Last week I watched the Royal Rumble, the first time I’ve watched anything Wrestling based since I was 15 or so. Wrestling is homoerotic crap, half naked, sweaty men running around touching each other, not even hitting one another and yet it’s an international multimillion dollar scripted phenomenon.
The Undertaker and Shaun Michaels started the fight as entrants number 1 and 2, this was great, two people from my ‘generation’ of wrestlers. A load of no names came in and annoyed me, but then ‘OH MY GOD’ Kane came in and started clearing house! It was pure entertainment, suddenly at number 29 The Game (HHH to us oldschoolers) entered to a mass eruption from the crowd and I’m sat there actually excited by his entrance. However, the last man, number 30, was John Cena, can you believe it??? I had no idea who he was, but I was damned excited. The Game inparticular and Batista also, couldn’t believe that John Cena was back from torn pectoral muscle, and even though I’d never heard of him, I was just as shocked! The entrance, the crowd, the commentators, the wrestlers reaction it was great entertainment. So what if its scripted homo-erotica, it had me gripped!
To a lesser extent I don’t mind watching Poker either, mainly just the World Series, because in the same mentality the characters are immense. This time, they’re not perfect specimens battling/acting out a script, they are people from all walks of life often complete social rejects playing cards. But again, with good characters and some clever work in building tension, you can easily get into it.
So why can’t the formula be replicated for gaming?
Competition is brilliant thing however it’s the players that count, not the sport. Hatton vs Mayweather, what a fight! Not because I like boxing but because the story in literary terms had every form of binary opposition you could ask for, I probably wont watch another boxing match for years but I’m glad I saw that one. The same could be said of the Rugby World Cup final, it was epic! The underdog British bidding for glory against the favourites and old enemy the French, what a story and what a match, I’ve not watched another rugby match since, probably because the characters from that story have retired.
I’m of the opinion that 99% of the time the sport is not key to success, but the narrative. The same can be done in gaming, as it could be done in almost any other form of competition but there aren’t any characters in our narrative. Gamers are afraid of the camera, they shy away from it when actually they should be screaming, LOOK AT ME! Giving the audience someone to love or hate. It could be CounterStrike, it could be Quake it could be WoW, ET, CoD it doesn’t matter as there has to be a rivalry, there have to be personalities and it has to be convincing!
Right now though, we’ve no personalities and even if we did we’ve nobody to build them and then there are limited opportunities for them to perform. However when Vince McMahon gets bored of wrestling, I guarantee he could make a success of gaming. If people will watch homo-erotica, or people will watch cards being thrown down then they’ll watch gamers – the constant between the three is competition and characters, not sport and not social context.
The Undertaker and Shaun Michaels started the fight as entrants number 1 and 2, this was great, two people from my ‘generation’ of wrestlers. A load of no names came in and annoyed me, but then ‘OH MY GOD’ Kane came in and started clearing house! It was pure entertainment, suddenly at number 29 The Game (HHH to us oldschoolers) entered to a mass eruption from the crowd and I’m sat there actually excited by his entrance. However, the last man, number 30, was John Cena, can you believe it??? I had no idea who he was, but I was damned excited. The Game inparticular and Batista also, couldn’t believe that John Cena was back from torn pectoral muscle, and even though I’d never heard of him, I was just as shocked! The entrance, the crowd, the commentators, the wrestlers reaction it was great entertainment. So what if its scripted homo-erotica, it had me gripped!
To a lesser extent I don’t mind watching Poker either, mainly just the World Series, because in the same mentality the characters are immense. This time, they’re not perfect specimens battling/acting out a script, they are people from all walks of life often complete social rejects playing cards. But again, with good characters and some clever work in building tension, you can easily get into it.
So why can’t the formula be replicated for gaming?
Competition is brilliant thing however it’s the players that count, not the sport. Hatton vs Mayweather, what a fight! Not because I like boxing but because the story in literary terms had every form of binary opposition you could ask for, I probably wont watch another boxing match for years but I’m glad I saw that one. The same could be said of the Rugby World Cup final, it was epic! The underdog British bidding for glory against the favourites and old enemy the French, what a story and what a match, I’ve not watched another rugby match since, probably because the characters from that story have retired.
I’m of the opinion that 99% of the time the sport is not key to success, but the narrative. The same can be done in gaming, as it could be done in almost any other form of competition but there aren’t any characters in our narrative. Gamers are afraid of the camera, they shy away from it when actually they should be screaming, LOOK AT ME! Giving the audience someone to love or hate. It could be CounterStrike, it could be Quake it could be WoW, ET, CoD it doesn’t matter as there has to be a rivalry, there have to be personalities and it has to be convincing!
Right now though, we’ve no personalities and even if we did we’ve nobody to build them and then there are limited opportunities for them to perform. However when Vince McMahon gets bored of wrestling, I guarantee he could make a success of gaming. If people will watch homo-erotica, or people will watch cards being thrown down then they’ll watch gamers – the constant between the three is competition and characters, not sport and not social context.
Agree with what you're saying though, its a direction CGS should try and take more.
There was no real rivalries exploited by theCGS, after the combine look what they could have made out of the Salvo/Dignitas & Mint/4K rivalry, if they'd decided to push it. Two passionate teams from different backgrounds with a dislike or even hatred of each other battling it out to be the best in the UK...I don't recall that from the show.
EDIT: nice spoiler btw, I haven't watched new RR yet :((
but not needed anymore thanks :o(.
hopefully chelsea gonna get raped.
These random CS stories you're telling have great potential but nobody is telling the story in a compelling way, because none of those characters are good on TV, they all boring in front of a camera.
You're stuck in the box that is esports, and that box is only ever going to get so big. If you want it to ever be Poker or Wrestling big you need to copy the strategy of TV success not dismiss it.
I don't think the characters make all that entertaining stuff, the pictures out of these games, the question from the reporter, the editors work and the hobby I have they are discussing about from every possible fov made it entertaining or atleast interesting to watch for me, though i'm living in the country every single entertaining us show or spot gets dupped - including poker shows ;D so i might dont know what enteraining means.
Darts is one of the fastest growing sports in the UK, not because Darts has changed but because of the way its now presented. Phil 'ThePower' Taylor & Raymond van Barneveld are now household names to sports fans because of the great story these two have with eachother.
Its a brilliant moving story, and it does mean people are interested in watching a sport who werent before. Because Darts has been a very boring sport for very many years, but now they've changed the way they present the show, its much more dramatical and its much more about the players, the result (by ratings) its much better!
Here you go. Great backstory with interestin characters and trash talk (ex. naga, "have a cock in your smile")
Public loves it. Airing in prime time.
TosspoT wins internet&TV.
Not.
Atleast I'll watch CDC4TV, but only when Toss or FDJ is the host.
And ovie and overschie will try to hurt me, for making racist comments on vent (when I was trying to explain I aint a racist and could easily be saying blablabla and they got mad xD)
enough to make a show about and those things will only be seen @ CDC4 ^^
and id also watch butchji vs mAus for sure even though i havent been wathing ettv for months Oo
If you build anticipation around it that there is actually possibility that they actually can lose this match, it's not only more interesting for the real fans. But it's fun for other gamers 2. Who wouldn't like to see Powerhouse Idle lose for the first time in years??
I remembered that they lost a 5o5 and Crossfire seamed to explode with topics how it's possible that they were beaten!
If you don't give Players, clan a identity they are just boring to watch.
I personally belive that pc games cant become as popular as wrestling...becuase its simple...people want to see fights an violence more then they would like to see some boys(in most of the cases) staying in front of a monitor and shooting some virtual things(they will be watched only by other guys that are playing the same game)...so they dont need more then ETTV,HLTV,etc
Yes...and as i was saying...you said people like to watch poker...poker is a popular game.Yes,its a game about luck and concentration...but how many people know some great names from poker?Poker is still underated,and i refer here at sport chanels in
And, i agree with you about the fact that gaming needs more publicity and more matches.
I personally think that the gaming is at a good level now...and the investments in gaming events start to be bigger and bigger every year.
Will team A. be able to bring in the docs in these final seconds!!?? Stay tuned!
Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter - great entertainment!
Awesome.
I never watched any american football game at all, but this event was just astonishing... the way its presented and promoted makes it something special and something you definitly have to watch.
although i didnt understand half of the rules of the game i was amazed by the dramatic and enthusiasm.
CSS @ the CGS had a totally different ruleset to that of what they're used to. The COD4 ruleset in EU is totally different to USA...
FIFA, WWE, NFL ... eSports needs something like that to unite the biggest companies / tournaments to make big decisions and make eSports grow.
In esports you have.. CB, SGL, CGS, WCG, ESWC, ED, ESL, WSVG (when it was alive) .. So many different leagues, ladders... It needs to be more united to grow.
And Governing Bodies? Jeezo.. I just play games to chill out and have some fun with friends, guess its just a different perspective :P