I’ve been watching every World Cup match. Live.
I write on my mobile while watching two matches simultaneously. Under heavy rain, USA faces Germany on my TV; Portugal plays Ghana on the computer, via streaming. My eyes jump from screen to screen. Hence, albeit a bit passive, this surely is electronic gaming!
I haven’t seen Chile play the Netherlands on TV, but they had screens there too.
Well, at least interactive enough, if you want. Some people chat a lot on the Internet during games, some will even attend to the stadiums; others just have to work, but will squeeze some imagery into their next break. I have devoted vacations to sitting in front of the television with my old-school paper competition table, which I carefully fill with the scores.
In fact, one can’t really write that many lines on a mobile while watching most of the matches, entertaining enough. This is not merely a football event, it’s sport as the world embraced it: competitive, passionate, fun. The international coverage seems to agree. Even USA is playing a significant part in the party, as The New Yorker has shown in many nice texts.
As the Olympic Games, the football World Cup is a favorite subject when ludologists look for political and social relations in play (Brian Sutton-Smith is a great example). The fact that it features good football is enough to keep me, like most Brazilians, interested in the event.
Enter the playoff’s South American quarter.
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