OT 19/3: Live Sports. ESPN+ Originals. The Exclusive Home of the Complete 30 for 30 Library. Exclusive Articles and Tools. Top Leagues and Tournaments.

[Felonious Python]

Basketball 3x3 plays music during the game. Pretty casual for an Olympic sport.

 

[Felonious Python]

Archery this year has no pull. If there isn't the temptation to just let a few loose on the crowd, what's even the point?

 

[The Macho King]

Archery this year has no pull. If there isn't the temptation to just let a few loose on the crowd, what's even the point?

Oh the Onion...

 

[Felonious Python]

What's the appeal of watching swimming?

Also, Argentina volleyball has this guy.
Agustin Loser

 

[LightningStrikes]

What's the appeal of watching swimming?

Same question for cycling. It’s just some dudes on bikes. For hours.

 

[Felonious Python]

Same question for cycling. It’s just some dudes on bikes. For hours.

People make this 'purity' argument. That things like swimming & running are these pure athletic events that everyone can understand.

Yeah, but why is it interesting.

 

[JoVel]

People make this 'purity' argument. That things like swimming & running are these pure athletic events that everyone can understand.

Yeah, but why is it interesting.

I do think it's interesting to see top athletes take things that everyone does, and find the limits of what the human body can do with it.

'Interesting' as in I like to follow them when the Olympics are around. Don't really follow them elsewhere.

 

[Felonious Python]

I do think it's interesting to see top athletes take things that everyone does, and find the limits of what the human body can do with it.

'Interesting' as in I like to follow them when the Olympics are around. Don't really follow them elsewhere.

I might have more of an NBC argument. Swimming is their thing. There's like 50 events, but they show like 4 hours of swimming every day, all focused on the Americans.

 

[JoVel]

Speaking of Olympics, archers should simplify their equipment.

A sport that gathers pretty much all of its casual viewers during the Olympics should probably standardize their equipment to a point where most people would even recognize the bow as a bow.

 

[Felonious Python]

Orlando & Tampa get mentioned every once in a while for hosting a Summer Olympics. Besides how it seems to always end up being at least a mild long-term disaster, it rains this time of year.

 

[Hoek]

Orlando & Tampa get mentioned every once in a while for hosting a Summer Olympics. Besides how it seems to always end up being at least a mild long-term disaster, it rains this time of year.

Hurricane during the Olympics sounds like a great idea. Tokyo is getting hit by a typhoon soon too, lol.

 

[Felonious Python]

 

[Elvis P]

It's 95 with high humidity and the young freak who lives behind us is mowing with a pro wrestling mask on again. You can literally die from heatstroke!

 

[Felonious Python]

It's 95 with high humidity and the young freak who lives behind us is mowing with a pro wrestling mask on again. You can literally die from heatstroke!

Strong Badia's not going to mow itself.

 

[The Macho King]

It's 95 with high humidity and the young freak who lives behind us is mowing with a pro wrestling mask on again. You can literally die from heatstroke!

Kayfabe is a way of life.

 

[Felonious Python]

A new set of free games on Twitch Prime are up. I'm not familiar with any of them other than Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. That's a legitimate classic. (the 'team' path is the best/most enjoyable one)

 

[JoVel]

A new set of free games on Twitch Prime are up. I'm not familiar with any of them other than Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. That's a legitimate classic. (the 'team' path is the best/most enjoyable one)

BFV is probably the shittiest game in the franchise.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Anyone know of any good lightning jersey sales? Preferably adidas, not fanatics. Promised myself I’d get a new one after the cup last year and still didn’t. I live in Canada btw

 

[Felonious Python]

Reading the hot takes on why Olympic viewership is down is interesting.

I'm not even really a Summer Olympics guy, but I can have a stream going all day, so why not?

There's a segment blaming wokeness. That the athletes are political now, and that it's turning away viewers. These are also the people who are proud to admit that they have not watched one minute because of it. I'll admit I haven't really watched the prime time schedule, but during daytime there's no breathing room for politics. They can't even show full events.

What I do see as a problem (besides the obvious time zone issues) is of course NBC. Their tv broadcasts are more about jumping between events, which is good if you have a relatively short attention span, and don't particularly care about any of the events, but for someone looking for something specific, say a Lithuania-Prussia handball game, having a certain game broadcast on a channel at a known, specific time is an issue. That audience would mostly be suited to the internet, where everything is livestreamed, and not count towards tv ratings.

Winter Olympics in China are coming in six months, guys. Beijing is probably going to be considered a North American ratings disaster for NBC & whatever hockey they have. Winter Olympics draw fewer viewers, and even with these summer ratings so low, Beijing will be blamed for any Olympics 'fatigue'.

 

[Hoek]

Are they not counting the streaming stats? Because the NBC Olympics website has been fantastic at providing a stream of all the random shit I want to watch. I don't watch any of the tape delayed stuff later in the day because it gets spoiled literally everywhere. It's the worst it's ever been I think. The time zone issue is pretty insurmountable without streaming and just watching on TV will never compete. The other problem is just a lot of people don't believe these Olympics should even be happening, and watching without crowds is also a downer of course. Blaming wokeness is dumb, while some of it has gotten annoying and kind of tone deaf in its own right, I don't think there's been much of at these Olympics anyway.

 

[Felonious Python]

Are they not counting the streaming stats? Because the NBC Olympics website has been fantastic at providing a stream of all the random shit I want to watch. I don't watch any of the tape delayed stuff later in the day because it gets spoiled literally everywhere. It's the worst it's ever been I think. The time zone issue is pretty insurmountable without streaming and just watching on TV will never compete. The other problem is just a lot of people don't believe these Olympics should even be happening, and watching without crowds is also a downer of course. Blaming wokeness is dumb, while some of it has gotten annoying and kind of tone deaf in its own right, I don't think there's been much of at these Olympics anyway.

Japan and Australia have great ratings, although Australia is also locked down again, so people aren't leaving home at the moment. They're also seeing it live.

Crowds aren't really an issue, I don't think. The big ratings winners this year in the US are things like skateboarding and surfing. Neither of those are traditional ticket sellers.

They just started the sport climbing. There's a few different phases, the best of which seems to be the speed climbing. Bouldering doesn't seem like it'd come back for Paris 2024.

 

[Major4Boarding]

BFV is probably the shittiest game in the franchise.

 

[Major4Boarding]

Hmmm… With all the distractions lately I forgot that there were things bubbling beneath the surface a while back.

The Activision Blizzard lawsuit could be a watershed moment for the business world. Here's why — CNN

 

[Felonious Python]

Hmmm… With all the distractions lately I forgot that there were things bubbling beneath the surface a while back.

The Activision Blizzard lawsuit could be a watershed moment for the business world. Here's why — CNN

World of Warcraft has also lost major ground to Final Fantasy 14 over the last few weeks.

I haven't played an MMO since WoW around the time of the Burning Crusade expansion pack, but I sub to Josh Strife Hayes on YouTube because he understands the intersection between the art and the business. He also looks like bootleg Robb Stark.


These big publishers don't have a great record of valuing their employees, so the next logical step would be not really caring what employees do to each other.

It doesn't help that the mainstream games journos right now aren't really gamers anymore. Videos of their gameplay can be alarmingly poor, as well as the frequent think pieces on how every game needs a no challenge mode for "accessibility".

Justice-type politics have also taken over the industry. Articles asking how could anyone be excited the PS5 is coming out when Trump is President, etc.

YouTubers have filled the role, but the problem is that regular media is still going to rely on the Kotaku's and Polygon's of the world when they need insight on the industry.

(The mainstream sites can land on a good article occasionally, but even with Kotaku's excellent Skull & Bones piece, they find time to make sure to let you know that more women should be 'yes men'.)

 

[Hoek]

Final Fantasy XIV is a fantastic MMO. I've been playing it since beta. Glad it's been getting a more serious look from WoW addicts after all this time, lol. That said it has woeful PvP so it doesn't really fit the bill for those folks, unfortunately. But the story is fantastic (after you get past the first slog anyway), the raiding is great, and fashion game is fun too.