Why Do News Outlets Not Take Esports Seriously?

CoG looks into helping us understand why news outlets aren’t adopting esports and the difficulties they have in presenting this information.

[Juusterey]

because they're a bunch of old, out of touch people appealing to a very different demographic

[EDKICK]

I'm neither old nor out of touch. I have huge interest in gaming and the gaming industry but have no interest in Esports, and thus in a naturally the outlets/channels I gravitate towards tend to not have much interest in Esports either. And knowing they're not passionate or knowledgeable on the topic I'm glad they don't try and "fake" being into it to appeal to an audience that isn't theirs. Now I'm certainly not saying only view the content of people who agree with your opinions, that's an entirely different issue with the games industry. However we should just let people who don't care about Esports watch the content of people who don't care about Esports, people who care about Esports watch the content of people who care about Esports, and people who care about both.....ect ect. If you ask every outlet/channel to ditch their interests and expertise for the sake of covering everything that appeals to everyone then none of that content really has any meaning imo.

[NecrumOddBoy]

Does no one remember G4tv with Will Wheaton's show Arena? People used to love it, but now gaming media is too focus on "woke" issues like the amount of melanin in the digital skin tone of a fake character and why that is oppressive.

I personally don't care about eSports since is not a sport, its a game.

[Fist4achin]

I'm not into watching others play games or at least not for too long, although I do recognize there are some gamers that can do some crazy amazing things in a game.

[rainslacker]

ESports gets more coverage than some other sports, which I'd actually consider sports more than eSports.

[SegaGamer]

I just find everything about esports incredibly cringeworthy.

[Flewid638]

Nothing that isn't standard cringe fodder in anything else gaming related.

[drpepperdude]

I'm a huge gamer but I find most of esports boring. Most of the games they play are filled with microtransactions.

[Kostche]

it is, the hosts are so cringy, its worse than watching people whore themselves out on twitch and youtube

[Imalwaysright]

When I was a kid I loved gaming culture. Today, I'm ashamed of it.

[Elwenil]

Agreed. IT feels very manufactured to me. Like some focus group came up with the idea, and it's being pushed as something I am supposed to like. The announcers and players are all overly animated and loud as though they are having a great time and therefore I am supposed to want to have a great time like they are. The whole thing makes me feel about the same as I do when I see overly obvious and unnecessary product placement in a movie.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Because it hasn't proven that it's a sport yet. Real sports require physical skill, hand and eye coordination. And something like Chess requires mental skill. Strategies that are great for war tactics. Videogames has those attributes. But not the time needed to be accepted like other games.

Also, Videogames are still looked down on and frowned upon by society as a needless pastime. Or something to divert your kids attention while you supposedly do "adult things."

Even when it's proven that playing games increases coordination, puzzle solving, dexterity, etc that has been effective in being a doctor or real race car driver, acceptance takes time. And not because they're old and out of touch like the post above. Old people can still learn new things and accept new things.

[dedicatedtogamers]

News outlets don't take themselves seriously. Have you watched the news recently?

[PhantomS42]

Because esports shouldn't be taken seriously.

[EDKICK]

I feel like not having interest in/not being all that knowledgeable in a field are far different stances than not taking seriously.... We demand that news outlets both gaming and otherwise are open, transparent, and sincere in what they discuss, criticize, or promote but then express annoyance (often quite vocally) when they don't cover what we want or don't cover something how we want it covered even if it wouldn't line up with their interests or expertise. News outlets, gaming especially aren't perfect whatsoever, far from it, I and many others on this site often accurately point out how many gaming sites are failing to both represent gamers or appeal to them seemingly more interested than promoting views than discussing games. However I don't see how asking sites to cover a large section of the gaming industry they may have zero interest or knowledge in does no good for either the outlets or the people using the outlets.

[Rynxie]

Esports is stupid. Not all of the best players participate in esports. Also, when you have baby games like cod blops 4 as in esport game. HAHA. The game literally does majority of your aiming. Weapons do one hit kills, some don't even have to be a direct hit. Fighting games is not bad for an esport, but gets old quick. Why do I want to watch people play madden, and NBA 2k, when I can see actual football and basketball? Rts games are also very boring to watch.

[Pedantic91]

Because video games.

Because sitting on your ass playing video games is not a sport.

Because playing video games is not on the same level as actual physical sports such as soccer and hockey or any other physical activity that requires you to actually get out of your DXRacer.

[Segata]

I'd like to see one of these "esports" players try hell week in the hot sun in football practice. Then tell me playing a game is a real sport.

[ZeekQuattro]

I remember I used to like watching game tournaments back when G4 was a thing. Now I don't care.

[Shikoku]

As an actually competitor in the combat sport of Judo and Jujutsu its because Esport really isn't even real sports.

[Profchaos]

Yeah same years of competing in BJJ makes me cringe when people try and tell me these eSports guys are real athletes

[Shikoku]

They have skill, I'm not saying they don't some of them do some really crazy stuff. I just disagree with calling it "esports" find something else to call it.

[JackBNimble]

I don't why anyone would call them athletes but at the same time they are competitors.

[jznrpg]

Who takes esports seriously besides the people competing for money and the companies making money from it? They shouldn’t call it sports anyway, just call it a video game tournament .

[Shikoku]

^this

[Firebird360]

Because its lame.

[shoesmashoo]

Interesting article but I would say it misses a few basic premises.

Based on other very large sports, eSports is still pretty niche and there is also the question of how people consume news surrounding eSports.

Watching an event on Twitch does not correlate to the number of people willing to read about an event.

A lot of news outlets want to cover eSports but are unable to get the funding or backing, due to the low figures they receive in readership.

There are already dedicated eSport sites and video outlets that provide great coverage, and they are hard to compete with.

There's no doubt that eSports is going to grow but right now, an extra Journo covering Arsenal and London Footy teams will generate more AD cashflow.

This eSports article also seems to cover the UK and English-speaking media, which is just part of a bigger audience.

If CSGO is massive in Scandanavia, outlets producing content in the native languages will be top of Google and local search.

I know someone who works for a dedicated Finnish eSports site which is absolutely smashing it in terms of numbers.

It's such a big question to try and ask it really is hard to cover everything that is holding back big media covering eSports more in 2019.

[iQuasar]

One could even go onto speculate that the "foundation" of the question needs to be better formulated. Is the article attempting to ask why big-news is not covering a format that should get wider exposure.

OR, is it why not better organize esports into a model that better imitates traditional media?

Frankly, there is a ton of bias in this conversation without people properly self-reflecting on what esports needs to be for them to individually say, "that is what I am talking about." The biggest idiot response I see is "esports is not a sport." However, those same individuals will more willingly accept poker, chess, bowling, car racing, fishing, billiards, etc etc etc as a sport before esports. Do those fields require more physical demands than esports. OR, is it the image the esports model projects that immediately invokes a reaction of this IS NOT A SPORT?

[Segata]

Because they shouldn't. It's not real sports. Being fat and drinking energy drinks playing video games in an air-conditioned room sitting down is not athletic. It's not a sport. It is a competitive event sure but sports? Hardly.

[iQuasar]

Because traditional media is a colossus set in its ways. One only has to look at the case study of how they almost went bankrupt in the early 2000s. The internet almost usurped traditional media as the premiere source of information. It was not until around 2011 that traditional media figured it out and adapted.

In comparison it will take the world adopting esports and elevating it to the levels of televised sports to force traditional media's hand.

[lio_convoy]

I lul everytime I see the word esport. There is nothing sporty about gaming. Playing fighting games does not make us physically active or more physically fit. Mentally, yeah, games help reflexes and to keep certain areas in our minds sharp, but that's about it. To be taken more seriously, a better name than esport needs to be made. Cus eports just sounds lame. 3000 lame.

[TylerFischer]

The reality is scaling up to cover a whole vertical like that properly is very difficult and resource depleting. It's a big risk.

[KillBill]

I can tell you why... because for the most part the eSports matches that I watch are just poorly covered. The sportscasters are sometimes knowledgeable but poorly setup segments where they simply don't come across as professional sportscasters in the least.

And many events appear to have that garage tv station feel about them... where you wonder who hired the people to commentate or cover said events.

And the ones that do have a sportscaster that is well informed and can carry the show we then have the dead time where we are watching a team choose characters that for some games can last longer than the actual round.

Need to have some professionals look at eSports and comment on some areas of correction needed that will keep even people like me that tends to watch channels like eGG Network and yet wonder how some of these events got air time.

[Zuniga899]

I'm a huge gamer but I find most of esports games boring. don't know why but its happened.

[TargusX]

Gaming is NEVER in the news in the UK unless it's something bad or controversial. So out of date

[a_l]

This is exactly what prompted me to write this article. It's such a shame

[pinkcrocodile75]

Well it's not really news is it.

[jjb1981]

I don't care about watching other people play video games competitively. It's boring to me since I can just go play.