School: Taipei Municipal Chung Cheng Senior High
    Taipei, None, Taiwan

8 students, ages 17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 20, 2004. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): none

Classes and Teachers: Peter Lai

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.ccsh.tp.edu.tw

1. Description of Our Community

Taiwan's industrial sector has become more diverse and advanced over the years. Information is the key nowadays, and Taiwan has progressed from importing to developing, TV to computer, huge machines to hand-held devices, 2D to 3D. Visual effects are improving. Multimedia entertainment has become indispensable, and as a result, the game industry came into being.

2. Summary of Our Project

We wanted to explore the game industry in Taiwan, focusing on businesses and local culture rather than the games themselves. We will look at the present, past, and future of the game industry, and at the driving spirit behind every selected company, the Taiwanese spirit that burns to put Taiwan on the international stage.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Chung Cheng Senior High 1.5M/384K/ADSL ~Us!! 2.0M/128K/ADSL

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

A. The choosing of a theme and research area

Owing to the advice our instructor, Mr. Lai, gave us, and our own interest, we decided to write about game companies in Taipei. This topic looks easy, but when we really began research, we discovered that we were too innocent. From the start, all of us had a drive to work on a really good project, 'but we did not think about the meaning or scope of our project, causing us to have no definite goal. During our second interview, with Interserv, the interviewee, Mr. Chuang, pointed this out to us. He told us, 'If we just talk about games, your project will become a game guide.' This put our whole project in a different light, and mad us feel us if we were running a promotion for various games. Finally, we decided to restructure our project. Honestly, redefining our theme was rather risky, as the deadline was only a month and a half away. But we wanted to make a good project, so after some consideration, we decided to write about the game industry in Taiwan as a whole, becoming 'Game Explorers', set on discovering the Taiwanese spirit in the game industry.

B.lack of people

At first we were afraid that too many cooks would spoil the broth, so we cut our numbers down to the lowest possible: five people. Collecting information was easy (Thanks to the training Mr.Lai gave us), and as for the interviews, our outgoing personalities stood us in good stead. But when it came to rearranging our information and writing it out in our own words, we discovered that we did not have enough people. Most of our webpage design was done by S.F. and Yanting, and the rest of us dealt with typing and word processing. All of us had multiple tasks and it was really tiring.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Although we had many obstacles, our zeal was unaffected and we held on by the skin of our teeth and pulled through. We did not back down nor give up, and our faith helped us to finish this project. Although we had disputes during the process, we still managed to learn how to create a project, conduct an interview, and work with a team. This project could be really beautiful, and we are glad that we have made it so through our perseverance. We have many people to thank: our instructor, Mr. Lai; Mr.Jiang, sales manager of Gamebase; Mr. Chuang, formerly of Interserv; Mr. Chou, Director of Lunghwa's MG Department; Ms. Lin, manager of XPEC. Their helped allowed our expedition to reach a successful conclusion and now allows us to lay our findings about the Taiwanese game industry before you, the public, and society in general.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

Out of the five people in our group, four of us were second-year students in our school's project design class. The class was held on and off for a couple of years, and we were lucky to be able to join it last year. The class is mostly about the global IT industry, and many part of it overlapped with our work, so it was a great help.

During our research, we made ample use of web resources and discussion boards. We also learned how to explore a question and look at it from any different aspects, understood how to work together as a team, and improved our interview skills. All this combined helped us to create a very meaningful project.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

Phones & Cellphones------good to use when you can't find someone on the Net Digital Camera----Pictures can be used directly, creating no waste and saving a lot of photo development fees for us Printer----Invincible when we want to view our files on paper PC Indispensable. It runs all our software Recording---Equipment To take down our interviews quickly and accurately USB Portable Driver--Floppy discs are fast succumbing to the smaller but larger storage capacity of the portable drive CD-Burner----Burns and stores more information on CD's than a ton of portable drives

PhotoImpact 8.0 ----An easier image processing software that produces good results, too Yahoo messenger 5.5----Our main line of communications CuteFTP 3.0 A----safe and easy way of uploading and downloading files WinRAR 3.2-----Compresses large files for faster transmission Windows Notepad-----Easy to use, and good for storing information temporarily Office XP sp-2----Contains everything from word processing to webpage design Dreamweaver MX2004----A beautiful webpage design software that integrates Flash MX 2004-----animation with webpages perfectly Photo

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

An important part of our project was interviewing people. For reasons of time, we would use the phone to try to schedule meetings. We were sometimes rebuffed, but we learned a lost as well. Most of our interviews would start out seriously, but gradually, seeing our sincerity, the interviewees sharing their personal views and heartfelt thoughts about the game industry. We guess it's because all of us, interviewers and interviewees, really have a strong passion for games. After the interviews, the next important step was to receive authorization. Special thanks to Gamebase, Interserv, Lunghwa MG Department, and XPEC for helping to make this project more instructive and exciting.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

It had good and bad effects onus. One good effect was that we were able to meet with people out of school and catch a glimpse of how difficult yet interesting life was going to be once we left school. So we learned more than just mere knowledge about the game industry. On the other hand, our project depleted our study time, casing our grades to drop slightly. And we often worked late through the night, which was certainly detrimental to our health. But our hard work paid off with the completion of this project. Now we would just like to forget about the bad times, and give ourselves a hearty round of applause.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

An important part of our project was interviewing people. For reasons of time, we would use the phone to try to schedule meetings. We were sometimes rebuffed, but we learned a lost as well. Most of our interviews would start out seriously, but gradually, seeing our sincerity, the interviewees sharing their personal views and heartfelt thoughts about the game industry. We guess it's because all of us, interviewers and interviewees, really have a strong passion for games. After the interviews, the next important step was to receive authorization. Special thanks to Gamebase, Interserv, Lunghwa MG Department, and XPEC for helping to make this project more instructive and exciting.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

As Taiwanese, we harbor a deep love for our native land under the surface, and we discovered that the people and organizations we interviewed all possess this love, and they are expressing it through the game industry, working to create games that will let Taiwan shine on the international stage.

We also learned the importance of interacting with other people, whether in school or society, to prevent friction and misunderstanding. Luckily, all the people whom we met with for this project were very friendly. There is still a long road ahead of us, and we hope that our respect and friendliness toward others will stay with us for a lifetime.