e.sport – tournament & show – page 3
Here I am, therefore, embarked on the in-depth realization of an e.sport show.
I already have a whole bunch of small pieces of my puzzle – but I have to start by determining the framework.
So it’s a matter of working in cooperation with a video game company for the duration of a season – and ending the season with the e.sport-performance part.
The goal for the video game company will be to have, in addition to advertising, players caught for the duration of the season.
The more Altair will offer as mechanism that will attract players, the more the company will benefit – and therefore interest in developing this with us.
So I see this competition taking place in several distinct phases, spread over the year of the season. I presume that so far you agree with me.
The first step will be the selection of the players.
This will be a long time – it will last several weeks: this will not only create an important announcement effect, but will also give everyone the opportunity to qualify for the tournament.
For us, it will be the time to make the settings for different characters and actions – I’m not a kid enough to believe that everything is perfect on the first try.
On the player side, we won’t innovate at all: they will be able to register as a team or as an individual.
But the players who register as a team will each have to win their participation.
The only difference with those registered individually is that they are assigned a team from the start.
And now I realize that it will take 4th parts – sometimes I’m smart.
The first step: registration and selection
Second time: team building > those who will be in teams, I’ll come back to that in a minute. The others, those who have registered as individuals will have to form a team.
As they don’t know each other, it’s absolutely necessary to have some playing time to meet, gauge and determine each other.
If no agreement is found between them, the teams will be made according to the qualities of each player – knowing that a balanced team will be more successful.
So this second phase will be a time for everyone, teams and solos, to get to grips with the game map and the various quests associated with the different characters.
This will allow them to be really efficient during the first phase of the tournament.
It will also allow them to keep in mind the qualities and defects of the character on stage who will be the 5th member of the team.
Third time: the secondary quests of the 12 characters – all at the same time – the 4 fastest teams qualify for the final.
Fourth and last time: performed exactly during the performance – with a real interaction between the competition of the players and what happens on stage – and, depending on the result of the e.sport tournament, the end of the show will be modified.
Or not, if we, Altair, win.
Which means what, in plain English?
That, if I want to imagine this, I have to imagine 4 different “games”, which correspond to the 4 moments of this particular tournament.
Yes, I know I’m exaggerating again – that’s too much ma’am, 4 different times.
But yes, but no.
I don’t run anything at Stadia myself – but I know what a player is and I know that you don’t entertain him with cat pee.
In order for them to come, you’re going to have to give them a lot of fun.
And in order for the video game companies to come, you’re going to have to get them even more.
On a chronological axis it gives therefore: first time at the beginning of the season, Altair and the game launches the tournament, it is the moment of the selections.
Second time: at the heart of the season, it’s time to really build the teams, to test the game’s betas, to get familiar with the quests.
Third time: just before the performance – let’s say a week before > big game phase, with identification of the 4 teams that will stay (and thus the 4 characters that could potentially change the course of the story).
During this 3rd time, the artists will have just enough time to get used to the 4 possible program changes.
Fourth time: end of the season, during the performance.
Okay, here, I’m a long way off – we’ll have to really refine this chronological aspect to be able to impose a rhythm and not lose the players along the way, because it’s too spread out over time.
On this point moreover, it is imperative (I don’t even imagine there is not) to have a permanent feedback forum for the players, to hear their remarks and suggestions.
The more we call upon them, their remarks and their intelligence – the more they will trust us. This new world is a world that demands this detour – even if it makes the experts and professionals who know everything rage, you know, those who are losing audiences they don’t know why. –
This gives a first game time open to absolutely all video game players – on the model of the weekly or monthly quests they all already organize (well, all of them – all the “big” games played on the net).
The second time will be a time for getting used to the game and for pure play – a priori, if I have 12 teams of 5 players, that restricts me to 60 players, do we agree?
As it’s a pure game time, I don’t see – (you see, I’m talking about hard players but not really good players, as I am in short) why we wouldn’t open this phase to others, who would then become, if they want, active supporters of a team, or of several – you see? the fan club trick in short.
Moreover, accessing this phase of the game, in “white” for them, will allow them to really take ownership of the tournament – and dream of coming to the next one.
Do I have to talk about the terrific – yes – advertising created for our terrific real show ? No. It’s obvious.
So, here again, it’s potentially possible to drain a maximum number of players – and that, all the more so since this is not really a clear possibility at the moment.
If you still agree with me, you’ll agree to continue this “blank play” logic for phase 3 – but here, I think it can be absolutely terrific – yes, once my eyes are closed, I’m in great shape – to play blank this phase 3 AFTER the selections.
As a result, it gives the video game company a very consistent source of players who will end up on its servers to replay Phase 3 – knowing the “official” winners, and having seen what happened during the official moment.
And by the way, this ensures a maximum audience for this phase 3 – I think it’s important, when you’re talking about entertainment, to talk about maximum audience – it’s about money at the same time.
So okay, it’s a Roman job to create this, every year, for different games.
I’m not saying the opposite.
I’m saying it’s going to work.
And then… I learned earlier about the misfortunes of Stadia – Stadia is Google’s famous “gaming cloud” – it’s pretty new.
They had sold novelties, revolutions of ???? I don’t know, I still didn’t understand what the difference was between Stadia, Epic and Steam – except that Steam is the old of the process.
I saw that at Stadia, they had spent colossal fortunes to get ‘big game’ exclusives: in fact, they stayed in the 90s, when there was the console war.
But we’re in the 20s – and the console war, it’s behind us.
In the meantime, Ubsisoft has lined its pockets selling exclusives.
What I mean is this: if we play Stadia-style, we’ll lose.
We’ll have to come into the game with no – but not one – request for exclusivity.
The players don’t want it – and that’s the end of it.
We will arrive with an activity that can’t be done other than through Altair.
And that changes the relationship between Altair and gaming companies.
We’re offering them a balanced partnership – by playing with us, they’ll be offering something that others don’t offer.
I’m imagining a tournament between a show and Borderlands – I deliberately chose to mix two Borderlands works – not because I’m depressed or become dumb.
Because I want to show that I don’t depend on an opus from Borderlands – this principle that I’m going to write, it will be possible to play it with another video game and another company – there are so many independent companies that do such great things –
This means that Altair will be able to offer without having a noose around its neck – which is an advantage, I think, when it comes to business.
Tomorrow, knowing that I have 4 beats to imagine, 12 characters on stage, and 4 game characters – I’ll start with the end.
Featured Image : Dragon – Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle – by Liberty Puzzle – puzzle with irregular borders – so… if it was easy, would it be so fun ?
ALTAIR - Concepts 