How Technology has Changed the Way Fans Consume Games

Two days and two sponsored posts.  We're on a roll.  Today we get a lovely sponsored post from Samsung where we talk a bit about how technology, whether it be television, radio, an internet game-cast, has affected your ability to watch or follow a game.  And I could not think of a more appropriate picture, than the one posted above, which is the idea that people of all nations love sports and love to consume sports.  And for almost every Texas Rangers playoff game, I consumed Texas Rangers baseball in much of the same way as pictured above, which is on a television, outside, gathered around with a bunch of my friends, watching my team.  It is our distraction and we love it because it is a distraction. 

One of the reasons why I think DTN is so successful is in large part because of the software. The ability to have a game-day thread that does not require you to hit "refresh" on your browser, but you get an instantaneous response to questions and reactions to what's going on in the game. I haven't seen another website that has that ability. I could be wrong, but I've always thought that the immediacy that a person can comment on what's happening on the field is just downright amazing and satisfying for fans.

And I think it's satisfying for fans because we are all fans, but we're not always around fans of our team. DTN and SB Nation in general, allows for us to gather in a virtual bar and celebrate and commiserate. I'm sure that we have Red Raiders is just about every part of the United States and world, and we even have our own LondonRaider in London and mojavereject and USAFRaider in the Middle East serving our country. But even if you're at home, somewhere in Texas, or even within the city limits of Lubbock, but just can't go to the game, you can still find a community, and it's the community aspect that seems to be so important.

And we as fans have found ways to take advantage of following games. I talked a bit about this last Friday, but there were times that the only way to follow a game was by looking at the boxscore in the newspaper on Sunday morning. You almost always had the radio broadcast, depending on where you live. And with the advent of some radio stations forgetting to take off the live feed (I think that every radio station is supposed to take the live feed off their station in order to force people to purchase the official radio feed from the university) fans now have the ability to listen to the game, no matter how far away, as long as they have an internet connection.

As things have progressed, it's amazing that we are smack-dab in the middle of the best game-watching experiences ever. Yes, I used to tape games on my VCR, but the quality was never great, but with the advent of high-definition television and a DVR, my life has infinitely improved. The ability to watch, re-watch, rewind, fast-forward, or save a game is perhaps the best thing ever. And I was incredibly late to the party for high-definition (I just got it last year). For the first 4 years of my marriage, we bought a relatively small television when we first got married that was clear and is still works, but it wasn't high definition. When I finally took the plunge and bought a high-definition television, which was actually at the request of my wife who was tired of watching television on a 32" television, the television we bought changed my sports-watching life.

Before the brand-new television, I struggled to see numbers and identify players for Texas Tech players. With brand-new television, the game-watching experience has gotten to the point that me going to the game is largely dependent on whether or not the game is on television. And more so this year, when my wife and I decided that we were going to adopt and I knew that I would need to cut-back on some of my Texas Tech game-attending expenses, a game on high-definition was almost as good as being there live, or as good as it's ever been. And don't get me wrong, there's nothing that will ever be able to replace a game-day experience and being at the stadium.

For a lot of fans, being at the game is a huge part of their lives, and I think that if I lived in Lubbock and not 6 hours east of Lubbock, I'd feel the same way, but for now, it's nice having options. What about you?