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Games Entertainment

Documentary about Professional Gaming 256

Posted by michael from the listen-to-the-bandwidth-meter-scream dept.
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."
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Documentary about Professional Gaming

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  • Format question ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by El Cubano ( 631386 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:40PM (#7540230)

    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.

    • Interesting, that would explain my 0d/7u bit torrent action going on... nobody seems to want to even touch that thing with a ten foot pole.

      Blah.

    • Well, there's an easy way to fix that. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @01:22AM (#7540638) Homepage
      Grab mplayer [mplayerhq.hu] and install it. Run mencode to transcode the WMV file to a different format.

      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 :)

    • And why .zip? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by benwaggoner ( 513209 )
      Also, why is it .zip compressed! Any decent video and audio compression includes its own entropy encoding, so that a .zip or whatever will produce virtually no size savings.

      If you had a file where .zip worked, that'd tell you that you did something wrong!

      • Re:And why .zip? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by millette ( 56354 )

        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.

        1. A zip so people don't stream it? You can do better then that!
        2. 720 x 576? Was it really necessary to encode with these dimensions? It hardly plays on my 1GHz computer?
        3. ...

        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

        • 720x576 is PAL DV resolution. Of course, it's non-square pixel, so playing back on many players will result in a distorted image (about 10% too tall).

          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

  • watching games might not be so popular. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by civilengineer ( 669209 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:41PM (#7540236) Homepage Journal
    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 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)

      by dnaumov ( 453672 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:46PM (#7540261)
      "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."
      ...SNIP...
      "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.
      • I'm sorry; if you don't think "professional gamers" is an oxymoron, maybe you better wait till your nuts drop before considering whether those years of "experience" are worth a anything.
        • as opposed to going through years of training to become a pro athlete, and have your career taken out by a single injury? almost all the real pro gamers i know of in the US are just finding it to be a better job while in college.

        • Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by ePIsOdEOnline ( 711249 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @12:27AM (#7540449)
          "professional gamers" is an oxymoron,

          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.
      • There's also the simple fact that in most sports games there's someone to root for, ie the home team. Pro-gaming doesn't really have this, and there's something much more exciting about watching a physical, ACTIVE sport as opposed to someone moving keys and a mouse around. Something like watching chess would be much more appealing to me than twitch-masters playing video games, but even chess is not something I want to watch.

        But maybe that's just me.

        • Re:watching games might not be so popular. (Score:4, Interesting)

          by irc.goatse.cx troll ( 593289 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @10:08AM (#7541834) Journal
          Rooting is simple -- Go for which ever teams are from your country. I'm hoping Team3D takes CPL winter this year and really shuts up everyone that thought they went downhill because of losing CAL finals against TSG 13-4.

          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.
      • I think the part you "snipped" is kind of important.

        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:

        The reason specatator sports are so popular is that it takes a lot of years of effort and

      • Starcraft isn't an FPS. Scratch that off your list. Though a Starcraft tournament will still need years of play :)
      • You're right, it takes years of experience and a lot of natural skill to get good enough to compete professionally. Unfortunately, no matter how good someone gets few people will actually watch them play. Why? BECAUSE IT"S BORING. VERY, VERY BORING. WHY THE -HELL- WILL I WATCH YOU PLAY WHEN I CAN JUST GO PLAY MYSELF?
      • '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.'

        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

    • On the other hand, you have to consider that the skills you develop aren't useful for just one game. If you had played Doom for months, you'd be better at Quake when it came out, then you'd practice on that and you would be better at the next game, and so on. Even unrelated games can help, by improving your coordination, strategies, etc.
    • I agree. Why would I want to watch someone else play video games when I can just go home and do it myself?

      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:4, Insightful)

      by NevermindPhreak ( 568683 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @12:26AM (#7540443)
      i think spectator sports are popular because they play the game so well, not because of what they went through to get there. i really could care less if the teams in one sport trained ahrder than the teams in another sport, i just really care about which sport plays hardest.

      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.

    • Hell, Korea has computer games televised. Japan does too. Spectating videogames seems to have caught on there, why not here?
    • I disagree... I think that in about 5 - 15 years gaming will be ready to be a spectator sport, when the games are more than 2-32 people running around shooting each other with railguns... When there's more going on, and it becomes about teams people can barrack for, with unique characters in a virtual world (not just models with skin changes), so there's a (virtual) hero to watch, and not some nerd who's got too much spare time.

      But it won't never be as popular as real sports for a very long time, because m
    • Actually, as far as I can tell, many sports aren't much more fundamentally interesting to watch people play than games are (for example, I find soccer to be quite boring to watch even at the top levels, though I can definitely enjoy playing it). I think the fundamental difference is that people empathize with the _players_ of sports, and the training for pro sports tends to involve vigorous, healthful athletic training, producing strong, young, buff men, characteristics that other men wish they had, and th

  • I doubt that professional gaming... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by xSquaredAdmin ( 725927 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:42PM (#7540239)
    will become a spectator sport for strategy games. Most people, except for those who are quite into the game, don't have the attention span to watch people set up their bases etc. They just want the battles, in most cases. Most well-played strategy games can go on for well over an hour, and I just don't think that people are willing to wait around for the big battles. They'd rather just see the highlight reels. But for action games, I think that there is a potential for this to happen, because, right off the bat, you are able to start fighting, without having to build up defenses, which means that people get the action immediately. Also, you respawn as soon as you die, so the length of the action can be controlled.
    • Chess is a spectator sport, and there are enormous Scrabble competitions. Gaming will never be the kind of thing that sells out a stadium, but I can imagine a weekly show cropping up on one of the "educational" channels dedicated to gaming. It would have to be edited pretty well,and do a lot of behind-the-scenes, but I would probably enjoy wat ching it.
    • How long does your average chess match last? There still seems to be quite a bit of interest in chess.
    • Tell that to South Korea, they have TV stations dedicated to Starcraft!

    • Try fighting games (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Recently, Shoryuken.com held their Evolution 2k3 fighting games tournament in California State University, Pomona. Over a thousand gamers came to take part in 9 different fighting game tournaments ranging from Street Fighter III : 3rd Strike to Soul Calibur 2 for cash prizes worth over $20,000.

      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

    • Actually, the first experiance I had with gaming as a spectator sport was with the Myth games (Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter) by Bungie. They were probably the best tactical games ever made, didn't involve collecting resources or building, just troop movements. I was pretty active in the Myth community while it was in its heyday.

      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
      • Yeah... I agree...

        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)

    by mattjb0010 ( 724744 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:42PM (#7540241) Homepage
    and it said to WTFM

  • Professional Gaming (Score:4, Informative)

    by xintegerx ( 557455 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:43PM (#7540246) Homepage
    "Professional Gamer?" What, they are state licensed?

    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)

    by _ph1ux_ ( 216706 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:43PM (#7540247)
    instead of "Modern Day Gamer 2"

    "Modern Day Gamers Go Gold"

  • MMORPG "PVP" and FPS tournaments (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mao che minh ( 611166 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:47PM (#7540269) Journal
    For many, these two "events" are already spectator sports.

    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?

  • Now even the torrent is slashdotted :(

  • No (Score:2, Insightful)

    by RightInTheNeck ( 667426 )
    I would say video gaming will never become as big of a spectator sport as the big main sports (NFL,NBA,NHL,MLB) because of one missing ingredient. That ingredient is the fans being emotionally attached to thier team and its players past and present because they are real people. When Brett Favre retires from football fans will feel emotional about it, some packer fans may even cry.

    • But some may say..... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by reality-bytes ( 119275 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @12:09AM (#7540376) Homepage
      But some may say that the players, sat at their PCs are the personalities.

      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 :/
    • You underestimate the fans online gaming.
    • True, but I think that video games could become something that people would watch, if it was done in a game show format. You have to play up the personalities a bit. If you made it something like Survivor and hyped the drama between the players, it might generate some interest, though I doubt that it would be more than a fad in the mainstream.
    • "..being emotionally attached to thier team ..."

      people can become emotional attached to anything.

      besides, the packers suck. ;)

  • The Real Reason for Spectators (Score:5, Insightful)

    by globalar ( 669767 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:50PM (#7540285) Homepage
    These kinds of articles (or documentaries, as the case may be) really beg the question "Why do people watch other people in activities?"

    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)

      by Saeger ( 456549 ) <farrellj@nOSPam.gmail.com> on Sunday November 23, 2003 @12:36AM (#7540481) Homepage
      Most Sports == War games.
      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".

      --

    • It's just like why we watch movies. The reason why big-budget action movies do better than movies that actually have some genuine insight is that it makes it easier to get a conversation started.

      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)

    by Mulletproof ( 513805 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:53PM (#7540296) Homepage Journal
    "The main purpose of the documentary 'Modern Day Gamer 2' is to ask whether we will ever see gaming become a mainstream spectator sport."

    Ahem, JAPAN.
    Heck, we'll even throw S.Korea in there.

  • Gaming Book (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dolo666 ( 195584 ) * on Saturday November 22, 2003 @11:59PM (#7540331) Journal
    A pretty good book to read if you are interested in gaming professionally, is Monster Gaming [barnesandnoble.com], by Ben Sawyer. Not only does it outline the competitive online gaming community, it delves into mods and other cool stuff like customization & configuration. The book has a foreword by Angel Munoz, the founder of the CPL [thecpl.com], and cover art by Id [idsoftware.com] legend Paul Steed [mobygames.com]. While Monster Gaming is not about becoming a CPL athlete, it is about being a better gamer.

    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.
  • Well, I havent been able to take a look yet... But... I was pretty sure most gamers already know enough about gaming, the advent of gaming, gaming history, et al, to not be bothered enough to stop gaming long enough to watch a video about something they could be doing... Maybe thats just me though. *shrug*

  • Direct Link to Torrent (Score:5, Informative)

    by sgarrity ( 262297 ) * on Sunday November 23, 2003 @12:01AM (#7540344) Homepage
    To avoid an unnecessary page load on their server, here's a direct link to the bittorrent version [gametab.com].
  • One thing I've never understood is the rage over football (both), basketball, etc... Why the hell would I watch people play something I could be doing myself?

    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
    • " One thing I've never understood is the rage over football (both), basketball, etc... Why the hell would I watch people play something I could be doing myself?"

      An insightful read on the subject:
      "Monday-Night Hunters" (Part I, Essay 3, Page 27), Billions and Billions [amazon.com], Carl Sagan

    • One thing I've never understood is the rage over football (both), basketball, etc... Why the hell would I watch people play something I could be doing myself?

      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.
    • Why the hell would I watch people play something I could be doing myself?

      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)

      by honold ( 152273 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @03:35AM (#7540992)
      "Why the hell would I watch people play something I could be doing myself?"

      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.
      • Heck, I watch my friends play their games. Most of them are much better at the games than me, and I find it quite enjoyable to sit there and watch them kick ass, rather than be the one on the recieving end. Hehe...

        Anyways, yeah, I totally agree with you. You watch other people because you admire their skill, and wish you could be that good yourself.

  • My experiences... (Score:3, Informative)

    by hookedup ( 630460 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @12:06AM (#7540365)

    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)

    by edalytical ( 671270 )
    In case of slashdoting here is a still of the John Romero interview [megatokyo.com].
  • Running time: 17minutes 47seconds. Filesize : 157MB. Format: WMV."

    You think they would watch the movie :P

    The infidel is using WMV!

  • I love multiplayer games like Counter-Strike. It's fun knifing people and awping them with out the scope. But I wouldn't enjoy it if I'm weren't a participant. I definately wouldn't pay to see such an event. I might pay to play in one though. =]
  • Can someone post a FilePlanet mirror instead?

    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!

    --

  • the torrent!
  • I'm sure I'll get modded down for this as being a troll or inflamatory, but I'm not trying to be. This is a sincere suggestion.

    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
    • Did we just see the same documentary?

      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 "
  • Anyone here, other than CleverNickName, catch that show (whatever the hell it was called)? The one on competive video gaming? Now I gotta give the guy credit, he was pretty damn entertaining running commentary.

    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)

    by nicodemus05 ( 688301 ) <nicodemus05@hotmail.com> on Sunday November 23, 2003 @01:41AM (#7540685)
    Most people, except for those who are quite into the game, don't have the attention span to watch people set up their bases etc.

    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.

  • A few years back, at the Game Developer's Conference, there was a woman who plays Quake for a living. She had a one year contract with some game magazine to play Quake. She was taking on all comers, fragging them in about 30 seconds each, and had a score of about 40-1 in early afternoon.
  • If I could log into a proxy server that could let me get a feed of the Halflife 3 World Cup (or whatever), viewed through a legit copy of the game on my tricked up PC and broadband connection, I would happily pay top dollar for the privilege.

    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
    • Ooh.. I likey.
      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)

    by 5lash ( 589953 )
    Computer gaming cant be as succesful with spectators as "normal" sports (football rugby etc) because: traditionally people support the team for the town they live in. gives u a sense of pride, loyalty, patriotism whatever. but a main concept of online gaming is that you can form a team with anyone anywhere. most clans dont have anyone from the same town/city, and often people from different countries. so like, which team/clan would you choose to support? I'm pretty sure it will get popular amongst people li
  • [Pan across cubicles to one weeping man at computer]
    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
  • I'm sorry I am going to have to get some of those pinhead moderators to waste points on me here as I hear crybaby gamers all the time whine and moan. (Usually over things they don't understand because they can't stop playing long enough to read and research.)

    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
    • Well maybe you should get off your ass and do some research. This year over a million dollars in cash will be given away as tournament prizes. Companies like Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA sponsor clans with hardware and money. Yes, very few people are actually able to play games for a living at this point, but there are some that can manage it. Considering that professional gaming is only a few years old, and the popularity of it is growing with the younger generations I would say there is great possibility fo
  • The BBC program Time Commander shows people taking up virtual arms against ancient armies (e.g. Romans etc.) The actual contestants give out orders in the manner of generals commanding an army, the clicking and stuff is done by hidden geeks. Very nice show, all about strategy, and nice CG (the horses' tails move about and such)..
  • Mainly, a huge barrier for true "pro" gamers to occur is that gamers who go to tournaments don't get paid simply for playing the game. They make no salary. Winners get cash prizes, but the vast majority of people in these tourneys get nothing for their time... and most don't expect to.

    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 is that gamers have to validate their hobby in one way or another?

    How many "are games art" articles have we seen here?

    And no the new meme is "games are sport"!

    What is next?

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