This year's
World Cyber Games
finals will be held in the Asian city-state of
Singapore in November, and, befitting this designation, the
small,
but densely populated island nation will be boosting its competitive chances any way it can. One way it's doing so
is by deferring the two-year military service of one of its elite gamers so he can represent his country in the premier
(or, at least, best known) videogame competition in the world. Here's what government officials had to say about this
preferential treatment: "In line with the Government's support for sports, culture and the arts, the Ministry of
Defense will consider granting one-time deferments for pre-enlistees who are selected to represent Singapore at
prestigious international sports and cultural events."
Nice way to support international gaming, my bureaucratic brethren. You gotta love
what those Singaporeans come up with. Since they share the
same mandatory military service requirements, I wonder whether the Korean government supports
Korean WCG teams in the same way. Preemptive political
strike: if only Clinton and George Dubya had the World Cyber Games to bail them out back in the day, then we would have
had a lot less controversy, don'tcha think? (I tried to
keep the criticisms equal-opportunity on the political spectrum, so please keep flames to a minimum. Thank you.)
Engadget
TUAW