SF is as much of a sport as NASCAR (which I don’t consider a sport)
Yeah they made the game a bit easier to get into but there’s still a lot of time that must be invested to get good at the game. The main problem is just that there must be enough people as a whole who like to watch other people compete in SF to make it viable to put as a regular TV broadcast and I just don’t see that happening. It’s not even as much as how many people are playing the game as it is to how many people would enjoy watching other people play it. It would have to be marketed insanely well even if tons of people were playing it seriously just to have a chance.
No one likes to watch something that they could be doing themselves. This is based on the “average” person. The average sf player probably doesn’t care about youtube vids of good matches etc, they just play the game. You watch real sports because you are watching someone do something that you can’t possibly ever do. You aren’t 9 feet tall, you’re not in the NBA. You don’t bench press 600 lbs you’re not in the NFL. You can’t drive a baseball out of yankee stadium you’re not in the MLB. Video games are pick up and play. Yes there are good players, yes there are pro’s. But the “average” person (aka the guy with money) would rather watch something extraordinary that they could never achieve, as opposed to watching someone play a video game that they could just as easily play, albeit not at that level.
gotta love mike ross with the “THERE ARE NO CROSS-UPS IN SPELLING” comment. 
Eh…I don’t know bout all that. I mean I can shoot a basketball once in a while on a 5 on 5 pick me up game but the average guy can’t just walk up to SFIV and do anything Viper or El Fuerte has to offer at a high level, space their Dhalsim anywhere near the level of Arturo’s or low forward and DP shit on reaction at the level Daigo can.
The problem right now is that people just don’t relate to or understand the fact that the stuff we are doing on the TV screen is actually ridiculous difficult to execute in a tournament situation without lots of experience. They are literally the Kobe Bryants and Lebron James of fighting games up there at Evo playing at their hardest. Until people realize confirming low forward and spacing fireballs properly is harder than just wailing on buttons they won’t relate to it. If people honestly look at high level SFIV matches and think they are capable of doing the same thing (which I’m sure a lot of people do) then there will have to be well placed commentating and marketing to get casual people to understand that they can’t ever begin to do this just by playing the game for a day. Especially not do all of it and win against the highest level of players consistently.
Right now at most I see people just being able to relate to the action in of itself. If the general consensus amongst anyone who doesn’t play SFIV or games in general to watch the stream and go “those are just kids mashing at a TV, I could do that if I wanted to” then things would have to be explained. Just like how golf looks like it’s just swinging the right way at a golf ball or water polo just looks like men throwing a ball around in the water.
Yeah, SF isn’t a sport. I agree. But so what?
SF is a competitive activity, and it’s just as “valid” as any sport. Our society is tuned to make us think that something like basketball is “cool” while video games aren’t as much. Doesn’t mean anything. I’m quite sure Justin Wong was just as pumped in those finals as MJ was in game 7 of his 3rd title run. I’m sure those dedicated fans at the Rio were screaming just as loud as the diehards in the bleachers at the United Center were.
I also agree that it’s pretty hypocritical for people to expect others to give fighting games their due, but are willing to dog on other games that they don’t “get.” I know just what Gootecks comment you’re talking about, and I thought the same thing.
If you ever watch Sanford play a heated match of Marvel (sweat pouring down his face like it’s raining indoors) you’ll swear at least that Marvel is a sport. :lol:
I think the popularity of sports has nothing to do with exceptional athleticism, it has to do with teams. Team sports regularly trounce singles sports even though there is a more obvious level of competition and athleticism occurring in golf or tennis or whatever. People get attached to teams practically by default just by living in an area. People who would never play the sport in their life or may not even be capable of playing it follow their team.
I really don’t think FPS’s and RTS’s have as much watchability as fighting games for a very simple reason: there’s one camera in a fighting game, and it’s situated specifically to show what’s happening. In FPS’s and RTS’s, the camera is a user interface element. The camera flies around at the player’s whim and camera/view control is actually an important part of the game. FPS’s and (ugh) competitive world of warcraft (I saw some of this awful crap on TV a year ago or so) are difficult to follow and not particularly engaging because of that. In Fighting Games everyone has the same viewpoint.
I also think RTS popularity is overblown since we’re basically talking about Starcraft in Korea and basically nothing else. RTS’s are too much of a grind to spectate, especially if you have a limited understanding of what’s going on. I can watch a 2 minute match of a game I’ve never played, I’m not going to spend a half hour watching guys play sim city with guns.
Anything, whether it be games or sports, that has people putting their skills to the test against other people, will always have competition. It doesn’t matter if its popular or not because the people who compete always have something to say about what they’re competing in.
I honestly don’t see why a major television network hasn’t decided to broadcast EVO, especially with that many people watching. I was watching with a buddy of mine who knows NOTHING about fighting games or SF for that matter and even he was getting pumped watching the finals. I’m sure other people flipping around on TV would get into it too.
Yeah I’ve seen stuff on tv about the rock paper scissors championships (like straight up IRL RPS) and they take that stuff mad seriously. Like complete 80+move lists and everything. Any competitive event can be hype…u just gotta make it hype.
[media=youtube]nGYqSqf0yCY[/media]
:o/
LOL, Nice.
I think I’ve seen just about everything.
To quote Bill Shankly: -
“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
*replace football with SF4.
rock paper scissors
a less complicated wake up game
shit is intense! =D
Because 30k(approx) viewers doesn’t equate to money. Unless it’s a late night spot, and no other sporting event is on, it would be a waste of money for them to broadcast Evo. They could probably show a half hour overview of it and the action tho.
It would make sense for a channel like G4 to show it, but even then they probably wouldn’t make much money on it. What advertisers would really want to pay to get their commercials up during that block of time?
lol no bias here.
Some video games are easier to watch then others. I watch the vids of pro Korean fps games and it’s just really boring. Starcraft on the other hand I love.
I love SF and all, but to say it takes the most skill or something like that is bit off - unless you’re just as well versed in all the other games. For one, I know playing Starcraft takes an incredible amount of skill. Some of those pros do like 400 actions a minute, which is just insane.
Halo 3 is the biggest name in pro gaming right now by far, but I was decently surprised to see how popular SFIV is. Fighting games have not been this big since the mid 90s but fighting games are no where near as popular as FPS. Idk why, but a lot of people think fighting games are in the past and that FPS is the future of gaming.
pretty sure starcraft is, mostly because of korea.
FPS wise quake and 1.6 are much better games than halo, i dont know about numbers but they have been going a long time. As a follower of competitive gaming i would be annoyed if the breakthrough game in terms of mainstream appeal and television exposure was a console shooter.
example of good quake coverage (except for promotion rubbish upto 9 minutes)
http://tv.esl.eu/de/vod/view/21465/high