There are days out there when I’ll just sit on my couch and stare at my game collection.  I look at the PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, and dead Xbox 360 just resting (in peace) by the TV. Next to my TV is a bookshelf full of the games that I have accumulated over the years, and immediately to the left is a side table with a PSP and DS just lying there.

These days are full of admiration and disgust for me.  I have a game collection anyone would be proud of, but when I think back to my time in Cambodia, I can’t help but feel a little guilty.

Cambodia is a country where the price of an Xbox 360 is more than a person will make in a year, but yet it still has a gaming culture as strong as there ever was.  When walking around Phom Penh you can’t help but feel a little confused.  The city is full of beautiful French architecture, some of the best of its kind, but unfortunately as ragged as it could ever be.

Decades of conflict have broken this once proud kingdom.  This is a place which can barley afford to pave their own roads and its the last place I would expect to find a flourishing culture of gaming.

Though when you think about it, it does make a lot of sense in its own twisted way.  The policies of Pol Pot had left 2 million of Cambodia’s 7 million dead with 50% of its population under the age of 18 and simply put, it doesn’t matter where you are, most kids love games.

Considering it was outside in the street, the first internet café I stumbled upon gave me quite the shock.  In the heat of summer, Cambodia can easily get to temperatures well above 40 degrees, and if you can’t afford air conditioning, having lots of computers in a small room is not a good idea.

After I paid the concierge my overpriced foreigner fee, I set off to find myself an open spot.  I noticed two things pretty quickly.  The first being that, almost everyone sitting in front of a computer was a kid, and what a surprise, the second was that they were all playing Starcraft.  The monthly e-mail back home could wait.

Starcraft is a game that I haven’t played in years, so I felt pretty confident to make a couple of $1 bets with these kids.  Five dollars and an hour or so later, I had felt swindled and it was time for me to leave.  Even if I had been in my Starcraft prime, I doubt I would have been much of a challenge for these kids.  They may not live in Korea, or have large stadiums to show off their skills, but they sure have the practice and experience to compete with the best of them.  They could do a lot worse considering they almost made a weeks wage off me.

Feeling pretty good about my last experience I set off to find another internet café, hopefully this time with a little air conditioning.  Through the Russian market and a couple of affordably priced massage parlors I was lucky enough to find an indoor café.  As the powers may be, the place that could afford air conditioning could also afford better computers.

As I made my rounds through the computers, I noticed that there was no Starcraft this time around.  Instead, these upgraded computers gave these kids the opportunity play Warcraft III.  Apparently Blizzard is very popular in this country.

Instead of getting hustled, I decided to have a little talk with the guy running the place.  Trying to decipher his broken English I gathered he was talking about how these kids can’t afford expensive games, consoles or PC’s.  He went on to say that the kids love to play whatever they can get their hands onto, Starcraft being the most popular.  He even went so far as to claim that all kids in Phom Penh played Starcraft.  Though I was a little skeptical at the boldness of his remark, I thanked him and continued on.

An article on Gamer Limit about a month back got me thinking about my experience in Cambodia.  Here was this 11 year old boy genius, who had everything in the world and he didn’t like video games because they were of no use to humanity.  I couldn’t disagree with him more.  I hope that in time, with a little more life experience, he will come to ease his views on games.

Cambodia is a country which is reeling from decades of warfare, genocide, and corruption.  Here in this small corner of a run down city are kids with little to no future, smiling because of an old video game.  I would disagree with this boy genius and say that video games are making a difference.