EPTThe title has nothing to do with the content
So in the wake of the shit storm that Kotaku made when they had some douche girl post a long article that more of less was about her hating on E-Sports.. Destructoid, some random gaming site with a community (remember - it's hip to be a gamer now days) promotes an article written by one of their esteemed community members. So the dragon wakes once again..
I don't know anything about Destructiod really and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for that retarded featured article by a community member. They probably have a decent community, what do I know - I wont take part of it. And I'm not really going to go on explaining the details of those articles - nor Kotakus - as they have been quite ranted on in comments and by notorious E-Sports profiles.
I’m more interested in talking about the reactions from those in charge of the gaming sites themselves – as these are the people who have chosen to stand behind their guest writers and featured bloggers.
The people behind the articles are less interesting, as their content hasn’t brought up anything else than their own opinions. Based on facts or not (mainly not) those people are quite uninteresting in the grand scheme of things.
The response from those who I assume are the owners of these gaming sites has been rather.. self defendish. If you know what I mean, Destructoid claims that it’s not their opinion it’s just a random featured bloggers personal opinion – and thus people shouldn’t take it to seriously. Same with Kotaku, it’s a guest article and people shouldn’t take it too seriously. (Heard on WoC from Slasher)
Excuse me what? They have content that is posted on their sites, which I assume they haven’t checked before it was posted. As then I am sure that they would realize that it would bring negative attention.
It’s not that farfetched right? You don’t see NY Times having editorials made by people who can’t do the simplest of research? But apparently quality over quantity isn’t the tune played on Kotaku’s and Destructoid’s flutes..
Here’s how it works: You own a media platform where content produced by yourself and/or your team is published. If something on that platform is offensive to someone it is the owner of the platforms fault, as it is ultimately they who are responsible for the content on their platform. Quite simple. If they cared they would read through and double check that the content published on their sites was up to date and accurate. Using facts from 2008 to explain something in 2011 might not be the best arguments to find.
So when they invite guest authors or feature one of their community members it is the sites responsibility to make sure that they don’t piss off an entire demographic. I mean, it’s not like these individuals are nearly as affected as the sites own reputation. I have little to no respect for either sites, I didn’t read them before and sure as hell won’t read them after. Why should I? With that attitude towards their own sites why would I? Sub forums on Teamliquid has a higher standard than they do.
So when shit hits the fan because one of their featured blogger/guest writer posted an article bashing on something she clearly didn’t know anything about, it’s their fault that they allowed them to do so.
So the only one Kotaku and Destructoid has to blame are themselves. Since they did nothing to make sure that those articles where accurate and based on true facts, but still published them. And if they did read the articles before they were posted, then they must have understood what was going to happen.
Either way it’s their own fault that they pissed people off.
This isn’t about someone hating on eSports, it’s about people owning gaming sites that doesn’t care about the content published there.
Part 2! eSports - real sports? care sports?
My two cents on this whole semantics discussion…
As I have understood the main problem people are having with eSports is the word sports, it seems, and the preconceived ideas the outside world has of us who consider ourselves a part of this.. movement if you will.
What can we do about that? Well we can either A) Care or B) Not care, if you care what these people think you allign yourself to those who believe that in order for eSports to grow, the uninvited and uninterested must become interested. If you on the other hand B) Do not care, you are quite happy with the way things are.
From just a personal and fan view, I kinda don't care. I Understand that profiles within the eSports community that have fought the good fight for over a decade and tried to legitimize competitive gaming as a sport, an eSport; It's annoying to have people who know nothing about it to criticize the very idea, simply based off a word.
Now I am no long fan of eSports, along with many others I basically found out about it through Starcraft 2, a year down the road I have consumed more of this kind of sport than any other. So for me, who comes totally from the outside only being biased towards myself and to my own entertainment: I couldn't care less if people are annoyed by the word eSports. To me eSports is not, and I repeat not just about competitive gaming. It's about the same things as any other sport, be it tennis, soccer, football or lacrosse: It's first and foremost about being a fan.
I don't play Starcraft 2 on a competitive level, I can barely handle my way around a controller when it comes to fighting games and I can't for the life of me bare myself to run across a pitch after a ball.
But you know what? I love watching my favorite fans in all those three types of competitive environments! To me eSports is just as much hanging out with my friends a Friday night to watch some games, as it is going to a tournament and watch it live. Screaming from the top of my lunges as HuK wins vs Moon.
And the only way I actually take part of it on a serious level is that I follow all of them closely (Fighting games more recently and haven't really put enough time in to create a real opinion on who's my favorite players, but its on my deffo to do list - along with watching all of the EVO VODs I can find).
So this whole discussion to me seems like ridiculous semantics over nothing that actually matters. Not to me, not to me as a fan! Will changing from eSports to competitive gaming give me - the target audience for any eSports event - better games? Will I love my heroes more? Will the production value of the tournaments increase just because you switch a god damned name?
As a simple fan these discussions are so far above my head that I couldn’t care less - but why do I write this?
Well because those high profiles in eSports who I follow regularly talk about it all the time as soon as one of these articles pop up. And if someone in the fighting game community doesn't want it to be called eSports. Fine, don't call it that then.. like that was the important part of being an Sc2 fan. The word eSports.. I understand that people who has been fighting the good fight for the last decade or so gets upset but...
I mean it's not like eSports is about MLG, Dreamhack, GSL, NASL, ESL, EVO (mh-m).. It's not like it’s about watching your favorite players and favorite teams. It absolutely not about spending hundreds of dollars each year on HD passes, venue tickets, travel, food, friends, beer, laughter, tears, amazing stories and trash talk between players!
No no no! We’re a scrabbles club bitching about semantics! We can find similarities in more accepted sports like soccer, where fans hang in pubs discussing the meaning of the word soccer/football and what it really means to play football. Who the hell watches a game of soccer? Favorite team? I dunno, but I sure as hell know that football isn’t ping pong!
Why even care about what some random chick on a site that clearly doesn't give a rats ass about their content? That's not your target audience anyway! They suck, I know it, you know it, and most likely they know it themselves.
Like Scoots said, why cant we all just be fucking happy? Specially you guys who have been here from day one, it seems that you finally made it! I'm finally here! The random guy who fell in love with your sport! eSport!
Huzzah!
<3
Cheers!
