[ExI] focus

[SR Ballard]

>
> Consider a long time ago, during my own misspent youth.  Back in those
> days, there wasn’t much bandwidth: three TV channels (on a clear day (one
> otherwise)) and the radio.  The big sports were football and the 3 Bs:
> baseball, basketball and boxing.  Anyone, even little old ladies, could
> name the top competitors in those four big sports.
>
>
>
> But now… many people can’t name the top competitors in those sports and it
> is hard to find people, even among the young and the restless, who can name
> any of the top boxers.
>
>
>
> OK times change, we get that.
>
>
>
> Why do they change?  Consider the potential by having each of the
> competitors wear what amounts to a ruggedized GoPro on his helmet or cap,
> so you can go in and watch the games from the point of view of any of your
> favorite competitors.
>
>
>
> NASCAR got it.  There was an exciting sport that is really kinda boring if
> all you can do is watch the cars go around the track from the grandstands.
> But if you have a driver’s-eye view from any car, then it is very exciting.
>
>
>
> So we could do that with any of the major sports (not exactly sure how
> with boxing and basketball, but we might be able to do it somehow.)
>
>
>
> spike
>

The way things are moving, I'm not sure if "player's viewpoint" is really
the way that these things will end up (or should end up) moving towards.

Take for example Twitch, which for a large portion of the millennial crowd
has replaced ESPN. eSports (for example League of Legends, CS:GO) are quite
popular, but it also includes other forms of gameplay such as blind let's
plays (bumbling around with no idea what you are supposed to do),
roleplaying runs, challenge runs (only use a sword), and speedruns (how
badly can you break game mechanics and still reach the objective, usually
finishing the game, in the shortest amount of time).

The popularity of eSports draws on the same original interest as sports,
involving skill. Let's plays and roleplays are usually centered around
parasocial relationships. Challenge runs and speedruns generally focus on a
combination of both skill and the parasocial aspect.

Additionally, YouTube has basically supplanted television, leading to a
real fractioning of both information and education content, and
increasingly content that blends the two. Some notable examples would be
unboxing video or a stationary haul video. These are quite popular and are
the intersection of vicarious interest and parasocial relationships. These
types of channels are notorious for their 'giveaway' videos, many of which
are actually faked, or otherwise pre-determined.

Instagram is another extension of this culture, in combination with
Twitter. They're basically a cross between a promotional ad and a gossip
column. On Instagram, again, the parasocial relationship dominates.

Plainly put, the future is parasocial.

I think the more proper (eventual) direction of sports is less real footage
from the first person perspective, but the emergence of a parasitic VR
version of the sport. Like other eSports, it will be composed of teams who
compete through VR rather than physically, and are watched either from
within the VR construct, or the more common "TC spectator" perspective,
complete with different artistic cuts to every imaginable angle and
perspective, with biometric data and the like, complete with commentators.

Now, physical sports probably won't die completely any time soon, but I
could reasonably expect they would try to do what you are imagining with
the first person views, but might also extend that to monitoring vitals and
some kind of motion capture technology. The recreations possible with such
technology, and the review of biometric data would be very welcome in my
age group, we would find it very interesting. The viewpoint of those things
being interesting is a function of the video game culture that we have
grown up in, where stats are very important.

Concerning boxing, perhaps small flexible cameras could be developed, or
another solution might be cameras on the ring itself. But classic boxing is
on the way out with MMA really replacing it.

Basketball is more difficult in my opinion, but it might be possible to see
things from the ball's perspective. And we already have backboard cameras
in many places.
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