Most of you might not know it but it’s true: I’m TosspoT’s biggest fan. That lead to the SK-Gaming website which featured a well written article. It’s about Esports coverage. A previous article of TosspoT was about the same issue. The issue is that coverage can a lot better. Much better than it is currently. I suggests you to read both articles because they both raise valid points and this article is about the same issue. So read them then you don’t have to read this. If that isn’t a reason to read those articles I don’t know what is!

Anyway, both articles state that coverage regarding esports is not what it can be. Now let’s take this to Enemy Territory for instance. Quakecon announces the featured games and ET is not included. What do I see? Comments that ET is no more, ET didn’t phone home but he went home. The game died. What did you say? That’s ridiculous (like many stated in that news item). Why depend on others? You got the power! Crossfire proved it with the lans, of which the third one just got announced, that you don’t need others to organize such things. It proof there is more than Quakecon for ID games. There is no need for big corporations to get a game featured at lans. You got the power! You as in ‘the community’. You don’t need to rely on others for ‘your’ game to be a success. ET is a passed stations but there is a new kid on the block: Quake Wars. The game has a lot of potential and I dare to say it will be a success in competition as well. You can make it even better. How? If you read the articles you should have an idea: coverage.

What does coverage have to do with it? I have been uninvolved with gaming for quite a while now (someone tricked me into downloading the Quake Wars beta and now I’m addicted again) but when I was still playing ET (and Rtcw before that) I read everything there was. Crossfire was my screensaver, Esreality my desktop background etc. The point is, as was raised in the afore mentioned articles, there wasn’t that much to read. I can read results in 2 seconds. That isn’t very entertaining nor very informative. Dignitas beat 4 Kings 2:0? Nice to know… What do I know then? Hardly anything. I am not putting forward anything new here which wasn’t written in those two articles so I’ll quote Mr. Saw:
Quote One of the biggest areas lacking coverage is match reaction. I have read, listened and watched Jose Mourinho talk about taking his kids to wrestling after Chelsea drew 1-1 with Valencia. Where can I read what bds thinks of SK’s latest result? And, I mean, latest result. I don’t mean some half-assed question a week after a major event that is just one tenth of an interview that is trying to get into bed with him more than put him on the spot. I want to know what someone from SK thinks almost round-by-round. And you can bet the average 13-year-old Swedish kid, who would kill for a bds autograph, wantd to know, too.

This is one example on how coverage can be improved. I would like that more than basic results from a match. Anyone can contribute content on Xfire. This opens up the opportunity to refer to my title again: You got the power! There are tons of players of which a lot play games competitively. If every player would dedicate 5% of his time that he normally dedicates to playing heaven won’t be fiction anymore. You got the power! Hundreds of players watch games live with ET-tv for instance. Five percent of those viewers that ask the players questions after the game about the game and posting it would mean a huge increase in coverage. Coverage that is lacking at this very moment. It is possible if the top players would also use 5% of their time to answer those questions.

Is that all there is to it? No. This would offer more interesting reading material. Some of it will be crap as Carmac mentions (read one of the mentioned articles): “It's really painful to read community-submitted content sometimes!”. It would be a lot easier to improve the quality of content if there is more content to choose from. So we just need more post match reports? No. Coverage is more than that. Coverage is this, poorly written and without anything new in it, article. Coverage is interviews. Coverage is a match reports. Coverage is in-game footage from games. Coverage is news about and from lans. Coverage is even more than I can think of. Coverage can make or break a game and often it doesn’t involve that much effort. I remember when Cash was CB supervisor of ET. Where did you read about news regarding ET? On Xfire of course! But, and I like big butts and I cannot lie, that non-ET players would never see all that is written here. I wrote something on xfire (not sure whether it was an article or just one of my lengthy comments) wondering why I never read anything about ET on Esreality for example (like here you can contribute). With it a link to the game download (since it’s free remember?) and a guide next to the news item and a link to the amazing video (forgot who made it) “Welcome to ET” which was a great advertisement for ET. Surely some players would give the game a try and with little effort a lot could be achieved. I think Cash saw what I wrote and started to add news to Esreality. Esreality was even happy there was a new guy contributing! See how easy it is? Stop relying on other people to make your game a success if you can do it yourself. More coverage means more attentions which opens up a lot of other possibilities.

Now you see: You got the power. Contribute to the game you like. Get involved and play a part in the success of the game. Quake Wars is the new kid on the block. Let’s learn from the past, be glad that Xfire will provide us freaks with lans and make a success of the game. Let’s all dedicate 5% of our time on coverage. Write columns, articles, news, pre-match reports, match reports, post match reports, interviews, lan experiences etc. Add videos (there are some amazing videomakers in this community and they can make quality videos) to that of games, the game overall and lans and the coverage for Quake Wars will surpass that of any other game. Let’s see what that would result in! Can I make a guess? Or daddy please can I? It will make the game, providing the game will be as amazing as I expect it to be, the biggest thing since Counter Strike. A game with a community that is in love with the game, dedicating precious time to write about the game will make it hard for anyone to resist. Sponsors will see it and the game will be present at all the major events. The best part? That makes it possible for all of us to write even more coverage! Just by showing you care and the power of speech (well… of text). You got the power!

Have I said “You got the power” enough now? In case you don’t realize it yet; you really have the power. Stop relying on others while you can make the difference. It will create a hype so large no one can resist. Then all the doors are open. You got the power… Read the mentioned articles and start to unleash the potential coverage of games has. It can make or break the game. Let’s make games with it. It only needs a little effort and it can really do wonders. Just give it a try. Everyone is bitching about Clanbase (as am I, never particularly liked it) but yet everyone is playing there. Dislike the rules of clanbase (as do I)? You don’t get anywhere moaning. You got the power! Remember ET? Remember the XP upgrades, loads of mines etc? It was changed! How? By you! You the community changed it. People wrote articles, several players got together with league supervisors and even showed in game that things could be easily improved. It was easy. Clanbase couldn’t do anything else then abide the rules set by the community. Don’t rely on Clanbase (or whatever) for such things when you have the power to improve games yourself. Just by covering the game you like with news, columns etcetera and showing you care. Quakecon killed ET? No! ET didn’t die and if it is you did it. You got the power! Let’s all give Quakecon, Clanbase, CPL etc. the finger and show them your power. They will surrender to your power, I promise you. Enslave them! This is your chance. I will quote someone (you guess who):
QuoteLook, if you had one shot, or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted. One moment. Would you capture it or let it slip?

You don’t have one shot but your mp-40 is fully loaded! Fire away gentlemen. Fire away!

Anyone still reading this? My point is: You got the power. See, you learned something. Only read titles. Let’s shape up or we will all slip out. We can make games. Why not use that power? Don’t rely on others if you have the power. Who’s with me? I want to see so much content the admins of gaming sites need their index finger amputated because they had to remove too much. Let’s show the big leagues and the big lan organizers that they can go home. We don’t need them but they need us. Did you read that you have the power? If you haven’t realized it by now you are a lost cause.