Where Angel and company goes, many of us are sure to follow. And because of this I wanted to throw in my two pounds about what direction our ship should be going. The Image of the CPL For all the great things that the Razer CPL event did, there was one element of it that I found very disconcerting - the attempt by some people to turn the CPL into an extreme sport. What I'm talking about is the huge presence that a person like Evil Ed had at the event. What I'm talking about are all the strippers running around.
Computer gaming can only hurt itself by trying to market itself as an extreme sport.
First of all, there's nothing extreme about the activity itself or the competitors. The activity, essentially, is moving a mouse and hitting keys. And the competitors, well c'mon, the only thing less extreme than a bunch of suburban teenagers are our mothers. And the big reason why computer gaming shouldn't be marketed as extreme is because it'll marginalize the potential this sport can have. Extreme, gen-x sports like snowboarding or rollerblading have already started to dip in popularity from a spectator standpoint.