The main problem with eSports is that it thinks it’s an apple product, capitalize that e! Horrible cliched joke aside, the real problem is it is INCREDIBLY niché, there is a strict following for the events and a learning curve to a lot of the games on the list, eSports will never make it to TV, an interview with Ryan “Fwiz” Wyatt earlier in the week seconded my opinion, it is a niché market with a strict learning curve. Imagine showing your parents or other members of society who don’t tend to follow gaming seriously an “eSport”. There’s a lot of intricacies involved in eSports that mean so much which won’t necessarily be picked up upon by older or less informed gamers/members of society.
Recently, a video came out showcasing the life of Asian professional gamer CLG Doublelift where he showed a bit of his past and the family issues which followed becoming being a professional gamer, it’s not like becoming a basketball player, or a football player, the public aren’t used to the concept of people playing games for money or even at a competitive level because of all the negative stereotypes which follow gaming i.e: “the idea that gaming is not a sport at all”, “it requires no work at all”, “it’s pick up and play” and it doesn’t necessarily matter that people think this for now at least, but as the meta changes in games it changes in society, with the fact that social gaming has become something which developers of games are starting to gear towards like the whole Farmville facebook craze which took a small time simulation and expanded it to a broad network through facebook. It’s as if they’re trying to emulate the feel of a card game like a poker night or a couple drunken rounds of blackjack.
Albeit accurate, this isn’t a portrayal of us all.
Social gaming would be the idea of playing games as a way of social interaction, versus the idea of playing games in solitude. Now, think about group play? The “party system”, guilds, raiding, trading and role-playing groups. Personally the only reason I currently play League of Legends is the fact I have a group of people to play it with, I have never played a solo que game simply because I dislike the lack of vocal co-operation. I would play thousands of other games but I am limited to the games of the group I am with because of hardware or simple dislike of the game. The fact that I am dependent on this groups shows how gaming now does have a social aspect to it, the shackles of hiding your gaming past can be loosened now, go on.
But wait, there is a big difference between social gaming and eSports, the idea of competitive gaming doesn’t mesh well with a casual audience. Not at all, how many people do you think will pick up Candy Crush as a competitive game? Will MLG drop League of Legends and Starcraft 2 for a competitive Candy Crush tournament where they suddenly make it team oriented and offer millions of dollars for the winner? Nope, the competitive gaming community will forever be niché. No matter how many people join ranked solo que in League of Legends or if the three people that actually play Call of Duty’s league play, it will be niché.
GGWP and thanks for reading.
-Isaiah.
