The Gaming Den

So, I didn't understand the appeal of football until today. I went to a game at my school and actually got really into it. It's roleplaying. Most people that come to the game DON'T care if they win or lose. They just want to pretend they are a part of something and have an excuse to act stupid. That had never occurred to me before.

I never cared much for football either until I attended the Super Bowl XLIV party with a bunch of long-suffering Saints fans. I was really one of the most exciting times I've ever had in my life.

Football, along with professional wrestling, is more fun for the social experience. I don't watch much of it when I'm by myself (mostly because I don't watch television), but I'm going to try to get myself invited to as many football parties as possible this Winter.

What the hell are you guys talking about? Collingwood won the footy, setting the Saints on fire and crunching their bones.

They did? I was aware of the draw for the finals (because a friend has to cater for the finals, selling the fake food and all that, and was hoping he'd be free of it for the year), but Collies won? That's a shame.

For the non-Australians in the audience, Collingwood has the most obnoxious supporters of all clubs. So unless you're directly a fan of them (thus making you the vuvuzela guy), you hate them.

Also, neither of them are football. The term you're looking for is hand egg.

That's a really good nickname actually, but I do warn you that football is damned near a religion in the United States and like most religions its followers do not like being mocked. Probably has something to do with it being called 'egg'.

What if we called American football 'Guardball' or 'Phalanxball'?

Lago PARANOIA wrote:That's a really good nickname actually, but I do warn you that football is damned near a religion in the United States and like most religions its followers do not like being mocked. Probably has something to do with it being called 'egg'.

What if we called American football 'Guardball' or 'Phalanxball'?

No, that name is reserved for Rugby Union were people don't wear body armor and taking their skulls being pounded into the ground like men.

@Koumei: Yeah, Collingwood first scored 24 seconds in and in that vein basically pissed all over St Kilda for the rest of the match.

Lago PARANOIA wrote:That's a really good nickname actually, but I do warn you that football is damned near a religion in the United States

Pfft, try Britain. They take their football seriously.

Lago PARANOIA wrote:That's a really good nickname actually, but I do warn you that football is damned near a religion

You're being unfair.

Here in Pgh, we tolerate Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Moslems, Hindus and Buddhists.

But we do not tolerate Ravens fans. Some things are serious, and I don't like you trivializing them as mere religions.

@Koumei:

I like it.

@ThreadTopic: When you get caught up in the experience, the game can be fun. The question is - how often can you get caught up in the experience? 'Cause I gotta tell you... Those dudes you see at the mall watching the game on the Comcast sell-it-to-me-station don't really seem like they're having a really good experience. They seem more like addicts.

Cue Frank explaining how American football, FICA football, and rugby were all the same sport (Calvinball played on foot, with a ball) before they diverged in different nations and then were standardized by different organizations.

Talking to my dad, I always figured alcohol played an important part. I remember him watching a game one day without the beer, and he said he never realized how boring it was.

It's one of those things I never got into either. The concept looked really interesting (a physical manifestation of a RTS game), but with all of the replays and breaks, I can't get into it.

There's no rush quite like the end of a close football game. It IS a team sport, but there's also a lot of room for an individual to shine. I -love- watching a close football game where it can go either way. I tend to spent the last while on my feet because the tension just keeps going.

So, yes, when someone asked me last year what I wanted to see when the Saints and Minnesota played, I said I wanted it to be close game but I wanted the Saints to win. It happened like that, too.

Watching it in good company is also fun. My father is, by and large, a quiet sort of guy who doesn't get excited too much.

But he has a certain laugh he only breaks out when something happens to the opposing team in a football game. It's a cackle, I swear.

Then he has a special tone for yelling encouragement at people on the screen...

RobbyPants wrote:Talking to my dad, I always figured alcohol played an important part. I remember him watching a game one day without the beer, and he said he never realized how boring it was.

It's one of those things I never got into either. The concept looked really interesting (a physical manifestation of a RTS game), but with all of the replays and breaks, I can't get into it.

Football is unbelievably improved by DVR. Skipping from play to play is so much nicer than waiting for the half minute between each one.

I could imagine. I always thought it would be cool to watch an edited version with a brief fade (or whatever) between each play, and any necessary announcements in between.

I think in this day and age, sports have been ruined by dvr and the internet.

I'm not that hardcore a sports fan I've been known to go years without watching any particular sport but when I get excited and caught up in a season of any sport (say swimming up to a year after the end of the recent Olympics) , I have been known to be much like an addict trying to get the last of his varicose veins to show even a little. So if I have dvred an event and then I miss it. I automatically check on it online and then I am no longer interested in watching it anymore. I've already caught the highpoints from a news program or cricinfo.com or whatever is relevant to the sport. In the end, I rarely watch even 10% of a dvred sports show. Except maybe WWE - which is more of a soap opera addiction than a "sports entertainment" addiction.

Cynic wrote:I think in this day and age, sports have been ruined by dvr and the internet.

I'm not that hardcore a sports fan I've been known to go years without watching any particular sport but when I get excited and caught up in a season of any sport (say swimming up to a year after the end of the recent Olympics) , I have been known to be much like an addict trying to get the last of his varicose veins to show even a little. So if I have dvred an event and then I miss it. I automatically check on it online and then I am no longer interested in watching it anymore. I've already caught the highpoints from a news program or cricinfo.com or whatever is relevant to the sport. In the end, I rarely watch even 10% of a dvred sports show. Except maybe WWE - which is more of a soap opera addiction than a "sports entertainment" addiction.

So apparently spectator sports have been ruined for you, by you.

CatharzGodfoot wrote:

Cynic wrote:I think in this day and age, sports have been ruined by dvr and the internet.

I'm not that hardcore a sports fan I've been known to go years without watching any particular sport but when I get excited and caught up in a season of any sport (say swimming up to a year after the end of the recent Olympics) , I have been known to be much like an addict trying to get the last of his varicose veins to show even a little. So if I have dvred an event and then I miss it. I automatically check on it online and then I am no longer interested in watching it anymore. I've already caught the highpoints from a news program or cricinfo.com or whatever is relevant to the sport. In the end, I rarely watch even 10% of a dvred sports show. Except maybe WWE - which is more of a soap opera addiction than a "sports entertainment" addiction.

So apparently spectator sports have been ruined for you, by you.

Pfft, when put that way....

Cynic wrote:Except maybe WWE - which is more of a soap opera addiction than a "sports entertainment" addiction.

I like how the Undertaker's urn is back, with its magical power to revitalise him. I'd love to know how many people still believe it to be real.

Koumei wrote: I like how the Undertaker's urn is back, with its magical power to revitalise him. I'd love to know how many people still believe it to be real.

I prefer my wrestling to be like a cartoon. That is, while I want the violence and the stunts to be real (if contrived), the situations that lead to said violence should not be.

If professional wrestling was 'realistic' it'd be completely unwatchable. I have no interest in UFC because from what I've seen it's mostly jabbing, kicking at a safe distance, and grappling. There are some cool spots now and then but you could put them all on a 30-min .avi.

Not that I watch much wrestling anymore. The Eddie Guerrero/Chris Benoit one-two punch was the last straw.

Also, fuck Linda McMahon and her campaign. Seriously, America.

Lago PARANOIA wrote:I prefer my wrestling to be like a cartoon. That is, while I want the violence and the stunts to be real (if contrived), the situations that lead to said violence should not be.

Absolutely. I seriously meant it when I said I like how the Undertaker has magical powers again. It's great that it's all crazy.

Also, fuck Linda McMahon and her campaign. Seriously, America.

What happened?

Koumei, as a vuvuzela man I'm offended. The vuvuzela is a beautiful instrument, and me and my friends take ours almost everywhere. They're great for livening up slow traffic. And pedestrians. And supermarkets. Really, the sky's the limit when you have a vuvuzela. Well, the sky and security.

I do own a collingwood shirt though, present from my uncle. So I guess you're right.

Lago PARANOIA wrote:I never cared much for football either until I attended the Super Bowl XLIV party with a bunch of long-suffering Saints fans. I was really one of the most exciting times I've ever had in my life.

Football, along with professional wrestling, is more fun for the social experience. I don't watch much of it when I'm by myself (mostly because I don't watch television), but I'm going to try to get myself invited to as many football parties as possible this Winter.

This.

I never really understood football until I played a round of Madden on Xbox while deployed. That actually taught me the strategy of the plays, so I can at least see why people might enjoy the sport. Still don't see any point in watching grown men chase a ball around tho.