Frank

Video games are the new sports for our generation. In this burgeoning era, people are becoming tired of throwing and kicking little spheres around a grassy field for no apparent reason and demand something a little more exciting: televised video game competitions.

South Korea is fast setting pace for this new and exciting form of entertainment, thanks to their fancy broadband infrastructure, which allows users to access information at around 50 megabits per second. This beefy network trumps any other seen around the world, including Japan and the United States, and has a broadband penetration of over 20%. And out of the nearly 50 million people living in South Korea, about 17 million are self purported gamers. With such a huge population playing games, it was only natural for gaming to become the national pastime.

Today, it's not uncommon for a professional Starcraft player to pull in six figures a year with through televised competitions and a healthy dose of sponsorship. These modern-age rock stars are paving the way for professional gaming as not only a sport, but a way of life.

Now, I know some of you sports fanatics will say that gaming is not a real sport because there isn't any real physical activity. If that's the case, then how come people have died from playing games? Sounds a little more dangerous than a rogue shuttlecock, doesn't it? Physicality in games is more than just pressing buttons repeatedly. It's about pressing those buttons with a precision that only comes from sacrificing more than your body for the sport. The most dedicated professional gamers have sacrificed far more than most athletes: job, wife, kids, and a sense of personal hygiene have become all but lost to some of these extreme gamers.

Ok, seriously though, as fond as I am of gaming, and trust me, I am, I just don't see how viable it is to actually produce television around gaming competition. Aside from games being difficult to follow on TV, the reason games exist is to play them. Sitting on the sidelines and watching can be fun in a group setting when you have some drinks, but television fails to capture the essence and excitement of what a game truly is. Gaming television is huge in South Korea because of Starcraft and it is gaining a foothold in the U.S. But I find it hard to sit and watch other people razing a Terran encampment with a Zerg rush when I could load the game and do it myself. Until they find a way to capture the thrill you feel when you actually play the game, I just can't see myself watching the professional gamers duke it out on television.