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B-52s: Enemies of the state, according to MTV
For years, multiplayer first-person-shooter games have been evolving into a type of spectator sport. At massive LAN parties or sponsored competitions, there’ll be more people gathered around to watch the game-play than actual players. Over in Korea, online games are televised nationally, which makes perfect sense to me. They’re ripe for broadcast, since a news organization could put virtual cameras anywhere they wanted on the map, and/or trail behind a player’s shoulder, or peer out their eyes as they play! I’d far rather watch that than most pro sports, quite frankly.
But I digress. The point of this posting is to note an interesting new evolution of gaming-as-sport.
A new company called YouPlayGames is setting up a service that lets you bet on the outcome of a deathmatch. As the Associated Press reports:
The cost of entry generally will range from a few cents to a few dollars for each kill or injury players incur on their opponents, YouPlayGames creator Chris Grove said Tuesday.
No money limits have been set, but that could change, Grove said.
Another feature will let gamers cap how much money they can lose in 24 hours.
“If two players want to play a game for $100 a life, then we’ll open up a server for that,” he said.
Grove said prizes eventually will include games, vacations and money.
Neat — though hardly the classiest operation. As the story notes, “YouPlayGames is headquartered on the Caribbean island of Curacoa in the Netherlands Antilles, just off the coast of Venezuela,” offshore havens where greasy online gambling operations set up shop to avoid prosecution under North American anti-gambling laws.
(Thanks to Boing Boing for this one!)
I'm Clive Thompson, a writer on science, technology, and culture. This blog collects bits of offbeat research I'm running into, and musings thereon.
Currently, I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. I also write for Fast Company and Wired magazine's web site, among other places. Email or AOL IM me (pomeranian99) to say hi or send in something strange!
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» visit the Collision Detection archives
September 26, 2008 » 01:57 PM
From an interview with ethnobotanist and anthropologist Wade Davis:
One of the cultures you celebrate in Light at the Edge of the World is the Inuit. What do you most admire about them?
Davis: The Inuit didn’t fear the cold; they took advantage of it. During the 1950s the Canadian government forced the Inuit into settlements. A family from Arctic Bay told me this fantastic story of their grandfather who refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his tools and all of his implements, thinking that would force him into the settlement. But instead, he just slipped out of an igloo on a cold Arctic night, pulled down his caribou and sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of an implement. And when the blade started to take shape, he put a spray of saliva along the leading edge to sharpen it. That’s when what they call the “shit knife” took form. He used it to butcher a dog. Skinned the dog with it. Improvised a sled with the dog’s rib cage, and then, using the skin, he harnessed up an adjacent living dog. He put the shit knife in his belt and disappeared into the night.
September 25, 2008 » 11:21 AM
“Video from a camp north of Toronto in December 2005 shows a car spinning around in a nearby, snow-covered parking lot. Prosecutors characterized that as special driver training but the defense, and many outsiders, said it was nothing more than “cutting doughnuts,” a favorite winter pastime of young Canadian motorists.” - A key piece of evidence submitted in the trial of a gang of alleged young Canadian terrorists.
September 24, 2008 » 11:21 PM
“Life imitates art imitating life: just thought a gnat crawling across my monitor was part of a Flash-based ad. I clicked it.” - A Tweet from Bill Braine.
September 24, 2008 » 02:37 PM
“Funniest FB friend request ever: “Twitter friend hoping to get to second base (Facebook!) ;-).”” - A recent Tweet by Pistachio
September 24, 2008 » 12:28 PM
Chinese powdered-milk crisis creates a new market: The return of the wet nurse
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