The Gaming Lobby

Professional” gamers often came into the video game retail store where I used to work. Wearing black hoodies with logos of hardware manufacturers emblazoned on them, these were the athletes of a sport that wasn’t — and likely never will be — a viable mainstream form of competition.

Search online for tournament footage of games such as “Street Fighter II” or “Counter-Strike.” The entertainment won’t come from spectacular coverage of play, but from watching people huddled around a screen freak out over seemingly nothing.

“StarCraft” matches in Korea are particularly amazing, consisting of television presentations with all the fanfare and high-quality graphics as the Super Bowl.

But we are also talking about a culture that loves the game enough that comedians can get laughs from doing impressions of the sounds. That concentration on a single game for multiple years is necessary for a dedicated following to exist.

Titles like “Quake” are able to translate across sequels by keeping the main mechanics and fundamentals, but there are so many games out there that games are going to be spread out over those numerous options, limiting the levels of competition for each game.

Spectators could potentially watch gameplay they don’t understand and enjoy it if only they had a simple interface to watch it through. Developers need to build better spectator modes to allow a custom way to view the key mechanics in play.

Also, viewers need solid commentators who can actually convey insight into the games.

The biggest and least surprising obstacle to the real acceptance of this sport as a viable competition is the charisma of its competitors. The appeal of watching professionals compete isn’t just their skills, its the drama on the court. We yearn to see the anger at a bad call, the joy of triumph and the visible rivalry between players.

So many professional gamers are stone-cold killers, concentrating on the screens with little emotion. The aforementioned professionals in my shop were in no way capable of being personalities that others would admire.

And they usually smelled like Slim Jims.

Poker suffers from roughly the same problem. Celebrity poker is usually the only time players are not hiding behind sunglasses and actually add a little color to the game. Playing with someone else’s money for charity probably helps.

Professional gaming will continue to grow as interest increases, but until a channel or Web site streamlines the process for viewers and a charismatic and dominating player comes forward, professional gaming will be considered a niche such as sports like curling.