By: Andy ‘Fro’ Popkin
(This is an editorial piece. The opinions in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of compLexity Gaming or its parent company.)
The Show by Fro is a wisecracking look at compLexity, gaming and whatever additional random thoughts pop out from under all that hair. Parental discretion is advised.
Well I don’t know about you, but gaming has gotten really, really boring lately. I am not sure if it is the lack of solid teams in our country, the lack of quality tournaments, or the fact that the Europeans have taken over the scene and left us with no chance to bring victory home to the motherland. I just hope the industry that has brought us all years worth of entertainment is not on laying on its deathbed, waiting for its only relative to pull the plug for that massive insurance check.
When I figured out I wanted to write something for the site again, I had no other ideas except this one. There is no other thought in my mind when I think about gaming as it is now than the fact that gaming right now sucks.
CS, Gaming, and my old life used to consist of fun scrims, new teams each CAL season, weekend LANs at my house, going to winter CPL with coL, and actually enjoying Counter-Strike and the other games I played. Any one that has ever played Counter-Strike can say that it all sounds familiar. For that matter, you can relate no matter which game you play. You get hooked fast, and either stick with it or drop it. The ones who stuck with it are reading this article, and the ones who didn’t have moved on to new games. In CS today, it seems like it’s hard to even find a legit scrim or find an actual good match to spectate, including LAN, that won’t be a blowout, a forfeit, or a random pug of supposedly professional players. We basically have 2 team
s left in the US, compared to the 10-20 that used to be around. Is this what is killing our gaming scene?
I think the major issue is the fact that our economy has finally hit rock bottom. Gamers are not willing to spend thousands of dollars every year or two on new equipment, games, and accessories. A few years back, everyone was trying to get the best headset, mouse pad, mouse, keyboard, etc, on the market, but now its just a matter of finding your iPod headphones so you don’t have to use speakers. The bright spot here, though, is that people are finally realizing that they CAN spend a little extra money here and there on non-necessity items, such as gaming stuff, which is the only way any economy can be stimulated. Take ECON 101 and tell me otherwise.
I had an interesting chat with Jake today. I hadn’t talked to him in a while, not many people in gaming have, so I figured I would see if he wasn’t too busy to chat. Ever since the CGS crashed to an early demise, Jason Lake has been Mr. Blue Collar. He’s been going to work early in the morning, getting home around dinner time, playing with his kids, and then eventually sleeping just to start all over again the next day. Everyone who knows anything about Jake knows he used to be a baller. Big house, expensive shit all over the place, newest gadgets, etc. He was one of, if not THE pioneer, in bringing salaries to players, as well as helping gaming become more mainstream in order to bring in more cash flow to the scene. He founded and managed the former #1 team in the world, so I would ventue to say that he had to be doing something right. Now what is the man who “redefined the term rockstar” doing? He’s being Joe the Plumber on the daily.
To sum up our convo, gaming seems like it’s a losing battle/investment right now for anyone who is trying to save it. I am sure that as the economy gets better, gaming will make a rise again, but will it reincarnate into its former self, or will a new version come to being? Only time will tell, lets just hope we don’t lose this “sport” forever…