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If you take a look at the Korean eSports scene, there is one of the big difference in the marketing of it all.
That difference is that they use the players' actual names instead of only their tag. It may seem like a minor difference, but if you think about it is pretty major in terms of making it mainstream.
If you look at StarCraft as a story, then using actual names seems like it would legitimize the players as actual people instead of just participants of a game. For instance, a player like ActionJesus might have a tendency to 6-pool, but that's it. A tendency determined by other peoples' accounts. If you compare that to a player like Kim Nam Gyu, (look him up if you need) you see tendencies as well, but since the spectators are given his name and see his actual face and body language, they internalize a sense for him as a person.
When you remove the anonymity of a tag and introduce them as a real flesh and blood human, they become more than a character. I'm wondering if what eSports needs in the west to become truly mainstream is people instead of participants. What do you guys think?
Edit: Mod, if you would please change the title of the thread to "Real Names to Help eSports?" Thanks.
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On March 02 2011 11:19 ScrapBrain wrote:
If you take a look at the Korean eSports scene, there is one of the big difference in the marketing of it all.
That difference is that they use the players' actual names instead of only their tag. It may seem like a minor difference, but if you think about it is pretty major in terms of making it mainstream.
If you look at StarCraft as a story, then using actual names seems like it would legitimize the players as actual people instead of just participants of a game. For instance, a player like ActionJesus might have a tendency to 6-pool, but that's it. A tendency determined by other peoples' accounts. If you compare that to a player like Kim Nam Gyu, (look him up if you need) you see tendencies as well, but since the spectators are given his name and see his actual face and body language, they internalize a sense for him as a person.
When you remove the anonymity of a tag and introduce them as a real flesh and blood human, they become more than a character. I'm wondering if what eSports needs in the west to become truly mainstream is people instead of participants. What do you guys think?
Whoa, you just threw in some extra elements in there in favor of your argument, even though they are separate (the underlined part).
First names are already readily available so I don't see how this is an issue, and many players still use gamer names in Korea as far as I have seen. Personally I think having a gamer name is better because it shows a little bit more about them based on the name they choose.
A league can also include personal names if they feel that will help, but it definitely isn't a secret. Just look up any player on Team Liquid and you will get their first and last name... I guess I just don't know what you are trying to get at here, but I believe I disagree.
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i don't think it's a marketing thing
most koreans wouldn't be able to pronounce flash, jaedong, or mvp, i think that's why their korean names are used
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Ha ha I'm quite sure 100% of Koreans know how to pronounce Jaedong.
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On March 02 2011 11:23 awu25 wrote:
i don't think it's a marketing thing
most koreans wouldn't be able to pronounce flash, jaedong, or mvp, i think that's why their korean names are used
this is why I love TL.
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On March 02 2011 11:25 iamke55 wrote:
Ha ha I'm quite sure 100% of Koreans know how to pronounce Jaedong.
lol you're right that was a bad example, but any gamer tag that's not their korean name, they would probably have trouble pronouncing or remembering since they probably don't know what they mean
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the reason the XFL failed was because of He Hate Me
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I kinda feel that gamernames are a signature part of esports. You recreate yourself online. It is a part of the appeal.
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Interesting point.
Yea, the Korean commentators never refer to players by their ID tag.
They say "Lee Young Ho is doing blah blah blah" not "Flash is doing blah blah blah"
In fact, some people probably don't know/don't care what the ID tag of certain players are.
But the difficulty of pronounciation does make a difference.
When they were commentating a Blizzard World Wide Invitational, they refered to Draco as "Draco", not "Krzysztof Nalepka" since its hard to say that everytime.
Not sure if it would make that much of a difference as far as growing eSport in the West, but interesting difference nonetheless.
It would be funny to hear commentators say "Greg Fields is moving out!" instead of "Idra is moving out!"
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Does anyone remember CAL circa 2005? 3D | Sievers, NIP Christensen???
Made no difference to the outside world and just make the league look ridiculous to the existing community.
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Well look at it this way, UFC introduces First name, Nick name, Last name and I think that's pretty cool. I think using real names is a step in the right direction but that can only be possible for tournament IDs. I don't think i'd like to use my real name as a b.net ID that's just not smart, better to remain anonymous over the internet but I think it's a good idea for tournaments to maybe provide b.net IDs that are your real name but I don't know if that could be done.
I understand your point, but what's your solution? I see no solution really. I would never use my real name on b.net because of identity theft and hacking.
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I acually really like this idea, I think it would really be alot better, I still think it's best to use there Usernames first then just have maybe in parenthesis somwhere what there real names are in like a tourney or somthing. Only in the opening part though so that we dont see a huge long name everytime
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I don't like it, but I do think we'll end up heading in the direction of using real names. It's not so much an E-SPORTS thing, nor marketing, or any thing like that. It just feels that that's the way a lot of the internet is going now days. Facebook and realID are the first two examples that come to mind.
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Part of what gives esports its soul is having awesome aka's and player tags though.
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That's what I heard Artosis pointed out in an interview that he did or something he mentioned, that most Koreans wouldn't be able to tell you who Boxer is, but everyone knows who Lim Yo-Hwan is.
I think for now its fine, but maybe in the future we will move towards using names and monikers. However, with the online generation maturing and being in the decision making roles of major companies, a monicker/screen name can be something people have grown up with. It's becoming more prevalent as more people access the internet even with Facebook and Blizzard's attempt at Real ID.
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On March 02 2011 11:23 awu25 wrote:
i don't think it's a marketing thing
most koreans wouldn't be able to pronounce flash, jaedong, or mvp, i think that's why their korean names are used
LOL
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It is what it is. In real sports, commentators and fans call players by nicknames, last names, first names, and anything else they want. Ronaldo, "Shaq," Kobe, Brett Favre usually gets called by his name in entirety, "Magic" Johnson, "Dr. J"
Nicknames don't detract from personality or professionalism, I think they add personality.
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Not everyone has badass names like Jaedong, so I disagree with this. Having badass gamer tags makes players seem greater than human while they're playing and that adds a lot of excitement to starcraft IMO.
Pro Wrestling is an example of this too.
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I think there is an easy solution to make people call you by your real name.
Make your ID "gfkljwrdxk"
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Calgary25997 Posts
Where are you people explaining what we need to do to "expand esports" coming from lately?
Let's see, do you think the thing holding back gaming from booming is:
- Social stigma with gaming not being legitimatized and accepted yet
OR
- Commentators calling people by their IDs
Hmm...
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EPT
