Video kills the Sport Star

DIe New York Times hat gestern einen langen Artikel veröffentlicht – “They Got (Video) Game” – der einen Zusammenhang zwischen den generell sinkenden Einschaltquoten von Sportübertragungen bei der jungen männlichen Bevölkerung (12-34) und dem Aufkommen von Videospielen herstellt (seit 2000 34% mehr Umsatz, 1,2 Mil. US$ im Jahr 2004).

Vorallem der US-Sport befindet sich dabei in einer bizarren Zwitterposition, da er bei Videospielen über Kooperationen und Lizenzverkäufen gerne seine Hand hinhält, zuletzt die NFL für einen 5-Jahres-Vertrag und 500 Mio US$ mit Electronic Arts und die NBA die für ihre Ausweitung nach Europa mit Electronic Arts “NBA Live”-Franchise zusammenarbeitet.

“I was on a panel recently where someone asked me what my worst fear was,” said David Stern, the N.B.A. commissioner, in a telephone interview. “It was that as video games got so graphically close to perfection, and you could create your own players – their hairdos, their shoes – that there might be a battle between seeing games in person or on television and seeing it play out on a video game.”

Mr. Stern said he was speaking “mildly tongue in cheek,” but added, “The competition for eyeballs is so intense now that if our consumers are not consuming us on television, we would rather have them consuming us on a video game than doing something else.”

In that vein, many young people who enjoy sports games do become fans of sports franchises. The friends playing in Bushwick, for instance, could rattle off their favorite teams and players. Of course, they would rather inhabit the stars than simply watch them. “I like Kobe, O.K.?,” Albert Arce said, referring to Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers star. “But I like to play him because I can make him pass to the other guys. When I see him on TV, it’s like he doesn’t know how to pass.”

Es werden in der NY Times weitere interessante Anektoden erzählt. Zum Beispiel der Zusammenhang zwischen der Popularität des TV-Analysten John Madden und “seinen” NFL-Videospielen (seit 1989 43 Mio verkauft). Wenn ihn jemand “Madden” ruft, weiß er sofort “it’s a video game guy“.

Doch vielleicht profitieren eines Tages auch Teams und Spieler von den Videospielen:

Brian Billick, coach of the N.F.L.’s Baltimore Ravens, said he was hoping to use video game and virtual reality technology in his team’s training. “I can hardly get my guys to stop playing video games anyway,” he said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Billick said that when he was looking for a new assistant coach recently, an applicant said he was qualified because he had mastered all of the N.F.L. defenses through intense study of the Madden games. “He was totally serious,” Mr. Billick said. He did not, for the record, get the job.

(Hat Tip: Ars Technica)