Everyone Loves Fantasy Sports
Most of you likely looked at the title of this article and wondered, "Tommy, what the heck are you speaking about? Fantasy Sports isn't social networking."
On top, it's obvious why the game could be considered that way. But I'm here to share with you that fantasy sports are just as much a car for social networking as Facebook, Flickr, and even foursquare / gowalla.
For those that are unfamiliar with the game, let me elaborate. In its simplest format, 10-12 participants join a league before the growing season starts. Pretty much every major sport has a fantasy game associated with it. Ahead of the first day of the growing season, the team owners meet up personally or online to draft teams of real players from real teams, assembling a lineup in accordance with the league rules. Then, when the growing season starts, they start or sit players according to a number of factors (healthy vs. injured, good vs. bad matchups, etc.). Teams then receive credit for the particular statistics each player tallies. The general goal is to finish the growing season as the most effective team in the standings or to win the playoffs, depending on how the league is defined up.
To many of you, this may sound rather pointless. In fact, there's even a rebellion by "Fantasy Widows" as some have called them (you can find out about on the Women Against Fantasy Sports website [http://womenagainstfantasysports.com/], complete with a line of related apparel). But these games may play a role much more important than killing time and maybe blowing a little cash.
Believe it or not, fantasy sports are just a car for social networking that lots of the leading services are. Let's take a quick moment to consider some attributes of the game that lead me to this conclusion.
1. Tribe-based - All activities happen in pre-determined leagues where all the participants agree to play within exactly the same scoring system, by exactly the same rules, utilising the same tools and features. This sounds a whole lot like my friends on official social networking sites.
2. Online - Although the initial fantasy game, Fantasy Baseball, was originally administered by avid fans using box scores from their local newspaper, the game has migrated completely online. So what if it started as a really social activity and not a cool new web toy. It was social before it was online, so it most certainly qualifies.
3. Interactive - Fantasy sports are about the ongoing activities you have to undertake to win a league. All of the team managers must take part in a live draft, with full chat functionality in the internet draft room. Then, the growing season is a variety of lineup decisions, trade negotiations, and adding and dropping players from the free agent list (a.k.a. the listing of players that are not already on a team).
4. Real-time - If anything is real-time, fantasy sports fit the bill. Games happen everyday or every week, and real-time scoring is vital for the hardcore fantasy sports players. Team rosters may be adjusted in many ways on a regular basis. Team owners can work out trades at will, post messages in a threaded format (like blog comments), talk smack right on the team pages, and email back and forth between participants. Sure, the majority of the action happens during live games, but whom among you spends 24 hours per day on social networking sites anyway?
5. Content-heavy - A complete industry has been built around fantasy sports blogging, analysis, advice, products, and games. Breaking news is really a huge piece of this puzzle, and tools like Twitter and Facebook now play major roles in the dissemination of real-time player-related information. If you do not trust me, you should have been paying attention to the chatter on Twitter before the NBA trade deadline on February 18.
I know there are as many perspectives on this topic as there are fantasy games to select from. What's your opinion? Would you play fantasy sports? Would you view it as a social networking activity? Can it be just gambling, or old fashion bonding and honest fun? I think it's due time that fantasy sports gets the positive press it deserves.