Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Says eSports Could be Bigger than NFL and NBA

[omega 616]

Sorry but no.

The only sport I like is UFC/MMA and I love all kinds of games, I'm not great at them but I dabble in things, so I can understand them to a degree but jeepers is watching some games being streamed is boring as fuck!

I've been getting into twitch lately 'cos I have amazon prime and if me watching a person gives them money and costs me nothing, I'd be an ass not to. Man, there are a lot of tournaments in gaming! Not seen a starcraft one pop up yet but CS and LOL seem to be none stop.

Moba's, I have no clue what is going on. I know that two teams fight to destroy a 2 sets of towers and then some kind of spawner and then some kind of base, using some kind of hero with distinct abilities but other than that I'm totally lost.

I watched CS and was bored, they announcers would get all amped up when something big was happening but to me, it wasn't that impressive, like congrats that you got a triple spray but I've done that...

I've watched street fighter players and again I was bored. I get there is a level of skill that I clearly don't posses and if I understood what was happening, I'd appreciate it more but the real life variant (UFC) is so much more exciting. I'd be more amped for the most boring MMA fight than the most exciting street fighter match.


This is just me though and obviously a lot of people LOVE these streamers and tournaments but I don't think it will catch on like Kotick wants it to 'cos if a gamer isn't into it, I don't think the mainstream will be.

 

[Elijin]

Article header: 'Kotick Says eSports Could be Bigger than NFL and NBA.'

Actual quote:
"If you think about our players, if you take Call of Duty, we have 40 million monthly active users-these people are spending hours of their day playing a game, an organized competition-that's the same size as the preseason NFL. These leagues like Call of Duty or Overwatch have the potential to be the next NFL or NBA."

I guess it isn't interesting unless you intentionally misrepresent the situation to cater to an audience you know is pre-disposed towards being negative to Kotick? Who needs credibility when you can have cynical internet commenters talk shit about big companies!

 

[Death Carr]

I don't claim to be a big fan of esports or even follow particular teams
But I do enjoy it not for the competitiveness, but just to watch players play at a much higher skill level than I ever will
even if that is restricted to highlight reels of overwatch/LoL

also esports and athletic sports are incomparable in almost every aspect
just because in one scenario the player is kicking a ball and in the other the player is clicking the mouse really fast (lol) doesn't mean that esports is worth inherently less to the viewer, even if they have no idea whats going on

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I don't get why people feel the need to compare ESport and Athletic Sports all the time. Both are good in their own ways.

It's really just because of the name they went with I think. Calling it ESports created that comparison, and personally I understand why people take issue with it. They're clearly not the same thing, but including the word sport invites the idea that these are meant to be seen as comparable. Now I don't have an issue with Esports (I even went to the LOL NA finals at Madison Square Garden last year with my buddy) but I do take issue with people who say Esports are just as much a sport as traditional sports as football, baseball, Olympic sports, etc. Obviously Esports take tons of dedication and skill development, but comparing an Esport player who literally does all his training in a desk chair and doesn't need to consider nutrition or physicality (except maybe to stretch to avoid blood clots) and his "sport" to athletes who spend hours in the gym and lifetimes working at physical skills is just silly in my opinion.

I think they should have just gone with professional gaming or something along those lines. To me, you shouldn't bother with the word "sport" unless there's real physical exertion. I suppose you might say that bowling or curling aren't real sports then, but at least you're still up and mobile in the real world. (And they're just games anyway har har har)

uhh OT: Maybe far far down the line Esports will see some wide-spread acceptance. As of now I think it's really a small subset of much larger groups of players. Plus, I think there's a certain amount of embarrassment associated with it similar to playing hand-helds in public.

 

[Parasondox]

Careful now. Get too big and corruption will be a disease to your "sport".

Good luck!