Fighting Game Tournament Discussion or Something

[DirtySouth]

They were doing a rewind thing that was ... ok I guess.

I made a huge post on SRK a few months back about how the community needs to be very careful how this proceeds. They're pretty much where skateboarding was right when the big companies started trying to make it mainstream and "legitimate" - and as a result, unbearable to watch/be associated with. They've already got these jerk wearing logo'd up shirts and hats. Next is forced opinions.

It was met with a bunch of channer bullshit and 2-3 people taking it seriously.

Pretty much. Competitive gaming has been around for a while now, but the trends are definitely changing. All of this is part of a campaign to "legitimize e-sports* as a viable competitive/entertainment medium". This has all started when competitive Starcraft 2 tournaments exploded late 2010 and this past year with competitions popping up all over the place with high-budget production, 6-digit prize pools, and the players becoming minor celebrities. This began to spread to other games (Heroes of Neworth, League of Legends, etc), and now it's beginning to envelope the competitive fighting game scene. Players and teams are starting to get sponsored, and in turn, they become the P.R vehicles for the company and its products. It's really all becoming quite corporate, and while many in the community think that this will only lead to more exposure, and eventually, mainstream growth, I'm not sure if it's really a good thing. The changes are already being felt in the Starcraft community where some websites, teams, and players who were known for having colorful personalities are all of a sudden quite docile, and essentially becoming corporate mouth pieces.

* I still have a hard time using the term "e-sports".

[kedawa]

It's all kind of a joke. The only people who even know about these e-sports leagues are those who play the games themselves.
Outside of gaming sites, I have not once seen so much as a mention of any of these competitions or leagues, and I can't name any of these 'minor celebrities' that have supposedly been created.

[DirtySouth]

Exactly, and all of this is an attempt to expose it to the mainstream and rectify this. A few years ago, ESPN broadcasted the MLG, and there's talk of it happening again.

[kedawa]

I really don't think it's something that needs to be rectified.
You can give it all the exposure you want, but it still isn't going to appeal to anyone outside of the fanbase of the games.
People who don't understand the mechanics of the game aren't going to be entertained because they won't have a clue what's going on.

[cka]

that's why we need hype men like yipes and steve commentating at every tournament

[Anthony]

Well, think about it this way, how many of you guys are watching the matches but never really went to tournaments? I agree, why watch something you don't know the rules for, but it's still hitting a larger segment of people than it used to, that being the casual players of the game.

[FirstBlood]

You can give it all the exposure you want, but it still isn't going to appeal to anyone outside of the fanbase of the games.
People who don't understand the mechanics of the game aren't going to be entertained because they won't have a clue what's going on.

This applies to every sport ever. I don't see how it is in any way a problem, or some sort of obstacle getting in the way of legitimacy. Video games are more popular than they've ever been and competitive online games are the top sellers, there's more than enough people interested in watching this shit.

[kedawa]

That's not even remotely true.
There's nothing going on in any physical sport that the average person can't grasp.
Balls and pucks being knocked and thrown around is understandable to anyone with hands and a working brain.
Videogames have arbitrary rules that aren't necessarily intuitive.

[Dipstick]

That's not even remotely true.
There's nothing going on in any physical sport that the average person can't grasp.
Balls and pucks being knocked and thrown around is understandable to anyone with hands and a working brain.
Videogames have arbitrary rules that aren't necessarily intuitive.

What?

Try explaining a rule like offsides in soccer or icing in hockey to someone who has never played the game before. Or how about the difference between bowling and pitching in a game of cricket (or, hell, just the rules of cricket itself)? Sports are full of arbitrary rules that have come about from decades to centuries of play. Hell, if anything I would argue that at a very basic level, something like a fighting game is easier to understand than most sports -- two people smack the shit out of each other until one of them drops. The hows and whys are a fair bit more obtuse, but you're not expecting people to understand why a defense in football would move to a cover-2 zone scheme with a spy. There are lots of things (small and big) that go on in sports that most viewers miss, too.

[FirstBlood]

Balls and pucks being knocked and thrown around is understandable to anyone with hands and a working brain.

Two people fighting, a marine shooting assualt rifles at people or watching a tiny army fight another one on a screen is impenetrably obtuse?

YEAH OK.