Professional video gaming

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

 
Professional Video Gaming Set for TV Debut
Monday April 17 2:19 AM ET


Professional video gaming is set to debut on cable television later this year, potentially paving the way for the kings and queens of game controllers to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke in televised poker.

Major League Gaming, the world's largest organized video gaming league, on Monday will announce a programming deal in which USA Network will air seven one-hour episodes in the fall, featuring the pro circuit and its players.

Though video gaming fans have been able to follow competitions on game Web sites for years already, MLG's television deal marks the first time regular TV viewers would be able track the ups and downs of a pro tournament, watching video gaming as a new kind of extreme sport.
 
"This is the sign that pro gaming has finally arrived to the mass market," said Matthew Bromberg, MLG's president and chief operating officer. "It's like poker was two years ago, or NASCAR 15 years ago."

The upcoming televised series will aim to engage viewers with not only with the game play itself featuring top players of "Halo 2" on Xbox and "Super Smash Bros. Melee" on Nintendo but also sports-like commentary and profiles of the players.

Among them: Bonnie Burton, also known as "Xena," a 15-year-old from Pennsylvania who is the only female in the pro league and one of the best "Halo2" players in the world; and Tom Taylor, who's known as "Tsquared," an 18-year-old from Florida and budding entrepreneur whose Gaming-Lessons business has already helped hone the video-gaming skills of numerous celebrities and star athletes.

"I'm excited to compete on TV in front of an audience. This will take video gaming to the next level," Taylor said.

Taylor, who gained more fame after he was recently featured on MTV's documentary series, "True Life," takes his sport seriously from keeping a healthy diet to daily practice sessions of three to four hours a day. He's also ended habits that could harm his hands, such as letting his pet dog routinely nip at his hands and using a knife to pick the bread out of the toaster.

"It is an extreme sport," he said. "It's about quick reflexes and also outsmarting people."

Some top players earn winnings in the range of a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, and the tournaments by MLG usually draw thousands of spectators at its arena venues and thousands more online, said Michael Sepso, MLG's chief executive and co-founder.

But going before a mainstream television audience could raise video gaming's visibility, leading to more sponsorships and advertising.

And drawing viewers shouldn't be a stretch, since "video gaming has always had a spectator-element to it anyway," Sepso said.
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http://tv.yahoo.com/news/ap/20060417/114526554000.html;_ylt=Auer9okvP21hmz1JABH94AyRsVoB

[schild]

Who do I have to kill at E3 to make sure this sort of thing never sees the light of day?

[Llava]

It's on the USA Network!  How can it fail?!

[Fabricated]

They already do some of this shit on G4, and it's boring as hell.

As much as I love video games, I definitely don't think people should be able to make a living playing them competitively after being pestered into watching a couple of old friends of mine compete in the CAL-I Counterstrike league. There is nothing more boring than watching people WTFPWNZ0R in Counterstrike or UT or Starcraft or pretty much any video game.

[Murgos]

I can see the ptich to the TV suits now:

"It's gonna be like TV tournament poker, but with video games!  You think poker has some characters, wait till you get an eye full of the people at these events..."

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

Who on F13 is going to run our "fantasy league" for this exciting sport 

And who better than Schild to do the "color commentary", I would pay to hear those comments on TV.

[Signe]

It sounds boring to me, too, but I don't understand why people shouldn't be "allowed" to make a living at it or why it shouldn't "see the light of day."  Golf, Poker and bowling are all pretty boring to watch, too, and they have professional players and they get televised.  I guess some people, somewhere watch them.  I assume they like it.

[Trippy]

I'd never even heard of these guys until I saw all press releases plastered around. I mean, who the heck cares about Halo 2 and Super Smash Brothers Melee? WCG and CPL are far larger than MLG in both participants and prize money despite MLG's claims to the contrary.

I used to watch a lot of Counter-Strike on Half-Life TV or through downloaded demos after I had "retired" but was still following the scene. I can understand if people think it's lame watching "televised" gaming but if you are into the games yourself they can be very exciting to watch.

Edit: fixed typo

[Sky]

They should call Hawk.

They already play reruns some of this shit on G4 because Comcast gutted TechTV and cancelled all the shows, and it's boring as hell.

FIFY

I seethe when I think of what Comcast did to TechTV. Podcasts ftw, I guess.

[HaemishM]

"This is the sign that pro gaming has finally arrived to the mass market," said Matthew Bromberg, MLG's president and chief operating officer. "It's like poker was two years ago, or NASCAR 15 years ago."

You mean I get to watch commercials for ANOTHER so-called "sport" that are as annoying as those fucking "World Series of Poker" ads or get fatass, pimply geeks plastered across the TV on every 5th commercials saying nothing about what they are actually advertising? Maybe we can put the winners on a Wheaties box! Or better yet, put them IN a Wheaties box right before we jettison that puddle of pre-pubescent cellulite into the goddamn sun?

[Samwise]

Watching Starcraft on TV has got to be more exciting than watching poker on TV.  They used to televise Starcraft matches in Korea IIRC.

[Hoax]

I watched damn near every Q2 1v1 final match and most years from the semi's on.  I've also watched TONS of Tribes1 matches in my day, hell we used to watch them like it was game film (it was) before we played a match against a person.

[bhodi]

Watching Starcraft on TV has got to be more exciting than watching poker on TV.  They used to televise Starcraft matches in Korea IIRC.

I was pretty fucking impressed with some of the players.. it was nuts, the guy micromanages siege tank leapfrog advances with hit-and-run vultures covering the front lines one unit at a time.

[Samwise]

See, that's what I'm talking about.  Video games on TV isn't an inherently shitty idea - you just need to pick the right game, have some good players, and make sure the guy in charge of "filming" the action knows what to focus on and what to ignore.

I used to read the stuff at Battlereports.com fairly regularly (back when I played a lot of Starcraft), and some of the stuff there was really damn entertaining.  (clicky)  Seems like that'd translate fairly well into TV if done right.

[Murgos]

I've sat and watched a friend play a video game and have had people sit and watch me play.  Nothing wrong in that, but paying someone to sit and play a video game so that others can sit and watch them play seems a little off.

[Sairon]

I find it entertaining to watch pro players in most games. I don't think a lot of average joes will watch starcraft games though, for example. If you're not into games you won't have a clue of what's going on.

[Mr_PeaCH]

... He's also ended habits that could harm his hands, such as letting his pet dog routinely nip at his hands and using a knife to pick the bread out of the toaster.

Guys using utensils to pick bread out of toasters... I can smell the burning flesh and  PPV revenue from here.  C'mon!

[Yegolev]

It's just like fucking sports, you troglodytes.  If you don't know what the hell is going on in - I don't know - basketball, it's going to look stupid and be boring.  Kick that up two hundred notches on the Boredom Bedpost if it's something like baseball.  Personally I don't think I'd get a whole lot out of Smash Bros since I never played it much.  I do, however, get a huge kick out of some of the footage I have seen from Street Fighter championships, but that's because I know what sort of heroics are involved.  My wife totally hates boxing, and it is because she is completely unable to see the SPORT in the game; she just sees two guys beating the shit out of each other.

You would also have to pick the right games, and I don't think SSBM and Halo 2 are terrible choices.  You have to start off with what the common slobs know, otherwise they will find it boring.

[Sky]

I used to use BF1942 as an motion painting at times. I'd log onto a 64 player server with freeroam camera and not spawn. Set the camera to an hot spot on the map and just watch the struggle. Servers that allowed you to follow teammates while you were dead were cool, too. Just sit and cycle through different players.

Even bad players were fun to watch, because they were funny. And sometimes you'd be watching some guy who was just abusing everyone on the server and maybe learn a few things. Lots of fun to watch that stuff.

[Margalis]

The real problem, aside from the insane levels of geekiness, is that in multiplayer games it's hard to follow the action because in most multiplayer games the 5 different screens are showing 5 totally different sets of events.

In sports you just follow the ball. Sure you miss some stuff, but the ball is the obvious focal-point. In an online FPS there isn't a clear person to focus in on.

[Fabricated]

It's just like fucking sports, you troglodytes.  If you don't know what the hell is going on in - I don't know - basketball, it's going to look stupid and be boring.  Kick that up two hundred notches on the Boredom Bedpost if it's something like baseball.  Personally I don't think I'd get a whole lot out of Smash Bros since I never played it much.  I do, however, get a huge kick out of some of the footage I have seen from Street Fighter championships, but that's because I know what sort of heroics are involved.  My wife totally hates boxing, and it is because she is completely unable to see the SPORT in the game; she just sees two guys beating the shit out of each other.

You would also have to pick the right games, and I don't think SSBM and Halo 2 are terrible choices.  You have to start off with what the common slobs know, otherwise they will find it boring.

I would happily bet money I have logged more time playing SSBM than pretty much anyone here, and I think watching $RETARDED_15_YEAR_OLD play SSBM against $RETARDED_15_YEAR_OLD would be pretty boring. I can heckle my friends when I'm out or not playing at least.

[Llava]

This is just one more straw on the EXTREME VIDEO GAMEZ camel's back.  Just as irritating and masturbatory as the SpikeTV VGAs.

I can't wait until they start to release TV shows of people watching movies. Oh shit, they did that.  And it was really good.

Maybe that would make this entertaining- chain Haemish to a desk and make him play Lineage 2 for 30 minutes.  I'd TiVO that.

[schild]

Maybe that would make this entertaining- chain Haemish to a desk and make him play Lineage 2 for 30 minutes. I'd TiVO that.

23 episodes. Each one hour a piece. Filmed over the course of a day. What's the extra hour for? Bathroom and food breaks. But we'll expect him to eat at his desk.

EMMY HERE I COME.

[Samwise]

The real problem, aside from the insane levels of geekiness, is that in multiplayer games it's hard to follow the action because in most multiplayer games the 5 different screens are showing 5 totally different sets of events.

In sports you just follow the ball. Sure you miss some stuff, but the ball is the obvious focal-point. In an online FPS there isn't a clear person to focus in on.

Half-Life TV took a really good stab at solving that problem with its "auto-director" camera mode.  Basically, they have a simple AI look at the positions of the players on different teams and try to predict when something exciting is about to happen (two players of opposing teams getting closer to each other is usually quickly followed by a firefight), and place the camera appropriately.  It doesn't always go to the most key event of the match, but it does pretty well for an AI that has to act in realtime.  If the footage were edited after the fact by a human being instead of shot on the run, it could come out a lot better.

The value of an overview map also can't be underestimated.  Again, HLTV did this right by allowing you to follow a player's vision on your main screen, and then have a picture-in-picture overview map so you could see stuff that the player couldn't.

[Polysorbate80]

Maybe that would make this entertaining- chain Haemish to a desk and make him play Lineage 2 for 30 minutes. I'd TiVO that.

23 episodes. Each one hour a piece. Filmed over the course of a day. What's the extra hour for? Bathroom and food breaks. But we'll expect him to eat at his desk.

EMMY HERE I COME.

Not much fun to listen to though...an hour of solid censor "BEEEEEP" punctuated only by inane commercials for shitty video games and Mountain Dew would get on one's nerves.

[MrHat]

I used to use BF1942 as an motion painting at times. I'd log onto a 64 player server with freeroam camera and not spawn. Set the camera to an hot spot on the map and just watch the struggle. Servers that allowed you to follow teammates while you were dead were cool, too. Just sit and cycle through different players.

Even bad players were fun to watch, because they were funny. And sometimes you'd be watching some guy who was just abusing everyone on the server and maybe learn a few things. Lots of fun to watch that stuff.

That's what I like to do too Sky.  In CS as well.

I also spent a good amount of time (about 30% of my time) in WC3 just watching replays.  But I think part of the reason that was fun was because I could control what I wanted to see, ie. the game is the controller.  Having someone else direct stuff for me always pisses me off.

[Llava]

Maybe that would make this entertaining- chain Haemish to a desk and make him play Lineage 2 for 30 minutes. I'd TiVO that.

23 episodes. Each one hour a piece. Filmed over the course of a day. What's the extra hour for? Bathroom and food breaks. But we'll expect him to eat at his desk.

EMMY HERE I COME.

Not much fun to listen to though...an hour of solid censor "BEEEEEP" punctuated only by inane commercials for shitty video games and Mountain Dew would get on one's nerves.

Like all truly pioneering and cutting-edge shows, it would have to be on HBO.

[Johny Cee]

People make some really good points here.

On it's face, TV coverage of video games could be interesting viewing.  It would take careful selection of games of appeal/how well they translate to viewing, good presentation of the action,  and good direction and editing.

I know in DAoC there's a fair amount of movies made of RvR action,  either by gank groups or good soloers,  that are fairly popular.  Watching your saved films from a FPS can be fun,  as can watching over the shoulder of a good player.

The problem is more fitting it into the TV format.  Just as an example,  there are plenty of other sports that have had to make rules changes to become more approachable to audiences.  Look at the changes in amateur wrestling, boxing, or cricket to make the sports conducive to a spectator experience.

If video games get the standard MTV shaky cam and quick cuts with hack editing announced by a vapid and bored starlet....  yah.

Even brillant editing and packaging can't overcome the charisma gap that most professional gamers would have, though.

[Strazos]

I can see the trainwrecks now.

Watch people play Halo2 or CS? Hell Fucking No.

This reminds me of G4's "Arena."

I fucking hated that show because they "elite teams" they had on mostly sucked ass.

[eldaec]

paving the way for the kings and queens of game controllers to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke

Seriously.

Just how familiar are the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke?

[Trippy]

paving the way for the kings and queens of game controllers to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke

Seriously.

Just how familiar are the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke?

Well Johnny Chan was in Rounders so some non-poker players may recognize him from that (assuming he looks the same).

[Lantyssa]

Just how familiar are the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke?

Who?

[HaemishM]

If video games get the standard MTV shaky cam and quick cuts with hack editing announced by a vapid and bored starlet....  yah.

I see that you've watched G4TV.

[ClydeJr]

Major League Gaming presents:

You make the call!

CyBeRsTuD has just been headshot 6 times in a row by -=YerGranny=-. What is the proper excuse for CyBeRsTuD to use to explain his poor gameplay?

A: OMFG YOUR FUKIN WALLHAKCING!!!1 YER SOOoo BAND!!

B: This mouse sux! Yer lucky im at a friends house cuz I'd pwnzor you're ass across teh map if I was using my rig!

C: Headshot? Where the fuck are my peons? I need to build some farms!