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agsr

The game of 'Thrones': How resembling live sports makes the HBO hit an event
http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/14/media/game-of-thrones-live-sports-hbo/index.html



I argue that Game of Thrones is more similar to live sports than TV. 

joecavalry

No, live sports are in the moment and non-scripted live events.

agsr

@joecavalry, of course that is true that they are different, but the format is game of thrones is more like live sports to watch than other tv shows.  There are always outrageous battles and someone gets killed.

AlwaysCorrect

@agsr

Unless hockey has got even more violent, sports don't tend to contain outrageous battles and someone getting killed and so that is not a similarity.

Also GoT also contains a lot of drama and plot arcs, again unlike sports. While anyone can watch a game and understand what's going on, someone who'd avoided GoT and tried to sit down to watch the latest episode would be completely lost in terms of the plot.

agsr

@AlwaysCorrect, the point is that many people are getting together across the country, watching GoT like it is live sports.  While true that people who are just getting into it will not be able to follow the plot, same is true for most sports (someone new to football would mostly be lost).  
GoT battles are similar in many ways to football and hockey.  True that mostly people don't get killed like in Game of Throne, but it has a similar effect of who will score or taken out.
Drama, plots, and arcs in the Game of Thrones are similar inmmany ways to plays in live sports like football. 

AlwaysCorrect

@agsr

I think your benchmark for "similar" is low enough that we can say pretty much anything is similar to anything else.

agsr

@AlwaysCorrect, if you read the article included:

The sports-like experience creates a communal event that is rare for today's TV world. If you don't tune in, you'll feel left out. 

"'Game of Thrones' is the last water cooler show," Chris Ryan, executive editor at The Ringer, told CNN, referring to the old phenomenon of people discussing a TV show around the water cooler at work.

"You have to watch 'Game of Thrones' live, because otherwise you can't exist as a modern person in the world," Greenwald said. "Someone on Twitter is going to ruin it for you and tell you exactly who died." 

Some sports bars, like New York City's Professor Thom's, even open its doors for viewing parties where hundreds of people show up hours in advance to pack themselves into the lower Manhattan bar. Like a sporting event, there's cheering, nachos, and drinks like "The Westerosa," but instead of the Red Sox's red and white, patrons don the Lannister's red and gold. 

"I feel certain shows really lend themselves to group watching environments," Peter Levin, owner of Professor Thom's, told CNN. "The enthusiasm and the outpouring from the fans is very similar from 'Game of Thrones' to a sporting event... It's a really eerily similar environment."

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/14/media/game-of-thrones-live-sports-hbo/index.html

northsouthkorea

It is a sports like tv show.

CYDdharta

...

agsr

Taking the analogy of live sports, first episode was more like a pre-game prep.