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Gamers are watching the World Cup

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All i see when they show world cup

In general, I don’t really watch football. Club football really doesn’t interest me – I only keep up on it so I know if Gavin will be in a good or bad mood the next day. But the World Cup is different, because it combines nationalism with pageantry and provides plenty of entertainment. I’m not the only one who thinks so.

People in Europe this weekend were playing Titanfall for free, but they took a break to watch a big World Cup game:

That certainly is interesting – notice the halftime spike as well as the return to gaming after that last goal in the 85th minute that meant England was going home? It seems not even the fans at home believe in 90th minute miracles anymore. At least people were watching the game, unlike when Colombia and Cote d’Ivoire played. What I’m also finding interesting, though, is the drop off that happens again later on in the afternoon – what was going on there? Also, I’m very curious how high those numbers actually are – there is a general perception that people aren’t playing Titanfall anymore, but it’s hard to gauge just how true that is.

Have you been balancing your gaming with a healthy dose of sports? Personally, I haven’t had much time for football viewing – I’ve been too busy playing games on Steam thanks to the sale. Watching my friends on there jump into new games and use foul language as their backlog grows has been enough of a sport for me.

Last Updated: June 23, 2014

62 Comments

  1. Matewis Jubilai

    June 23, 2014 at 10:07

    • oVg FX

      June 23, 2014 at 10:21

      bwahahaha

      Reply

    • Rince&exhale

      June 23, 2014 at 10:27

      IT crowd is the bomb!

      Reply

      • oVg FX

        June 23, 2014 at 10:36

        It makes me sad that some humans have spent more than a second watching The Big Bang theory 🙁

        Reply

        • Kromas

          June 23, 2014 at 10:51

          You can’t compare the two. It is two very different styles of comedy. Most American comedies are of a parody nature (Big Bang Parodies the average Nerd/gamer stereotypes) and British comedies generally use wit to convey comedy. That being said I love both IT Crowd as well as Big Bang.Then Again I love Black Adder and South Park as well.

          Reply

          • Alex Hicks

            June 23, 2014 at 11:01

            Blackadder – YES. Bing Bang got old very quickly; but then it’s Chuck Lorre isn’t it? How many seasons has 2.5 men gone through now? almost 20 I think. Fucker doesn’t know when to just stop the bloody ride.

            Come to think of it; maybe that’s just American series in general … I mean they’ve visited every single remote island so many times in survivor they’re struggling to avoid the tourists …

          • Anon A Mouse

            June 23, 2014 at 11:05

            2.5 men is in its final run now, even Chuck said it went on for far too long.

          • Alex Hicks

            June 23, 2014 at 11:17

            Too long???? Chuck Lorre said that??? LIES!!!!

          • Kromas

            June 23, 2014 at 12:10

            I still think they should drop the survivors in Soweto WITH the prize money and see how far they get. 😛

    • Rags

      June 23, 2014 at 11:19

      Thanks, now I have spend an hour watching IT Crowd clips :<

      Reply

  2. Rince&exhale

    June 23, 2014 at 10:09

    Football is on?

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      June 23, 2014 at 10:15

      Dunno, don’t follow NFL. Soccer is though.

      Reply

      • Weanerdog

        June 23, 2014 at 12:24

        Don’t really know why gridiron is called football, it is not like they actually kick the ball very often. And the official term for soccer is Association Football.

        Reply

    • CAE9872

      June 23, 2014 at 10:22

      Something to do with a world cup thing – apparently pretty big deal.

      Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 23, 2014 at 10:09

    I paused my game to go watch rugby on Saturday. You can always pause a game, you can’t really pause a sport if you want to watch it live.

    Reply

    • Rince&exhale

      June 23, 2014 at 10:10

      Very wise words.

      Reply

    • Kromas

      June 23, 2014 at 10:19

      Rugby yes.Soccer …. could not give a damn.

      Reply

    • Mossel

      June 23, 2014 at 10:24

      I paused my wine tour for the second half.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        June 23, 2014 at 10:38

        I kept on drinking lol

        Reply

        • Mossel

          June 23, 2014 at 10:45

          I switched to beer! It just seemed more appropriate.

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            June 23, 2014 at 10:50

            Ja nee, my nerves :/

          • Weanerdog

            June 23, 2014 at 12:26

            Mistake wine/beer combos give the worst hangovers.

          • Mossel

            June 23, 2014 at 13:40

            Wine and beer is my staple diet! Don’t get too hectic hangovers from it, vodka on the other hand…

    • Weanerdog

      June 23, 2014 at 12:26

      So single player game then. #foreveralone ?

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        June 23, 2014 at 12:35

        Technically a bit of both. I was playing Warframe in solo mode 😉

        Reply

  4. Mossel

    June 23, 2014 at 10:22

    Meh. Fok sokker.

    Reply

  5. CAE9872

    June 23, 2014 at 10:23

    I love PVR so I can record what I need – usually F1 and NFL…rest not overly concerned about missing.

    Reply

    • Mossel

      June 23, 2014 at 10:25

      I promised myself I would get back into F1 this year after watching Rush. Seems I forgot about it again.

      Reply

  6. Labey-Kun

    June 23, 2014 at 10:25

    Looks like soccer isn’t you’re type of sport Zoey? xD

    Reply

  7. Kensei Seraph

    June 23, 2014 at 10:27

    It wasn’t until driving home last thursday that I realised SA wasn’t even in the cup.
    Honestly I couldn’t care less.

    In other news, my Steam backlog has gotten slightly smaller. No money.

    Reply

  8. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 23, 2014 at 10:28

    Oh, & I have not been using foul language while expanding my gaming backlog. I’ve been like a kid in a candy store this weekend – playing & buying woohoo! Happy happy.

    Reply

  9. Trebzz

    June 23, 2014 at 10:29

    Watching football cause gaming can wait 🙂 also love how some people who have never watched a game in their life are all of the suddent taking selfies in football kits cause they so damn loyal 🙂

    Reply

  10. Anon A Mouse

    June 23, 2014 at 10:33

    Somewhere in my life I took a wrong turn and my gaming has fell behind. I’m actually watching almost all the matches, while I’m doing a bit of “moer en soek” over the weekends as well. I think I’m starting to grow old.

    Reply

  11. Hammersteyn

    June 23, 2014 at 10:38

    I do both, because goals are as scarce ice water in hell. Plus when someone scores I can pause the game. Went to the pub for the rugby. The elbow of destiny saved us the game.

    Reply

    • CAE9872

      June 23, 2014 at 10:39

      I am grateful I don’t follow rugby – at all = more play tme. And no I don’t understand why either – just came a point about 15 years ago when it became meh…

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        June 23, 2014 at 10:43

        I played rugby till club level, played lock so I was always in the thick of it. Still enjoy watching a hard physical game. I get all nostalgic.

        Reply

        • CAE9872

          June 23, 2014 at 10:48

          I played prop, or ironically flyhalf (NO don’t ask!) in primary school – then in first practice in high school they said “ooohhh a prop” and I said “Bye.” Went and played tennis instead and 1st team nogal.

          I like to think of myself as big-boned!

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            June 23, 2014 at 10:58

            XD

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          June 23, 2014 at 10:54

          We used to play a hard, physical game too. But the ref always used to penalise us because it’s against the rules in hockey :/

          Reply

          • Kensei Seraph

            June 23, 2014 at 10:54

            Sounds like you would have preferred Canadian Rules.

          • Hammersteyn

            June 23, 2014 at 10:57

            You mean like going to a fight and an ice hockey match breaks out?

          • Weanerdog

            June 23, 2014 at 12:29

            It’s too damn cold to fight, you have so many layers of clothes on no one is ever going to win, best just settle it over a game of hockey.

          • Anon A Mouse

            June 23, 2014 at 10:55

            Indoor Varsity hockey, still have scars from those battles.

          • Hammersteyn

            June 23, 2014 at 10:57

            Hahahaha

        • Anon A Mouse

          June 23, 2014 at 10:57

          Funnily the only two positions I haven’t played in rugby was hooker and scrummy. I still cringe when I see some of the tackles or the way players storm into a ruck.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            June 23, 2014 at 11:01

            True, especially when you hear a noise like a gunshot from the players bodies that slams into each other

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      June 23, 2014 at 10:51

      lol @ elbow of destiny

      Reply

    • Anon A Mouse

      June 23, 2014 at 10:54

      Can’t believe that wasn’t sanctioned, or even carded. The Boks played crap either way.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        June 23, 2014 at 10:56

        Very, but to come back from 17 – 0 down to win is amazing in retro spec. I wonder if Flip will be cited?

        Reply

        • Anon A Mouse

          June 23, 2014 at 11:02

          He hasn’t. The only one cited was Samson Lee for an apparent headbutt on Flip, but I haven’t seen it.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            June 23, 2014 at 11:15

            Neither did Flip or else some retaliation would have been dished out.

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        June 23, 2014 at 11:08

        He hasn’t been cited for that? That’s one of the worst “tackles” I’ve seen in years. It was seriously dangerous.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          June 23, 2014 at 11:17

          Extenuating circumstances may have been that he was protecting his face from the boot of the player as he ran in. The Welshmans boot got caught and he lost balance. Flip was given a yellow so maybe they feel enough punishment was handed down. It looked bad but I can’t see that it was malicious

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            June 23, 2014 at 11:24

            I meant that final tackle on Cornel.

          • Hammersteyn

            June 23, 2014 at 11:28

            Oh right.

  12. Jaded_Reprobate

    June 23, 2014 at 10:39

    Thanx to my iPad and dstv drifter, i haven’t had to switch over to watch the football… got both running at the same time…

    Reply

  13. Alex Hicks

    June 23, 2014 at 11:17

    Look; I have a few simple pleasures in life. My wife, my kids, my games and my sport. Don’t ask me to choose between those things.

    I don’t own a fancy car; I don’t own a fancy house; I don’t buy games at full price because I can’t afford them – but I’ll pay those highway robbers DSTV premium prices every month because they offer football in HD. And I’ll spend a fair bit on my PC so when the games come on sale I can play them. The rest of my pittance goes to the kids.

    That said – it’s the world cup. I prefer my football at club level; but I’ve been enjoying the few matches I’ve watched.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      June 23, 2014 at 11:19

      Some of the matches involving the lesser countries is rather meh. But it will really heat up come the knock out rounds.

      Reply

  14. Wayne Bossenger

    June 23, 2014 at 12:44

    That dip after the England vs Uruguay game is the Japan vs Greece game starting at 3pm. The Colombia vs Cote d’Ivoire game is perhaps a little too early for some to watch… at least people saw the 3 goal action

    Reply

  15. VampyreSquirrel

    June 23, 2014 at 14:54

    World cup? What’s that?

    Reply

  16. J_Joestar

    June 23, 2014 at 20:42

    Been getting a balanced share of Soccer/Football and gaming.
    Nintendo has a discount on Inazuma Eleven so i’ve been just been playing that rather than watching the World Cup.

    Reply

  17. VampyreSquirrel

    June 24, 2014 at 10:58

    I don’t watch the World Cup… I just look for these on 9gag…

    http://d3dsacqprgcsqh.cloudfront.net/photo/aQqLxDw_700b_v1.jpg

    Reply

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