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[Shifty1897]

The only person I know who does this is my friend who plays WoW. The idea fails for the same reason that cable TV shows struggle, people are busy, people don't have set schedules and are accustomed to getting their content on demand now.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The only person I know who does this is my friend who plays WoW. The idea fails for the same reason that cable TV shows struggle, people are busy, people don't have set schedules and are accustomed to getting their content on demand now.

Eureka!

Lots of people tune in at the same time on Sunday for 17+ weeks a year to watch their favorite NFL team.

The concept would have to click so well that it consistently draws large populations.

Also, people keep bringing up WoW raids as an example that it's already happening. I don't really think that counts because there's something more meaningful about a set duration (90 minute session once per week) and WoW doesn't do much interesting as far as creating compelling PvP or PtP interactions.

 

[Shifty1897]

Eureka!

Lots of people tune in at the same time on Sunday for 17+ weeks a year to watch their favorite NFL team.

The concept would have to click so well that it consistently draws large populations.

Also, people keep bringing up WoW raids as an example that it's already happening. I don't really think that counts because there's something more meaningful about a set duration (90 minute session once per week) and WoW doesn't do much interesting as far as creating compelling PvP or PtP interactions.

Not WoW raids so much as WoW clans that have scheduled training/meetings/meetups (and raids I guess). I'm always annoyed when I my friend to hang out on a Monday or Wednesday after work and he can't because he has clan commitments starting at like 7 on those evenings. He also has no girlfriend or kids and his career isn't very challenging, so he doesn't have much blocking the way for him to live like that.

As for the NFL comparison, I dunno, I have never been reliably available at a certain time on a certain day for something extracurricular like a game or TV show. Career, family, social life, other obligations take priority. No disrespect to others who can live like that, I just think limiting your player base to a scheduled block of time as a gameplay concept would do more harm than good.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Not WoW raids so much as WoW clans that have scheduled training/meetings/meetups (and raids I guess). I'm always annoyed when I my friend to hang out on a Monday or Wednesday after work and he can't because he has clan commitments starting at like 7 on those evenings. He also has no girlfriend or kids and his career isn't very challenging, so he doesn't have much blocking the way for him to live like that.

The WoW raid suggestion isn't completely off track but I don't think it really captures the concept I'm going for.

Again, I thought of this idea while watching the Fallout TV show. I saw a high skill, powerful character (The Ghoul) have an interesting - changing relationship with a lower skill level, less powerful character (Lucy) and thought "Videogames don't currently replicate this but there's nothing that would make this impossible." Right now, games separate The Ghoul from Lucy with SBMM, or they put them together and make Lucy players miserable. The solution is to change the dynamic of high skill + low skill players in the same match.

As for the NFL comparison, I dunno, I have never been reliably available at a certain time on a certain day for something extracurricular like a game or TV show. Career, family, social life, other obligations take priority. No disrespect to others who can live like that, I just think limiting your player base to a scheduled block of time as a gameplay concept would do more harm than good.

I hear this brought up a lot, but again, it's kind of off track. A commercial product doesn't need to be available for consumption by 100% of the population before it's viable. It needs enough potential revenue to be worth the investment. I'm sure Chevy makes a chunk of change from selling their two seat Corvette for 90k dollars. I'm sure there's televised Pickleball leagues starting up that most people don't know or care enough about to watch.

The way this concept works is if limiting players to a set time and duration is so engaging that people are willing to schedule their leisure time around it. They do on Sundays for the NFL. They did on Thursdays at 8:30pm for new episodes of Friends back in the day.

I also think traditional sports is going to be overtaken by esports and I don't think esports is going to look like Overwatch league. It's more likely to resemble what I described here.