Yeah but people don’t dress up in ugly logo covered clothing and face/body paint and spend millions and millions of dollars to build and fill up specialized stadiums with screaming fans to watch strangers play chess.
A game is a game. The actual stakes are basically the same when I play Mario Kart on my couch as when a couple dozen dudes in tights smash into each other in the cold at the sports balls stadium. There’s a winner and non-winners and the outcome means basically nothing to the people spending money to watch and wear their overpriced matching fan attire.
Not that i engage in this particular variety myself, but this kind of activity typically gets more fun the deeper you dive in. I generally only watch esports, but the more i care about the outcome of a game, and the more i understand of the game, the more fun it is to watch. I can think of no better way of caring more about a game than siding absolutely with one of the teams and betting money on their victory.
Yeah but people don’t dress up in ugly logo covered clothing and face/body paint and spend millions and millions of dollars to build and fill up specialized stadiums with screaming fans to watch strangers play chess.
A game is a game. The actual stakes are basically the same when I play Mario Kart on my couch as when a couple dozen dudes in tights smash into each other in the cold at the sports balls stadium. There’s a winner and non-winners and the outcome means basically nothing to the people spending money to watch and wear their overpriced matching fan attire.
I think they have fun.
Not that i engage in this particular variety myself, but this kind of activity typically gets more fun the deeper you dive in. I generally only watch esports, but the more i care about the outcome of a game, and the more i understand of the game, the more fun it is to watch. I can think of no better way of caring more about a game than siding absolutely with one of the teams and betting money on their victory.