eSports and competitive video gaming competitions have become a serious industry in recent times and are poised to change the overall video gaming industry in big ways. Attracting the attention (and funding) of corporations primarily involved with traditional sports, eSports is set up to not only affect the way future games are developed, but is also set to make some serious revenue. What's your take on how the involvement of large sporting corporations and the rise of elite gamers will effect the overall video gaming industry?
It would also change the current social stigma around gaming, popularizing it more and creating a more serious community. – LaRose7 years ago
Egad. Timely. Especially since Elon Musk's AI just crushed human DOTA players (https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/12/ai-beats-top-dota-2-players/). Great idea. – Paul A. Crutcher7 years ago
In some sense I think it's stifling to game design. It seems that every multiplayer game that comes out is automatically assumed to be trying to be the latest eSport. This is not necessarily healthy for game design if there is a shift from developing fun multiplayer games to developing grueling and complex games with the potential of being an eSport. For example, PUBG is in early access and was still a buggy mess when people were already discussing its potential as an eSport and how the game would need to change to fit into the eSport world. Esports are only now at a stage where it is conceivable that a developer might design a game with the goal of being an eSport as the sole consideration, and that could have interesting results. – MarcoMorgan7 years ago