Gaming leagues - Are we REALLY ready for them?

[Eugene Neubronner]

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&...

After finally getting around to catching up on the news (I've been moved to the Education beat for the last few months but will be back to Tech in June... My withdrawal symptoms are plenty I assure you =P ) I noticed this little tidbit tucked away in Next Gen (Yes Colin, I stalk your site)

With the closure of so many leagues and the alleged opening of many more, I'm left to wonder how we're meant to proceed from here on out. Would it be better for us if a large, monolithic league, or would it be better to have a hundred and one such smaller leagues fighting it out for sponsors, competitiors and a spot in the glory hole?

Hell, does anyone even have a complete list of all of these leagues? I can never even get half of them straight in my head.

[Nathan Grayson]

The main issue is audience. With many other sports, the audience that's drawn to them doesn't necessarily play or can't play at the moment they're watching the sport. Games, on the other hand, are inherently playable by nearly everyone -- especially gaming leagues' target audience -- even at the moment they're watching a gaming league event. Why bunch around your living room TV to passively view people playing a game when you could, at that very moment, be playing the same game yourself?

The only place where professional gaming has actually worked is in South Korea. And really, the circumstances over there are far different from those of the places where gaming leagues are flailing right now. So until we can distill pure South Korea-esque pro gaming popularity, I'm not even sure we need any league at all -- let alone a bunch of small ones. But then, I suppose we have to try to succeed, so I imagine this pattern of "New league enters figurative cave, gets eaten by grue" will continue for a while.