E-SPORTS Coming to the X Games this June!

[Compbros]

What's the middle ground? What kind of game can we put on TV that is neither too fast nor too slow, is easy to watch and understand, and can appeal to a lot of people?

/rant

Smash.

 

[Youphemism]

Smash.

Smash? Nah I think it's way too all over the place to be able to tell exactly what's going on where all the time.

But that's my opinion, others might find it easier to follow and that's fair enough

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

Smash.

Smash? Nah I think it's way too all over the place to be able to tell exactly what's going on where all the time.

But that's my opinion, others might find it easier to follow and that's fair enough

And we all know how Nintendo can be about allowing people to broadcast their games -_-

 

[Compbros]

Smash? Nah I think it's way too all over the place to be able to tell exactly what's going on where all the time.

But that's my opinion, others might find it easier to follow and that's fair enough

It may not be easy to follow but it's definitely not hard. It's fairly quick but the matches last a nice amount of time. Plus it's instantly recognizable to casuals thanks to the characters involved.

And we all know how Nintendo can be about allowing people to broadcast their games -_-

They're allowing EVO and MLG to broadcast/run their games, those problems seem to be fading.

 

[MidTierHarley]

There are several points I'd like to address.
MOBAs will never be TV worthy because games can take a god damn hour. #NoMoreNeedBeSaid
You saying "very questionably the future" is ridiculous, there's more violence on CSI than any FPS (except Gears of Wars)
eSports will be the future. But we can not abandon the present to prep for the future? That doesn't make sense.

I completely agree with 3rd paragraph, tho.

Well in MOBAS they usually play best of 5 so they would be more of an event rather than a match that would go down on a scheduled day. This would need a dedicated station

 

[MidTierHarley]

It may not be easy to follow but it's definitely not hard. It's fairly quick but the matches last a nice amount of time. Plus it's instantly recognizable to casuals thanks to the characters involved.





They're allowing EVO and MLG to broadcast/run their games, those problems seem to be fading.

They get hype when people get kills. Also really good mechanic outplays, ulties etc...

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

Well in MOBAS they usually play best of 5 so they would be more of an event rather than a match that would go down on a scheduled day. This would need a dedicated station

Call of Duty does a best of 5 too... Only it won't take up half the day for one match to finish.

 

[Compbros]

There are several points I'd like to address.
MOBAs will never be TV worthy because games can take a god damn hour. #NoMoreNeedBeSaid
You saying "very questionably the future" is ridiculous, there's more violence on CSI than any FPS (except Gears of Wars)
eSports will be the future. But we can not abandon the present to prep for the future? That doesn't make sense.

I completely agree with 3rd paragraph, tho.

Time isn't really an issue, Poker is pre recorded and edited down for a few hours per day. They can run several matches and cut to another during "down" moments.

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

Time isn't really an issue, Poker is pre recorded and edited down for a few hours per day. They can run several matches and cut to another during "down" moments.

And casual viewers will see this and be like "yeah, I can dig this..."

 

[RNLDRGN]

I think I disagree with most ppl in here when it comes to what is good for mainstream media viewing within the gaming community, but this will essentially make my point for me. Gamers are too biased and TV is moving further and further away from pre-planned programming in favor of customized a la carte viewership. Sure cable providers still offer 100 channels in a package, but they are getting more and more flack for their practices while more and more ppl are opting for ONLY purchasing Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, etc. Twitch is even streamable on most TV setups. Gamers are too "loyal" and too "vocal" with their tastes for a popular game on ESPN to really make too many ppl happy.

Bottom line: technology is moving more and more towards self-service a la carte programming. Most gamers--especially competitive gamers--consider themselves early adopters of technology and are already far into this mode of selective viewership. If ANYTHING, Twitch will get a mainstream channel. I don't see any gaming being shown on ESPN to great success anytime soon. Unless... Twitch and ESPN strike a deal for an ESports network. Even this seems pretty far off. I dunno. I just don't think the ESports community meshes well with ESPN. Casual gamers won't care about competitive games being shown on TV and competitive gamers are too picky to jump on a cable television deal for games they probably won't watch and half of them are going to be too busy arguing for it to matter.

 

[Compbros]

And casual viewers will see this and be like "yeah, I can dig this..."

It's still not easy to grasp the basics or who's "winning" but it's definitely a more digestible version.

They get hype when people get kills. Also really good mechanic outplays, ulties etc...

Are you agreeing or disagreeing with me? Hard for me to tell.

 

[NoobHunter420]

My body is ready

so godlike l0ls

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

It is cute to read how much you guys do not understand true TV viewership and what all goes hand in hand for it to even work.

 

[Immortal Kombat]

Cod is terrible to watch imo. Its hard to catch all the action when theres 12 players to follow. Fighters are much more suitable for an average viewer to watch. But still cool, its a step into the future hopefully.

 

[Compbros]

It is cute to read how much you guys do not understand true TV viewership and what all goes hand in hand for it to even work.

This offers nothing to the discussion man. It's a "you people are ignorant and I'm letting you know how much I enjoy your ignorance" instead of informing.

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

It's still not easy to grasp the basics or who's "winning" but it's definitely a more digestible version.

I was being sarcastic.
On National Television, for them to be like "Well, let's check out this game for a second...*3 minutes later* Let's go back over here...OH SOMETHING IS HAPPENING OVER HERE!"
Call of Duty is constant action that is easily followable.

 

[Immortal Kombat]

Yea, I have to respectfully disagree too. The U.S. league numbers are insanely huge, as it continues to grow, the facilitation of it into mainstream culture becomes easier. It may be hard to understand how to watch initially, but entry level players can understand how high level games are, more players = more viewers.

Also Riot/LoL production value > anything else...

We have a huge league scene in my town and theres only 25,000 people living here. That games humungous right now

 

[MidTierHarley]

I think I disagree with most ppl in here when it comes to what is good for mainstream media viewing within the gaming community, but this will essentially make my point for me. Gamers are too biased and TV is moving further and further away from pre-planned programming in favor of customized a la carte viewership. Sure cable providers still offer 100 channels in a package, but they are getting more and more flack for their practices while more and more ppl are opting for ONLY purchasing Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, etc. Twitch is even streamable on most TV setups. Gamers are too "loyal" and too "vocal" with their tastes for a popular game on ESPN to really make too many ppl happy.

Bottom line: technology is moving more and more towards self-service a la carte programming. Most gamers--especially competitive gamers--consider themselves early adopters of technology and are already far into this mode of selective viewership. If ANYTHING, Twitch will get a mainstream channel. I don't see any gaming being shown on ESPN to great success anytime soon. Unless... Twitch and ESPN strike a deal for an ESports network. Even this seems pretty far off. I dunno. I just don't think the ESports community meshes well with ESPN. Casual gamers won't care about competitive games being shown on TV and competitive gamers are too picky to jump on a cable television deal for games they probably won't watch and half of them are going to be too busy arguing for it to matter.

^This right here. Us gamers are picky little 16 year old diva bitches

 

[Compbros]

I was being sarcastic.
On National Television, for them to be like "Well, let's check out this game for a second...*3 minutes later* Let's go back over here...OH SOMETHING IS HAPPENING OVER HERE!"
Call of Duty is constant action that is easily followable.

Ah, gotcha.

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

This offers nothing to the discussion man. It's a "you people are ignorant and I'm letting you know how much I enjoy your ignorance" instead of informing.

But what you're discussing isn't relevant either.

you can LITERALLY put anything on TV with the right things.

FGs or Shooters or anything can go on TV.
The problem is... how much money is that going to make the people putting it on tv?

Whether or not you can follow the action makes no difference. Will the product sell the advertising to continue to justify it actually being on tv does matter.

Someone made a good point of FGs being VERY easy to follow, with no real "background" needed. Shooters are pretty much the same thing.

I would SERIOUSLY doubt that FGs could reign in the same crowd a shooter would. That is why, in a tiny pistachio nutshell, FGs probably will never make it mainstream. I would also expect the same to hold true for any video game here in the US. It just isn't something our society, or even our Government want people to prosper off of.

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

But what you're discussing isn't relevant either.

you can LITERALLY put anything on TV with the right things.

FGs or Shooters or anything can go on TV.
The problem is... how much money is that going to make the people putting it on tv?

Whether or not you can follow the action makes no difference. Will the product sell the advertising to continue to justify it actually being on tv does matter.

Someone made a good point of FGs being VERY easy to follow, with no real "background" needed. Shooters are pretty much the same thing.

I would SERIOUSLY doubt that FGs could reign in the same crowd a shooter would. That is why, in a tiny pistachio nutshell, FGs probably will never make it mainstream. I would also expect the same to hold true for any video game here in the US. It just isn't something our society, or even our Government want people to prosper off of.

Whether or not you can follow the action is a huge difference.
If it's easy to follow, it's easy to watch. If it's easy to watch, the more viewers.

I'm going to be watching mostly for the viewership numbers. Helping the eSports community.
Honestly....I hate when people are Negative Nancy's about this shit.
Just be happy eSports is getting exposure. It's a step in the right direction for all of us.

 

[Compbros]

But what you're discussing isn't relevant either.

you can LITERALLY put anything on TV with the right things.

FGs or Shooters or anything can go on TV.
The problem is... how much money is that going to make the people putting it on tv?

Whether or not you can follow the action makes no difference. Will the product sell the advertising to continue to justify it actually being on tv does matter.

Someone made a good point of FGs being VERY easy to follow, with no real "background" needed. Shooters are pretty much the same thing.

I would SERIOUSLY doubt that FGs could reign in the same crowd a shooter would. That is why, in a tiny pistachio nutshell, FGs probably will never make it mainstream. I would also expect the same to hold true for any video game here in the US. It just isn't something our society, or even our Government want people to prosper off of.

Not relevant to what? The discussion of other games on TV based off the thread or my addressing you? Don't get this part.


Sure, anything can go on TV but will it work? I can pitch a plot and a network can pick it up but will people watch it? That's all networks care about, will people watch it? Which leads into the "how much money" thing you said. Ad dollars are set by viewers (Nielson Ratings I believe) so if a show/program isn't worth the cost because it's getting low viewers and low viewers = less ad dollars/big advertisers then it's gonna get pulled.

The easier something is to jump into the better a chance that people latch on to it which is why fluff reality shows and stuff like "Two and Half Men" is so watched because it's relatively easy stuff to follow without being a long time viewer or knowing all the characters but still getting quick satisfaction. Fighting Games are like this, they're fairly easy to follow without knowing a great deal about the game. It's fast paced and colorful and casuals may sit back and watch a few matches and get invested. Don't see why FGs can't be on mainstream TV, it's closer to easy-to-produce "fluff" reality shows than some big production series.

 

[NRF CharlieMurphy]

Not relevant to what? The discussion of other games on TV based off the thread or my addressing you? Don't get this part.


Sure, anything can go on TV but will it work? I can pitch a plot and a network can pick it up but will people watch it? That's all networks care about, will people watch it? Which leads into the "how much money" thing you said. Ad dollars are set by viewers (Nielson Ratings I believe) so if a show/program isn't worth the cost because it's getting low viewers and low viewers = less ad dollars/big advertisers then it's gonna get pulled.

The easier something is to jump into the better a chance that people latch on to it which is why fluff reality shows and stuff like "Two and Half Men" is so watched because it's relatively easy stuff to follow without being a long time viewer or knowing all the characters but still getting quick satisfaction. Fighting Games are like this, they're fairly easy to follow without knowing a great deal about the game. It's fast paced and colorful and casuals may sit back and watch a few matches and get invested. Don't see why FGs can't be on mainstream TV, it's closer to easy-to-produce "fluff" reality shows than some big production series.

It isn't the viewer who has to be soled on the idea of what to watch.... its the advertisers.
Inherently viewership is going to go up for something on mainstream TV. which is great. But will it last.
As easy as it is to follow the games.... they are all relatively the same thing happening after a few "go arounds".

Streaming two majors...... a casual observer would almost probably assume it was repeat. How do you address this?
I mean, there was a channel that was DEDICATED to anything related to ALL video games.... key word... was.

I'm not gonna lie, i'm super interested to see how this turns out and I can honestly say I hope it works. But there are a multitude of things that just don't let it video games "fit" on tv.

 

[FrothyOmen]

The difference is that the shooting is happening in first person and with the intention of "winning" not "watch as jack Bauer saves the day by shooting multiple muhammads in the third person".

Plus there's the whole shooting dogs thing too, unless they ban that killstreak....

If I'm the advertiser for Oreck vacuums, I sure as fuck don't want my vacuum to condone dog killing. It's that sort of backwards mom logic will always be a problem, at least for the better part of our lifetimes...

 

[Compbros]

It isn't the viewer who has to be soled on the idea of what to watch.... its the advertisers.
Inherently viewership is going to go up for something on mainstream TV. which is great. But will it last.
As easy as it is to follow the games.... they are all relatively the same thing happening after a few "go arounds".

Streaming two majors...... a casual observer would almost probably assume it was repeat. How do you address this?
I mean, there was a channel that was DEDICATED to anything related to ALL video games.... key word... was.

I'm not gonna lie, i'm super interested to see how this turns out and I can honestly say I hope it works. But there are a multitude of things that just don't let it video games "fit" on tv.

The advertisers are sold on it, absolutely, but they'd have to be sold on "is it right for our product?" and "what viewer numbers can we expect?" to set the prices surely. I'm not in advertisement or anything of the sort but it's clearly not a blanket number nor do they blindly through their products on shows.

The same can be said for any major sport, they're all basically the same after a few "go rounds". It can even be said for Sitcoms, reality shows, or pretty much anything on TV if you want to break it down.

Graphics, the announcers telling the viewers, etc. Same thing happens for "World Series of Poker".
Yes, and it was abandoned in favor of trying to capture the "young male" demo with reruns of cops and crap. Not because people weren't watching, because they decided to go in a different direction. Same thing happened with "Tru TV/Court TV" and "Cartoon Network". New people are put in charge and want a different viewer base.

Video game award shows and coverage (like E3) are shown and given nice time slots or even entire days dedicated to them. Why would a tournament be that different?