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World Series of Video Games Cancelled

Posted by Zonk on from the everybody-can-go-home dept.

Goobergunch writes "The official site for the World Series of Videogames is now indicating that the WSVG, including planned events in Los Angeles, London and Sweden, has been cancelled. The WSVG included competitions for Guitar Hero II, Quake 4, World of Warcraft Arena, as well as Counter-Strike and Warcraft III. From the announcement: 'The continuing challenges of securing adequate revenues to sustain the production of the WSVG's large scale events and television programming, in a very crowded field of competitive gaming leagues, has prompted us to re-evaluate our direction as an organization. Unfortunately, the decision is to cancel the remainder of the WSVG season, as we shift our focus solely to growing our online advertising network of websites, which currently reach seven million users each month. '"

6 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. I feel a disturbance in the force by techpawn · · Score: 5, Funny

    As if thousand of gamers who sucked at sports cried out and where then silenced

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
  2. Not to be a troll but... by east+coast · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I kinda give this a "Ah, who cares" vote.

    Not in the fashion of "Why is this on Slashdot!!??!?oneone!!" but more of a "watching people play video games is boring" way.

    The great thing about video games is that, for the most part, I can wake up at 4 AM and still get my game on. I don't need to go someplace or find people to play them with.

    Organized team sports are interesting to the public because it involves the swilling of beer and a bunch of guys out on a field doing something as teams. I'd be hard pressed to get enough people together to play a legal game of baseball or football. Luckily with video games I don't need to worry about it.

    And even with a large group of skilled professional athletes there really isn't too much of a thrill in watching someone else play anyway.

    --
    Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
    1. Re:Not to be a troll but... by umbra_dweller · · Score: 4, Funny

      And as always must be pointed out when people bring up this argument, one need look no further than South Korea to prove that it is possible if you can find the right audience. There are entire channels devoted to single games - people even show up to watch those tournaments live! Once I was passing by one of the matches being filmed in a mall plaza - there were dozens of people straining to watch the computer screens over the gamers shoulders. I doubt it could achieve that level of mass-appeal in the U.S., but I think there is a sizable subset of the population that could become interested.

      Besides, you can still hang out, swill beer and even make bets on the outcome of a Starcraft match. I've seen it done.

  3. Actually, it was quite entertaining... by voidstin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I caught an episode about a month ago. The guitar hero battles were really entertaining. For me, it hold the same allure as watching tennis. "holy crap, I can't believe they did that". I think it's harder to see teh expertise of the players in some of the other games though, and consequently it's less engaging. Hopefully, they be reborn as a video podcast of the events..

    Here's a link to somene ripping on "Jordan". If you've tried that song, watch in awe...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-XNmJ58Y1c

  4. Different Model for Revenue by MBraynard · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why not make it more like the World Series of Poker tour where people show up at a venue and pay a fee that goes towards the total pot and the profit or the organization and they sell the TV rights to some cable network and or go halves on the ad revenue.

  5. The main problem: It sucked. by devnull17 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone. The WSVG was insultingly dumbed-down and content-free ("Wow! Was that an ice block?!?"). I'm a semi-serious WoW player, and my friends and I all found their arena coverage to be completely devoid of any meaningful content. I realize that their aim was to attract a wider range of viewers, but "normal people" don't give a rat's ass about competitive videogaming (and probably never will in the US), and people who do care would probably prefer coverage and analysis from people who have actually played the games before.

    Just look at the judging methodology for the Guitar Hero competition: ten points each for style, technical correctness and difficulty, each determined by a single judge. Two of the three judges were D-list celebrities who had probably never even played Guitar Hero. The extensive statistics provided by the game after each song were completely ignored in the decision process. The whole thing was structured much more like an episode of Nickelodeon GUTS than a serious competition designed to determine the best player.

    The 2:1 commercial-to-programming ratio couldn't have helped, either.

    In short, the whole thing was a commercially oversaturated, content-starved mess; I'd like back the hour of my life that I spent watching it, and no one will be the least bit sad to see it go.