e-Sports and Sports and Genderified Games

If you're in the least bit interested in the e-sports scene, you would have heard of the issue between the International e-Sports Federation and female gamers. In short, the federation, in attempting to bring e-Sports up to the level of conventional sporting events, separated its competitors by gender, and, because they did not have a Hearthstone league for women, banned female gamers from participating.

Needless to say, the Internet exploded in a rage akin to a million nuclear bombs dropped onto the organizers of the tournament. The organizers have since rescinded the ban, but it still leaves a sour taste on the gaming community and female gamers.

What is interesting, and not to mention, amusing, is the statement that in order to be like conventional sports, where male and female athletes are separated, the organizers have opted to take a similar approach. In a bizarre turn of events, the organizers have decided to pick the games that each gender should play. That means that, if you are a girl, you are not allowed to play Street Fighter, but can play Tekken, while guys are not allowed, according to the organizers. So sorry, Tekken Tag players, you are just not 'man' enough.

I'm sure everybody understands why guys and girls do not compete against each other in most sports and it's obvious why that does not apply to gaming. Does separating the sexes work though? There are statistics that show that the percentage of male and female gamers are nearly 50: 50, but how much of that are competitive games vs casual games, I do not know. But currently, it is a fact that fewer female gamers enter competitions. Would it be as exciting with less competitors? Perhaps that might encourage more female gamers to step forward, since fewer competitors means a better chance of winning, but that doesn't apply if you don't even give them a chance to compete. Hafu, a female Hearthstone streamer and competitor mentioned in a podcast her discussion with other female gamers and their idea that an all female league actually makes it less threatening for them so perhaps the idea of separating the leagues might really promote esports.

Games are becoming more mainstream though, and games like Hearthstone are particularly well received by all ages and genders. But at the end of the day, when it comes to gaming, it shouldn't really matter who is at the keyboard, but the level of the play. (Yes I understand when it comes to e-Sports, there's image and manner to take into account, but that's a discussion for another day.)

eSportsmanship and 'clever' fanboys

The top two teams of League of Legends competing in Major League Gaming were disqualified after both teams were found to have colluded and agreed to share the price money (links below). After news of this came out, people started bashing on MLG claiming they banned the teams because they played an unorthodox match by going All Random, All Middle.

Though I'm not into DotA style games, I'd guess that it would be pretty exciting and quite a hype to see teams going random, and then going to play a style that's not generally seen, especially in a genre that can normally take a long time for a match to play out. Even so, it puzzles me that people would actually assume this is why the teams were disqualified after MLG has official statements posted about the decision and some even say that the money belongs to the teams, so they can share it if they want to. (I don't want to use such strong words, but do games really make people stupid?) The hate here for MLG is clear, and it's so strong that gamers would rather be blind to what has happened so that they can find an excuse to hate on them even more.

Is it ok then to agree to share the money? I'm sure it won't be an issue if one team wins, feels sorry for the other team and decides to share part of the winnings with them AFTER the competition is over; the money would be theirs, and the outcome of the match would not be affected. However, knowing that you'll get the same amount of money whether you win or lose, will you put in as much effort as you would have? I understand there's some scoring system going on here that would still make winning an incentive, but what if one team does not need the points? I don't know, but I just feel that if this is allowed, why don't all the teams that join the games just walk away with the same amount of money whether they win or lose? And if that's the case, do you think you'll get to enjoy a competitive game? I think it would be ideal to be the weakest team then, because you would earn money in the shortest time possible. Go in, lose, travel to next competition and repeat...

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/an-important-message-regarding-mlg-summer-championship-league-of-legends/
https://twitter.com/MrMLGAdam/status/239878409382133760
http://asia.gamespot.com/news/top-two-league-of-legends-teams-disqualified-in-mlg-summer-championship-6393270

Playing Sports in front of a TV/Computer Screen

Been watching Evo 2012 highlights and got really stoked about fighting games. Watching Street Fighter IV and Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and even King of Fighters was a blast, but Soul Calibur V was confusing. I realized it was because I understood the mechanics of 2D fighters better so I could better tell what was going on and with a good commentator, the match was way more exciting. Watching other games like Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne was great because they were games I played. I found FPS boring and DotA styled games too slow for my liking.

This could be why it's hard for eSorts to kick off in most places other than Korea. Non-gamers probably won't be interested in watching eSports while gamers will only be interested in games that they play and understand.

How then did Starcraft take off in Korea? My guess is Blizzard made a game that's not just fun, but very watchable as well. Two armies killing off one another isn't hard to differentiate. And while build orders might not be immediately intuitive, a good commentator will be able to draw people in.

Watching fighters is a different story even though 2 people beating each other up should be understandable. Fighters have deep mechanics and most commentators do not readily focus on the action and on what's going on, or they use too much jargon in their commenting. Games like these are difficult for the general population to watch unless the commentators make it easier to understand.

Check out the first 3 minutes for an exciting match.

Do you watch eSports? What games hype you up and why do you watch the games you do? Are there ways to make more games enjoyable by the general masses so pro-gamers can get more recognition for their abilities?