Competitive gaming

[dux]

I'm just thinking aloud here, but thought it might make a good thread, I dunno. Lets find out!

I was just wondering what you guys thinking of the whole competitive gaming thing? Is the fps competitive game gone? Does it only exist in RTS form with Starcraft now? I'm not talking so much about the professional gaming as a whole where they insure their fingers for 1 million quid or anything but also the competitive clan scene of games from the likes of the past greats of Quake, counter strike and natural selection for instance.

Do you miss those styles of games and the huge amount of clans they had? Or do you prefer just being a single player type of guy kicking back and just admiring a games art and direction instead of interacting with clan mates in an organized league match?

I also think that with today's games on PC being almost always a console port - the skill factor has decreased immensely. Bad Company 2 was a good example of this for me where I found the game so easy I would get constantly banned for hacking.

And of course I work on ns2, which plans on being the next great fps competitive game on pc. (Hopefully)

Another thing I enjoy about the old competitive games are the frag movies! My old NS clan made a few, here's one I helped make of our best player:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSXEUXSj55k

And no doubt marks will chime in here eventually with his frag movie.

[Bunglo]

As it stands now, I have spurts where I really get into this with SC2 as I did with SCBW. Granted I totally suck(ed) at both games and I watched more than I played, there's just something I find more captivating about a match in an RTS game than a FPS. It also may have to do with how difficult a game like StarCraft is. You can get fairly good at CSS if you play it enough, StarCraft requires you to play just to keep a certain skill level, getting past that skill level is another thing. To me, It's just easier to recognize how much dedication and skill a SC2 player has than watching some other game.

The last time I was in a clan was around 6 years ago playing America's Army. I loved that and every one on the clan kicked some serious ass. My friend who was in the same clan (whom I know in real life) ended up starting his own and going on to be one of, if not the best clan for AA. Last time I talked to him (maybe a year ago?) he was still super into this type of stuff, though the game he focused on was COD4.

Being focused on game development has made me really out of the loop when it comes to this stuff now. I enjoyed the whole clan thing but I don't think I'm a dedicated player like I used to be. Plus it's not really appealing to me anymore. It was great when I was 15 and didn't have to focus on much else but at 21 and trying to get my foot in the door, competitive gaming isn't something I pay attention to. It's mainly a matter of priorities in my situation.

[Duff-e]

I quit playing CS competitively a year before CAL/CPL died which was about 5 years ago. I was pretty deeply involved in the culture and don't regret the few years I spent on CS. I think you have to look at it with a realistic perspective though, most of us were 13-19 year olds who had too much free time and didn't have to pay any bills. On top of that going through college or having a job gives you a whole different social reality that can be infinitely more rewarding than a virtual one.

That said I've met a lot of older people who play WOW in their spare time. If there is any real money left in competitive gaming it's probably in SC2. I barely play PC/Console games anymore but I do watch JustinTV gaming streams which for some reason I can't get enough of. All last week I had a stream of some guy playing LA Noire in 720p playing in the background while I was working. JTV just posted for applicants on hacker news a few days ago talking about building a huge esports site(probably with SC2 in mind since it's the most popular game on there by far) so there's money being made somewhere.

http://www.justin.tv/jobs/jobs/x?source=HNesports

I'm looking at http://www.gotfrag.com/ right now and it seems pretty alive. Lots of WOW and SC2 in the news, CS/TF2 in the forum. I heard TF2 is pretty fun in competitive play and I can understand why.

Unrelated rant: Looking at the gotfrag site reminds me why I've always disliked the "professionalization" of gaming. The people responsible for running the websites and tourneys have a bad habit of trying to emulate real sports business practices in an attempt to legitimize their efforts. As a result you get SC2 broadcasters who think that success means communicating like you're Marv Albert (NBA commentator) or overemphasizing parts of the game that are marginally important but help promote the ill-conceived fantasies of a guy who watches too much SportsCenter.

Gaming can be successful as a spectator sport but only if the key people stop trying to shoehorn it into a world it doesn't belong. I understand that no self respecting adult wants to be directly associated with cheeto fingered 13 year olds but they're going to keep fucking up until they find a different model.

[Pampers]

I still play PCWs on cs:s with some friends now and then, still super fun.

[Mr. Happy]

I played TFC competitively and had a GREAT time doing that. Some of my favorite gaming memories! Getting ass-kicked by 404 etc. But I wouldn't want to do the same thing now. I think competitive sometimes DETRACTS from a game by encouraging stupid tactics and use of only a small select range of the games options which are considered to be "the best" options. For multiplayer games I definitely prefer the freeform never-know-whats-gonna-happen gameplay of public servers.

[Skjalg]

HoN and SC2 are the only two games I pay attention to these days (watch and play on a regular basis), but I suck at both games, because I'm busy with work and girlfriends and keeping in touch with my mates

I agree completely with the unrelated rant that Duff-e posted about commentators trying to act professional ruining it. Casters should be cool, but also do nerd jokes and be gamers themselves. And not just talke for the sake of talking, that is really frustrating. I watch a lot of GomTV and they have two very excellent casters (I'm of course talking about the casting archon tastosis), but they also have two very terrible casters (that cast the sub-par leagues), and I cant force myself to sit through a game casted by them, no matter who is playing :S

[Buddy]

HoN and SC2 are the only two games I pay attention to these days (watch and play on a regular basis), but I suck at both games, because I'm busy with work and girlfriends and keeping in touch with my mates

I agree completely with the unrelated rant that Duff-e posted about commentators trying to act professional ruining it. Casters should be cool, but also do nerd jokes and be gamers themselves. And not just talke for the sake of talking, that is really frustrating. I watch a lot of GomTV and they have two very excellent casters (I'm of course talking about the casting archon tastosis), but they also have two very terrible casters (that cast the sub-par leagues), and I cant force myself to sit through a game casted by them, no matter who is playing :S

What about Day9?

[Skjalg]

Day9 daily is cool sometimes, and he is very good as a caster as well, he just hasn't found a good sidekick yet. I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the US-games so far, but I hear things there are starting to get interesting and that Idra is a good caster.

[mjens]

I thought that Quake Live will born e-sport again but it looks quiet now...

[-HP-]

I thought that Quake Live will born e-sport again but it looks quiet now...

I play it on a daily basis. But yes, it was kind of a flop.

[Skjalg]

fps's like that move to fast for the generic player base. And its that player base that is required to keep a game alive so that the pros have someone to own at all times.

(its the easy to get into, hard to master thing). Quake is not easy to get into; all you do is die. ALL the time (if you are a newb at it).

[Taylor]

I had a clan during TFC for a bit, but I couldn’t even tell you our acronym now. We all came from skills servers so we were all about engineers doing dispenser jumps to build sentry guns in the rafters, and I was a troll medic who could concussion jump all over the shop. However, gimmicky play only gets you so far.

I play BlazBlue vaguely competitively, enough to travel across the country attending tournaments, which is a “console port” (sorry Dux) of an arcade game. It’s not as complex as

but it’s not quite as watered down as Street Fighter 4 or Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

There’s a bit of a fighting game renaissance right now so I’m hoping next generation people will be assumed proficient and looking for the next thing, so as a result the complexity will increase. Maybe the same will be true of other genres that have undergone something of a modern ‘reset.’

[AlexM]

This is actually the first year I've begun to enter LAN tournaments. Largely because I'm in college. Current League of Legends undefeated Champs

I'm also quite competitive in Street Fighter 4 and MvC3, although I consistently lose in MvC3

There is a huge multiplayer FPS void in my life right now though. All the modern FPS'es just don't hold my attention for very long. I still play Doom online via Doomseeker and try to play quakeworld whenever I can. Maybe I'll give quake live a shot, wish they had quakeworld live though.

[marks]

Oli - the one we won't speak about, the one some people liked, or the one I've had 95% finished for months? Because they're all pretty bad

[dux]

Radial of course.