Tripoli, April 6 (AFP\/APP): In a Tripoli arcade, players banter amid the bleeping and music of video games. Isolated by decades of dictatorship and post-revolution chaos, Libyan gamers are finally taking on the world.<\/p>\n
It’s late at night in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and in the suburb of Tajoura, teenagers with headphones clamped to their ears gaze into state-of-the-art screens in the ultra-modern gaming complex.<\/p>\n
One sits behind a steering wheel, racing a car. Others make their way through virtual worlds, huge 3D glasses covering their faces.<\/p>\n
Such a space would have been unimaginable a few years ago in the North African country.<\/p>\n
Unlike in other Arab states, “the gaming community was completely dead here” until recently, says Sofiane Mattouss, who runs the business set up in 2022.<\/p>\n
Gaming industry experts say the Middle East and North Africa are high-growth regions, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt among the largest markets.<\/p>\n
Libya lags behind, having seen little investment in technology or entertainment during the 42-year rule of autocrat Moamer Kadhafi, who\u2019s toppling in a 2011 revolt, marked the start of a violent decade-long power struggle.<\/p>\n
But as that isolation has ended, Libyans have shown “high demand” for places where they can finally play together and take part in tournaments, Mattouss says.<\/p>\n
At just 18, the computer science student only recently began working at the centre, putting an end to years of frustration playing on outdated university computers.<\/p>\n
More than a decade since Kadhafi’s death, new pastimes and private sector investment are surging into Libya, which even launched an e-sport federation in 2018?<\/p>\n
Six gaming halls have already sprung up in the capital, with others in major cities such as Benghazi.<\/p>\n
In Tajoura, comfortably installed on beanbags or perched on stools, rowdy students play football or engage in epic electronic battles.<\/p>\n
In skinny jeans and a white jacket, Youssef Younssi trades wisecracks while playing a game on a giant screen.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old student was used to playing in small arcades in Tripoli and had “never seen” such modern spaces in Libya until recently.<\/p>\n
Now back on holiday from studying in Turkey, Younssi says he regularly visits big gaming halls in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
“In other countries, when I travel, they are everywhere but I didn’t expect to see so many people interested in it here,” he says.<\/p>\n
Tripoli’s mushrooming arcades have driven rapid growth in Libya’s nascent gaming community, Mattouss says.<\/p>\n
The increasingly organised community is “motivating players and pushing other young people without experience to start training”.<\/p>\n
He predicts that the sector will continue developing quickly.<\/p>\n
While some in this conservative society criticise video games, Mattouss argues that unlike dictatorship and chaos, they have not destroyed Libya’s youth.<\/p>\n
E-sport gives them a purpose, which is better than “hanging around outside doing nothing”, he says.<\/p>\n
Player Karim Ziani, 20, puts down his headphones and declares that the growth of e-sport is “a good thing, even for the development of the country”.<\/p>\n
“I hope it grows, for the good of the youth and society.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tripoli, April 6 (AFP\/APP): In a Tripoli arcade, players banter amid the bleeping and music of video games. Isolated by decades of dictatorship and post-revolution chaos, Libyan gamers are finally taking on the world. It’s late at night in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, […]<\/p>\n
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