So I should point out that I'm fully aware there's a growing number of people betting on E-Sport results these days but we're usually (I know - not always) wagering skins or cosmetic items for the game we're betting on - not cash.
Though games considered "skill games" like fantasy league has become a growing interest for E-Sport fans. I guess it's the same reason as football fans place a bet on football. It adds some enjoyment to watching the game and you get to test your knowledge and understanding of the game for profit (or not). I'm well aware of this trend. In fact I play a little E-Sport league myself (I'm doing quite well) and I can only see this growing in the future. But that's not really what I want to look at. Traditionally gamers would generally be the nerds of the world opting for a computer game over going outside or doing the usual team sports thing as a kid. Over time gaming became more socially acceptable and that line has kind of blurred a bit. A good deal in fact. But in general if we compare your average gamer (I'm not talking about a casual player of Candy Crush on their phone or FIFA on their XBOX - but an actual gamer) they tend to be a little more on the intellectual side. The key to winning the World of Warcraft PVP arena for example is to understand not only the constraints of your own team, the ability of your opponent but also the overall mechanics of the game. And this is why gamers don't gamble. We learn to burst our cooldowns when there's an advantage to us doing so. Usually based on some fairly simplistic maths. But then there came streaming - and Sodapoppin. Don't get me wrong I love Soda. I think he's grown up over the years and he's an entertaining and generally honest streamer. But he started to gamble on stream. He plays Blackjack with no real understanding of the game theory. In fact his approach is pretty shocking and I really hope people don't start following along and end up losing a bunch of their hard earned money or something. But Soda has money to burn and can somehow afford to waste away thousands of pounds without any real understanding of what he's doing. Most gamers probably can't (I mean the price of a AAA title these days - yikes). And for the most part we're smart enough to understand that this is a bad idea. Right? ... Right?
Every time I open up Twitch there's always some crazy speed running stream going on for an old game. It's not the most popular but it's certainly growing but personally? I just don't get it.
I always say each to their own but it just doesn't look like much fun to me. It's probably the same reason I don't like most PvE raid environment games. Everything is the same. All of the time. That's kind of the point when it comes to speed running games but it's the same as speed climbing over technically demanding bouldering. Speed running just seems like too much of a grind. You're playing the same game. Time after time. And just trying to do the same thing but faster. Maybe I just didn't play enough Sonic when I was a kid. Who knows. |
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