On Televising Pro Gaming

GameDAILYBiz has a piece written by Sundance DiGiovanni, the founder of Major League Gaming, on why the time is right for televising Professional Gaming. From the article: "Back in the day I would usually begin by pointing out that until recently there had never been U.S.-based gaming leagues or competitive gaming events that were built from the ground up to be televised. I'd point out that video game tournaments had never really been what you would call "TV friendly" and that in order for the spectator value to translate to television you would have to treat competitive gaming like a sport. That would usually be the point where people would look at me like I had horns growing out of my forehead."

Comments

It can be done.

[MagicDude]

ESPN broadcasts poker, spelling bees, and even scrabble. If they can be profitable, I'm positive video game tournaments can be too.

The major problem...

[Firehawke]

...is that watching people play games isn't all that interesting to a non-gamer in general. There are only a few types of games that are fun to spectate: Prince of Persia-style games, for instance, can captivate an audience with slick stunts by skill.. but.. there are few games like that.

FPS type games aren't going to be interesting to an outsider, no matter how you dress it up.. unless, maybe it's something like Battlefield 2-- THAT could possibly work, being somewhat 'relevant' to even the common man.

Re:The major problem...

[AsiNisiMasa]

I think that's what he means by saying it needs to be presented as a sport. Think about how many people pay ridiculous amounts of money to go see a pro-football game... They could much more cheaply see a college or high school game and probably with greater ease. The problem is, sports aren't actually fun to watch for most of the spectators. People like pro-sports because they feel connected to a team or to certain players and the outcome of the game actually becomes meaningul in that way.

As it stands now, which of the world's best gamers wins the most games doesn't matter to anyone at all, but if they each had fans then the competition between the resulting camps would fuel interest and spectation. Gambling would probably help get that going, as much as I would hate to see gambling over games.

Re:The major problem...

[ClamIAm]

You mention FPS, and I started wondering: what would the TV rating be for something like Quake, where there's tons of blood and gibs flying around? Sure, they could bleep out the "FUCKING NOOB!" expletives, but would they have to mod the game to get the rating down to TV-PG or something?

Also, I think that "spectator" tools would help a lot in making gaming more TV-friendly. It would allow commentators to show where players are on a level and such. Because usually, if you don't know the game yourself, you don't have any idea what's going on. I downloaded some high-profile CS match (some Euro clans), and since I don't play CS, quite a bit of it was lost on me.

If you look at TV poker, I think it helped a lot that they show all the hole cards and explain the rules at the beginning of the show. This is a lot harder for videogames, as a lot of them have many more variables, like weapons/items, levels, and so forth, in addition to the strategy.

Re:The major problem...

[Golias]

At a pro football game, I can see somebody run at near-olympic speeds across a field, and stretch his arms out to catch a ball knowing full well that he's about to get drilled right in the rib cage.

Sports competition pushes people to their physical limits, and when it is being played by people with exceptional physical limits, it can be compelling to watch.

I'm pretty damn good at playing Quake (if I do say so myself), and on a sliding scale of entertainment value, watching other people play Quake on TV, even world-class players, ranks somewhere between watching somebody write code and going outside to cut the lawn.

Re:The major problem...

[MagicDude]

Because usually, if you don't know the game yourself, you don't have any idea what's going on.

I would cite Iron Chef as an example of how you can present an obscure event in an exciting manner which is accessable to everyone. I've never had fois gras, caviar, truffles, homard lobster, or matsutake mushrooms, but whenever they break out those ingredients during competition, I know some pricy quality stuff is going into the dish. I think the same thing could be done in starcraft matches, as long as you have commentators who are high energy and aren't putzes (The worst thing they could do is get "gamer" commentators who are like "woah, that move was gnarly. Wicked awesome. Blah blah blah"). The commentary should be informative without being condescending or confusing. So they could be like "Sam is building a nuclear silo. That has the ability to do 1000 damage to all units and buildings within a 20 meter radius of targeting. Looking at Bill's base, our estimates show Sam's optimal strike point would be here where Bill's detector tower perimeter has a hole." and have a graphic showing the feild of coverage of the missile turrets and what the damage feild would be and such. The viewers don't have to know everything about the game, as long as you explain the important parts that make the game interesting. They do the same thing with poker, when they explain how one player has the unbeatable hand so you know to be interested on whether the other player will call or fold.

On the same token, part of making these games interesting to the public is to reduce the amount of boring work in the game. Thus, they should start each player off with a moderate cache of resources and a handfull of troops and the basic buildings. You need to get to the action quickly to hold a TV audience's attention. And then add in little twists, like the "secret ingredient" in Iron Chef, things like "flier's only" or "reveal map and no fog of war" or "operation cwal engaged".

Starcraft in Korea

[AsiNisiMasa]

I've heard rumors that games of Starcraft used to be (maybe still are) televised in Korea. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

Re:Starcraft in Korea

[xtieburn]

Yes indeed.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-664893404 3675888354&q=starcraft

I believe the players are quite famous as a result.

I can see it now

[Pluvius]

"See your favorite gamers whine about spawn campers and call each other n00bs weeknights at 2 AM, only on ESPN 8, The Ocho!"

Rob

Of course online gaming will be televised

[ExampleUserAccount]

From an article on Korea and the popularity of Starcraft :
On July 22 last year, 16,251 fans gathered at a baseball stadium in Pusan for the All-star game. At the same moment, around six times more people packed Kwanganni beach in the port to see another professional competition _ the online game ``Starcraft.''

Of course online gaming will become a spectator sport. The question is when will it happen? How will producers make it compelling and fun to watch?

The games themselves will need to be modded for spectators with extra cameras, slow motion replays, avatar close-ups with specially modelled expressions.

And the players will need to be larger than life, their games will be perfomances, their interactions with teammates and other teams will become storylines on the "field" and fleshed out by what happens between games. Rivalry, comraderie, tradgedy will all be played out in this new world for the amusement of TV and online viewers.

If baseball, golf and spelling bees can be spectator events then online gaming will eventually eclipse them all. The producers just need to figure out how to make it work.