This is NOT the image we are looking for.

As gaming goes more and more mainstream, it has struggled to find it's place in the world. The Championship Gaming Series is not the answer.

In an effort to appear legitimate, they held a draft to fill six teams based throughout the country. There are so many things that are wrong with this, that I don't even know where to start. Okay, I know, I'll start with the location: the Playboy Mansion. This could not be more inappropriate than hosting the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. While attempting to fulfill the wet dream of many gamers, they only succeeded in displaying how out of touch with our culture they are. This event, as suggested for award shows as well, should have been online. It needed to be accessible on a platform that gamers could converge on and possibly participate. One possibility could have been to host it in Second Life. In the age of MySpace and YouTube, this was a first step in the wrong direction.

The draft format was a ill attempt to emulate actual sports, like the NFL. Playing a video game is not a sport and marketers need to realize this. Our pastime is just that, it passes time. All be it one that can be a lot of fun and can become very competitive, there is no physical exertion let alone contact. It is a game. Games do succeed on television, like Poker, but they will never break into the big four: the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL. It is going to be even harder with the likes of NASCAR and MMA quickly dragging eyeballs away from the leaders. There are more kids in this country playing soccer than any of these other sports and yet the MLS is still struggling. The Championship Gaming Series will struggle to attain the same status as bowling and cheerleading on ESPN2.

The first pick in the draft was a bit dubious for me. I'm not sure I even understand the point of a rule that requires at least one woman on the team to play Dead or Alive. The first pick was Vanessa Arteaga. Upon first impressions, based on her image since that is all I have to go on, her selection implies a ploy to play up the fact that not only are women involved but at the forefront and equals to the boys. I also have a hard time believing that she is indicative of the typical female gamer, again pandering to the wet dreams of gamers across the country.

I can't help but think that the Championship Gaming Series would play better as a reality show. I still wouldn't watch it but at least it would not have to pretend to take it self so seriously. It would allow the 'competitors' to evolve some personality instead just playing the games for a paycheck. In ten years when gaming is as ubiquitous as watching television, we won't need an image because we'll all just need to look in the mirror to know what we're all about.