Last weekend I was invited down to the ABC studios at Ultimo (Sydney) to do an interview regarding Starcraft and my career as a progamer. I was asked down by Nicholas Jordan and Vivien Lu two journalism students who did the story on Starcraft II in Australia for SBS online news several months back. I asked should I wear my uniform? Would I need to bring any gear or anything to show them and asked for a list of questions ahead of time (I've learnt that this helps alot so you don't get put on the spot and answer a question really stupidly only to realise 5 minutes later what you should have said) and also what program it was for.
Nick told me it was for ABC news 24 and that they'd email me the questions the night before and pay for my cab to and from the studio, also wearing my uniform would be great. Well I didn't get any questions but I guess busy news studios tend to forget stuff like this. So I rocked up in my uniform on the Sunday morning somewhat assuming we'd spend up to say an hour filming interview questions, perhaps doing several takes and then they'd edit it and chuck it in as a story segment.
So the guy (producer-organiser guy-not quite sure what his exact job is?) comes out shakes my hand, 'Bennet' I think was his name. Seemed really nice. and proceeded to explain that first they'd air Nick and Viv's story then me and Nick would just go on and sit down with the 2 presenters of the "weekend breakfast" show during a break and then do a live interview with some standard questions about the game, the money, career paths, growth in Australia etc etc.
"WAIT what I'm gunna be on live TV? "
That was the first thing that jumped into my head and I got pretty nervous! I quickly called Dot and woke her up once I found out and told her "turn on the TV to ABC 24, I have to go on live TV now, bye babe"
Luckily I think the experience with other interviews has served me well and I handled myself ok but was a little worried that I didn't really give SC2 or eSports the best representation I could as I wasn't prepared and just went on auto-pilot. I just received the vods and uploaded to my youtube and I feel I did a pretty good job.
Nonetheless I want feedback from you guys! When I and other players/casters/personalities have future media opportunities what do you think are the key things to talk about to give the best representation for esports?
What could help:
a) make esports seem interesting b) Dispel images of antisocial people in basements c) accurately describe and answer the questions that are asked, or even steer them towards better questions?
Are there any other suggestions on how esports personalities should communicate with mainstream media?
In answer to your questions, I think the biggest thing is, like you said, the whole image of the overweight, unfit gamer kind of thing which needs to be broken first. I think that's the first thing that needs to be dealt with. After that, it's just more competitions everywhere, and building the competitions both in the skill level and also the accessibility to people who might not have played as much.
Good job on the interview! The intro video was well presented too, but that's why it's ABC and not a major network. They're too busy telling us about neighbours from hell and other important topics =P
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Anta Germany. June 04 2012 13:23. Posts 433
