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Cyber war harder against a human

Locals square off for chance to play at international finals in US

Sky Sze has been playing games against computers for years, but he'd much rather test his wits against a human.

'It is more challenging to play a human than a computer,' the 21-year-old said yesterday. 'You can develop formulas to beat a computer, but when you play a human, it becomes a psychological battle.'

He should know.

He was speaking after losing to another player in the World Cyber Games, an annual contest that pits online gamers from all over the world against each other.

His loss in the Warcraft III competition in the personal section knocked Sky out of the games.

Only the first and second place-getters and the winning five team members in the group section qualify to represent Hong Kong in an international contest in San Francisco in October.

Sky, one of four finalists out of 100 competitors, finished third.

Another defeated competitor, Loki Tai Ting-hong, a Form Five student, said he spent hours every day playing computer games. He likes online games because they enable him to link up with friends and meet new ones.

However, he said that he was likely to play less as he prepared for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination.

Julien Law Ka-ho, a fan of car racing computer games, spends more than an hour a day playing. 'Winning brings me satisfaction.'

Computer games are growing in popularity, according to Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association vice-chairman Gabriel Pang Tsz-kit.

'The number of game producers in Hong Kong has increased from 160 to 350 in the past two years,' he said.

But he was concerned some players were getting too addicted to computer games.

'Our members have discussed this before, and we try to design games which avoid encouraging players from spending too much time to win,' he said

Computer games were just entertainment, so players should avoid becoming too addicted as it could harm their health, he warned.

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