Good Game

Are MLG's taking it too far?

The short answer is yes, but that wouldn't be quality writing, now would it?

MLG stands for Major League Gaming and, in the world of video games, it's a self proclaimed title that essentially means, "I'm better than you." As much as that sounds like a humbling experience, all that equates to is a 17-year-old boasting loudly over his Turtle-Beach microphone before telling his mother that he'll take the trash out later. These are the people who rage-quit just before the game ends in order to keep their scores high, count their K/Ds (kill/death ratio) and proudly come in at the top of the leader-board at the end of every match. Instead of rightfully pointing out that MLGs are virgins riddled with inferiority complexes, I'm going to spend this article debating whether or not the idea of taking gaming to the next level is justified.

The way to start would be to ask the question, why does gaming exist? The answer is different to every person. For some it's for competition, for others it's for socialization and for still others it's for fetishists who like looking at pictures of skanks who can't figure out how to come in a place better than 12th while playing Zelda.

Save Hyrule harder.

Looking at it that way, there's really no true answer to the question, "why do we game?" only a plethora of opinions. I would say that it's a combination of everything. We play games for the same reason we watch a movie. To get away from real life for a few hours, enjoy a story and be social. It's recreational and we need that because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

That being said, what does it mean when you play a video game like it's your job? From what I've seen, MLGs don't seem to like the games they play; they boot up Call of Duty, get on a server,  get one kill and quit. Hooray for positive K/D. What part of what I described sounded like recreation, socializing, story or, fuck, even competitive play? There are people who do this sort of thing and for what? So some guy like me can randomly pull up the stats for xXLe3tSn1p3rXx and think to myself, 'wow, he's pretty good at this game', before closing it and then forgetting you ever even existed? There are thousands of people out there with scores just as good as yours if not better. Who are you trying to impress?

No you fucking don't.

I'm sorry, but doing that is like watching movies on 10X speed or sprinting through an art gallery. Any asshole can do what I just described, it doesn't make you good at video games. Yeah, I'll admit that most MLGs don't do that kind of thing, but think, where does it end?

You see, Major League Gaming isn't a hobby, it's a full time job. Do you think that when you finally have the best score in the world you can just hang up your coat and say, 'well, I did it, time to move on.'? Fuck no. If you have any intention on staying there for more than an hour, you've got to keep playing or else, guess what, you're going to get bumped down. People who are consistently in the top spot don't have scores that are just so high, no one can ascend past them, they just play constantly and I mean constantly. One of the former CoD champs, Kim Dotcom, creator of Mega-upload, got put in prison for a few days and his scores never recovered. Once again, I ask the question, who are you trying to impress? Do you think that people are going to be crowding around their televisions, looking at your score, mouths agape, trying to memorize your gamertag so they can whisper it between each other? It doesn't make you a celebrity.

Oh, wait, never-mind. It totally does make you a celebrity.

So am I against competitive gaming? Absolutely not. I think competition is a great source of recreation because it's challenging, gives you something to work towards (winning) and rewards you if you succeed. It's certainly fun proudly flaunting your exclusive, unlocked armor to all of your friends. That's one thing. But in the bigger picture, no one is going to care. There certainly was a time when people online would marvel at your Recon but those days have come and gone (2007-2010 you will be missed). 

Now you're essentially the in-game equivalent of a swag-fag.

No one online is going to care that you're a higher rank than they are. So is every fifth person they come across so stop putting out so much effort to impress people you're never going to meet.

When an MLG enters a competitive game, everyone in the lobby breathes an exasperated sigh because your enemies know that they're going to lose horrendously, your teammates know that you're going to lone-wolf and steal every kill in the game and everyone knows they're going to have to put up with your bragging and swearing.

You don't keep scores when you watch movies, read books, or go out to an art gallery. Those are all forms of art and I believe gaming can be art too. Why should we bring that into the artistic world? It's pointless and it's no fun for anyone. There's nothing wrong with being competitive, hell, I don't even see anything wrong with those big gaming conventions where basement dwellers have an excuse to open up a stick of deodorant and go outside once every year or so. I simply abhor the whole idea that gaming should be work. "Game", by definition, is literally the farthest away from "Work" you can possibly get so stop mixing the two. Let's all plug in to have fun and at the end, we'll all pat each other on the back and say, "good game".