I hate the whole "Pro Gamer" thing

Pro gamers are fucking up gaming...

There, I said it.

Which just lost 90% of the people who were reading this.  Of course most of those people were probably 12 years old and without cheat codes they weren't going to stick around anyway.

For those of you that remain, I'll attempt to explain why I feel that way.

It's pretty simple really, it comes down to this:

Pro Gaming has turned something fun into something serious and ultimately ruined the experience for everyone.

Games like Counter Strike, StarCraft and DOTA have become virtual grind fests completely devoid of amusement.  Watching a tournament is like watching fast food workers during the lunch rush.

Increasingly, new releases are being produced with competitive gameplay in mind catering to a gaming culture that reveres the "skills" of "professional" gamers.  The result are games that are either needlessly complex or boring grind fests stripped of all but the most basic elements.

But take away the stadium crowds, pyrotechnics and Rock Concert atmosphere of the average championship and suddenly a DOTA 2 competition makes watching a ping pong match look exciting.  I mean how much fun is it to sit there for hours watching someone play a game.

Yeah, I know TWITCH and HITBOX are all about that. I'm on both of them.  But I'm not a pro and don't want to be.  I just like to share the fun.  In fact watching TWITCH streams often inspires me to play and helps me to enjoy the experience more by learning from other players.  If I land on a pro-gaming stream, however, I tend to fall asleep after a few minutes of endless grinding on the same map.

Hey I love video games.  In fact it's that love that lies at the heart of my irritation with a fake construct.  

Pro gaming is less about the game and more about the gamer and believe it or not that's wrong.  It's a product of the hype perpetrated by game publishers and enthusiast hardware vendors.  It's product is reflected in overpriced Triple-A titles, DLC disease and the delusional construct of the "Pro Gamer."

I say delusion because there's an entire population of gamers who actually think that playing video games is now somehow equivalent to other "professions"

I understand the push to redefine paradigms when it comes to what you do for a living.  Hell, I've been beating that drum for 20 years and try to live by my own example.  Do what you're good at and let that define your value.  The superficial nonsense that defined our parent's reality simply doesn't apply anymore.  So yeah, I get it.

But there's such a thing as taking it too far and professional gaming has done exactly that.

The variables of the "real" world dictate a need for "real" skills to succeed.  Video Games, on the other hand,  operate in a sandbox.  A video game by its very nature places you in an environment with strictly defined rules and outcomes.  There's no such thing as "out of the box" thinking when the "box" is your entire world.  If you play long enough you'll eventually master every conceivable aspect of it in a relatively short period of time. 

Real life doesn't work that way and neither do real skills.  

Now before I go off on some rant about how video games don't require "skills" I'll just say this.  If playing a video game requires any measure of skill then where would you put it on a resume?

What's its market value?   Do you actually believe it compares to the skills of the people who actually made the game?

Sadly, people see an equivalence based on unrelenting hype from an industry only too happy to prime the pump with flashy competitions and false legitimacy for the participants.

Which is exactly why pro gaming fucks up video games.

When you turn an entertainment medium into a competitive sport all the crap that goes with it comes along for the ride.  It's the competition and not the quality of the game that matters. 

And that's just wrong. 

Maybe 1/10th of the people who buy a game do so because they plan to play it competitively.  Of that number most will never explore any more of the game than the tournament requires.  To keep things fair most competitions only involve a subset of the entire game.  No mods, no campaigns, no DLC.  Meaning game modes like Campaign and Co-op start to disappear.  

"Pros" don't need them.  Add a new game engine and some flashy effects and the latest incarnation of Battlefield launches with half the features of its predecessor with nary a peep of complaint. 

Well, at least none they need to pay attention to.  Because of pro gaming, major publishers get to release a lesser game for more money than the one it's replacing.   

So-called "Professional" gaming leagues like the ESL, MLG and PGL all enjoy major sponsorship from the likes of EA, and Valve not to mention enthusiast hardware vendors like AMD and NVIDIA. 

Meaning they'd rather dump millions into hype and false relevancy than improve what more often than not are buggy, overpriced products.

So the next time you think playing a video game involves skill, remember what that belief is costing you in crappy game releases and higher prices for less content. 

Talk about sucking the fun out of a party...