MSSA

[s3xy_j0nny]

I think the main fact we need to face is that the eventuality of online games being recognised as a 'sport' or anything approaching that kind of status in any African country is a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way off.

[Stu]

I don't quite agree, there is an immense amount of potential in the local gaming industry. The only problem is active participation.

We don't have enough board and disgruntled members like Geth hanging around so I understand the challenges that these kind of associations bring!

I think it is important however that the MSSA gets a fat smack in the face and it seems the only way to do this is via this membership forum.

[Hubris]

Guys, my 2c...

I had a look at the SASCOC website and the MSSA computer game sites. MSSA are an affiliate of SASCOC and host all sorts of games; including GuitarHero, things I have no idea what they are and other equally nameless faceless competitions. However, from a technical stand point they are about the equivalent of say the South African Hockey Association in terms of the power delegated to them from SASCOC.

Except for the salient facts: they are no where near as capacitated, they also lack any credible support from their parent body. There is no mention of MSSA anywhere on the SASCOC website, nor of computer gaming. I don't see how MSSA expect us to believe that if they collect R60 from each member, that will all change. Sure they are hosting a big gaming event in CPT - but who knew about that? What credibility do they have with the computer gaming community as we know it? I had no idea who these guys were - in my opinion, they're doing a shite job.

Sports grow with money. Money comes from sponsorship. Sponsorship comes from private interest and that means a return on investment greater than what the consumer bank offers. If not in terms of Rand value, in unquantified terms that lead to exposure, support, profit and growth. I don't see MSSA ever breaking into that band of operation.

If a credible and capacitated gaming association could be formed, it would have to be formed specifically for hand-held, console and PC gaming... These are big ticket items that international producers know delivers good returns. Manufacturers and developers know gaming events draw crowds and increase their brand's visibility. They generally happen to have deep but tight pockets though.

Some brave soul would have to build an alternative association with cooperation from events like Rage and companies like XBOX etc. to form the nexus for gamers and rl people to interact and actually do what these associations are so bad at: hosting annual sponsorship events that draw crowds, are financially viable and increase the society's conciousness of gaming (and brands :P)

Oh yeah and what Paul said

[Megageth]

@ Fly - did you read the threads I linked to? There are many comments from committee members of the MSSA that seem to address most/all of your concerns.

@ Hubris - I agree. Your post has earned much respect from me, for what its worth, it makes more sense to start afresh, but as pointed out by Tiger (in the threads I linked to) it would take 5-10 years to achieve recognition by the govt. What makes the most sense about this to me is that we could ignore govt recognition and still grow gaming.

There is a lot of good debate going on here, I am glad to see that there is some thought going into it. I would like, once more, to encourage those interested in the debate to do a little background reading in the threads I posted at the top.

[NiteShade]

I'll comment when I have a chance to properly read all of the threads.
I've had personal experience with the MSSA and will discuss that later.

[SlipperyDuck]

mmm, I'm not one for politics, so I'm so not even slighly interested, good or bad, when there are agenda's it's borked already.

To me, I couldnt be bother with another MSSA thread, I spent a couple of days reading though one previously, even registered and logged in to one of their meetings.

It's more of a "e-pene" coz I'm charing this meeting for the MSSA, than actually getting ANYTHING done at all. 2 hours on Teamspeak and not a single thing of interest or noteworthyness discussed.

So, bottom line, count me out - I'm not interested.