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Hey guys. I just read something over at Kotaku that actually really upset me. I don't normally choose to respond to things in this way, but I felt I had to. I posted it's contents in the spoiler to save you some time. Original link is at the bottom.
Here's the original interview with Zaccubus that the article took some words from: http://www.alienwarearena.com/articles/view/pro-gamer-interview-zaccubus/
*My full response is up now on Sixjax gaming's site*
http://www.sixjaxgaming.com/wp/scii/2011/07/06/professional-gaming-on-an-upswing-growing-fan-base-to-blame/
The article:
+ Show Spoiler +Professional Gaming on the Downturn, Cheesy TV to Blame
Jen Schiller — Professional Gamer David Treacy, or "Zaccubus" to his—erm—fans, recently spoke to Alienware about the changing face of professional gaming. Based on his interview, however, there's not much to talk about.
While Treacy compares the world of pro gaming to the economy ("It grew rapidly over the last decade, then almost imploded on itself.") he also mentions that the hardware is getting better, new games are being produced, and huge corportations (he cites Coke, Pepsi, Subway, and Adidas) are signing on as sponsors.
If there's no audience base for professional gaming, then Treacy blames television for being ill-equipped to properly capture the essence of gaming events. "Every TV show I've seen so far has been way too cheesy and not indicative of what pro gaming is about. Trying to squeeze an event into a 60 minute broadcast doesn't really work for gaming... Only recently, thanks to MLG, can we see what gaming events should look like: Great shoutcasting, well presented, and without the need to cheese it up for regular people to understand." Without this cheesiness that Treacy is referring to, what could possibly be left?
Don't get me wrong, I love watching people who are better than me at video games play them for money, especially when I don't know those people.
Oh wait. No I don't.
Treacy also describes the difficulties that one must endure in order to really make it as a pro gamer, a thankless profession that only pays about $30,000 annually before sponsorships. His advice to aspiring pros boils down to the following: It's really hard. "It's not easy to go pro. It takes time and if you don't pick the right games you could spend over two years mastering a certain game only to have it blown out of the water as no one is sponsoring it anymore. So pick wisely. Oh, and don't rage so much from losses. You only learn from your mistakes."
Here's to staying one of the Regular People.
********************************************************************
After reading Jen Miller's recent editorial on professional gaming I couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed. I mean.. She gave away her entire article in the first sentence! Spoiler alert, please!
Jen writes: "Professional Gamer David Treacy, or "Zaccubus" to his—erm—fans,recently spoke to Alienware..."
See? Right there you can pretty much stop reading. Let's take a moment to go through the issues in this piece so far.
Firstly; Jen disrespects everyone that enjoys watching David do what he does best. By using the phrase "his--erm--fans", Jen's basically saying that Zaccubus' fans, or the fans of esports in general, aren't really actual fans. Their some sort of sub-fan following an interest that's not worth following. Ouch. Great way to grab the attention of readers on a video gaming website.
Second; we've got the fact that this article is based on an interview done by someone else. Jen, maybe if you had some questions or opinions about some of the things in the interview you could have contacted David. I think that's what most responsible writers would have done. Isntead, you chose to use carefully selected phrases to further your own opinion in your article.
Alright, so that's the first sentence.
As for the rest of the piece, I'm not going to bother analyzing every little bit. I've got a burrito waiting for me at my favorite restaurant and I think what I've already says speaks to the validity of the rest of the article. I'll summarize with a couple sentences:
Jen, you didn't give us any examples of these "cheesy" shows. Whatever happened to research in journalism?
You act like $30,000 starting per year is a bad thing for progamers. Anyone who gets to do what they love for a job won't be unhappy with that much. David certainly didn't seem unhappy about it in the interview. It's unfortunate how you portrayed that.
How does the emergence of lots of large sponsors mean professional gaming is on a downturn? Seriously...
And what is this following phrase supposed to be exactly?
"Don't get me wrong, I love watching people who are better than me at video games play them for money, especially when I don't know those people.
Oh wait. No I don't."
Is that supposed to be clever? Funny maybe? It's neither. It's your own opinion, which is all this small attempt at "journalism" is. This is an opinion piece only and sensationalism at best.
I think I speak for the gaming community when I say that you owe David an apology. It's an embarrassment to Kotaku to have this on their page.
Original article: http://kotaku.com/5818213/professional-gaming-on-the-downturn-cheesy-tv-to-blame.
 
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Don't get me wrong, I love watching people who are better than me at sports play them for money, especially when I don't know those people.
Oh wait. No I don't.
^ Equally foolish of a statement
Bad articles and bad writing are the bane of internet warriors attempting to prove things they don't understand in their entirety. Sad article...
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He never actually gave examples of cheese tv...that i can remember...
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
I wouldn't even click the link. Kotaku is a rag of a blog and exists only to spew traffic-generating sensationalism,....there isn't an ounce of journalism here. She interviewed 1 person and wrote an article on it???? You would actually fail an assignment in any journalism program trying to pull that off.
Her point is quite literally "Waaah this is boring i don't like it".
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On July 06 2011 08:59 Kennigit wrote:
I wouldn't even click the link. Kotaku is a rag of a blog and exists only to spew traffic-generating sensationalism,....there isn't an ounce of journalism here. She interviewed 1 person and wrote an article on it???? You would actually fail an assignment in any journalism program trying to pull that off.
Her point is quite literally "Waaah this is boring i don't like it".
I kinda feel bad for visiting [and commenting on] the site now.. Oh well, last time I'll visit it I suppose.
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I don't really like watching sports on TV, either, I would much rather watch them live
That's from Jen. Honestly dude, you put too much effort for a blog and network that really is full of bad jokes, biasness and stupidity.
Please. Quit Kotaku and go to Joystiq, Giant Bomb or anyone else relatively intelligent or at least remotely doing more than spewing her opinion with a garnish of one interview.
I stopped going onto Kotaku purely because they were classless, not funny and pretentious. Their commenters too, while sometimes more intelligent than the journalists, are equally pretentious at times or too easily bruised.
Even I can write better.
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Hahaha what garbage. The whole thing is literally "I don't like watching people play games at a high level, therefore it has problems and it's shit."
I feel bad for Zaccubus, as his positive words were turned against something I'm sure he loves and cares about. (Albeit it was horribly ineffective of the writer.)
I could write a better article than that in 25 minutes, even if I was forced to argue her useless, uninformed, flimsy, pointless side.
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ths thing is, some people actually go to sites like these to form opinions, and then we have negative ESPORTS dollars for each person who decides they don't want to like ESPORTs either.
it's upsetting!
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Relax OP, Kotaku is like the daily mail of video games. Your blood pressure will thank you the sooner you come to realize this.
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On July 06 2011 09:30 Mikilatov wrote:
Hahaha what garbage. The whole thing is literally "I don't like watching people play games at a high level, therefore it has problems and it's shit."
I feel bad for Zaccubus, as his positive words were turned against something I'm sure he loves and cares about. (Albeit it was horribly ineffective of the writer.)
I could write a better article than that in 25 minutes, even if I was forced to argue her useless, uninformed, flimsy, pointless side.
Please do, but without responding to her :3
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You should have quoted the entire article to avoid giving her pageviews.
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On July 06 2011 09:30 jimmyjingle wrote:
ths thing is, some people actually go to sites like these to form opinions, and then we have negative ESPORTS dollars for each person who decides they don't want to like ESPORTs either.
it's upsetting!
Exactly. Most people know to avoid this kind of thing, but the sad fact is that the people that aren't familiar with professional gaming are likely not familiar with where to go to get valid info on it.
She's welcome to her opinion on progaming, but the poor, misleading "journalism" is what really bothers me.
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That article was utter garbage and even though we are all laughing at her shitty writing, it still pains me because of all the page hits she has gotten because of teamliquid.
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Condescending, judgemental trash. I am as apathetic FPS pro-gaming as much as the next SC fan, but dismissing the whole scene in such a smug, snarky way based on one or two lines from an interview that I don't think she even did herself...this isn't journalism. Not going to Kotaku anymore if they publish this shite.
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joke's on you dude, kotaku is part of the gawker media empire that includes deadspin. You should know what you are getting there.
and really the whole gaming media scene as a whole, since it is entirely dependent on keeping the people you're covering happy.
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That article- just lol. Kotaku has never been on my list of visited sites and never will.
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kotaku makes me giggle, sometimes excessively
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No worries. I'm always happy to stand up for a fellow gamer. I'll post your interview link in the OP too.
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Canada1637 Posts
On July 06 2011 08:59 Kennigit wrote:
I wouldn't even click the link. Kotaku is a rag of a blog and exists only to spew traffic-generating sensationalism,....there isn't an ounce of journalism here. She interviewed 1 person and wrote an article on it???? You would actually fail an assignment in any journalism program trying to pull that off.
Her point is quite literally "Waaah this is boring i don't like it".
Seriously, don't know why Kotaku exists, or more accurately why people care that it does, the only links I ever see to Kotaku these days are "HEY LOOK AT THIS AWFUL ARTICLE ON KOTAKU"
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Of the people in the world, there are those who are dumb, those who are malicious, and the ones that are both like the writer of this article. Starting with a string of intentional misquotes and taking quotes out of context, and including silly, excuse me, but bitchy sounding humor, I think I now have cancer after reading this article.
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Why are you giving the article even more views and attention?
A mod should just close this thread, the article is a joke and not worthy of discussion in the slightest.
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This is definitely the worst article I've partially skimmed through since that Feminist blog about TL hating women and it's administrators condoning rape. (loosely paraphrased)
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On July 06 2011 10:23 Hawk wrote:
joke's on you dude, kotaku is part of the gawker media empire that includes deadspin. You should know what you are getting there.
and really the whole gaming media scene as a whole, since it is entirely dependent on keeping the people you're covering happy.
And Jezebel, that place makes feminism looks so bad and repulsive unfortunately D: It really makes me cringe.
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On July 06 2011 14:19 Torte de Lini wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2011 10:23 Hawk wrote:
joke's on you dude, kotaku is part of the gawker media empire that includes deadspin. You should know what you are getting there.
and really the whole gaming media scene as a whole, since it is entirely dependent on keeping the people you're covering happy. And Jezebel, that place makes feminism looks so bad and repulsive unfortunately D: It really makes me cringe.
oddly enough, i give them several hits a day on each of their sites despite really despising a lot of the shitty practices they do!
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This is hurting ESPORTS. Stop it already!
No but on a serious note. I don't think a lot of people care about this article. If you look at the comments on the article, they are equally upset. Of course there is that group of people that don't like professional gaming it in the first place, but that is their opinion and their right.
Also companies that would like to sponsor tournaments won't check out Kotaku or any other gaming news site. They want concrete viewer numbers of tournaments.
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On July 06 2011 09:54 DoA wrote:
Exactly. Most people know to avoid this kind of thing, but the sad fact is that the people that aren't familiar with professional gaming are likely not familiar with where to go to get valid info on it.
She's welcome to her opinion on progaming, but the poor, misleading "journalism" is what really bothers me.
It doesnt really matter. The way the article is written, the "his - erm - fans" and the "Oh wait. No I don't." parts are showing everyone with a brain that this article is crap.
Not even a semi-professional journalist would ever write an article in that style.
People will ignore it. And if they dont they're stupid and no one needs them anyways 
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Kotaku is a bunch of console idiots that suck at gaming. Also, their new site design is one of the worst I have ever seen. They love bashing PC gaming as well. I think they have declared it dead about 50 times by now. Also, they cherry pick comments, based on what they like. Only shiny happy double rainbow comments, all the time!
Also, while SC2 and the fighting games have successful streams (usually between 20k and 80k viewers), it's worth mentioning the LoL stream, that peaked at 210k viewers. I think that's enough to break out of the 'niche' category, right?
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Braavos36375 Posts
this article is just so, so bad
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This article will make very little noise.
- People who know esport will know this is total bullshit.
- People who don't know esport won't learn anything from the article because this is so short and incomplete
Everybody will go "eh, whatever" at the end of the day...
She also doesn't know how to read, nowhere ine the interview did he say that there is a lack of audience for progamming.
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Best part of the "article" is the fact that she is using a cool interview, from another site.
If that stuff gets sold as journalism and not "Me ranting about stuff i do not like" i will become a great journalist one day ^^
Also Wheat would deserve several Pulitzer-Prizes for his ranting.
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lol. After reading this article, I clicked on her name on Kotaku which brought me to her page, where she said this:
+ Show Spoiler + The point is that this guy is complaining about a problem that doesn't exist--he's saying that being a pro gamer is harder than ever, even though a wider variety of companies (beyond the companies who are providing the gaming rigs and actual games) are signing on to sponsor gamers, and blaming people who aren't watching tournaments for this supposed decline. He's complaining even though he's getting paid for a skill that he has chosen to work hard at, and is probably better at than the average person, and making more than minimum wage to do so.
http://kotaku.com/people/jenschiller/
Apparently, after she talked about how $30,000 annual income was bad in her article, she now comes out saying that its a fair income. She also seems to be putting words in Zaccubus' mouth. I didn't see him say anywhere in that interview that being a pro gamer is harder than ever.
Also, for the record, her last article on the ending of Duke Nukem Forever was sour as well, all I read in that thing was negativity towards the game, despite what the general consensus for it was.
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Don't get me wrong, I love reading an article written by an ignorant + Show Spoiler + Oh wait, no I don't. It's not even clever bitchiness, it's just hap-hazard and misplaced retardation.
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That article is such a joke and a slap in the face to progaming.
Won't be visiting Kotaku for awhile, no thanks.
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On July 06 2011 08:59 Kennigit wrote:
I wouldn't even click the link. Kotaku is a rag of a blog and exists only to spew traffic-generating sensationalism,....there isn't an ounce of journalism here. She interviewed 1 person and wrote an article on it???? You would actually fail an assignment in any journalism program trying to pull that off.
Her point is quite literally "Waaah this is boring i don't like it".
From what I can tell it isn't even an interview that she did herself. It's her opinion on someone elses interview which is barely the basis for an article at all tbh.
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Three paragraphs of opinionated garbage. Do some research next time and then try and sit down and think about what you're making. That's what real journalists do. What a crackpot.
ESPORTS is obviously struggling, destroying streaming records with every new tournament. Please Jen, save our industry.
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Hah funny thing is, if it was for the 'regular people', gaming would still be a low budget endevor and nobody would play it, let alone give people editor spots on websites about gaming......
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This article just blows my mind. Reading between the lines, she's saying that it's ok to worship athletes who play games better than we do, but not games. Thus, she's devaluing the importance of video games ON A DAMN VIDEO GAME BLOG. BAH. Anyway, well written piece, DoA.
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Pathetic "journalism" garbage used to get views, got one view off me but wont be getting anymore in the future.
Edit: In my rage forgot to mention great rebuttle Doa
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The whole of the Gawker Network has gone way down in their quality.
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On July 07 2011 02:19 Ho0ps wrote:
The whole of the Gawker Network has gone way down in their quality.
kotaku has always been shit bc the entire video game review media is a joke. deadspin has gone to utter shit though. Magary is the only reason worth reading that most days. aj fills it with all sorts of stupid catty shit instead of the snarky commentary that made it so funny
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kotaku does nothing but shoot in his own leg. it`s just stupid.
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Hahahaha reading the original interview, right at the beginning, they say:
'Prize money isn't what it used to be. But they're still making a living, playing the game, and things are looking up, says 27 year-old David "Zaccubus" Treacy of Team Dignitas.'
Did she just skip that part or what?
I don't play SC2 as much as I'd want to, but I watch it a lot.
I don't play fighting games but I love watching its tournaments.
I NEVER played Quake, and I love watching QL.
Never reading kotaku again.
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I wouldn't say that this article is good but at least it is successful !
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On July 07 2011 02:38 Boblion wrote:
I wouldn't say that this article is good but at least it is successful !
Pulling something out one's ass is not successful. I doubt the writer will stay at Kotaku for long if Kotaku knows what they are doing.
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Yea man, that's why newspapers like The Sun or The Daily Mail have been around forever :p
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My favorite part (other than the obvious "fuck you and I'm ignorant" statements of course) was:
Treacy also describes the difficulties that one must endure in order to really make it as a pro gamer, a thankless profession that only pays about $30,000 annually before sponsorships.
As if "about 30k" a year is bad for FUCKING ANYONE in their teens and early twenties. Yeah it's work, but obviously they like doing it or they wouldn't be, and they'd go get what Jen would call "a Regular People job" I guess.
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While I take my own free time to do some research and read articles that look interesting to translate them to my language and help eSports grown, without being paid, I came across this piece of garbage whose writer is probably paid to write...
Just disgusting... The worst part is that by getting mad at it, we actually responded and gave it too much attention. Now that article might aswell be some of the most read this day/week, who knows.
Just sad >.<
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On July 07 2011 02:46 Duka08 wrote:
My favorite part (other than the obvious "fuck you and I'm ignorant" statements of course) was:
Treacy also describes the difficulties that one must endure in order to really make it as a pro gamer, a thankless profession that only pays about $30,000 annually before sponsorships.
As if "about 30k" a year is bad for FUCKING ANYONE in their teens and early twenties. Yeah it's work, but obviously they like doing it or they wouldn't be, and they'd go get what Jen would call "a Regular People job" I guess.
30k aint a lot at all, and you forgo school/training in a more lucrative/stable profession to work 12+ hours a day in a field that you more than likely will not be part of in a decade. Really don't know why you took issue with that.
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Just dont click the link. Dont look at the article, let the bastard fail.
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On July 07 2011 04:16 Hawk wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2011 02:46 Duka08 wrote:
My favorite part (other than the obvious "fuck you and I'm ignorant" statements of course) was:
Treacy also describes the difficulties that one must endure in order to really make it as a pro gamer, a thankless profession that only pays about $30,000 annually before sponsorships.
As if "about 30k" a year is bad for FUCKING ANYONE in their teens and early twenties. Yeah it's work, but obviously they like doing it or they wouldn't be, and they'd go get what Jen would call "a Regular People job" I guess. 30k aint a lot at all, and you forgo school/training in a more lucrative/stable profession to work 12+ hours a day in a field that you more than likely will not be part of in a decade. Really don't know why you took issue with that.
It's certainly not a lot for someone college (or higher) educated. But I've heard more gamers say they are making a comfortable living doing what they are doing (and that is likely not only team salary + winnings either) than those that have said they've been desperately scraping by (which is little to none tbh, as I rack my memory). Especially living in a team house environment, which is becoming more popular in the western world (awesomely! I don't know as much history about FPS gaming, are FPS houses common? Such as the big teams in CS 1.6 and more recently Halo?).
You can live comfortably as a professional gamer off 30k in my opinion. And there are great opportunities if you reach out as well, such as coaching and personal sponsorships/endorsements.
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Well written OP. Couldn't agree with you more. As for the site..I'd never heard of it before today and now I know for damn sure I'll never waste my time visiting it.
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On July 07 2011 04:55 Duka08 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2011 04:16 Hawk wrote:On July 07 2011 02:46 Duka08 wrote:
My favorite part (other than the obvious "fuck you and I'm ignorant" statements of course) was:
Treacy also describes the difficulties that one must endure in order to really make it as a pro gamer, a thankless profession that only pays about $30,000 annually before sponsorships.
As if "about 30k" a year is bad for FUCKING ANYONE in their teens and early twenties. Yeah it's work, but obviously they like doing it or they wouldn't be, and they'd go get what Jen would call "a Regular People job" I guess. 30k aint a lot at all, and you forgo school/training in a more lucrative/stable profession to work 12+ hours a day in a field that you more than likely will not be part of in a decade. Really don't know why you took issue with that. It's certainly not a lot for someone college (or higher) educated. But I've heard more gamers say they are making a comfortable living doing what they are doing (and that is likely not only team salary + winnings either) than those that have been desperately scraping by. Especially living in a team house environment, which is becoming more popular in the western world (awesomely, though I don't know as much history about FPS gaming, are FPS houses common? Such as the big teams in CS 1.6 and more recently Halo?). You can live comfortably as a professional gamer off 30k in my opinion. And there are great opportunities if you reach out as well, such as coaching and personal sponsorships/endorsements.
Never mind the fact that a really small percentage of gamers come close to those numbers, $30k is not any kind of substantial pay at all unless you have a high school education. And when you're playing 12 hours a day, you aren't preparing for life after gaming, which, for most, isn't in the industry. For every incontrol, who has or is getting a degree and has a bunch of things going for him beyond playing, there's 10 unknown morons who make blogs every day about how they are quiting their job and school to go pro and never make it.
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On July 07 2011 05:16 Hawk wrote:
For every incontrol, who has or is getting a degree and has a bunch of things going for him beyond playing, there's 10 unknown morons who make blogs every day about how they are quiting their job and school to go pro and never make it.
And perhaps you're right that these people are making the wrong impression, the kind that people on Kotaku blog about as if it's the end all be all.
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On July 07 2011 05:33 Duka08 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2011 05:16 Hawk wrote:
For every incontrol, who has or is getting a degree and has a bunch of things going for him beyond playing, there's 10 unknown morons who make blogs every day about how they are quiting their job and school to go pro and never make it. And perhaps you're right that these people are making the wrong impression, the kind that people on Kotaku blog about as if it's the end all be all.
what are you even trying to say???
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I'm not disagreeing with you that there are certainly a lot of pro-gamers or people that try to go pro that burn out and have trouble. I just don't see that as any different from many other fields or society as a whole. $30k doing something by personal choice, with only a high school education, and that you enjoy regardless of work input required, is far from horrible in my opinion. This of course assumes that with a college education, this pay would be certainly be on the low side, but you would have security for the future and moving on after a gaming career.
I get into so many little arguments on this website with people I'm never actually in disagreement with. I guess I never to find a better way of speaking.
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30k a year is plenty to live off of. if you are happy with what you are doing then I would say that enough money to live very comfortably is icing on the cake. I know lots and lots of people that don't make 30k a year.
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EPT
