Within the last years the subject esport has been established almost all over the world.
Games like the Quake series, Counter Strike, Unreal series or Warcraft III have built big communities - these communities created new mods and maps and later became a base for professional gaming.
Tournaments like the CPL, WCG or LA/ESWC finally took gaming on a higher level of professional competition... but still the gaming industry doesn't seem to care about "hardcore gamers" and their opinios (also read the "Game Development at a Halt?" journal-thread).

Last year we've seen some big titles coming out with even bigger expectations from the communites: Doom3, Counter Strike: Source and PainKiller got the hype - almost everyone
was hoping for a new game, which would be ready for new competition and a new level of professional gaming. All of these titles were huge dissappointments for these communities, because the developers have obviously focused on the singeplayer parts.

In fact, we won't see a game that can satisfy our expectations out of the box in the near future and we should accept that. From a developers point of view, the esports community is a weak minority compared to the number of casual gamers.
Most gaming mags focus their reviews on the singeplayer of new games, so that the multiplayer cannot effect more than maybe 25% of the whole result (besides gameplay, grahpics, sound, etc. of the singleplayer). Lots of people buy games because of these reviews and don't care about multiplayer at all, because they got no information about it and don't have the experience to get information online.

Now we see Quake IV coming our way - keeping in mind that Raven is already known, but nothing compared to ID, valve or blizzard. The Quake franchise is probably the unique chance for Raven to make a huge step, and all they need is an awesome singeplayer with lots of good reviews. I would personally love a new Quake3-style game with new competitions, but somehow I doubt it.

Gamers are a strong community with sponsors and always raising prices, but we simply have to accept our role as a minority of all possible customers and lower our expectations. Without good modders and mappers, games like Quake3 or Counter Strike would not be what they are today - and that won't change in the near future!


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This article was actually written for my german website - sorry for poor translation/typos/any other mystakes :)