Column: 'A Journalistic Bent: RPG E-Sports - The Wave Of The Future?'

In the latest 'A Journalistic Bent', veteran columnist Jim Rossignol discusses the possibility that the E-sports movement could turn to MMOs as the televised entertainment of the future, talking to ArenaNet's Michael Gills about Guild Wars' potential for spectator-friendly greatness, as follows: "E-Sports seem to still to be struggling to take off in the West. There are sporadic outbreaks here and there, but the idea of games-as-spectator events is still limited to physical sports, and maybe chess. Compared to Korea, where TV stations regularly broadcast Starcraft and even Lineage match-ups (and where I stood in a room with fifty teenage girls who screamed in anticipation of a particularly ruthless Zerg gambit), Western gaming audiences seem a bit nonchalant. Our audience for the gaming elite slug it out for glory and sponsorship dollars is limited. So can it grow? I wondered whether the nonchalance was because Western e-sports seem to focus too much on FPS games such as Counter-Strike. Korean TV had a 'We Love Each Other And Play Lineage' special, with couples duelling with their level 70-something Lineage characters. So, in the light of World Of Warcraft's exponential reformatting of the demographic, do we need something else, some kind of variety in e-sports? Can we move away from Go! Go! Go! and timing the red armour respawn?" You can now read the full Gamasutra column on the subject, including more from ArenaNet on tournament uses for Guild Wars (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).