Why no competitive gaming on mainstream TV networks?

[Fitzgerald77]

Why have shows that revolve around competitive gaming when networks can make another retarded fucking reality or talent show? Smh

And besides, 90% of the time it's boring as fuck to watch someone play something. And don't even get me started on just how annoying judges on gaming tournaments sound! Fucking wannabe sportscasters if you ask me.

[Zyzzyx]

Why have shows that revolve around competitive gaming when networks can make another retarded fucking reality or talent show? Smh

And besides, 90% of the time it's boring as fuck to watch someone play something. And don't even get me started on just how annoying judges on gaming tournaments sound! Fucking wannabe sportscasters if you ask me.

This. It's boring as hell for most people, and networks know that. They aren't going to risk wasting their time and money on something most people won't care about.

[S7orm]

because most of the TV-addicted grannies can't even turn on a PC, won't get enough share

[breadisfunny]

There was actually a video gaming channel (not G4) on Dish Network for a while that showed all kinds of tv shows just involving video games: Starcraft/Warcraft tournaments, Battlefield 2142 matches, gameplay videos, gameplay hints and cheats, sometimes full cinematics from video games, previews, reviews, etc.

Then one day... poof, not there. I forgot what the name was.

g4 suffered a very similiar fate on directv. it is no longer listed on their channels last i checked.

[twinkleblur]

there are shows through out history? but they just got boring...heres something thats just my opinion? but just like real sports no one wants to see 1 or a team of players win constantly. like the patriots..there a good team but after winning so many so soon..there just too boring for me to vote for them.

[Ethes]

The only thing I could see that would be worthwhile is featuring major events in a sort of summary programm. Events like i40,i41 (whichever number we're at now), DreamHack, etc. and feature it on TV just after the event. I'm pretty sure there is not enough support for watching a whole match of something. Specially if it lasts ages. Most games have a lot of 'booring' downtime. Whereas sports are generally interesting throughout (at least the sports that are featured on TV in Holland). In sports like tennis, footbal, rugby, hockey, basketbal, volleybal, Judo, Boxing, etc there are things going on all the time.

In Call of Duty you've got people camping in a corner for most of round, same for games like Counter-Strike or other shooters. These games are normally 5vs5, so who do you follow or how do you put it on the screen? For other sports this is much easier, you just follow the ball (Tennis, Footbal, Rugby, etc). But in a shooter everybody is doing something all the time, so who do you follow. In RTS games there is often a 'build-up' phase in which nothing much happens, besides that some of these games are really long. (I mean, I generally don't enjoy watching a whole tour the france race... thats usually 6+ hours! If I watch, maybe the last hour or 30 minutes).

The other question is, which games do you feature? Saying, games should be featured is like saying sports should be featured. If you put on Basebal, which personally bores me out of my skull, I won't be watching. Just because there is generally an appeal for sports that doesn't mean all sports are featured. I wouldn't be interested in 'all' games.

So yea, maybe if you feature massive events it might work. General gaming streams, I don't think it will raise massive interest. Specially since it is all already available online and the people who're interested are already watching!

[anyaka21]

Why have shows that revolve around competitive gaming when networks can make another retarded fucking reality or talent show? Smh

And besides, 90% of the time it's boring as fuck to watch someone play something. And don't even get me started on just how annoying judges on gaming tournaments sound! Fucking wannabe sportscasters if you ask me.

This makes ZERO sense at all. Do you realize that the highest rated TV programs in history are people watching other people play something, especially sports. Superbowl anyone?? Soccer matches, Tennis, the Masters, March Madness?

Hell, technically, anything you actually watch on television is someone actually doing something that you could try to do yourself. You could try and act. You could try to be on a reality tv show. etc...

Although, I would agree that it does seem that there are a lot of wannabe sportscasters out there and they are terrible. Think Dodgeball announcers terrible.

But IMO, especially at the beginning of a gaming TV show, it would be all about the announcers. You wouldn't really know the players at first, so you'd have to have good "sportscasters" to draw you in and kinda teach you/show you the ropes, kinda of thing and make it interesting and funny.

The guide I would kind of follow is World Series of Poker. Light, interesting, at times funny, the announcers draw you in. Add that they pretty much do a lot of voice overs after the fact, ad-libbing commentary so they can pare it down into a time segment. Then after watching it for a while, you get to know some of the major players and stars of the poker world. Which is what I'd do with a gamer show. That way you would take out all of the boring build up part, use the commentary for the important parts of matches.