This is a good point, but I think there is a solution to it that doesn’t involve dumbing the games down(which people don’t actually want, if you look at the ghost town called Divekick).
If the devs were to actually break the game down into smaller chunks, in order to gradually introduce people to the full game, add some sort of RPG-like progression mechanic, and implement an intuitive matchmaking system, we would get the best of both worlds. Kinda like Rocksmith, which actually teaches people to play the guitar while giving them a fun game to enjoy. I’m sure some people here would be crying about it, but I really don’t care very much about butthurt elitists.
Most people play games for fun, just like watching TV, going to the movies, etc. People don’t mind learning if it is while having fun. So playing matches getting gradually better, etc. People love how smooth learning curves and progressing in video games. However 99% of people (including myself) loathe having to go to the training room to get certain combos down. Seeing as fighting games are mostly so combo based nowadays, you can’t avoid it if you want to be any good.
Numbers to esports just means spectators or people who play casually and don’t want to compete.
What really matters to a competitive game and the player base is whether the game is good. People playing games. They get excited about a game coming out, enjoy the fuck out of it, and want to get games against other people. That’s what matters.
And yes, the approach Blizzard and TOs who act more like junior marketing executives than players caused that to happen with SC2.
Someday there might be a video game the general public is willing to really watch on TV for decades. I see no reason DotA2 and LoL would either be that game. Until a game like that does show up, little core communities are all that will last.
I actually don’t understand what you are trying to say. Are you saying that a game is either a small core community, or it’s SC2 status…that there is no in-between? If so, then you are way off.
I hope this current version of the fighting fame scene dies a horrible and swift death so all you esport losers can go play something else and leave fighting fames alone again
You do realize that casual players are the ones that cause games to be greenlit right? If it was just hardcore tournament players, they wouldn’t even be able to cover a fraction of the costs.
They’ll still buy games that look cool. They don’t dictate specifics like the core playerbase does, they don’t want to. They’ll also leave pretty quickly since most video games are impulse buys. So long as they had fun for the two weeks they played (and this applies to any game) then I don’t see what the problem is.
I’m saying people that watch on stream are insignificant and fickle to a game’s future, but esports ranks them as most important, then the casual players, then the people that actually want to compete in the competitive game.
The only thing that matters to game companies is money, meaning the only thing that matters is numbers, meaning the competitive community is only significant in so far as their ability to provide entertainment for the larger, actually relevant casual player community. That’s the only reason the sponsors care about them. If the viewers disappear the sponsors go with them, meaning tournaments go back to being tiny affairs with even smaller payouts than what is available now. This means fewer people decide to take the time and effort to become top competitors, meaning a further shrinking of the competitive community.
Most people that go to tournaments don’t go for the payout, anyway, and none of the people actually getting the payout got started for the payout.
You’re also not addressing my original point, which is that if you go for large spectator crowds and base your community future on it, then you’re guaranteeing said community will have a very short lifespan.
Even with the high numbers evo got in 2013 you won’t see it go esports anytime soon because of a lack of big sponsors. With console tournaments, what are companies going sell to the spectators? Deodorant? T shirts? Glowing controllers and fight sticks? These guys are small timers, they aren’t going to provide big cash prizes that hardware developers dish out. With no cash on the line, both competitors and spectators diminish because nobody takes it seriously.
Who the hell cares if Xian from Asia takes home 4000 dollars for winning evo2k13? I make more than that in my fortnightly pay before taxes. With more than 1200 entrants he had to face killers and a strong likelihood of being eliminated with every competitor he faced. I would never trade places with any of these guys. nobody is going to respect the fgc if your kings are merely kings of losers.
It’s relative. I feel poor next to my boss that rakes in 4-5 million each year.
My point though is that without big prizes to match spectatorship nobody will acknowledge esports. With games like Tekken and Injustice moving to PC thing might change. If all other fg’s can migrate over to PC port and PC hardware becoming so cheap to the point tournaments can be held it… Then that’s something. Right now many top players naively believe that streams will become so big to the point that people will pay to watch… Sorry I’m not entirely convinced you’ll be able to pocket any substantial amount from that.
For Xian from Asia 4000 dollars is a lot of money.
Hell, I make a quite a bit of money but I still think 4000 dollars is a lot of money. Who here has enough money to think 4000 is nothing? Probably not a lot of people.
Esports shouldn’t be able to fund a celebrity career, the fact that sports can fund such a career is proof that mankind is disgusting. Saving lives by the dozens daily is less valuable than throwing a pocket of air wrapped in synthetic skin.
Video games are a hobby, they’re a distraction and the only way to make them a career is by making them, which is a thankless job with long hours and low pay.
Tourneys in fighting games are fine the way they are now, mostly underground events with a few majors. None of them have a particularly large payout but if you get a couple hundred or thousand dollars from an evening or weekend of playing a game for fun that’s one hell of a bonus.
Your mindset in a tourney should be “sweet I get to play one of my favourite games for a couple hours/days” not “oh man I better win to get that prize money”
If you make your mindset, or if the community switches to the WAAC mindset (win at all costs) for the sake of money you will make a game like Starcraft which will be choked out. At first in starcraft the range of players encompassed trolls to casuals to tryhards to pros. Over the various seasons the trolls and casuals just stopped playing, raising the average skill level of the playerbase significantly since all that’s left are the players who are good or had the capacity to become good through lots of effort, everyone else quit and stopped caring about starcraft because the esports paycheck dream faded away and they never played the game for the enjoyment of it.
I’m sure fighting games similarly drives casuals/bad players away but not because the esports dream has been crushed by blizzard+korea, instead it’s extremely frustrating to feel powerless as someone who is marginally better than you is nearly unbeatable (pending just how bad you are), but it’s not the same as weekly tournaments where it’s just top 16 are korean who play 16 hours a day and do things you never could do (fighting game execution is nothing compared to the starcraft grind).
Majors come by too often now. They aren’t special anymore and make it difficult to make it out to all of them. To me, there is only NEC, Final round, CEO, EVO, and Canada Cup.
It depends on what your definition of a major or a regional is. Also, what you say implies that regionals can’t be majors.
For me, I make a list of six tournaments I cannot miss no matter what (Defend the North, SCR, FR, ECT, UFGT, EVO) and then everything else is up in the air.
Sorry but pet peev I have to address, I hate when people complain about athletes making too much money. The owners, commissioners, execs already usually make much more money than athletes, and athletes are the ones that bring viewers, ticket buyers, sponsors, etc etc. I am talking about real sports here, not e sports. However even if e sport isn’t a real ‘sport’ but entertainment if it is bringing in many consumers then it is making a lot of money and a good portion should deservedly go to the players.
Also BTW…doctors make a ton of money, and it’s a lot easier to be one than a pro athlete. Which brings me to another issue, if doctors are making so much money it leads more people to pursue medical careers for financial gain rather than a genuine interest helping people/healing people. This is why there is all the malpractice shit, and so many doctors who rush appts and care only about lining their pockets rather than doing their job properly.
