The moment for public video game spectatorship was really, really short-lived here: circa 1982-84. I remember crowding around hot players coming up on high scores in arcades at the time, as well as the sorts of contests that are mentioned in The King of Kong.

The only cultural reference I can come up with that showcased this sort of thing is the 1983 teen sex comedy Joysticks (which, I sheepishly admit, I saw in the theater on its initial release…!), that featured a big Satan’s Hollow duel (great game, BTW) which was projected on a giant screen similar to how Wiebe’s game was in Chicago.

Much was lost when the focus of the industry shifted decisively to private consumption (via console and PC) from the mid-80s on. Arcades (like record stores and similar spaces) were spaces of community and individual performance that barely exist anymore (in the US, at least).

I think one critical reason for the lack of popularity of spectator gaming, at least in the US compared to South Korea, has to do with the traditions of private vs. public gaming spaces. LAN cafes for gaming continue to be far more prevalent in South Korea and thus, watching other people play is a much more embedded gaming practice. All the LAN cafes I’ve every visited in the US have closed after, at most, a year. This has to do with many issues including the saturation of home PCs and consoles vs. a model of shared computing resources common in S. Korea, the Philippines and China; and population density and access to urban centers.

The domestication of gaming from the arcade to the living room in the US, which took place from the late 80s to early 90s, is a fascinating place from which to trace current gaming practices here vs. Asia. Also, another popular form of public play, mobile gaming, has lagged behind in the US compared to other countries. This past December, EA reported that half of its revenue from mobile gaming comes from Asia.