E-SPORTS - does anyone care?

[Leonard Smith]

Seems to me that E-Sports are on the rise and I shake my head at the fact that there are fans out there (a) who like to watch others play and (b) actually follow and idolize some of these 'professional' gamers.

Very bizarre and I feel like one's time is better spent PLAYING games instead of WATCHING others play them, even if they are at a supposed high level.

It's bad enough that legit sports such as Formula One and DTM racing now sponsor and track various Esports leagues (to the point where they include Esports videos on their official Youtube channels).  

 

Does anyone here partake in viewing and following Esports?  Is this the modern equivalent of what we did in arcades when someone was particularly good at a video game (ie: watching over their shoulder)?

[Tanooki]

I'm in the camp that I border between laughing at and finding annoyance in calling extreme video game playing an actual sport. (Hint, it's not.)  I don't watch it, I think the leagues for it are kind of laughable, almost, as I mean some people do setup leagues or teams for other stuff like bowling on some night of the week and all that just to hang out and blow time.  That's what it is, blowing time and hanging out with people to play with or against others.  It's like extreme couch co-op, to the next level.  I'd never follow this, it's as dumb to me as kissing ass to a twitch streamer and sending them coins.  If I need to watch someone play, I'll get a long play of a game where some person isn't an attention seeking jabbermouth and just lets me enjoy seeing it through, or primarily to un-stuck myself from a weird situation since you can't always find a manual or guide for an old game.

[Punisher5.0]

I dont consider it esports but I like watching tournaments for Street Fighter and Tetris. The level of play can be very impressive and inspiring. Good announcers like James Chen add a lot to the experience too.

[Razzie.P]

12 hours ago, Leonard Smith said:

Seems to me that E-Sports are on the rise and I shake my head at the fact that there are fans out there (a) who like to watch others play and (b) actually follow and idolize some of these 'professional' gamers.

 

Hmm… could be I’m misunderstanding something here, but “does anyone care” seems a bit of an odd question to ask when your first sentence is acknowledging the “fact” that there are fans out there who like to watch, follow, and idolize the participants.  

 

12 hours ago, Leonard Smith said:

Does anyone here partake in viewing and following Esports? 

 

Can’t speak for everyone, of course, but I sure don’t.  I get why it’s a thing.  I think it’s pretty cool that it’s a thing.  But it’s not a thing I enjoy watching/following.

 

 

12 hours ago, Leonard Smith said:

 Is this the modern equivalent of what we did in arcades when someone was particularly good at a video game (ie: watching over their shoulder)?

I don’t think so.  If anything, I think watching people livestream a game (competitive or no) and chatting with/to their audience is the modern equivalent of your arcade scenario.   I think Esports is more like poker, chess, darts, pool, bowling, etc -- games that can become profession for those who play at a high level, and can/does attract an audience and level of fandom.

[Keatah]

Not interested in idols and e-sports and influencers. Mostly a bunch of hot air.

[zzip]

I keep hearing how huge e-sports is, but I know very few people who actually watch, unlike traditional sports

[CapitanClassic]

While I don’t partake in watching ESports myself, I can understand watching it. It is at least as interesting as watching Golf on ESPN, and there are millions thousands of people who do that. The only ESports I have watched would have been years ago when I played PUBG daily, and the interface to watch the tournaments was built into the app itself.

 

Watching ESports can be interesting if:

• you are watching expert players. You might improve your own skills by learning something you don’t know about the game. There is something amazing about watching Games Done Quick exploiting the RNG.
• There is a group watching/commenting in the chat. I enjoyed Star Trek TOS even more when watching it with a live chat or with pop-up video.

 

If you don’t play the game yourself, I doubt watching the ESport players themselves would be interesting in the least though. I have watched people play (non-ESport) games before. I watch ZPH regarding all the latest Atari Homebrew much more than the hours I play Atari games myself. I like to watch Longplays, or Twitch Blind/First play through streams of PnC adventure games either that I have no plans to ever play or that I have played before and get to watch which puzzles hang people up. I like watching some Minecraft players and all the interesting things they build more than taking all the time and effort to build something like that myself.

[Tanooki]

5 hours ago, zzip said:

I keep hearing how huge e-sports is, but I know very few people who actually watch, unlike traditional sports

It's big in their own centralized echo chamber of self absorbed circle of people and corporations trying to me-too some clicks and profit off the site ponying up to it.  Go beyond lame TruTV(Spike) and a few others maybe showing the 'ahem' sport a few times a year or whatever at some odd hour, and most peopl edon't even know it's a thing or if they don't don't give a crap.  More who do care, are those who don't call it a sport or suck up for attention, but go for the skill, like a larger arcade event such as the already pointed out Street Fighter battlers and Tetris people going at it.  That's extreme skill, not extreme sports.

[Mikebloke]

I used to watch a lot AoE2 stuff. There is strategy, tactics, you can do other things while it's on the TV and not require being totally engrossed in it at all times. 

 

I haven't watched it for awhile because T90 the main guy I used to watch, took money to move to Facebook. I think his viewership has gone from something like 4,000-25,000 in non tournament games to something like 80-120. I don't have a Facebook account but even when we tried watching it with someone elses account, we quickly got bored by the changes. AoE2 has a special place for me and my wife because we both played it when it came out originally in 2001 and its also something we played together before we were in a relationship. We still play the game now and then. 

 

I don't get shooter or smash bro tournaments. I feel that yes while there is some degree of skill there is also a lot of luck. I think there is a place for 1 on 1 fighters locally, but every attempt I've seen at any national or international level has largely flopped and mostly been just button mashing. 

[Cobra Kai]

I don't watch sports and I don't watch people play their vidyas either. I suppose on a superficial level, they are all one in the same thing, I.E. watching a baseball game = watching a 'pro' video game in progress. 

 

The difference is I can't play baseball, but I can play the shit out of some video games, so it seems really a giant waste of time to watch others do what almost anyone else can do if they want. That's the allure of watching sportsball, at least it offers an escapism for people who can't physically do what naturally gifted athletes can do.

[Keatah]

Watching sports, any kind of sports is dumb because none of it is interactive, and it's all high-powered media anyways. None of the statistics are life-alteringly important. Maybe important if you do sports betting, and that's a whole other level of stupid.

 

More and more pro-sports teams are now advertising companies on their uniforms & jerseys. Seems the namesake stadiums and constant sponsor commercials aren't enough. Seems the electronically pasted-in banners and rink/field signs aren't enough. Gotta get more in-your-face of company names.

 

Well you know what? There's so much advertising that tuning it out is a requirement for day to day living. Lest one clog their brain to the point of nonfunctionality.

[Tanooki]

That's true, and I've noticed largely if you want a more honest game, for a long time it would have been college, but the disgusting antics of a mix of pro teams and NCAA bs they're just as awful for all the same reasons.  If you want maybe the least corrupted with adults who have solid skills... triple A sports, the level under pro where failing/injured pros and others hoping to make it big get stuck.  The pay isn't great, they want to do more, so they really put their best into it while not having the fat check and ego and ad money thrown into it.

[Rhomaios]

On 4/21/2022 at 11:06 AM, zzip said:

I keep hearing how huge e-sports is, but I know very few people who actually watch, unlike traditional sports

I think it's mostly limited to kids, at least in the west. I know of no one, child or adult, who watches it, though.

[Reaperman]

I don't know exactly where eSports start definition-wise, but I picture it being live play in a big arena with the full production. I've never been into that, even back when there were those weird arcade gameshows, or EVO for fighting games--none of the live stuff for me. I also won't watch speedrunning--live (for that charity thing) or otherwise.

 

I will watch gameplay, and oddly my favorite to watch are super mario maker players.  I don't actually like playing super mario maker games. I did try it, it wasn't fun. I can't beat SMB1, much less pull off a double shell-jump, but I do enjoy watching people who are really good, going at these stupid levels blind, getting tripped up by their fans' levels, and creating rivalries between other SMM streamers. 

 

So, specific types of gameplay are as close as I get to eSports.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Reaperman

[BawesomeBurf]

I will watch someone play a game on YouTube, but watching competitive 'eSports' doesn't interest me at all.

[+GoldenWheels]

I don't play or even really enjoy 1 on 1 fighting games very much but I do find "the scene" around them pretty interesting. Now that being said....I have never watched an actual live competition.  But retrospective videos on how competitive play has evolved for a franchise ("the meta" as the kids say I guess) I find pretty neat.

 

Same deal with speedrunning. Have never tried it, nor wanted to. But I can watch Karl Jobst or Summoning Salt examine Goldeneye or Mario Kart records in absolute fascination.

[+GoldLeader]

No.

[Ninjabba]

No general interest in e-sports, though I also get fascinated with some of the crazy world records out there as well as some competitions

- the super mario bros speedruns in general

- the mario64 cosmic ray bit flip speedrun ?

- street fighter competition, especially that EVO moment 37 is just insane

- the YouTube channel Devs react to speedruns is quite funny

- Those few guys mastering Tetris The Grand Master games, out of this world

 

 

 

 

[+Gemintronic]

I was contracted out for a 2600 game by an eSports person.  Either was involved in a team or owned one.

 

I didn't understand modern gaming and he came from an era where Starcraft was ancient.  Needless to say expectations were a challenge

[+GoldLeader]

On 5/19/2022 at 1:16 PM, GoldLeader said:

No.

 

Sorry,  this was meant to be a joke,  (but also truthful, I guess)...You know how some jokers on the internet just throw out a one syllable response,  and then they don't even explain it?

 

Speaking for myself,  I've never seen anything interesting on e-Sports,  not that I've seen much.  Maybe if they created a gruesome and very realistic looking game that played like the movie Death Race...But a typical strategy FPS type game?   **snore**

[nadir]

Zero interest in e-sports.  I'll play the games myself.  Watching other people play them on TV just has no attraction.  I feel the same way about basketball and football too as those are relatively accessible.  I will watch Formula 1 racing though as racing cars is out of my price range and I love cars (well, internal combustion anyways, the electric race series are unwatchably boring)!