Never give up. Never Surrender.
I'm a gamer (specifically, a StarCraft 2 gamer), and a lot of my friends don't understand why (2 come to mind, you know who you are :P). They don't understand why, after 1 year of it being out, I'm still hooked on this game, why I'm so stubborn about defending it, and why my other guy friends continue to play. So, with nothing better to write about, I'll explain myself.
First off, I play it, because it's fun, and because it makes me happy. I've always thought that if you had the choice to do something that makes you happy, then you should do it. If you like to play the piano, play the piano. If you like to swim, swim. You should do what you want, and you shouldn't have to justify yourself to other people. Edit: Here's a video saying basically what I'm trying to get across.
Second, I do it because I love the community. The last major StarCraft tournament had 35 million people watching online, and over 20,000 people in attendance. (I'll put a picture up. Go check it out in the pictures tab.) I like the feeling that I'm a part of something big; something life-changing and it's stories like this that reinforce that feeling (warning: that's a really long story, just skim it if you have to). You cannot read a story like that and say that it didn't change his life. And it's not like there's these 20,000 nerds all crammed into one building, just quietly watching other people play. No, these people are enthusiastic about what they love, and they're gonna make some noise about it. Like this, and this (0:48-1:19). When I watch videos like that, I'm convinced that people can no longer call this "just a game".
And it's not just one game. E-sports has exploded on the North American scene. It's not like this scene has never been here. It's thrived for years in South Korea. Hell, players are treated like rock stars over there. It's just that with games like Halo, SC 2, CoD, and Street Fighter, North Americans are starting to pick up e-sports a lot more. And their fans are all just as enthusiastic about their champions (proof here. Favorite video of the entire set.) And I LOVE these videos, because they remove the game and show just the human elements. It makes it accessible to people outside gaming. Everyone can understand victory and defeat. These films go a long way to getting across some of the reasons we love these games.
I'm a gamer (specifically, a StarCraft 2 gamer), and a lot of my friends don't understand why (2 come to mind, you know who you are :P). They don't understand why, after 1 year of it being out, I'm still hooked on this game, why I'm so stubborn about defending it, and why my other guy friends continue to play. So, with nothing better to write about, I'll explain myself.
First off, I play it, because it's fun, and because it makes me happy. I've always thought that if you had the choice to do something that makes you happy, then you should do it. If you like to play the piano, play the piano. If you like to swim, swim. You should do what you want, and you shouldn't have to justify yourself to other people. Edit: Here's a video saying basically what I'm trying to get across.
Second, I do it because I love the community. The last major StarCraft tournament had 35 million people watching online, and over 20,000 people in attendance. (I'll put a picture up. Go check it out in the pictures tab.) I like the feeling that I'm a part of something big; something life-changing and it's stories like this that reinforce that feeling (warning: that's a really long story, just skim it if you have to). You cannot read a story like that and say that it didn't change his life. And it's not like there's these 20,000 nerds all crammed into one building, just quietly watching other people play. No, these people are enthusiastic about what they love, and they're gonna make some noise about it. Like this, and this (0:48-1:19). When I watch videos like that, I'm convinced that people can no longer call this "just a game".
And it's not just one game. E-sports has exploded on the North American scene. It's not like this scene has never been here. It's thrived for years in South Korea. Hell, players are treated like rock stars over there. It's just that with games like Halo, SC 2, CoD, and Street Fighter, North Americans are starting to pick up e-sports a lot more. And their fans are all just as enthusiastic about their champions (proof here. Favorite video of the entire set.) And I LOVE these videos, because they remove the game and show just the human elements. It makes it accessible to people outside gaming. Everyone can understand victory and defeat. These films go a long way to getting across some of the reasons we love these games.
