great pace, with original ideas and real buzz going around the activity.. but now, for me at least, they just did what their peers in the US did a year ago.. nothing exciting there.

But not everyone in Egypt saw that global casestudy... so for them the impact is HUGE..

One more thing, does it look fake or am I being too skeptical?
The guy in the blue cap is waving his smiley stressball and Coke cans to both cameras (in the fridge and on the side of it)...
What happened to the "candid camera" of genuine happiness??
This would make me reconsider the whole campaign's credibility..

I wont be grading this one since its not an original idea...
The original idea gets an A* though.