Future of Professional Gaming

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PinstripeMonkey

The purpose of this thread is to get speculative information from you guys, the gamers. I am writing a paper for my Honors class at UCA on the future of professional gaming, and I am curious as to what your sentiments are on its potential. Where will professional gaming be in 5 years, 10 years, or 50 years? How will the cyberathletes change as new generations of gaming evolve? What will the games be like? What controversies will there be? What will the video games be like? I think you guys get the idea. Thanks for the help!

Adam
 
Im not sure about what the pro gaming will be like but as faras contraversies go the more advanced video games get the more people are going to complain about the violence in them and how realistic it is
 
Right now it seems like the industry is aiming for pure, unrelenting, sensationalism. Although this has done wonders for bringing gaming into the mainstream and turn videogaming into a socially acceptable hobby, it also alienates and insults the intelligence of those who do play videogames of their own accord and not because its now cool to do so. It seems like the current big name companies (Microsoft mostly, Nintendo not really, Sony somewhere in between) are trying to turn videogaming into a never ending fad, which of course won't work.

Although I do think there would be enough interest for tournaments and organized competition in videogames, the gamers who would be doing it would not be the same people currently enthralled in the "fad" of videogaming. Plus, if "professional gaming" did come about anytime soon it would be surrounded by a ton of cheap ploys to make it "hip" and "cool" and therefore "accessible" to a wider audience that the actual gamers would get turned off by it. For example, the Spike TV videogame award show. I would love to watch an actual award show for videogames if it was akin to emmy's or something like that, but its not. Its totally geared towards entertaining younger people with non stop celebrity guest appearances, live bands, and showing the most popular games which are not necessarily the most deserving of an award.

If gaming is ever going to become a competitive sport then videogames have to stop being portrayed as a "cool hobby" and start being portrayed as something to be taken seriously. I don't see this happening in the next 5, or even ten years. And what the games will be like then I cannot even speculate.

The future of gaming is at a point right now where it has become a socially acceptable activity, but if its ever going to be more than just a way to kill time for half an hour, then it needs a drastic makeover. As current gamers grow older we may see some kind of appeal to an older generation that no longer appreciates popularity contests turned award show, so it may happen. But right now older people don't understand/like videogames, and mots young people don't take it seriously (which may even be a good thing).
 
Well, games are for enteretainment, first and foremost. They provide friendly competition (though you can't see that in a lot of online games, due to all the cussing and whining). Professioanl gaming would be an interesting concept, but I really don't know if that would happen.

Like stealth toilet said, developers and companies (mostly microsoft) are concerned about making the most money by making it the "in" thing to do. This idea is probaby the reason for the mass consumption of th enew 360. No offense, but I really think that there would only be a fraction of sales for people who actually want it, rather than just to have it so they can be cool.

Another point stealth toilet made was that there is a generational gap right now. Most of the older people hate video games, can't play, don't care or whatever, while the younger generations are pretty much being brought up on them. So, give it time adn I think there may be some leagues out there and it may become a professional thing.

At first, I agree with stealth toilet, and there would be a lot of commercialism. This could last for years, and could actually break the whole thing. But if the pro leagues and the system made it in tact, commercialsim may move on to something new.

If we look at other pro events, we can see. For al ong time, Billiards was a huge thing. People made big bucks by doing it, but today, its just an hour event on ESPN2 to take up some time. True, they still can make a lot of money doing it, but all the commercialism has fallen away from it.

I would like to make comments about the X-Games, but I'm afraid of getting things mixed up. My feelings is that when it first entered, there wasn't a whole lot of commercialism with it. But when it got big, you knew it. There were new brand names every day, there were tons of movies about it and stuff, lots of video games were made, and so on. But that seemed to be a spike the receded quickly. Theres still a lot of advertising to go with it, and its still one of those "hip" things to do, but its fallen away a bit.

So, if video games became a pro event, I could see the same thing happening. However, I have no idea how long it owuld take before advertisers fell away from it and it returned to what it is now, a source of entertainment (and controversy). Obviously, video games are here to stay. Whether or not the become a pro event, there will always be controversy about them. Maybe if they did go pro, it would be fuel for controversy, but I don't think anything too serious would happen.

But I can't predict the future.
 
I was going to say that you guys are talking like there is no professional gaming yet but there is it just isnt big yet.

but supermans article probably showed you that
 
I know there is. In fact I watched several video clips of the videogame olympics that were held in San Francisco. However I don't really consider that "professional." It's not like there's a league, with regular teams and the players are paid. What I was trying to get across was that if professional gaming was to ever come about it would probably be presented in the wrong way. Kind of like Slamball. It was a great idea and has enough depth that it requires serious athleticism, but it was given all this "attitude" and hype that it lost the game any chance of being taken seriously.

The various tournaments and matches that take place are by no means "professional gaming." Its a step towards it, yes, but it is still a long way from it. Honestly I think its mostly because people don't like to watch videogames, they like to play videogames. and Those that don't like playing videogames certainly won't watch it.

Oh and I didn't read that article so if there is some kind of vg league or something then disregard most of what I'm saying, lol.
 
Oh who cares about Asia anyway... :lol

Seriously, have you ever seen MXC. Those people pay to do the stupidest things, of course they'll pay people to play videogames...
 
I know but he didnt ask us about professional gaming in the US just pro gaming in general, so even if it is in Asia its still pro gaming.
 
in 50 years the sport of professional gaming will be huge,like the super bowl is now.the players will be checked for mind enhancing drugs,if found to have taken such drugs they will be suspended from competition.they will have neuro implants,which will receive the game transmition before there very eyes....also just like TV,it will only get more and more violent(i am still expecting to see a "fight to the death"reality show...that would be the first reality show i will watch)something along the lines of "the running man"or a gladiator type contest,where the contestants were in the games as long as they stayed alive......anyway,that's what i think professional gaming will be like in fifty years :)
 
I really doubt it will ever get bigger than it is at this point. Stealth pretty much nailed it. This isnt like the X-Games where you actually compete in physical sports. You sit and play on a monitor. People will always look at it that way. If it keeps getting pushed as something that is "Cool" then it wont get far.
 
hey... if you are doing this, will you at least post up your results?

People will come here from time to time and do this.   I have stumbled on some others work but no one ever shows their work..... this time, I would like to see the outcome of what you do.... ok? :)

on top of that, do you plan on coming back and visiting?

Bv :hat
 
Ya, especially if you plan on using anything we say, you have to list us as a source and if I'm not mistaken, ask our permission to use our statements.
 
stealth toilet said:
Ya, especially if you plan on using anything we say, you have to list us as a source and if I'm not mistaken, ask our permission to use our statements.
Click to expand...
yeah :lol after finding out that information was used in another paper from a member here....  we have to require some of this stuff.... to make sure it is not out of context..etc

BV :hat
 
Yeah, I will most assuredly ask your permission before I list any of your comments in my paper. I am mainly using your posts to conjure up some ideas. I will post a link to the finished paper once I am done for you guys to criticize and/or commend lol.
 
Hey, I also remember reading or hearing about S. Korea (or maybe Japan) making a stadium for e-sports in 2008. Have any of you heard of this? and if so do you know a link to the info. on it?
 
You're welcome. Sorry it wasn't exactly what you were looking for. Maybe I'll come across soemthing later.
 
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