« Media Watch: JotSpot's the golden boy today | Main | Media Watch: VNU hammer down on News Centre »
October 06, 2004
Media Watch: Taking spectator sports to the next level . . . of boredom
It's safe to say that parents everywhere will wish that the New York Times wouldn't glorify videogame players, as the paper does in its Technology section lead story today (October 7), "Taking Their Game to the Next Level" by Eric Taub . . . but they may reconsider when they read about players whose winnings in videogame competitions total in the tens of thousands of dollars, and about the very lucky few whose earnings from endorsements have reached hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Taub plays it for all it's worth, comparing one player to "a pianist preparing for a concert," in a well reported, vividly written, engaging story. The story's publication coincides with final competition at the World Cyber Games in San Francisco this week.
Having come of age before the earliest videogame machines even came into existence, however, the whole subject leaves me chilly.
I will admit I spent many a happy hour - pun intended - at the Dutch Goose bar, near Stanford University in Menlo Park, watching the action at the first coin-operated videogame machines. Atari founder Norman Bushnell installed them there for testing and market research. I'll even cop to donating a coin or two myself. But, that was nearly three decades ago, the technology was new, and I was still a beer drinker.
Taub's story did seriously impress me in one respect. Prior to reading it, I didn't imagine anything could be more boring than the hot new television sport: watching other people play poker.
Imagine my surprise when I read that thousands of spectators attend videogame competitions, and their popularity is growing.
Sorry, but these folks just have too much time on their hands.
Story link: Taking Their Game to the Next Level by Eric A. Taub
Posted by Doug Millison at October 6, 2004 08:56 PM
| Posted to Media Watch
