DOOM & Competition Gaming

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With the recent word of the new "pro" maps being developed by Fred Nilsson over at id Software to be included into the next Quake3 release and the recent demonstration of new spectator technology by Valve Software for Counter-Strike at the Speakeasy CPL tournament it's becoming apparent that game developers are taking notice and putting effort into the competitive gamer. Well it could get a lot more interesting. A story at ShackES (plug! plug!) pointed the way to this simple quote by the CPL president. Here is a link to the full interview btw.

sling_blade: what games are you most looking forward to as possible e-sports games?
angel munoz: doom iii's pro-addon pack.
update from Angel:
I said that as a funny (hopeful) remark but it has been blown out of proportion.   I keep forgetting how strong the emotional binds are between the Quake community and id Software. 

On the other hand, John Carmack told me himself that the plan was to have a separate multiplayer add-on,  it would not surprise me, if they added some tourney software to it.  Best person to ask is Mr. Carmack himself, I think it is all in his head at this point.

But this begs a very interesting question. What exactly are the characteristics of a FPS game that would make a good tournament competition platform? Save your whining about the 'pro gamer' stuff at the door. (read: trolling = nuke/ban) This question applies to everyone. What aspects do you think belong and dont belong in a game targeted at top level competition? Are developers like Valve and id doing 'the right thing' by paying so much attention to these players? What do you think?

Steve Gibson is the cofounder of Shacknews.com. Originally known as sCary's Quakeholio back in 1996, Steve is now President of Gearbox Publishing after selling Shacknews to GameFly in 2009.

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