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Documentary about Professional Gaming 256
Simon Bysshe writes "My name is Simon Bysshe, I'm 22 & am currently studying film at the Bournemouth Arts Institute in the UK. For the last 3 months I've been working on a unique new freely downloadable film about the advent of professional gaming [there's also a BitTorrent mirror via GameTab]. The main purpose of the documentary 'Modern Day Gamer 2' is to ask whether we will ever see gaming become a mainstream spectator sport. The film features the UK based Four Kings Wolfenstein team as they compete at the Quakecon gaming event in Dallas Texas. The film also features interviews with John Romero, Sujoy Roy (iGamesUK), Paul 'Locki' Wedgwood (Splash Damage) & many other industry/gaming figures. This is the sequel to my original documentary which focused on the growth of gaming as a sociable hobby & received over 50,000 downloads worldwide. Running time: 17minutes 47seconds. Filesize : 157MB. Format: WMV."
Format question ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Running time: 17minutes 47seconds. Filesize : 157MB. Format: WMV.
How about a non-MS or non-proprietary format? Seriously, I am not trying to troll. As much as people gripe about how bad and inferior all MS formats are, I sure do see lots of WMA and WMV all over the place.
Re:Format question ... (Score:2)
Blah.
Well, there's an easy way to fix that. (Score:5, Insightful)
Once that's done, head on over to the BitTorrent website [bitconjurer.org] and grab the software. Run a tracker and leave a seed open.
Then post it to Slashdot [slashdot.org] in a message where you can say, "look at me -- 20 minutes of work and a little CPU time, and I made an open format version of a movie that everyone can enjoy -- plus the video's encoded smaller because of the better codec!"
This will probably net you some great karma, in addition to making your initial format question moot. It's all a matter of effort and motivation
As I said, it's all a matter of effort and .. (Score:2)
I'm just pointing out how you could've solved your complaint and helped other (a very intelligent solution), rather than just karma whoring by complaining, which is all most people on Slashdot seem capable of doing. I don't care either way; my copy of mplayer plays WMVs just fine.
Recompression causes big quality hit (Score:2)
Think of it as giving you the artifacts from BOTH codecs at the same time. But worse.
Really, it's a bad idea.
And why .zip? (Score:3, Insightful)
If you had a file where
Re:And why .zip? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hi benwaggoner,
Not particularly responding to you, just looking for a branch to grow on. Now that that's established, I have a few complaints as well.
Just too tired to think of anything else, and it's probably been mentionned before. But I had to say something after spending 5 hours downloading the movie, and another hour watch a 15-mi
More compression complaints (Score:2)
It's 6 Mbps! That's enough bitrate for HD encoded content. 640x480 at 1.5 Mbps would have been just fine.
It wasn't deinterlaced! Thus ugly, hard to compress horizontal lines throughout the image.
Basically, the guy did a dump of the PAL DV master into WMV, without any processing to make it appropriate for computer playback.
Big picture is that it'd be trivia
Re:Format question ... (Score:1)
Re:Format question ... (Score:2)
Re:Format question ... (Score:2)
Re:vegans (Score:4, Funny)
You misunderstand. Windows is not evil, just crappy. It's Microsoft that's evil.
Re:Why not DivX? (Score:3, Informative)
I know previour reports indicated otherwise but the reviewers didn't use the proper compression settings.
They also have an mp2 transcoder called Diva.
Http://www.3ivx.com
http://www.3ivx.com/downlo
Enjoy.
watching games might not be so popular. (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason specatator sports are so popular is that it takes a lot of years of effort and strenous training to be competetive at professional level. People enjoy these sports vicariously. That is not the case with gaming. Gaming is something people like to take active part in. That's the whole reason games are so popular. It would take lot of years of practise for someone to achieve a professional level 'worth watching' status in games and by then that game would be outdated.
Anyway, I will correct my opinions if there are wrong by watching the documentary. Thanks!
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:5, Insightful)
"That is not the case with gaming."
You have GOT to be fucking kidding me. Try entering a high-profile competition in QuakeWorld, StarCraft or Quake 3 without having YEARS of experience in first-person shooters. You'll be running back to your mamma within minutes.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:1)
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:1)
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is exactly what they said to all of the state boarders and BMXers, and now look at the massive following that has become as a spectator sport. Kind of interesting though, gaming seems to be the chosen method of alternate entertainment by the professionals (Tony Hawk, et al) in that industry.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but professional atheletes are not necessarily fit.
Darts. Bowls. Archery. Billiards. Skeet Shooting.
Not only are they spectator sports, they get international coverage. Some of them are even Olympic events. You do not need to be fit to be an athelete. Hand-eye coordination is good enough.
Professional gaming is not an oxymoron.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
I'm sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves. You most certainly DO need to be "fit" to be an "athlete." That's what the definition of "Athlete" is.
athlete (noun): a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina
Just because someone does something professionally doesn't make them an athlete. None of the things you listed are "sports," (Darts. Bowls. Archery. Billiards. Skeet Shooting) and no
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
Sorry, definitions are more fluid than that. Let's take another look at the dictionary. Looks like you've chosen the second definition from Webster's. The first definition is.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
And will they ever have a professional game where you play a game about pfofessional gaming competitions at a professional gaming competition?
And will there ever be a gaming competition where they play the aforementioned game?
ARGH! MELTING!
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
But maybe that's just me.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:4, Interesting)
Gaming is much more active than something like baseball from the spectating perspective -- In baseball someone throws a ball, someone else hits it, they run around a bit, repeat.
In CounterStrike, You have a sniper watching through the middle entrance trying to see any counterterrorists running to defend bombsite b, then telling his team which side to attack based on that, then you have the perfectly layed out teamwork involving very intense situations (last round of overtime, you're the only one alive vs 3 enemies and you only have a pistol, lose this round and you're out of the running)
CS and Chess also both have something going for it -- They're both games of strategy rather than steroids. No matter how good your twitch muscle is, if the other team can predict your every move and force you to make mistakes then you have no chance.
As for whoever said gamign doesnt take years to master -- Watch any playoff match. If you ever ended up playing against one of them, You'd get shot through every wall you try to run by, if you were lucky enough to make it past a corner you'd instantly have a bullet in your head.
Even of all of the pros theres a small amount that have a chance at winning, theres a good discussion going on in the forums at GotFrag? [gotfrag.com] about that right now.
Watching is much more enjoyable to from a technical standpoint -- Watching on TV is purely passive, watching a live match on HLTV lets you be the cameraman, watching whatever part you want, with the ability to go into an overview mode or watch first person and see exactly what someone else sees. Watching a pre-recorded match gives you all of that AND the ability to pause/rewind/fast forward (who needs TiVo?).
You can also learn from watching. Traditional sports have all been played so long it is very rare you'll see anything new, but with e-sports there is constantly a new change or two to throw things up, so now we have new crazes like 'the money game' (purposely losing a round after winning for X rounds in a row so that they stop getting so much money on each loss, but only after taking out 4 of their 5 teammates then have all of your team hide so that they have to buy a new gun and you dont.). Any team can take this new knowledge and apply it to their lower end matches (with varying degrees of success), but with most sports theres nothing to do but bet on a team and drink a lot of beer.
Nice editing... (mod parent down) (Score:3, Informative)
You have edited his comment so that it seems he is saying that it doesn't take effort to play games at the professional level.
This is not even close to what he wrote. Since you seem determined to misrepresent the author's actual sentiment (or maybe you just misread it and didn't realize that your edit grossly distorts what he wrote?), here is the complete thought:
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
I don't see your point.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
Considering gaming has only really hit the mass market in the past 10 years and most high ranking clans/squads/players are in their 20's and 30's, age doesn't seem to be much of a matter. I know people who've been playing gaming longer than I've lived and I can still beat them in Starcraft, Quake 3, and the occasional g
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:1)
It's like taking your wife to a friction bar. You want to go home so bad you can't understand why you left in the first place.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:1)
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
My answer to this has always been that there is a big difference between playing 3 on 3 catch with some friends and actually having a 100 yd field and all the equipment, and at least 22 guys to do this with. It's just not feasable.
However, it is feasable to set up a Quake server.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:4, Insightful)
people do watch counter-strike matches, but since most gamers know about computers well enough, we do in-game spectating as opposed to watching it on lower-res TVs. if there were a group that did *good* commentary, along with setting up good camera angles and having a bit longer wait time between rounds (for replays and such), then it might be more interesting in that way. gaming as a "sport" (like bowling or billards as a sport) is still in its beginning, so give it some time to see where it really goes.
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
But it won't never be as popular as real sports for a very long time, because m
Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:2)
I doubt that professional gaming... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I doubt that professional gaming... (Score:3, Insightful)
Question... (Score:2)
Re:I doubt that professional gaming... (Score:2)
Try fighting games (Score:2, Interesting)
You might want to check it out at
http://www.shoryuken.com/evolution
Apparently the event was a success and many gamers had fun hanging out and taking part in the tourneys. The site has a forum called EVO2k3 Afte
Myth (Score:2)
Anyway, Myth had a system where games could be automatically recorded and saved, this contained a huge amount of information about the game in a tiny file. All
Re:Myth (Score:2)
I actually think strategy games (I'm thinking RTS, and not turn-based games like Civilization III [civ3.com] which can takes weeks to play) will actually be MORE POPULAR than FPS games for spectators. FPS and other action-oriented games (say something like Diablo II--yes, I'm old school and haven't played recent games in a while) are too repetitious and can end up being boring. Except for a select few who really know the game, most don't really know what is going on in an FPS game. In contrast, s
I tried to RTFA (Score:5, Funny)
Professional Gaming (Score:4, Informative)
But seriously, with all that press coverage, and repetitive stress injuries, expect to see PG's form basic organizational structures, like unions, licensing boards, nickname boards!, and stuff, before developers/computer programmers ever develop just one of those.. sheesh!
Title Suggestion.... (Score:3, Interesting)
"Modern Day Gamers Go Gold"
MMORPG "PVP" and FPS tournaments (Score:5, Interesting)
I once saw about 200 people crowded around an arena watching a collection of gladiators fighting to the death for a cash prize. We were all placing bets and shouting at the combatants. Some people actually missed work to come witness the battles.
None of us were actually "there", at least not physically: it all transpired in the virtual world of "Ultima Online".
That was three years ago. I wonder how large the gatherings are now?
Great! (Score:2)
Re:Great! (Score:2)
Here's a temporary mirror [indtech.edu]. Play nicely.
Re:Great! (Score:2)
I'm finally downloading from the torrent, but like you said, it's incredibly slow. Well, only 25 minutes left... wish me luck :)
Re:Great! (Score:2)
No (Score:2, Insightful)
But some may say..... (Score:4, Interesting)
Having spectated at a few UK Lanparties, I can say that the 'players' are genuinely a mixed bunch and generally a very personable lot. (After all people can *hit* you if you misbehave on a lan).
The thing that makes major players so popular in many sports is marketing - in the UK we only have to look at David Beckham to know how true this is.
Having said that, Beckham is working for and living with a team in Spain.............go figure
Re:No (Score:2)
Re:No (Score:2)
Re:No (Score:2)
people can become emotional attached to anything.
besides, the packers suck.
The Real Reason for Spectators (Score:5, Insightful)
Now we have all been conditioned to answer because its entertaining to watch highly skilled professionals compete for the love of the game (stay with me), or something like that. But really, I would venture to guess that it has a lot to do with identity and community.
For example, if you watch sports, don't you sometimes or maybe even regularly mention events in the sports world to others who are interested (or maybe even not)? Do you ever consider yourself a fan, and attach it to your identity (like at a party you might say "yeah, I'm a such-and-such fan" or "I'm a big fan of sports X and Y")?
Likewise, how often do you watch events with other people? How often do you go with other people or meet them at an event? And don't you talk about it with certain groups of people? I am not a sports person, so please forgive me if you are a lone spectator. I am sure there are some.
This all revolves around what really drives masses to be spectators. I would venture to guess that their identity and the community (which are in some ways tied together for a lot people, maybe everyone) make them spectators. I would even go further to say that without these aspects, mass market spectator sports would not be quite so mass market. Sorry, I didn't watch the video - just some thoughts from a non-spectator.
Re:The Real Reason for Spectators (Score:4, Funny)
Team A == Warrior Tribe A.
Team B == Warrior Tribe B.
Fans of Team A == Lesser Members of Tribe A.
Fans of Team B == Lesser Members of Tribe B.
Us. vs Them. Some like to live vicariously through "Us" or through "Them".
--
Re:The Real Reason for Spectators (Score:1)
Say, in a serious (and good) drama, there might be many, many subtle and important plot developments that have to be though about. In an action movie, it's "hey remember when he shot that guy and he went..."
Now consider sports. It goes on for 2-3 hours, but it's really only the times when they score (or there's
The Slashdot Gaming Timewarp Continues... (Score:4, Informative)
Ahem, JAPAN.
Heck, we'll even throw S.Korea in there.
Re:The Slashdot Gaming Timewarp Continues... (Score:1, Redundant)
Of course, then I met a stereotyping Anonomous Coward who assumed way too much himself.
Gaming Book (Score:5, Interesting)
The number of wicked web links in there is enough for any gamer to drool over. I've been thinking of doing a Slashdot book review of it, too.
Interesting... (Score:1)
Direct Link to Torrent (Score:5, Informative)
Sports are naturally boring to watch... (Score:2, Insightful)
However, I listen to the Team Sportscast Network when I'm bored, and also hang out in #tsn. I like it there because it's a community that PLAYS what they love, not just listen. People who know the game first hand; a relaxed community which knows the pros personally.
I find watching games more interesting than conventional sports because the game is a
Re:Sports are naturally boring to watch... (Score:2)
An insightful read on the subject:
"Monday-Night Hunters" (Part I, Essay 3, Page 27), Billions and Billions [amazon.com], Carl Sagan
Re:Sports are naturally boring to watch... (Score:2)
I think a lot of it comes down to fans who in fact can't do it anymore, but want to pretend they can. Sitting around drinking beer and getting fatter is a lot easier than trying to get back in shape when you've reached middle age or beyond.
Re:Sports are naturally boring to watch... (Score:2)
Where in the hell am I supposed to find a 100-yd marked football field and 22 guys to play with, plus referees?
asinine reasoning (Score:4, Insightful)
do you listen to music? you could play instruments too.
watch movies? you could make your own with a digital camera's trivial film mode.
ever notice that people involved in sports tend to be avid fans of professional sports? ever notice budding musicians tend to listen to other, more accomplished musicians?
it's because they can't do what the pros can, at least not yet. they're able to command massive salaries because the audience is watching, and the audience wouldn't waste their time to watch bush leaguers.
Re:asinine reasoning (Score:2)
Anyways, yeah, I totally agree with you. You watch other people because you admire their skill, and wish you could be that good yourself.
Re:asinine reasoning (Score:2)
Maybe that doesn't interest you, but just "letting you in on the secret" of one of the reasons that sports and olympic displays of athleticism have been popular for over 2000 years.
Re:Sports are naturally boring to watch... (Score:1)
Re:Sports are naturally boring to watch... (Score:1)
My experiences... (Score:3, Informative)
I used to play Desert Combat [desertcombat.com] a lot a while back. I started playing with a clan (to get the whole 'teamplay' experience) who were involved in gaming league. [teamwarfare.com] During these games, there would be two spectators present, one on either team. These two specs would do a play by play of the game, both in contact with each other at the same time, and they would shoutcast [shoutcast.com] these matches to the masses. These broadcasts also had a slight time delay to avoid cheating by either team.
One of these shoutcast groups is Team Sports Network [tsncentral.com] you can listen to live games, or download past matches.
Just in case (Score:2, Informative)
If Slashdotter don't read the article (Score:2, Funny)
You think they would watch the movie :P
The infidel is using WMV!
I wouldn't pay to see people play (Score:1)
BitTorrent? (Score:1)
I can't bring myself to use that illegal p2p stuff that the pedophile hackers use when I could be using a slow FTP or WWW link instead. Also, I don't like to change my old ways.
We should all do our part to support centralized distribution instead of distributed terrorist cell distribution.
Thanks!
--
Re:BitTorrent? (Score:1, Troll)
Wuss.
End Communique.
Quick! Someone mirror... (Score:2)
goodness (Score:2)
If you're studying film for fun, cool. Academic persuits for the sake of academia should be available to everyone that's interested so as to increase the knowledge of humanity. However, if you're planning a career in film, I strongly suggest you reconsider. Your production quality is horrible. Bad audio recording, bad cinematography, bad lighting, and a fairly poor presentation of
Re:goodness (Score:2)
The production quality was really good: good audio recording, good cinematography, good lighting, and a clear presentation of the information. I came away from this documentary with an idea of how gaming competitions work, and I thought the in-the-trenches video portion of the battle, including the blow-by-blow commentary of what we were seeing, gave some real insight into the event.
Following the single team was a good idea; it gave you an easy way to get back to the "
Wheaton's show on G4? (Score:2)
Problem: he so overshadowed the game to illuminate the fact that watching people play video games is damn boring. And he ended up leaving once it was revealed the damn thing was fixed (I assume to make it no longer boring).
Ever go over to someone's house and they're 'just playing games' and its
Live sports vs. Virtual Sports (Score:3, Insightful)
Most people don't give a sports match their full attention. They might raptly watch the replays, they might focus more the game when it gets tense, but most people are hanging out with their friends at the same time, or eating, or switching between ESPN and CBS.
The way that televised sports cope with the monotony of the wait for action is with commentary. They'll step out of the game to give stats, a retired professional will give his take on the rookie at bat or the down just completed. Most people don't want to watch players set up their bases, but they also don't much care to watch the football players line up time and time again. Most soccer fans don't pay nearly as much attention when the ball is in midfield as they do when the players are poised for a shot on goal.
Conclusion 1: Game spectating needs to be something you can do in a group before it will catch on.
Conclusion 2: There needs to be a mechanism to give commentary and instant replays to the viewers.
Conclusion 3: Game spectating has to be flexible. It has to be something that you can give part of your divided attention to, not the sole activity of a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.
Pro Quake player (Score:2)
Spectator gaming: a model for interactive TV? (Score:2)
What I would want though, is the same quality of presentation that we now get with major TV sports events, plus the interactivity and participation that we get with online gaming.
I'd want:
- Quality live commentators, statistics and game state presentation... think Su
Re:Spectator gaming: a model for interactive TV? (Score:2)
Yes, this probably marks me for life as a sad git, but hey, I read slashdot don't I?
Anyways, this is a great idea. I wonder if there's any potential for some kind of crossover with the machinima community? It's got a lot of similar aspects - the virtual camerawork, using a game engine for real time film making. Only difference here is it's the game itself you're filming.
Here's an idea (Score:2, Insightful)
I can see it now (Score:2)
id Programmer: Can you see? Can you see? Look what they printed!
id PHB: I don't see anything!
id Programmer: Look! Look at it! The pixel at 320x540! Oh my God it looks like something from Daikatana!
id PHB: I think you're over reacting.
id Programmer: Sure for YOU it means nothing. Why does C|Net always do this? Why can't they just cover the game. WHY DO THEY TORMENT ME? Why can't they show the kid who camps all the time, huh? Why not him?
id P
Gaming != "sport" && Gaming != "pro" (Score:2, Informative)
Gaming is *NOT* a sport!! Shit, you waste away hours leading to weeks of your life twitching only a few muscles for a digital score...sporty as a Gremlin next to a Porsche. The use of the term "professional" when speaking about a gamer is just sicken
Re:Gaming != "sport" && Gaming != "pro" (Score:2)
Already so. (Score:2)
Yeah. (Score:2)
The main barrier is that there is no salary. (Score:2)
In addition, anyone can start a "clan" and compete. Not just anyone can start an NFL team and compete.
Until "clans" are organized like major pro sports teams, gamers that can be considered "professional" in the same sense
Why oh why? (Score:2)
How many "are games art" articles have we seen here?
And no the new meme is "games are sport"!
What is next?
Re:Janitor dies after winning ass-stretching conte (Score:1)
Romero (Score:2)
Re:Missing the point (Score:2)
As for the metric-f*ckton comment, 96k people are playing CS worldwide(by far the