To me, what seperates the niche from the mainstream is not the players, hardcore or casual. It’s the spectators.
Youtube has probably done more for eSports than any gaming company or website.
I think the future of competitive gaming depends a lot on how spectator friendly it is. We see Capcom catching on with its SF TV feature in SF4 and the Youtube uploading in 3S OE. And it’s great that many tournaments have livestreams with commentary.
But there’s still a lot of room for improvement. Many streams dont make much effort to post up brackets between each match, for example, so to the viewer, it often just feels like a disconnected series of matches - there’s no context (beyond maybe the quarter finals and up) to make the matches more meaningful or exciting.
Similarly, there isnt that much detail on the players either. If we’re lucky, we get their nickname onscreen during their match. Sometimes the commentators will talk about players they know. Sure, I’m not expecting personal details or anything, but it would make things exciting if past results, character usage stats, and other game related information was available.
(I’m not asking for people to do these things - since after all, it requires time and effort from volunteers - I’m just thinking of ways that esports can be more spectator friendly.)
Honestly, what I’d like to see is a player-book of some kind. Like a wiki totally dedicated to player history, filled with match videos and accolades. A project like that would take a number of dedicated people to maintain, though.
this site has grown a lot since I came back in 2005, we have more threads with loads of more information than before but there’s just one problem. Moderation.
I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again, things were more entertaining when Saotome used to mod this place everyday. He’d shut down stupid threads in minutes and give infractions but no less after he had given his insights on things, although most of the posters would use that time to troll it was like a good relieve before we got back to the threads that mattered, shit was fun, man I just to spends hours just reading and reading even about games I didn’t even play at all.
but now there’s a cluster of useless threads all around and people tend to go to the stupids threads, I’ll be honest i do it too
So the last time you saw fuudo was in a super tourney from last year, and a charity event in april. And before the cannes tourney? Bet you’re gonna have to do a lot of searching to find his last tourney appearance before that. Point is, the major audience keeps up with the covered streams. Fuudo was nowhere to be found on those, so it’s no surprise he’s not in the public eye. Do you think anyone in Japan had any idea who Latif was before EVO 2k11?
Yes, because he was in SBO for Guilty Gear years before this… back in 06/07. lol. Hav is right people really don’t know history.
Also I remember specifically that I said Fuudo was stronger than Daigo (or gave me a harder time) back when I did my Japan thread and actually cared abotu posting here But that was back when the front page was not utilized (which is why I’m not surprised ppl really don’t know who he is.)
Fuudo has been in the Top 10 of BP in Japan pretty much since AE came out. The #2 Fei Long… my overall point is just that stuff like that should be highlighted. Whatever though. I’m off that now. If we’re actually gonna do something, then great. I’ll be glad to take part, front, whatever the case, on this.
I was so glad when Latif did as good as he did, I’ve been saying hes on the level of the top top Japanese for a while now to my friends who are kinda scrubby and the best viper/best player in the US skill wise. But whenever I said that people would be like “WOLFKRONE BEAT SO AND SO” etc. etc. felt really vindicated when he put on a clinic of top level viper play… It’s weird because its so obvious to me that Latif is on another level but if you’re just being a fanboy its easy to think that Wolfkrone is better, and its so hard to explain why he is… Also why did the commentators not explain that so many of those “reads” were option selects during top 8/32 etc…? Are they trying to hide option selects from the general public because they think they’ll think its cheap or did they just not know? I’m pretty sure all of Latif’s Super Jumps on Tokido teleports and Fuudo’s Ultra punishing the backdash were properly executed Option Selects, and so many other punishes were option selects i forget which exactly…
I’ll continue that statement with a message to Keits:
Screw all the morons who shit on what you do or people can’t express themselves properly.
Ignore them for a moment and let’s talk for real:
A lot of new people read the front page. The front page has a lot of power. You can use it to educate those players and help them develop a better mentality. We want to help you with that.
I know you work very hard to make the front page attractive and I also know that your intentions are pure, but I think there’s a tiny problem we need to solve: Giving “too much” attention to “casual” content does harm because the frequency and substance of the “news” dictates the message and the tone. The tone we want SRK to send is about being competitive, being serious, working hard and striving to be the champion yourself!
There’s “the players” and there’s “the spectators”. Catering to spectators brings the whole website towards the casual zone.
Funny and cool moments#86? - that’s for “spectators”.
Celebrities of the month did this and that? -that’s for "spectators."
did you see new juicebox dance lolol? -I’m being extreme here to get my point across
Remember that “Players” watch streams not just for the sake of it, but also to learn, and to see what they missed by not coming. (Because unlike spectators they really wanted to be there and play!)
Bottom line: We want to help you change the tone of the front page to be for “players”.
It won’t be easy and we don’t exactly know how to do it, but that is the manifest, the direction.
Please respond and tell me you understand my point of view.
I agree with the player/spectator point of view,posting more news and videos that focus on the competitive aspect would not only be more helpful but even more entertaining.
Said that during SF4 popularity and everyone thought they were a ‘star’…an bout 3 pages back. I just wish for future ‘commentary’ that people would at least give some knowledge of said player… especially if he has been around the block for a moment regardless of where he is from…
Anyway, glad to see people coming up with ideas.
@HAV… I should be there sir I will definitely try my best to come an kick it an give. An know you can always use my site to save your write ups if need be…
Also I like what you did with the video roundup deal. I think combo videos in general should have a weekly roundup sort of thing and not individual posts on the front page.
But that was back when the front page was not utilized (which is why I’m not surprised ppl really don’t know who he is.)