Casting is pretty damn important. Casting can make a boring match fun, or turn an epic match into a snoozefest. Okay, maybe not that drastic, but close.
Being a BW player/fan before SC2, most of the videos I watched were of korean commentary. I had no idea what the hell was being said. For many people, this would be a turn-off, but I, and many other people, loved how much hype the korean commentators created, just by yelling what sounded like pure gibberish to anyone as white as I.
No idea what's being said (there's a good video that shows the highlights, but 85% has a language barrier.
Unfortunately just sounding excited won't cut it in SC2, because I can actually understand what the casters are talking about (for the most part). Building hype has to be done both with tone and content these days.
It's easy to close at this point by saying "the casters need to be good at it", but it's not that clear cut. Role assignment in casting, if done right, can be an extremely important factor.
Again, I could easily close here by saying "one is play-by-play, one is analysis, sports does this, so should eSports", but not only is that a false statement in terms of it's assumptions, it also falls short in terms of it's discussion on the route eSports should take.
The merits of the play-by-play/color commentator system (I'll just call it the "sports" system from here on out) are relatively simple: the roles are extremely well defined, and each person has an exact idea of what one should do.
The example of sports using this is a pretty easy one to identify: you have the Al Michaels of the world, who tell you that Michael Vick just threw a touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson, and the John Maddens, who analyze how Brent Celek's route pulled the safety in to leave Jackson wide open.
Play-by-play is necessary in team sports because it's tough to tell on-screen who does what in a game. We can't see numbers (nor do we usually know the names of everyone on field), and keeping track of 22 people (who don't even remain on screen all the time) is visually and mentally straining. The play guy, on television (radio is a different animal for completely obvious reasons), usually is there to tell you who is doing what, the reason being the fact that the who is obfuscated.
What about individual sports, however?
The two biggest individual sports, at least in the US, are tennis and golf. My exposure to television coverage of both of these events show that play-by-play is completely absent. Golf is pretty obvious (OH MY GOD LOOK AT THE BALL FLY HOLY SHIT), but tennis has a lot of nuance which could easily be made exciting by a good play-by-play caster. And yet they remain silent.
The reason is that it's completely unnecessary. We don't need to be told that Nadal just laid down a sick drop shot, we can see that with our eyes.
So which situation applies to Starcraft?
The answer is neither. We know what each unit is doing in a battle most likely, so telling us that tanks are shooting things is redundant. However, considering how much is going on at once and how limited our view is of a game, we can't see everything.
So now, we're back at square one. ESPORTS needs to forge it's own direction in terms of casting.
WRONG.
We have over a decade of televised Korean Brood War to fall back on, and it turns out that they've solved this problem quite nicely, as evidenced by the translated commentary in this video:
There's elements of play-by-play in there, but most of what you hear from the three commentators (they don't even keep the "traditional" number!) is analysis. They also do an excellent job of building hype as the game progresses, and showing what players NEED to be doing and why.
The takeway lesson is this:
1. Direct translation from sports in terms of what SC should do is impossible. 2. Sole play-by-play commentators lend too much redundancy to a cast. 3. Pure analysis can build up hype when done right, and has been the traditional route by which SC has gone.
Really well written blog here man, I think that by mentioning the sports that lack play by play you are adding a lot more to the discussion, I am not much of a sports fan and never thought of those different competition's casting models because I haven't heard anyone else mention them.
After I check out that translated video I may have some more to say. (which is also awesome to have in the post)
Thanks for mentioning a couple models I don't think people talk about enough when discussing casting ideas.
the "play by play" commentary should be support for the "analysis" not necessarily just saying what's happening. theoretically the play by play guy and the analysis guy should be interchangeable at any point
On June 15 2011 11:08 Sc1pio wrote:
There's elements of play-by-play in there, but most of what you hear from the three commentators (they don't even keep the "traditional" number!) is analysis. They also do an excellent job of building hype as the game progresses, and showing what players NEED to be doing and why.
1. Direct translation from sports in terms of what SC should do is impossible. 2. Sole play-by-play commentators lend too much redundancy to a cast. 3. Pure analysis can build up hype when done right, and has been the traditional route by which SC has gone.
Ironically one of the differences between SC2 and BW casting is too much information, the ''advanced'' replay and observer technology allows you to see:
EXACTLY what he is making EXACTLY how much supply one has(There was as a GomTV unit counting station and sometimes they even have them on MBC, or OGN I think its OGN, but BW supply discrepancy means less then in SC2) EXACTLY how much units of EACH kind a person has EXACTLY the upgrade timings etc
In BW, we go nuts when we see lings streaming in a ZvZ and the eggs pop.......AND ITS DRONES, FML.
Also, who doesn't remember....alot of Soulkey games recently......
KEEEEEEEEEENS suddenly, ~12 gatherin in a spot to gather energy
In SC2 its: oke he is fucked he just made a buncha drones as we can see in the production tab. Or(it would be) huh, he is going queens, interesting.......then they pop out after some time but we already know its happening from the moment that they get produced.
Moreover, I will use the example of the HBR ZvP, slow drop tech?You can see that coming from a MILE away if you have the production tab, but WTF you don't see it in BW, hence our suprise when he goes slow drop(Oke ill be fair you can see the Overlords in position, but you are not 100% certain.)
Moreover, notice how the crowd goes wild when Yellow makes a few mutalisks, these will ofcourse be used to take care of the reavers and end the game, notice how they go nuts when the eggs pop into mutalisks.
In SC2 its.......he is making mutalisks to count ''reavers'' as we can see in the production tab.
On June 15 2011 11:41 Kipsate wrote: Ironically one of the differences between SC2 and BW casting is too much information, the ''advanced'' replay and observer technology allows you to see:
EXACTLY what he is making EXACTLY how much supply one has(There was as a GomTV unit counting station and sometimes they even have them on MBC, or OGN I think its OGN, but BW supply discrepancy means less then in SC2) EXACTLY how much units of EACH kind a person has EXACTLY the upgrade timings etc
In BW, we go nuts when we see lings streaming in a ZvZ and the eggs pop.......AND ITS DRONES, FML.
In SC2 its: oke he is fucked he just made a buncha drones as we can see in the production tab.
Ironic isn't it.
While I think you make a good point, I'm not sure its ironic.
Ironically one of the differences between SC2 and BW casting is too much information, the ''advanced'' replay and observer technology allows you to see:
EXACTLY what he is making EXACTLY how much supply one has(There was as a GomTV unit counting station and sometimes they even have them on MBC, or OGN I think its OGN, but BW supply discrepancy means less then in SC2) EXACTLY how much units of EACH kind a person has EXACTLY the upgrade timings etc
In BW, we go nuts when we see lings streaming in a ZvZ and the eggs pop.......AND ITS DRONES, FML.
Also, who doesn't remember....alot of Soulkey games recently......
KEEEEEEEEEENS suddenly, ~12 gatherin in a spot to gather energy
In SC2 its: oke he is fucked he just made a buncha drones as we can see in the production tab. Or(it would be) huh, he is going queens, interesting.......then they pop out after some time but we already know its happening from the moment that they get produced.
Moreover, I will use the example of the HBR ZvP, slow drop tech?You can see that coming from a MILE away if you have the production tab, but WTF you don't see it in BW, hence our suprise when he goes slow drop(Oke ill be fair you can see the Overlords in position, but you are not 100% certain.)
Moreover, notice how the crowd goes wild when Yellow makes a few mutalisks, these will ofcourse be used to take care of the reavers and end the game, notice how they go nuts when the eggs pop into mutalisks.
In SC2 its.......he is making mutalisks to count ''reavers'' as we can see in the production tab.
Ironic isn't it.
It's a blessing and a curse, really. The analysis of what should happen can be more spot on, at the cost of some of the wow factor. I don't like how the production tab is a crutch of many casters, however.
EPT
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