How will eSports go mainstream?

[_Depression]

What has to happen for eSports to really make a mark in the mainstream, especially in the USA where it's still just a niche audience even if it is millions of people? MLG is blowing up more and more every year, but at the same time the sponsorship funding for the WCG is so low that they had to cut out most of the events in the USA qualifiers. IGN has basically hired NBA player Gordon Hayward to be their poster boy until the lockout ends, and he's playing in his first tournament today but there's been zero coverage of it by the major news outlets except for a few small interviews almost a month ago.

So what is it going to take for people to take eSports seriously here? Any thoughts?

 

[TheWhiteRapper]

People do take eSports seriously. The question is do we want people to take eSports as seriously as actual sports. I frankly don't see how this would be good for anyone. Yeah, it'd be socially acceptable to talk about the GSL in public, but honestly I play football and sports are like a fucking religion. It's a little ridiculous and I hate to see my teammates get depressed because they missed a tackle. No eSports will never be as "mainstream" as football or soccer, but then again, nothing really should be. Also, sports are popular because their so ingrained with our culture, not because they're really that entertaining or the pinnacle of competitive excellence. And we can't really change culture in a timely manner

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

What has to happen for eSports to really make a mark in the mainstream, especially in the USA where it's still just a niche audience even if it is millions of people? MLG is blowing up more and more every year, but at the same time the sponsorship funding for the WCG is so low that they had to cut out most of the events in the USA qualifiers. IGN has basically hired NBA player Gordon Hayward to be their poster boy until the lockout ends, and he's playing in his first tournament today but there's been zero coverage of it by the major news outlets except for a few small interviews almost a month ago.

So what is it going to take for people to take eSports seriously here? Any thoughts?

A complete paradigm shift in what the average person cares about. Seriously. Physical sports are huge in this country because the rules have been stabilized for long enough that just about everyone knows the basic rules of all of the major sports, whether they play them (or even particularly care about them) or not. Videogames tend to have major rule changes every few years, when the sequel comes out or when a competitor manages to take over the market share of the old game. As a result, the only people who really understand the rules of the games (and are therefore likely to be interested in watching tournaments as a televised event) are the ones who already play them. When the average American cares enough about games to learn how the strategy works, whether they personally play them or not, then you'll see people caring about E-sports. Personally, I'll be shocked if it happens within my lifetime.

 

[Woodsey]

It won't. I would wager the majority of gamers don't like watching eSports (it bores me to tears - I want to be playing), let alone non-gamers.

Big in South Korea, but South Korea isn't here, or the States, or mainland Europe.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It won't. I would wager the majority of gamers don't like watching eSports (it bores me to tears - I want to be playing), let alone non-gamers.

Big in South Korea, but South Korea isn't here, or the States, or mainland Europe.

And even in South Korea, it's not E-Sports in general -- unless they have some huge Counterstrike league I've never heard of -- it's just that the original Starcraft managed to be in the right place at the right time to be picked up as something of a national past time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the sequel hasn't really taken off to the extent of the original over there, has it?

 

[_Depression]

It won't. I would wager the majority of gamers don't like watching eSports (it bores me to tears - I want to be playing), let alone non-gamers.

Big in South Korea, but South Korea isn't here, or the States, or mainland Europe.

And even in South Korea, it's not E-Sports in general -- unless they have some huge Counterstrike league I've never heard of -- it's just that the original Starcraft managed to be in the right place at the right time to be picked up as something of a national past time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the sequel hasn't really taken off to the extent of the original over there, has it?

No, SC2 hasn't hit as big yet, but there's still a heck of a lot of interest, and the tournaments (GSL) are getting bigger and bigger every month.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It won't. I would wager the majority of gamers don't like watching eSports (it bores me to tears - I want to be playing), let alone non-gamers.

Big in South Korea, but South Korea isn't here, or the States, or mainland Europe.

And even in South Korea, it's not E-Sports in general -- unless they have some huge Counterstrike league I've never heard of -- it's just that the original Starcraft managed to be in the right place at the right time to be picked up as something of a national past time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the sequel hasn't really taken off to the extent of the original over there, has it?

No, SC2 hasn't hit as big yet, but there's still a heck of a lot of interest, and the tournaments (GSL) are getting bigger and bigger every month.

Even so, it's a new iteration of the old game, and it's going to be fairly stable for a number of years; sure, there will be expansions, but Star Craft III is bound to be five or more years down the road -- most likely closer to ten years, really. I think stability of the ruleset is a big factor here; in series like CoD, which get new entries every year, and even in series like Quake, which at the height of the initial wave of US enthusiasm about pro-gaming (the term e-sports was coined fairly recently) was getting a new entry every few years, the rules really aren't stable enough for the snow-ball effect needed to get large numbers of people who don't play to figure out the rules well enough to follow a televised match.

 

[Zach of Fables]

It would take a truly mainstream video game, one that's just as popular across all demographics as even a relative obscure sport like...ice skating. I don't see that happening.

 

[_Depression]

Even so, it's a new iteration of the old game, and it's going to be fairly stable for a number of years; sure, there will be expansions, but Star Craft III is bound to be five or more years down the road -- most likely closer to ten years, really. I think stability of the ruleset is a big factor here; in series like CoD, which get new entries every year, and even in series like Quake, which at the height of the initial wave of US enthusiasm about pro-gaming (the term e-sports was coined fairly recently) was getting a new entry every few years, the rules really aren't stable enough for the snow-ball effect needed to get large numbers of people who don't play to figure out the rules well enough to follow a televised match.

This is why I think that SC2 can be the real catalyst eSports needs in the USA. Constant patches to make the game more even, already intense competition from all over the world, tournaments almost every week with tens of thousands to millions of viewers... The game has been out for over a year now, and it's still on a steep incline of interest. Eventually it'll level out, but the fact that it hasn't even garnered a mention-in-passing has me confused. You don't need to expect an entire shift in the collective mindset of the populous to acknowledge how big these events have gotten.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Even so, it's a new iteration of the old game, and it's going to be fairly stable for a number of years; sure, there will be expansions, but Star Craft III is bound to be five or more years down the road -- most likely closer to ten years, really. I think stability of the ruleset is a big factor here; in series like CoD, which get new entries every year, and even in series like Quake, which at the height of the initial wave of US enthusiasm about pro-gaming (the term e-sports was coined fairly recently) was getting a new entry every few years, the rules really aren't stable enough for the snow-ball effect needed to get large numbers of people who don't play to figure out the rules well enough to follow a televised match.

This is why I think that SC2 can be the real catalyst eSports needs in the USA. Constant patches to make the game more even, already intense competition from all over the world, tournaments almost every week with tens of thousands to millions of viewers... The game has been out for over a year now, and it's still on a steep incline of interest. Eventually it'll level out, but the fact that it hasn't even garnered a mention-in-passing has me confused. You don't need to expect an entire shift in the collective mindset of the populous to acknowledge how big these events have gotten.

No, you don't need a shift in the collective mindset of the populous to acknowledge how big e-sports has gotten. You do need one for it to get as big as real sports, and that's what we're talking about here. Right now, saying e-sports aren't as big as mainstream sports is about like saying the highland games aren't as big as the Olympics; it's kind of a "well, duh." statement.