If you are one of the million gamers in the country craving for better peripherals to enhance your gaming experience, chances are that you would have to reconsider your decision. Hardware, peripherals, everything is imported. The government echoes the lamentable and medieval attitude of Indian parents towards gaming, and of Asian parents in general, which is basically – “gaming is a waste”. Getting mid-high end hardware and peripherals at decent prices is quite challenging, and with little competition in the market, retailers extract a killer amount of profit from the buyer’s pocket, which mean that even after a hefty amount of taxes and duties, the additional profit burdens the buyers, which means that high end peripherals still enjoy have few takers in the country.
To remedy the situation, sometimes heroes emerge from the crowd to help people ascend into the light. If prices from retailers were bad, someone had to acquire stuff at cheaper prices from the actual importers, and sell it for lesser profit than the shops which overcharge for the same products. Often these people do it for little profit, and sometimes even losses (when a delivery goes wrong, when the products are damaged, and so on). One of the heroes dedicated to remedying the scene by providing mid-high end peripherals to the Indian gaming folk at cheap prices is Ashish (name changed on request), operating through a group called AkExtacy.
Ashish is the guy you approach if you have a low budget, and need a decent gaming headset or gaming mouse to take your games to the next level. And knowing the average Indian gamer, most of them are playing Counter Strike : Global Offensive, DOTA 2 and other competitive games, and want to get good at them, at a pocket-friendly price. All they need to do is contact Ashish, transfer him the money, and within a few days a brand new peripheral awaits at their doorstep.
Gaming is still an industry in its infancy, but it has been growing, with ESL India launching an official Premiership each year, along with many other investors adding to the prize pools for tournaments. With the rise in competitive gaming, the demand for better hardware and better gear also increases – much more than the lackdaisal “sit back and relax” gaming of the old days, when no one felt the real need for better gear in the country. This fuels people like Ashish to work harder to deliver stuff at cheaper prices than before, with other organized competitors in the mix. Despite his efforts, he still operates through a Facebook group, and not through a website where one can take orders and fulfill them at ease – but it’s in the works most likely, and increasing competition would mean it would be coming any day now.
Despite his extreme efforts, Ashish still remains a Dark Knight, with many gamers in India still in the dark about his identity (not that I know much – I only know that he is an honest and simple guy who used to play Counter Strike from the 1.6 era, and his love for gaming made him think about trying to make gaming better for all Indian gamers, by providing good hardware and peripherals at cheap prices). His buyers still echo my thoughts about him – he is a good-natured, honest and down-to-the-earth fellow, with an enormous amount of patience, to deal with the worst customers possible (and it is amazing how he does it – how he explains to people to expect reasonable pricing, and still manages to get a piece of hardware sold). Yet as gaming rises, more and more people get to know him, to befriend him – and buy one of his many wares, discuss about their gaming experiences in his group, and get back to him. And best of all, when you talk to him, eventually you will discover his special product – gaming chairs, much cheaper than the imported ones out there. Gaming chairs are something of a rarity in India, but as gaming rises in popularity as a hobby, they are also increasing in demand, and Ashish is only too ready to discuss prices of the gaming chairs in his catalogue, should you decide to get a feel of what a “gaming” chair feels like.
We at Indiannoob salute Ashish for his exemplary work at helping the Indian gaming scene grow faster. We also expect to see a site up soon, so that his news of his work can reach the furthest corners of the country, and so that all the gamers of the country truly acknowledge his work for the scene at large.
(If you guys want to contact him, feel free to contact him on his Facebook profile : https://www.facebook.com/ashish.extacy )
(Join his group at : https://goo.gl/E7eKTq)
AkExtacy KYS with 0rk0