Professional gaming comes to TV

Ars Technica is reporting that the “Major League Gaming” errr – “league” has inked a deal with the USA Television network. Apparently the shows will involve seven one hour unscripted episodes. According to the market-ese of the founder of MLG,

"Video games already have a spectator factor -- when someone is playing in their living room, others tend to gravitate toward the television to watch the action and cheer or heckle the player," says Sundance DiGiovanni, the cofounder of MLG. "We are using commentators and telestrators to explain strategies and key moves, and to give the feel of any other sporting broadcast."

While my oodles of money spent on gaming would seem to validate the ridiculously named Sundance DiGiovanni’s assertion of the potential appeal of watching people game, I differ from him in two key areas.

First, whenever someone else is gaming, I want to grab the controller out of their hands and start playing myself, not watch their supposed artistry. Perhaps this is a by product of too many years waiting my turn either at the arcade or at the console. I think I am also the type of person to say “I would rather be playing sports than watching them,” my ponderous girth notwithstanding.

Secondly, the statement that video gaming is a sport is a ridiculous assertion that needs to be quashed before too many people begin to hear it. Holding up ESPN’s coverage of the “World Poker Championships” as validation that people like to watch games being played regardless of their athletic content is a non-starter for me. I don’t think ESPN should be showing the “World Poker Championships.” I think golf barely qualifies as a sport. I think synchronized swimming is ridiculous. When I think “sports,” I think hockey, football, basketball, soccer, baseball – activities that require a combination of physical exertion, mental strategy, and team-work to achieve their results. I don’t think any form of PC or console gaming would qualify in the physical exertion category unless the participants were required to run across fields chasing their consoles.

I will try to sleep at night and process the concept that at a near point in the future their may be more network coverage of gaming than hockey, and resist the temptation to move back to Canada.

I finally got to cash in a Christmas gift that has been sitting around gathering dust. I was given a gift certificate for a one-hour massage, and last Saturday my appointment for my massage came due. On a grey rainy morning I went to this little office tucked away in the corner of a retail plaza in Bedford. My massage person (I can’t use the word ‘masseuse’) and I were the only folks in the whole office. After an hour of deep-muscle massage and joint work, I felt five pounds lighter and like a million bucks. I now have no question in my mind why people are willing to pay the prices they do for professional massages, as they are totally worth the cost. I am going to go back in a couple months and hope to go regularly from that point forward.

Just don’t ask me to get a pedicure.