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	Games Convention Online 2009 - "The year of the big gaming conventions split in Germany" is what we would call 2009. The first of the two competing events was the Games Convention Online which appeared with the tagline "browser, client, mobile" and took place from 31. July to 2. August 2009 in Leipzig, Germany.
	We, hexe and T.T.H, are long time Games Convention visitors and made our trip to Leipzig even this year, mostly due to our curiosity how the event in Leipzig would "reinvent itself". We had been there Friday from about 9:15am till 4:30pm.
	Floor Plan - Regarding show floor size it was pretty small, actually even smaller than we had expected: only a part of one hall was filled with "classic" booths presenting games; the rest was filled with "fluff", interesting and entertaining things nevertheless, but not really about new games.
	Welcome Korea - The biggest booth had been from the partner country of the convention, Korea, where several Korean publishers and developers showed their games. Regarding the two most interesting ones we now provide some impressions here.
	Karos - Advertised as a "traditional hardcore MMORPG" it comes with all the things such a game needs: plenty character levels, masses of equipment, hordes of enemies and scandly clad women in platemail bikinis. (www.karosgame.com)
	As nearly every other online game from Asia it features a "free to play, pay per item" model.
	It actually looks quite nice. Nevertheless it didn't really "hook" us but, well, yeah, we are definitely a gamer couple hard to please.
	hexe and James fishing, a must-have-part of every "traditional hardcore MMORPG"...
	Huxley - The other big game which actually did hook us was Huxley: The Dystopia (huxley.ijji.com), an online multiplayer scifi shooter. It even features the "free to play, pay per item" model but one crew member at the booth told us that they try not to unbalance the game in favour of the people paying real cash and that most of the stuff bough with real cash is about customizing your character to stand out of the crowd.
	Some of the game's trailers ran on the big screen at the center stage of the booth area which made an awesome impression.
	From what we have seen the PvP part of the game looks and works nearly like a traditional FPS game: there are server lists, you can create games, choose maps, edit settings and at the end everybody runs around with blazing guns while Team Deathmatch seems to be the most prominent play mode.
	On the other hand the PvE part is a bit different: there you enter cities, shop for equipment, take quests, find comrades and then go fighting monsters, either alone or with up to three other players, solving your quests and driving forward the storyline.
	We did really like what we have seen but what leaves us a bit wondering are the character levels, the pay-per-item stuff and both their relevance to the game balance, in both PvP and PvE. Nevertheless we will probably try out the game.
	Fun Fact - An interesting information is that the console version of the game is still in development and that there still seem to be "political issues" as the current console landscape is not really prepared yet for the "free to play, pay per item" model.
	Hessian - Specification: multiplayer shooter game. Selling point #1: based on the Unreal 3 engine. Selling point #2: like CounterStrike, with bombs and such. Selling Point #3: but in 3rd person view !!1!ONE! (which means a large part of the screen right next to the crosshair is covered by the backside of a muscular guy in full body armor). Selling point #4: free to play (but there are two groups of equipment you can buy, one with ingame money and one with real money and it seems group number two is the more cool one). What else? "uhmmm, uhmmm, uuhh...". Owned. Like totally.
	Korean Sidenote #1 - A not-so-cool sidenote is that the German speaking personal at all the Korean booths had all been very friendly but didn't really have hard facts to share. In most cases they recited the stuff wich was even written on the walls behind them and even for the question "what makes the game great and unique?" the answers came after long thinking and consisted mostly of the stuff they already had recited. In one case we even have been told an utter mess of which one sentence made it to the quote of the day: "what do you mean with 'cooperative gameplay'?" Helloooo, we are at a convention completely dedicated games?!? Gosh, booth babes, especially the blond, male ones...
	Korean Sidenote #2 - Getting to speak with crew members which actually came from Korea and where able to talk in English had been hard to come by but when you found them it was a pleasure to talk to them. In addition they all seem to have "English Names". That means after they tell you their real name, which the average European like us can neither understand nor remember, they usually say something like "you can call me Terry" which is definitely no part of their name but something us dopey Europeans can work with.
	Korean Business Area - Next to the b2c area the Koreans even had a big part of the b2b area reserved for them, but there you could have acquired some infos only when you had scheduled appointments with their VIPs.
	GP2X Wiz - A Korean made, Linux based, homebrew software orientated, 320x240 pixel touch display featuring portable gaming console for about 180$ - interesting geek toy. (www.gp2xwiz.co.kr)
	Show Floor - With very nicely decorated booths but in the early morning still without people as the public had not been let in before noon. Trade visitor tickets for the win...
	BigPoint - They had a huge booth but showed only one of their games, PoisonVille (www.poisonville.com/), which not really was of our interest as it looks like a mix of GTA and every stereotype there is regarding black people with guns in urban environments. To even emphasize the sterotypes they had DJs, loud music from ghetto blasters and black people with huge golden necklaces.
	Gameforge - Huuuge booth, six PCs to play different games, several promotion events - at once.
	Gamigo Babes - Gamigo had a very nice booth with several PCs showing a lot of their games, plus they had six cute booth babes showing their... you know... highlights.
	Gamigo Babes - On the center stage.
	Scary Man - Somebody else I just had to take a picture of, with wiggling hips and fluttering hair, pretty much the same features as the other booth babes.
	World Cyber Games Stage - Competitive gaming in several disciplines.
	Esport Arena - Even more competitive gaming.
	Public Gaming Area - With PCs for everyone to play games on.
	Public Gaming Area - Featuring StarCraft: Brood War, WarCraft 3: Frozen Throne, World of Warcraft, some racing game and one or two more games we just can't remember a day later.
	Community Stage - Bands playing their songs and guilds presenting themselves.
	Tent Camp - For all the people in need of a cheap stay directly at the convention Gameforge sponsored a tent camp right outside of hall one.
	Loot - Just as every year we brought home some loot.
	Parting View - The same view we had in the evening but the photo being taken in the morning, with the hordes of gamers not being let in yet.
	Impression - To conclude our impression in some short words: a new start, a new chance, smaller than expected, with the big publishers from Germany showing only few games, Korea being a country where a lot of great games are developed, "free to play, pay per item" the de-facto standard in Asia and now pushing hard into Europe.

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