Gamers Unite for Video Game Olympics 155
The Hobo writes "About 700 of the world's best gamers began battling it out Wednesday, as the fourth annual World Cyber Games got underway in San Francisco. The five-day annual event is a culmination of national competitions held around the world and pits the best players against each other in a variety of widely popular games like Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Starcraft and FIFA Soccer.
visa rejected for european player (Score:4, Insightful)
i think the US is shooting it's own foot if they continue to behave this way. a lot of people here already wait with their holidays in the US in the hope, that the obligatory fingerprints when entering the US will go away sometimes (which i doubt personally)
PAT
Re:Wow (Score:2, Insightful)
And treat any stories or figures you hear quoted about gaming in Korea with extreme skepticism. Gaming *is* big there, but a lot of what you hear in the West is pure invention on the part of gamers and pundits wistful for some supposed far-off gaming utopia.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
This stuff isn't all just a bunch of having fun on the internet either. The serious competitors work like dogs to get to where they are at. I like games as much as the next guy, or perhaps even more than, but once you start playing something 8 hours a day it becomes a second job -- one that you have to pay to work at.
Re:Wow (Score:3, Insightful)
Funnily enough if you watch any old soccer matchs, the game was indeed quite different. Strategies were different, a few seemingly minor rules differences can mean a complete change in strategy. Now in the last 10 years games that were popular have changed immensly. But with the release (as of today I believe) of CS:Source, valve is making sure that this game continues into the next generation of computer games with the same style of game play, just better graphics. I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility that a version of CS (although definitely more advanced graphics wise) will still be being played in 10 years time. Even if there isn't, there will be some team based objective capturing fps game that is popular. (speaking from experience, if you can play cs well, you can move to other games and play them well in very little time).
Also, I think what South Korea has going for them is that they don't have this "gaming is a waste of time" attitude. They see gaming like any other sport, something to be practiced and perfected, and any time spent in that pursuit is not wasted. When the world treats amatuer gamers like they treat amateur football players (american or european), then you will truely see professional play take off.
Re:Finally (Score:3, Insightful)
Gamers for Peace!
Re:Wow (Score:2, Insightful)
To be honest, though, I think this problem is wider than just professional gaming. I grew up in Manchester, England. Living near the most commercially successful soccer club in the world meant that we had huge numbers of kids who were convinced they were going to make a living as professional footballers. Consequently, they never put any effort in at school and never earned any qualifications. I must have known at least a dozen kids like this, probably more. Last I heard, every single one of them was either unemployed or in a dead-end job on minimum wage. There's got to be some way of getting through for kids that you're more likely to become rich through a lottery win than as any kind of professional sportsman. How many people seriously base their futures on the assumption that they'll win the lottery?
Re:I want to see (Score:3, Insightful)
Super Mario Brothers 3!