This week I brought in the experts to give their opinions on the situation with LAN events, not only in the US, but worldwide and what the gamers can do to help bring the good ole' LAN event back. Back to help us out is ceppy, who helped run QuakeCon and ESWC 08. Also joining us is Dave "killdashnine" Derington the organizer of Warfactory, whose also worked for CPL, ESWC and MLG.A fairly long and extensive discussion of the state of LANs across the world, and what the gamers need to remedy the problem.
There has been 4 Responses to 'Episode 5: Where Did All The Good LANs Go?' so far
Tanksy
2 things:
1. All major sports have one major league that runs tournaments and events. What's going on right now in the LAN scene is that it's getting purged and we are seeing a single dominant league emerge (MLG) that will take over all LAN events and esports in the U.S.
2. The ability to mod is actually detrimental to a community. With id in full control of the game we get a standard that unites the entire player base instead of fragmenting it across 10 different mods. If esports is ever to break into the mainstream and enter the next stage in it's evolutionary path then the players should be given no more control over the game than football or basketball players get over their own.
Dave Derington says:
Tanksy,
On point #1 you are dead on. I've helped run MLG events and while they do some things right, they have a lot of problems. The foremost issue is their payment structure and the fact that there is very little turnover from event to event. Having MLG "own" the market would come with pros and cons ... Monopolism for one is the worst.
Point #2 is flawed. QuakeLive is not "LAN Worthy" yet, nor does it really provide for admins to have any kind of control over a tournament. It's a really cool idea, but there needs to be provisions for running tournaments (both online and LAN). I can live without mods if we have this much.
I will argue, however, that you're missing a SIGNIFICANT point about "control over the game". Should we allow Id to dictate this? No. Gamers need to band together and form their own independent organization that defies software developers and perhaps even organizations like MLG too.
Tanksy
My first point was an observation that could help explain why there have been so few LAN events in the past two years compared to earlier in the decade. The history of all organized sports begins with a single league winning out over the others and becoming the only stage for professional level competition, but that's not to say that amateur or regional leagues/events won't be possible. All I meant is that MLG has pretty cornered the market on professional esports in the U.S. and we most likely won't see an increase in major lan events until MLG grows some more and provides them.
By point #2 I was referring to user generated content more so than making the game LAN worthy. Obviously we need some sort of LAN client from id if QL is to ever take off. But if id had allowed people to make their own maps and mods than we'd be flooded with tons of poorly made maps and the community would again be divided between 10 different mods/gametypes. At least this way we get a single standard for quake that everyone plays and understands. When people cry for mods like RA3 and CPM, all they really want is for their favorite games to be reinvigorated with a new community so they can relive their heyday. After all, there's zero reason why they can't round up a few players and go play CPM or RA3 now.
Tanksy
Pretty much cornered*