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Competitive Gaming Hits the Mainstream
thegamebiz writes "Amped eSports has a recap of the 60 minutes segment profiling gaming icon Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, while also providing commentary on the effect it could have on the business as a whole. From the article: 'As millions of Americans sat with eyes affixed to their televisions during the second week of the NFL playoffs, a different type of sport was being birthed into the public spotlight merely a channel away ... It's time to wake up, America. eSports has hit the spotlight and with it comes the realization of a dream that has existed in the mind of every child since Fred Savage took his brother to California for a Nintendo tournament in The Wizard. Professional Gamer is now a valid career path.'"
'As millions of Americans sat with eyes affixed to their televisions during the second week of the NFL playoffs, a different type of sport was being birthed into the public spotlight merely a channel away...'
How does millions of people watching another program on at the same time help the cause?
Gaming has been bumbling along as an occasional novelty in the mainstream media since the CS explosion and the massive LAN events of the early noughties. The real point at which gaming can call itself mainstream is when the goofy gaming shows obviously hosted by non-gamers are replaced by serious coverage of tournament events, when CS and QT are presented like poker - serious coverage that the tournament entrants would appreciate, competent commentary by people gamers actually respect and just the occasional explanatory note to naive viewers. When the network execs begin to understand that their thirteen-year-old PS2 owner is a totally different kind of gamer to the WOW-playing, LAN-gaming faithful and realise that gamers aren't one demographic but a broad spectrum with widely diverging tastes and interests. For the moment, gaming is an odd novelty that the mainstream still don't quite get.
Yeah, it's as viable a career path as "Being Bono" or "Becoming Tom Cruise" is. How many people have made professional gaming an actual career? I don't mean 2 years of income. I mean at least 10 years of steady income.
No I don't see the appeal either but then I don't watch "regular" sports anyway so perhaps I am just weird.
Just as there is a "market" for chess matches or curdling or downhill skiing or soccer there will be a market for "gaming".
If it will ever be big I have no idea. Why did soccer get big but not field hockey? Why do americans watch football and europeans soccer.
F1 is a big sport. Perhaps it is only watched because you want to see lethal crashes but if that is not the case then why should people not also watch a F1 race with virtual cars?
It would not be my cup of tea and it may not be yours but we hardly matter now do we? Computer "sports" would allow events that could never be held in real live, why hold a chess match when you can televise a battle between armies? The BBC already had a program like this.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Seems like media hype to me and 60 minutes trying to be on 'the edge' of something new. Sure, pro gaming might be getting bigger but there are millions of gamers but only a handful of people who can make an actual living off it. Plus on 60 minutes they touted "Fatal1ty" as the best, which seemed kind of lame.
Why watch Cycling when you can hop on your bike yourself? Why watch skateboarding when you can go outside and hop on yours? Or What about NASCAR when you can drive around your block?
Because it is fun to watch for the person interested in the game. The intensity of the game when a team is down by 3 rounds and its a 1v3 situation with a minute ten left on the clock is a very tense and amazing time to watch. Its also great to watch because you get to see all the players playing that you always hear about. much like watching your favorite player on TV for Football.
You may enjoy watching "the Bus" make an amazing play. I enjoy watching tr1p make an amazing comeback in a hopeless round.
So you are saying every commercially successful sport out there is NOT about the sportsman/woman and his/her experience? I'm a hardcore gamer myself (in terms of hours spent), and I very much enjoy watching pros duke it out in a game I enjoy playing myself. And even recorded speedruns etc. of a single-player game can be very entertaining. By every definition, PC/console gaming can be a sport like any other.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
Gaming is very big in S-Korea, and has been at least since Starcraft came out. There is a huge industry with idols, fans, groupies, big sponsors, big money, regular TV shows, heck, even their own TV channel. THAT's what I call Mainstream. No problem with TFA, but don't give the impression that the US went there first.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.