[DakAttack]

Originally Posted by Caspian

Yeah, but how do they know that you purchased the PPV?

Provide the email upon purchase?

[Feba]

Originally Posted by Malacite

You mean besides the fact that sites like Joystiq and IGN will be reporting on this for free as they have each and every year?

Because reporting and watching are totally the same thing.

Remember FFFF06? I reported on a lot of things while I was there, until the PDA phone I was using went kaput. Nearly live updates, before anyone had heard of Twitter. But there was sure as hell a bunch of stuff you wouldn't have got through text; various oddities, events, the general mood of the event. I can describe a really long line, but if you weren't there it would be hard to estimate. Even harder for most people who had never been to the Santa Monica pier.

If the phone hadn't died, people would've known within seconds about PUP. But they wouldn't have any idea what it looked like until someone got pictures around. Even with the phone, you miss out on things like seeing the events play out, watching people play Besieged for the first time and explore TAU areas. You don't get to watch the fights against the heroes. You don't get to see all manner of people having a good time with a single thing. You don't get to watch the Star Onions perform live, or see what moves the Blue Mage is doing. I can tell you what happens, I can tell you how great it is, I can describe what I think I'm seeing-- but you're not seeing any of it with your own eyes.

Malacite, if I could PPV the latest FFFFs, I very likely would, if only for memory's sake. You can fuck right off with your I'm-Too-Good-To-Pay-For-Coverage-Of-An-Event-Because-I-Only-Care-About-what-The-Game-Has-For-Me attitude

[Armando]

Having played fighters competitively, I can assert that hearing/reading about a gaming event is most certainly not the same as being there. I can read the results, hear about the matches or even catch them on YouTube all I want, but it's not the same as driving an hour to get there, being there all day, seeing lots of familiar faces, or watch people gather around the finals and cheer on the finalists.

I wouldn't pay $40 (but then again I don't like WoW anyways =P) but if it buys you 8 hour coverage throughout all 3 days I suppose it's a pretty reasonable price.