Now, I will be enlightening you guys on what our live2own team is currently upto.

First, we are planning an online cs and dota event. We also are having plans of FIFA 09. We would like to include COD4 and NFS but currently we are short of manpower to cinduct those. 

Taking the exams in mind, we have planned for the april 22nd. Your comments on the dates are welcome as we  are open to change of dates. The strucuture is that of a normal group strcuture. 

In order to increase the spectators and the excitement level, we will be keeping predict and win ( betting ) on these matches but with points or I will havw the police rounding me up here. 

Deal has already been finalized with SteelSeries for the prizes. We will also be talking to other companies. 

Another thing, we will soon start with promo videos, rules, strucuture, and then registration. We are looking for admins, referees for the same. But we prefer them to be volunteers as I don' t think we will be able to have them working on a fee basis. ( Well, the recession has hit us too :P ).

Other than this, I am happy to say that some Pakistani gamers have come up and want to promote Live2own there. They will be doing a similar event there and hence the awareness about live2own will spread. I am hoping that we will then we welcoming their community here and trying to raise our both's standards by sharing our views. 

That's all folks !!

Yes, we can

India - My fellow gamers,

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our previous generation gamers. I thank ACID, ATE and the pros for their service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation they have shown throughout the times.
At these moments, Indian Gaming scenario has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the Gamers have remained faithful to the passion of gaming and true to the people who game here.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of gamers. We will now be entering the 3rd generation of gamers.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our gaming scenario is getting worse, against a far-reaching network of anti-gamers and companies against popular games like counter-strike or dota. Our gaming scene is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare it for a new age. Teams have been lost; events shed; businesses shuttered. Entries are too costly; the prizes fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways e-sports is conducted here is getting poorer.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that the e-sports industry decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights towards events like ESWC and Kode5.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, gamers — they will be met.

On this site, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this site, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our gaming scenario.

We remain a young gaming nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are pros, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of success.

In reaffirming the greatness of Indian gamers, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over practice and scrims, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often pros obscure in their labor, who have carried us up this far.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in hope of kicking some butt and raising the standards of Indian gaming.

For us, they toiled in sify’s, reliance’s, zapak’s ; endured the poor config pcs.
For us, they fragged and died, in places like alleys, carpet, ladder.

This is the journey we continue today. Our passion is no less than the fanatics, sks, myms. Our minds are no less inventive, our equipments no less effective . Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of raising our gaming standards.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our gaming passion cannot tolerate too many big plans. They have to be proved wrong.

For as much as this site can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the us gamers upon which this community relies. It is the kindness to take in a noob when the levees break, the selflessness of café owners who would rather cut their charges than see a friend lose to someone which sees us through our darkest hours.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old.

In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we raised our standards to such an extent that no one dare challenge us.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the Gamers of India.

What’s new?

I will be discussing the new features of the new Live2own site

Including all games

This time, the intention is not only concentrate on Counter-strike as live2own.net was considered to be a counter-strike centric site. But not now, we have expanded our focus to consider all games. We need to integrate the communities of games to a central point.

Features Include:

·    Blogs

We have included a who new blogging feature where users can publish their own blogs. So if you are person who wants to contribute towards the gaming scenario, here’s the chance to write about what you feel, what you are doing, what you went through etc … . And it could be about anything. Maybe not even gaming.

      How to publish your blog

      After logging in the site, go to your  ‘My blog dashboard’  link and click on ‘write new entry’ to start your writing. You can then click on save or save and exit to publish your blog.

    Remember that you need to maintain your blog for various people to notice you. A good quality blog will always attract more people the next time you add an entry.

  A popular blogger will be defined as the number of hits he receives on his blog rather than the number of blogs he has written.

·    Events

    The events section will contain all the upcoming and the recent events which have happened. It will also contain a archive of past events if you wish to browse through the earlier events.

  You can submit your own event. It might be a event/tourney happening at a local café nearby or a college fest or even a national level event. It might be even a workshop or seminar on gaming or things related to it. Let people know about it.

This feature will enable everyone to know what’s happening where.

  How to submit your own events?

  Go to the events section and submit your event. It will be sent for approval. Our admins will approve it and you will have your events published.

·    Articles

What we realized is that having coverage/news/articles written from our side for every event or any happening around the country is quite a tough job. So now the model is that users who visit these events or a happening or have come across a certain news can submit their own stories on it. By this way, we have more of write content than the read content. So if you attended a particular event or went to a seminar and you feel you can contribute, you can come up with a article on it.  This will increase contribution from users and we will have news from every corner of the country where gaming is present.  

Again, articles can get you recognition as a good writer, reporter and you can come up with innovative topics to write upon. And believe me, topics are endless. For a start, you can go through what kind of articles are there on the abroad e-sports sites.

How to submit your own article?

Once logged in, click on submit an article and you will be presented with an editor.
Yeah, images or pictures is a necessary factor as that will be the crowd puller. Make sure you have the relevant pictures. If you are unsure, submit the article and our editor and graphic designer will put an effort to make your article look good.

For a start, we have some topics which you can write on:

http://live2own.net/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=193&func=view&catid=42&id=32#105

·    Videos

The videos section has been worked upon so that users can upload their own videos. We also have the flexibility of adding videos from sites like youtube and other such video sharing sites.  

This also means that you can upload a video of any kind. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a in-game or frag-video. It can be clip taken of a tourney happening in a local café. Or anything.

If you are good with cameras and videos, you can start your own show by adding videos and making a series or something.  

How to upload/add a video?

Go to the videos section and click on ‘upload a video’ to upload videos from your computer.
To add videos from other site like YouTube, you need to click on ‘Add videos’ button and enter you link.

·    Galleries

The galleries section will contain photos from events happening across the country. These are not personal photos but photos uploaded users themselves.

You can upload any picture or pictures you might have taken in an event/tourney etc. This is to encourage users taking pictures at events and sharing them with the community. This could also be pictures taken from a cell.

How to create a gallery/upload a picture?

All you need to do is go to the galleries section after logging in and go to your user panel. You will get options for two buttons : categories and new picture.

In categories: you can create your own category
In new picture: you can upload a picture to any of the existing categories.

·    Community

The community aspect is a kind of social networking among the gamers. We have all kinds of applications such as walls, friends, a good user profile page, user albums, karma, groups and applications on a user profile stating his various activities on the site. The number of features for the community aspect is too many to pen down. So you got to explore.

You can even start your own group, public and private where you can have our own discussions and agenda.  It can be fun. Various things to start a group is endless like you can start a fan club, or a group of gamers for a particular game like GTA 4 or a rap group and many things. You can hold you own contests, surveys etc.

How do you go about the community/my profile?

Just click on the ‘community tab’ after you log in and it’s in your face. Just explore around.

·    Point system

Now this might be the most interesting feature we might have integrated. That’s what we think. Do let us know about what you think. The point system is integrated with every other feature. The point system is an incentive for our lazy Indian gamers to start being active in the community.

You earn points for being active. The various points you can earn for the various activities are mentioned in the ‘how do I earn points’ link. So you can always refer to that.

Here is the link: http://live2own.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=477&Itemid=228

So what do you do with points?

Yeah, we have definitely thought of that.

1.    We will be having contest for top points earners at the end of the month or according to the duration of the contests. ( That contests has already started )
2.    First few people who reach a certain amount of points get prizes. ( We will be starting that in a few days )
3.    You can redeem your points for generating coupon codes which you can then use to get discounts  ( the discounts will be huge, you can bet on that ) at gears2own i.e. the Live2own Online Store ( Starting soon, just around the week )
4.    A lot of features which will be coming up soon will have a lot to do with user points so you better not miss out on points.

What can get you good points?

Well , majorly, I guess we have good amount of points for articles, blogs & videos, events.

For others, you can definitely earn by doing small activities but in good amounts.

Things like articles, blogs, videos fetch you passive points.

Passive points -  As in, if a user reads your article, you earn points as well as the user earns points. So more the reads you get on your article or blogs, the more points you earn.

·    Request Section on forums

A guy ‘A’ may want to know the coverage of an event that took place in some city. But no user has yet put any coverage on that yet. He can post in the requests section for articles regarding the coverage. A user ‘B’ who had attended the event might then come up with coverage/pictures of that event .

Similarly you might want a particular demo or replay or want a video to be put up. You can post a request in the requests section so that people might come with answers to your requests.

You can put a request for articles/coverage/event details/pictures/demos/replays/videos whatever you want users to share on live2own.

This will help in awareness among everyone about the needs/requirements in the community and what we can share.

I  ask people to use the requests section to the fullest as that is where we know what content users would like to have.

Link:  http://live2own.net/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=193&func=listcat&catid=39

 ...................

 We have many other good features but these were the main so I am highlighting them by this blog. Others you can always browse around the site.

 Features coming soon:

 These are the other features which are definitely coming soon:

1.    Gears2own ( Online Store )
2.    Café Listings ( List and info on cafes in India)

Features under development:

Some other features which we are working on but we won’t commit the time or whether they will be actually deployed:

1.    Predict and Win ( Online predict and win for matches, CS and Dota )
2.    Team  list/record/page ( Statistics of teams in India ) and trying to build a ranking for the same.
3.    Cartoon strips related to gaming
4.    A series of videos like a serial or something similar.
5.    Creating your own online tourney.
6.    Applications for the community aspect.

 If any of you got ideas or can help us with these projects, kindly contact us .

One thing is certain that all the features which we will be developing will be integrated with the current point system, so be active.

And enjoy the site’s new features !!!

The Live2own team went through a load of changes during these months. Metalkid ( Akash )and Deathseeker ( Karan ) went their separate ways. They were of the thought that gaming would not be their way of going forward. It's their thought so we ought to respect that. Now we have a lot of people joining us. You can check that out in the staff section. We met a bunch of people who showed us that there is a way ahead for Live2own but it has to be done in the right way.

So we started making some business plans, some models by which we can take gaming at a new level via Live2own. The gaming industry according to me is very complicated as we have different demands from gamers and different demands from the companies investing in gaming. For a company like Live2own who are filled with young entrepreneurs and gamers, it's been difficult for us to make and execute plans in a way that Live2own survives financially. Around July 2008, we met a couple of guys from Hyderabad i.e Ravi a.ka. IndianTiger and Sreenath who had some plans of their own to enter the gaming scenario. They had a unique approach which we thought is worth to merge with.

We formed a new company called GoLive Gaming solutions having Ravi as the CEO. We experimented with a lot of stuff as part of our research such as doing college seminars and workshops, talking to the corporate world about their view on gaming. It helped a lot to devise our future projects.

We also did a Golive Game Carnival where we had tourneys of cs and dota in Hyderabad cafes. Another one was an online Dota tourney which got us a massive response from the Dota crowd. So we did the finals in Hyderabad in a hotel where we had gamers from all across India and a Bangladeshi clan participating in the finals. We got a massive response. We had a rating of ‘Omg, wtf, Imba' in the GG forums.

Yeah, so we tried a lot, and now we have re-launched Live2own.net with a whole lot of new features which you can explore by spending some time on the site. I will be putting up another blog explaining all the features.

Live2own is now a sister concern of Golive who is funding us. So this is a new start and we hope that this time we take gaming and Live2own where we dreamed of.