MovieChat Forums > Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007) Discussion > In the future professional gamers will b...

In the future professional gamers will be the new professional athletes

posted 10 years ago by BdR76
1 reply | jump to latest

.. but I seriously doubt that.

I never really bought into this whole idea of professional gamers or pro gamers. The game industry will keep on telling it's a real thing, and that in the future pro gamers will be viewed in the same way as professional athletes.

But those game makers and hardware sellers have a clear cut financial interest in this idea, i.e. it will sell more games and hardware. So I think these game tournaments are nothing more than elaborate marketing campaigns.

I mean look at todays pro gamers, 30 years later they're playing Dota 2 and League of Legends instead of Ms-Pacman and Missile Command. But it's still a few token players that get the big prizes for skills that will probably be obsolete once the next big game comes along. So, I can't help but think that this movie "Chasing Ghosts" is a perfect warning of the things to come for todays pro games.

[–] therefdotcom 9 years ago

agreed.

personally i would like to watch the occasional classical arcade tournament, but of course that will never be a mainstream thing for hundreds of reasons.

as for e-athletes in the sense as the term is thrown around today, the legend of e-sports will always be a lie to get kids into becoming the muppets of gaming gear companies, so that they have cheap maskots to sell their overpriced hardware with.

as far as i know the kids that get the prices are the young ones, that wasted their time by playing 8 hours of counterstrike a day, since they were 14, because when you are young, your reflexes are at the height of their capacity. then, with 25 they stand there: the sponsors are gone, the reflexes are still sharp, but not THAT sharp anymore and the cash is also burned.

e-sport can never be a mainstream thing, for many reasons. first of all it is terrible to watch. Especially with team games. octadrupple split screen so i can watch both teams with 4 each? that's instant ADD guaranteed. Secondly, it is not an admirable skill that is presented. it doesn't even have to involve a physical skill, but if you defeat me in chess in a maximum of 10 moves in 10 out of ten games, then that's impressive and ADMIRABLE. you beat me the same way in UT, i might admit that you are way better, but you will find no admiration of any sorts. thirdly it would be an odd scenario to cheer to. usually they show the games on multiple big screens, while the players sit there in front of a computer doing hand gestures. that's kinda like flipping out at a stadium concert, even though you are only seing the gig on the screens, because you are standing in the 5000th row. fourthly, for the most people sports is not about sports. it is about cheering for a team that you have a connection with. most likely because you live in the town that the team is from or you were born there. you want to cheer in a big building, preferebly a stadium and cheer for something that has the right pace to understand what is even happening and you want to cheer with other people. that does not work with e-sports. i have seen a docu about street fighter players and it was the most bizarre thing i have seen in my life. those dudes were taking themselves dead series and they had the US championship in a hotel meeting room, with about 400 people in there and they were going ballistics, like it was the superbowl final. it looked like a scene from a mental institution.