Competitive Gaming Hits the Mainstream

thegamebiz writes "Amped eSports has a recap of the 60 minutes segment profiling gaming icon Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, while also providing commentary on the effect it could have on the business as a whole. From the article: 'As millions of Americans sat with eyes affixed to their televisions during the second week of the NFL playoffs, a different type of sport was being birthed into the public spotlight merely a channel away ... It's time to wake up, America. eSports has hit the spotlight and with it comes the realization of a dream that has existed in the mind of every child since Fred Savage took his brother to California for a Nintendo tournament in The Wizard. Professional Gamer is now a valid career path.'"

Not there yet, not there by a long way.

[AEther141]

Gaming has been bumbling along as an occasional novelty in the mainstream media since the CS explosion and the massive LAN events of the early noughties. The real point at which gaming can call itself mainstream is when the goofy gaming shows obviously hosted by non-gamers are replaced by serious coverage of tournament events, when CS and QT are presented like poker - serious coverage that the tournament entrants would appreciate, competent commentary by people gamers actually respect and just the occasional explanatory note to naive viewers. When the network execs begin to understand that their thirteen-year-old PS2 owner is a totally different kind of gamer to the WOW-playing, LAN-gaming faithful and realise that gamers aren't one demographic but a broad spectrum with widely diverging tastes and interests. For the moment, gaming is an odd novelty that the mainstream still don't quite get.

Hahah.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, it's as viable a career path as "Being Bono" or "Becoming Tom Cruise" is. How many people have made professional gaming an actual career? I don't mean 2 years of income. I mean at least 10 years of steady income.

Media hype

[Flizesh]

Seems like media hype to me and 60 minutes trying to be on 'the edge' of something new. Sure, pro gaming might be getting bigger but there are millions of gamers but only a handful of people who can make an actual living off it. Plus on 60 minutes they touted "Fatal1ty" as the best, which seemed kind of lame.

Re:Spectator gaming...

[evilNomad]

The same reason as you watch any other sport? You enjoy seeing people do something really good, sure I can play soccer, but i enjoy watching the big stars playing, i played soccer for 10 years, but do not play anymore, still I enjoy watching it, so why should CS be any different? The game has as many aspects as NFL, the tactics, the "hits", the individual performances, the trick play..

Just because you do not understand the sport, there is no reason to call it lame, nor look down at it, believe you me, when i watch baseball, being from Europe, I too think "what a weird sport"..

beware of the hype

[Tom]

Professional Gamer is now a valid career path.

And just like Pro-Footballer or Pro-Soccer player, it's not all the dream it's sold as.

As in any other business, thousands of young people enter that career path every year, and most of them never make it past "it pays the rent". In fact, I would be surprised if a considerable percentage came even that far.

Re:Good, ill, or both?

[ClamIAm]

[Pro gamers] will be attracted to the games in which they think could potentially earn them money ... rather than playing games in which they simply enjoy.

I doubt many NFL players hate football.

Re:Not there yet, not there by a long way.

[hal2814]

"goofy gaming shows obviously hosted by non-gamers are replaced by serious coverage of tournament events"

ABC just learned a valuable lesson in the NFL by allowing Monday Night Football (the ONLY NFL product to steadily lose ratings over the last 4 years) to die a tragic death by making the event less and less about football. They wanted a Super Bowl every week and realized that it wasn't hardcore football fans who liked all the non-football stuff in the Super Bowl and that non-fans aren't going to watch every week no matter what celebrity you have stop by to say hello or what comedian you put in the press box as a commentator.

Much like the NFL, competitive gaming is only going to as far as the product itself can carry it. They shouldn't try to fluff it up or make it super cool. I think compretitive gaming can be cool enough as it is. If it's not, no amount of fluff is going to make up for that.