Got this in an email today, thought you might be interested...

USA Network to air video game tournaments
USA Network has signed a one-year deal with Major League Gaming, which runs professional video game tournaments. Under the terms of the arrangement, USA Network will carry seven hour-long shows from tournaments across the U.S.
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Warren

 

Sounds more like something G4 would do but if they think they can make a show of it.

G4 did have "Arena" in which they had teams play each other on a variety of games for lame prizes and that show was unwatchable.

It reminds me of "Starcade" from when I was a kid. Anybody rememebr that show? I loved that stupid show.

 

 

Why was it unwatchable?

Warren

 

I don't know it just kind of seemed lame to me. You either had footage of eight guys sitting at gaming stations taken from the far side of the studio, or quick cutting shots from one players screen to the next. You would see kills in random fashion with no context and it just did not make for good TV IMHO. The prizes were just cheap vacations to Mexico so the players did not get excited about it, they seemd not to care that much. You need some cash to make it more competitive and keep the participants interested.

I am a video game nerd, and like to see an unbiased review of new product, but watching other people play and hearing color commmentary just does not seem to translate to tv. Especially when you just see random shots from each players screen and can not tell what each player is doing.

If you are familiar with Call of Duty on the 360, they have a specatator mode where you can get a birds eye view of the map and watch all the players sneak around and track each other down. You get a sense of the strategy going on in the other players minds as they stalk. You can watch from above as one player sneaks up behind another. Or the way a team works together with a plan. That feature would be key it is the only way to be a spectator and see the game in three dimensions, so to speak. Otherwise the camera cuts to a players first- person screen and he gets shot from behind, all you see as the spectator is, well, nothing. No feel for the game.

Not to mention you feel like a complete dork watching because, you are not actually playing a video game, but you are watching a tv program of other people playing a video game.

If they had feature with the players giving tips, maybe even tie ins with Xbox live that allows you to get into the tournement because of your status on the LIVE leaderboards, you could generate more interest, lots of other ideas come to mind, but if they don't do that, the show might be too flat.