Topic: Is gaming big enough now?

[Cools!]

I was watching the NASL StarCraft 2 finals over the weekend which took place here in Toronto. NASL (North American Star League) is one of the newer gaming leagues that had appeared in the last couple of years to capitalize on the recent surge in popularity of StarCraft 2 in North America. I'd say the other 2 big ones around here are the MLG (Major League Gaming) which has existed for a long time and IPL (IGN Pro League).

How popular is SC2 now? Well, at live events like MLG (which has tournaments for other games as well) it's now drawing more people than things like Modern Warfare, Halo, etc. MLG even now offers 4 live online streams during their championships and it's not uncommon to see more than 50,000 online viewers at finals.

Prizes have gone up as well. The winner of NASL last night got $30,000. 1st prize at IPL is $40,000. That's more than what you get for winning the GSL (Global Star League) in Korea (though it's played more frequently).

So what point am I trying to make here? Well, as I was watching the final last night I realized that all the organizers, all the "celebrities" in this community are basically my age. They all started playing games around the same time as I did (early 2000s). But they stuck around, started websites, web streams, etc. about StarCraft and gaming in general and are now reaping the rewards for their perseverance.

Wasn't this our dream at one point? I know it was mine back when I was playing Tribes 2 and now after having experience with organizing live events I want to be involved and be part of this community so much but I feel like I have missed my chance to be there "at the beginning". As I watched the NASL final I couldn't help but wonder how I'd organize it. How I'd pay attention to the little details from an event and production stand point; little details like audio quality that still make some of these tournaments look really amateur.

I don't know, just something I was thinking about last night...

[PyroMenace]

I decided a while back that I wanted to keep gaming strictly as a hobby. Sure I've had dreams of becoming a games journalist, but the point where games becoming a job never sounded appealing to me. As for competitive gaming, that's never been my thing. I like to play cooperatively and I've had quite a bit of fun with online shooters but never cared to put time into being serious, again, that just goes back to the games as jobs thing.

[K-man]

Competitive gaming would make gaming feel like work and less like play.  I play to get away from work, not add to it.

When I first started here at my company and still wasn't sure if it was going to stick, I was really into the idea of becoming a game journalist.  Even seriously inquiring with Joystiq.  I also had thoughts about trying to manage a Game Crazy.  The latter obviously worked out well for me.  And I've pretty well decided that I don't want to be part of a game journalism industry that for the most part doesn't hold itself to any concrete standards.

Bottom line is that gaming is my main hobby.  I love playing, I love talking about games, and I love hunting them down really cheap.  I don't want to screw that escape up.  Despite dreaming about chasing a job of some capacity in gaming for years.

this conversation reminds me of this commercial that ran on G4 for a while

[Cools!]

There's just so much going on in the SC2 (and other game) community. Streams, tutorials, strategy discussions, player fan clubs, etc. The competitive scene is definitely a lot more visible now.

[iPPi]

The only game I ever played competitively in (as in, competed in leagues) was Rainbow Six.  While it was fun, it was also too much work to try and coordinate games with people and to get matches going.  Also, competitive gaming brings out the worst in people.

I was also crazy addicted to WoW and played the arenas fairly competitively, but not enough to be in leagues and it was a very frustrating experience.