is full of so many delusional posts. Like, there's so many of them that I just have to accept that a lot of them are earnest. The thing is, I don't even find it to be enthusiasm anymore. Just a kind of broken and seriously unhealthy devotion. It's basically cult-like sometimes.
On May 03 2012 00:14 ZoW wrote: did you know the whole "ESPORTS" thing was originally used as a sarcastic and satirical joke? funny how things turn out eh
On May 03 2012 00:14 ZoW wrote: did you know the whole "ESPORTS" thing was originally used as a sarcastic and satirical joke? funny how things turn out eh
In capitals, maybe, but Korean Esports Association existed for a long time before 'esports' was made fun of. It was the sincere effort to make video games into sports, and BW was the one they experience the most success with (although kart rider and Sudden Fight still seems to be going on, I think they're pretty niche little productions; no idea what their players make).
Didn't you translate interviews where sponsors said there was significant fanbase in korea still? I am confused on this point. I thought it wasn't that the korean fanbase got too small, it's that sponsors saw SC2 and said 'hey an international game' and thought international branding is more attractive. Maybe esports tv one season of proleague was supposed to be a too little too late effort to prove bw has a foreign audience. But streamers on TL were still king, I saw them with 2000 simultaneous viewers a lot, which might not have been calculated by any sponsors.
zz~ I think this point requires more careful thought.
Yeah, I translated a bunch of articles in the past. There are conflicting opinions and "facts", as it is usually the case with media. I'm not there live at Korea to witness the number of fans at the Yongsan stadium, nor do I know the exact viewership statistics, so I can't say for sure. My impression is that the number of fans were on the decline ever since the scandal, and it showed in some of the recent ODT matches where a ton of seats were empty (despite OSL being the only BW tournament available right now). There are probably still a good number of fans, but not enough to sustain the scene in the eyes of the sponsors.
I went to a BarCraft for the MLG and as I was waiting for my friend to arrive the organiser came and spoke to me. I told him that I honestly preferred Brood War to SC2 and he said words to the effect of "But eurgh, that can't be so great to watch, all pixelated and that? Wouldn't look good on the big screen." I bit my tongue and smiled! I would have thought that somebody organising a BarCraft would have been somebody involved with StarCraft for a long time. Turns out that most of the people going crazy for SC2 had very little time for Brood War back when it was flourishing and are therefore clueless.
is full of so many delusional posts. Like, there's so many of them that I just have to accept that a lot of them are earnest. The thing is, I don't even find it to be enthusiasm anymore. Just a kind of broken and seriously unhealthy devotion. It's basically cult-like sometimes.
Eh.
hahaha yeah some shit in that thread is ridiculous
On May 03 2012 02:31 3Form wrote: Because SC2 killed Brood War?
I went to a BarCraft for the MLG and as I was waiting for my friend to arrive the organiser came and spoke to me. I told him that I honestly preferred Brood War to SC2 and he said words to the effect of "But eurgh, that can't be so great to watch, all pixelated and that? Wouldn't look good on the big screen." I bit my tongue and smiled! I would have thought that somebody organising a BarCraft would have been somebody involved with StarCraft for a long time. Turns out that most of the people going crazy for SC2 had very little time for Brood War back when it was flourishing and are therefore clueless.
Attracted to SC2 by the hype machine.
That's the funny thing - only perhaps half a dozen barcraft organizers (of roughly five-hundred involved) were around for the BW scene (I am not one of them).
BW was only an e-sport in Korea and it was on the decline
while BW still is definitely bigger than SC2 in Korea, it seems that the Koreans/KESPA believes that BW will continue declining, so they are going to attempt to transition to SC2 because it has a larger global following and is attracting more international sponsors
whether this transition to SC2 will actually be successful or not, I don't know. I'm not even sure if the Koreans will accept SC2 to the point of fandom that BW currently possesses, but KESPA is hoping a revitalization will happen through SC2.
When computer capabilities plateau (or reach a sufficient level of power and low cost), then there is a chance of a long-term esport game. Until then, people will always migrate from game to game as new graphics and gameplay.
On May 03 2012 07:02 Arterial wrote: Because when people say "esports" they just mean Starcraft II.
That's the f*cking truth.
I have to wonder if that's even true sometimes. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone actually praise SC2 itself? The discussion is always about players or tournaments or whatever stupid drama Reddit came up with for the week. The only time people talk about the game is complaining about shit being imba.
On May 03 2012 01:54 N.geNuity wrote: because ESPORTS is stupid and koreans don't pay tickets to watch.
This be true. Yet, in the Western world we can dish out over 500 bucks a year just to watch HD online streams.
On May 03 2012 07:02 Arterial wrote: Because when people say "esports" they just mean Starcraft II.
That's the f*cking truth.
No, that's only the guys who came around during SC2.
Esports has been used to describe our gaming trends for a very long time. It really isn't a new expression, but because people want to see video games do well as spectator sports and they want this ideal communion, which doesn't exist when you see all the jockeying. It was always a bullshit expression and as someone pointed out before. Promoting esports on this very website started off as a joke.
When we talk about esports and WCG they were pretty serious at the time, but then again you'll have people saying that the WCG competition was always a joke in the same breath.
As for SC2 KILLED BW ESPORTS IS STUPID WAH, sure yeah SC2 sure killed the vibrant and alive foreigner BW scene that existed, everyone white guy switched to sc2 because it was clearly a better game hahaha. And man, SC2 is so sucessful in Korea, it totally took over from BW, invading the PC Bangs and taking all the fans away from watching BW!
I wonder why kids stop playing with sticks pretending to be knights in shiny armor ?
Things are bound to change alas everything related to the internet changes extremely fast. Is it sad to see ? Yes, but it's inevitable. MySpace was bound to die when Facebook first appeared, and nowadays it is a shadow of its former glory. BW will have the same destiny. Whether you choose to do emotional circlejerk all the time in every part of TL or not.
My take on the situation that is e-sport has no back bone at all, it's just a freaking propaganda use by companies and developers to promote their new game . Every new game comes out just slap on the usual " For E-Sports" and with shiny graphics the game is good to go and it will pull crowd . Counter strike is still being played in europe and oldies like fnatic are still at loggerhead with the remaining cs 1.6 team that is still playing the game competitively. Although I mean loggerhead means having a healthy competition between the remaining teams.
This professionals refuse to switch because cs 1.6 is the game they chose to play with professionally do they want to switch to something that they deem is sub par ? I don't think so . Talking about change sc2 death is also inevitable if it doesn't step up it's game to develop a much more friendly UI/social and appeal to the game .
I can already see Dota2 and LoL numbers increasing everyday sooner or later one of these two will be the new e-sport .
OP, you bring a very good point. However, to me, the answer is exactly the same as to why people buy Apple phones. I can make a very similar list as the one you did for esports.
Why bother with iTunes ? Why can't I have an external SD card ? Why is it such a pain in the ass to remove my SIM card unless I always keep a paper clip in my pocket ? Why can't I have a second battery ? And all of the above for a higher price ?
At least Steve Jobs had more qualities than Dustin Browder and Paul Sams altogether.