Competative Video Games

http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/april03/progaming/index.shtml

Hmm so interesting article here. Basically its a list of “problems” with Professional Video Games as a spectator event. I just thought I'd go through this article and discuss/defend Professional Video Games. The article has some good points, but some of them are beyond stupid, so I thought I really should respond to this.

Point #10: Professional is not a Sport.
No. Its not. Video games are not sports, don't call them that. They are competative activities, yes, like Billiards. Did you know that Snooker and Pool are on ESPN all the time? At least, they are in Bangladesh. How is this event relevant? There are “fishing” competitions all over the world, why can't we have Video Game ones as well?

Point #9: Its no fun to watch.
I just feel the need to call bull on this. Sure, its no fun to watch the faces of two nerdy 20-something year olds as they gaze at a screen and constantly press the same 10 buttons over and over again. But then again, no one watches Wayne Rooney's face when he plays soccer, they watch him as he moves across the field of play. Video game players control virtual characters, you should be watching those virtual characters. Its extremely exciting (for me) to watch Starcraft II and League of Legends Games, and I know very little about Starcraft II. But I don't watch the players, I watch the field of play and what the players do on that field. If the camera is on the players for more than a few seconds before and after the game, then yeah, something is wrong.

Point #8: The Games Keep Changing
This is really valid. Its also kinda invalid. I'm sure its frustrating for casual gamers to watch '90s Quake and then 20 years later watch people play Halo, Call of Duty, and whatever newest Unreal Tournament game is out there. However, the truth is, these games have a lot similarities. Pretty much every shooter has a shotgun, a sniper, a automatic rifle, a pistol, etc. There are some differences, but these are not so huge as to make them incomparable. Sure, at the very highest levels of play, they make a difference, and this IS an issue, but casual gamers won't notice this, especially if the commentators are doing their job and properly explaining the nuances of strategy that are going on. This is a problem, its not one that is huge though.

Point #7: Online Leagues Don't Work
Meh. Maybe. I dunno. They have problems, especially in 1 v 1 games where its pretty easy to login under someone else's name. But in my experience, especially with the way the internet works today, online leagues work pretty well and we should continue to make them better.

Point #6: Pro Gamers have no personality
This guy obviously has not watched enough gamer streams or been around a community of high level gamers. I know that HotShotGG, a professional league of legends player has a lot of personality. So does Reginald, and so does Guardsmanbob (all pro gamers in LoL). To be honest, I know HotShotGG, in terms of personality, a lot more than I know, say, Chase Utely, who plays for my Baseball team, the Phillies. I'm not sure where the idea that video game players are devoid of personality comes from, at all.

Point #5: There is no mainstream appeal
Obviously. That's why we support and promote gaming? There is no mainstream appeal for Baseball outside of a few select countries. Baseball players and owners of Baseball teams haven't given up and said, “we have a good fanbase. Europe only wants to watch Soccer anyways.” They're constantly trying to grow the sport into something bigger and more popular.

Additionally: “Besides, professional gaming leagues just look plain childish to the outside, uneducated observer. Who in their right mind is going to be intrigued by the likes of "-=[dAffY]=-d00k!" or "ClAn gH3tT0 bR0z?" You can’t even say the names of the majority of the players without damaging your larynx.”

Lies. All of them. Who are the top League of Legends Teams in North America? Counter Logic Gaming (CLG), Team Solomid (TSM), Epik Gaming (EG), Defy All Odds (DaO), Rock Solid, Oh God Bears (OGB), etc. These are not stupid or hard names to learn. Sure they are sometimes stylized in a more internet friendly way, but, let's be honest, your average 20 year old is probably going to realize that if your team is Eff0rtl3ss Victory, that the 0 and 3 stand for o and e respectively. Besides, everyone will call you EV anyways. The “team” I'm on is “The Cool Kids Table” (so CKT? I guess haha). We don't come up with stupid names like ghetto broz anyways.

Okay, I guess some of the screennames people use are annoying sometimes, but I honestly haven't seen it. And personally I'm a fan of screennames, because they let players title themselves much easier. Tiger Woods will always be Tiger Woods, but me, Isaac Johnson, I'm Lord Toasty or toastymow when I'm playing video games, and I like it that way.

Point #4: The Rules are Inconsistent:
This is valid. Take Super Smash Bros. Brawl and its apparently obvious that there are needs for serious rule changing from the standard setup to this game work in a hardcore setting. Realizing that an FPS game can be Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, or some sort of Siege Mode does make the game confusing. But the truth is that these are easily fixed. Look at Cricket, for instance, there are literally 3 types of games: Test Matches, ODIs, and Twenty20. Cricket is stupid popular in South Asia. There are other differences as well in other sports, these don't make a difference. Obviously, heavily modifying a video game to make it “work” in hardcore setting is going to bring about some problems, but that's why Counter Strike and Starcraft are so popular, because they've been designed to accommodate hardcore players. That's why the MBL and the NBA have different rules than High School Baseball or Basketball teams (at least, I'm assuming they do), because they're more serious. You can take an FPS game and made it hardcore or casual. It just takes planning.

Point #3: Too Many Leagues:
This isn't really an argument against video games as much as it is stating the obvious. Watching people play video games is incredibly niche and as a result, there hasn't been a big strong company to come out and organize these video games into regular leagues. Furthermore, because the games change so fast, and because most players can't really make a living off of video games, its hard to have leagues that last. This should change if more hardcore games with standard setups can evolve. Look at Starcraft and what it did in Korea. Starcraft has been out for over 10 years now, and it took several patches to bring it to where it is today, and now its there. Sadly, Blizzard wants to makea profit and they released a sequel, which will likely make it much harder to bring stability to that area of professional video games.

Anyways, this really isn't an argument against video games, its just a fact: there are not good leagues. The problem isn't that there aren't good leagues, its several other issues.

Point #2: Pro Gaming is to “serious.”
Okay, this is badly worded. What this means is that if me, as someone new to video games, asks a stupid question like, “why does XYZ player use a shotgun more? I like shotguns.” Someone will probably say: fking n00b, gtfo and l2p (that is to say, fking noob, get the fk out of here and learn to play). You don't get that in a sports bar when you ask why the Eagles rushed instead of passed. This is a valid point, and its an issue, its a huge issue. The main problem is though, often times the people asking these questions are indeed noobs and they play in your games and they ruin your experience. No one in a sports bar has to worry about the guy next to them throwing the ball to the wrong person. When I play LoL I often get players who do the equivalent in my games and I hate it.

Point #1:Games Are Supposed to Be Fun!

This has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Do you think that if you want to play in the NFL that you're gonna have fun the entire time? Do you think that Tiger Woods plays Golf for “fun”? What about Kobe Bryant and Basketball? Now, I do not doubt for a second that professional sports players ENJOY their jobs, but I don't think a coach is gonna say, “Kobe, take a break, this is supposed to be fun.” Video games may be just “fun” for you, but for me and for a lot of other people these are serious events to be taken seriously. Call me an idiot or a loser or whatever you want, but when I play with my clan and we say, “This is a serious game,” I turn into a beast of strategy and cunning and my entire focus is on winning the game and destroying the enemy Its tough and it takes a great deal of focus and energy, but that's the same with any sort of serious event. If you don't want to play video games seriously, DO NOT DO SO. But don't tell me that I'm supposed to calm down and have fun and that competing for money in a serious event isn't a good idea. Its a brilliant idea, it gives me a reason to be intense and aggressive and scream and shout in joy and rage as much as I feel like.

So in conclusion a lot of these arguments were really... bad. Video Games have issues that are preventing Video Games from becoming mainstream, and I don't see them becoming mainstream any time soon, but many of these issues are hardly the reason why.