Players vs Spectators

What makes a game successful and popular? It is the players? Or the spectators? When the same question is applied to televised sports, the spectators generate the most revenue and the most interest. But video games have almost always had a larger player base than a spectator base. This hasn't been a problem for decades, but with the rapidly growing strive to reach televised esport status, the need for more spectators is clear.

Games like Quake 3, Starcraft, Counterstrike, Street Fighter, DOTA have all been televised before, and largely commentated and spectated, yet a controversial topic was brought forward by a Korean community member recently: Starcraft was the only sport to draw a significant number of spectators who have barely played the game, while all others have spectators who have at least played it at an amateur level. He believed that this characteristic distinguished Starcraft as a genuine 'sport'.

While his stance is still heavily contested, games striving to achieve tournament and esport recognition should place heavy consideration into making the game fun for spectators, and not just the players. Even in real sports, the respective associations consider and apply rule changes to make the game more exciting for fans to watch, even if it is as the expense of the players. Baseball had different bats approved to increase the rate of homeruns to entice more watchers. Hockey changed passing rules to quicken puck turnarounds and increase frequency of scoring. After all, for these games built primarily around competitive play, it is the fans that will bring in revenue, and the more people who are interested, the more pros will want to pick it up.

That isn't to say any casual drivel can be accepted as a tournament game as long as it is easy to watch. It must be largely recognized to be a deep game requiring mastery and training. But the gameplay should be easy to comprehend for new watchers, smooth to follow for cameramen, quick to tell who's winning and why, fast paced enough to stay interested, long enough to be satisfying, and short enough to not get bored.

If you make a game for tournaments, think about the spectators. I'm looking at you MOBA.

Dota-likes

Dota type games are referred to usually as MOBA or ARTS. MOBA stands for multiplayer online battle arena while ARTS stands for action real time strategy. Both means the same thing, Dota clones. No one is sure how it got so popular or why the worst self-entitled degenerates of society congregate to these types of games and ruin the community into a seething pile of rancid shit. But every game has these people you will say. No, the amount of assholes in these type of games are legendary.

Everyone thinks they're better than the others and every time something goes wrong its their fault. Why? Thats like playing basketball and when you miss a shot your team starts yelling at you for letting the other team get the ball. Then they go on and on for 50 fucking minutes about how the game was lost because you missed that ball and that you should drown in the fucking ocean for sucking so badly at a harmless game of basket ball and how he is going to quit and never play with you again because you are the worst type of scum for missing a fucking ball in the fucking basket. Does that even fucking make sense? Why do people act this way in Dota-likes?

Then there are the so called "trolls" who find it funny to ruin the game for your team. How about people who call out a role and then proceed to bitch and moan when he doesn't get it? Or thinks its funny to keep suiciding and calling out your locations in all chat? Lets go back to basketball again. Imagine a guy on your team keeps calling for you to pass the ball to him and you can't because he's being blocked to shit. He then gets mad and goes "what the fuck man if you're not going to pass me the ball I'm going to ruin the game," then proceeds to taking the ball from your team, checking your own team, and giving the ball to the other team and or throwing the ball into your own basket. Is that fun for either team? No? Yeah you'll get thrown off the court. Not here you don't. They just join another game and repeat it until they log off and come back the next day.

If you play Dota-likes this will happen. I don't know why its so concentrated in these games. Is it because its free? Is it because its a team game and you can't pick your own teams? Has it always been there for every game but you just can't see it? Why do people even play this? Its like the abusive boyfriend you keep crawling back to. He doesn't give a shit because he knows you'll keep coming back. You know he's an asshole but you just can't help yourself. Why are these games so popular?

I am never touching another F2P and Dota-like game again.