Eggmond linked this podcast: http://gamehugs.com/episode-52-katie-stegs-lumi-consulting/, and he said there have been others in this series that go into different jobs in the game industry. He mentioned that he has been inspired to think about different aspects of the games industry that people who aren't developers or professional players can get into.
I've been thinking about how I can contribute. It does make me sad that eSports isn't as big in Australia as it is in some other countries, and for a while, I wanted to go down the path of forming an eSports Federation. One of the issues that can come up is the problem of money. There have been a few famous incidents of tournaments that have been organised, and people have run off with the money. Or organisations that sign-on players, but then don't pay them their winnings. Some players will have contracts, but not all, and it's hard to know what's fair, or what is the industry standard, especially if you're new. There's no accountability - if something doesn't happen, the player may speak out, or the organisation, but it turns into a he said, she said kind of situation.
I had envisioned some sort of central entity, a bit like KeSPA, but I didn't want it to be some crazed, rules-based, you can't talk in game except to say "gg" kind of thing. I just wanted a central place to organise competitions, keep track of player / organisation contracts / obligations, things like that. Well, I have no experience in management, or law, so that never really got off the ground, but there are other skills I do have.
I think my favourite part of the large Dota 2 tournaments is the player videos. I can't remember when they started, but lately, at all the major Valve tournaments, they have short videos going into the lives of some of the players. When you have a game like Dota 2, which is free-to-play, and is on the lower end of hardware requirements (at least I think so), you get such a variety of players, and so it's really fascinating to look at their stories. (By the way, if you haven't already, check out the documentary Valve made called Free to Play which looks at three of the players who ended up at The International.)
Why do we need to wait for a large tournament to find out about the lives of the players? I think every player, and every game probably has a story behind it. There are thousands of games that are played every week, and there are funny things that happen all the time. There are teams who will probably never make it to the international stage, but who have poured a lot of time and effort into mastering the art of Dota, and they also have a story to tell.
I don't know if I'll still be interested in Dota at the end of the year (I probably will), and when I don't have this blog to write in every day, maybe I can go out and find some of those stories. I have been working on my interview skills through work, finding out more about the people I work with, so maybe I can use that to try and get some of those stories.
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