Fox Sports to add virtual crowds to MLB ballparks - Pay to watch literal NPCs enjoy a game because you have to stay home

[President Joe Biden]

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Fox Sports announced Thursday it will include computer-generated fans in otherwise empty stadiums for its telecasts this season, starting on Saturday.
“We believe that what we’re doing is creating a natural viewing experience,” said Fox Sports Vice President Brad Zager. “Sports is supposed to be an escape and when people have that escape we want it to feel as normal as possible when there’s very little normalcy, like a crowd at a baseball game on a Saturday."
"We’re not looking to fool everyone. We know it is a virtual crowd. But we also know how jarring watching a game in an empty stadium is on TV," Zager added.

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 23, 2020

The announcement comes as Major League Baseball opens its 60-game regular season on Thursday night with the New York Yankees visiting the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants taking on the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
NBC Sports has been incorporating crowd noise into its soccer telecasts of England's Premier League. Fox Sports 1 has done the same with its coverage of German soccer. Both leagues returned earlier this summer.

Fox Sports has been tinkering with different looks and sounds for the crowd simulation since late March, when the season was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We knew quickly that we were going to have to look at crowd and audio in a different way. The only thing we didn’t know was the date when we were going to have to be ready to go,” Zager explained.

Silver Spoon, a real-time animation and virtual production studio, worked with Fox Sports on its presentation, according to The Associated Press. The company says it has scanned all MLB stadiums to properly render sitting and standing motions of fans in the stands.
Fans can perform up to 500 actions, according to Silver Spoon, including doing the wave. The company can also adjust a stadium to reduce the size of the virtual crowd if the game is a blowout in the late innings. The technology can also adapt to cooler temperatures in the fall, adding jackets and hats on fans if needed.
Other major professional sports leagues, including the NBA and NHL, are slated to return to play in empty venues on July 30 and Aug. 1, respectively.

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[Meat Target]

This actually makes me sad. Never before have we been so connected yet so isolated.

 

[Reverend]

There was nothing better than watching football with the sound of the crowd turned the fuck off. It was fantastic, got to hear more of what goes on in the huddle, got to hear the crashing of players into each other, and not the degenerate mouth breathing yowls that the fans do absolutely nothing but annoy the fuck out of me.


Sooner they can filter out everything but the players and sounds on the field the better.

 

[гape]

can they animate a baby getting crushed by a flying bat? i didnt think so

 

[kcbbq]

As long as it is comically simulated, like the crowds in NES sports games that'd be cool.

Fake crowd noise pumped in for the players is silly enough, but crowd noise has been part of these games for ages and part of the challenge for visiting teams.

So much about this is half-assed, but bread and circuses....

 

[FaramirG]

The Rays have been playing in empty stadiums for years, why did Fox wait until now to implement this?

 

[SojuDrnkr]

Call me crazy, but selling tickets to actual living fans, who will buy over priced merch, would make the MLB more money than CGI fans.

 

[DidYouJustSayThat]

Call me crazy, but selling tickets to actual living fans, who will buy over priced merch, would make the MLB more money than CGI fans.

Just wait, the ability to place your avatar on the stadium and micro transactions for its emotes and clothing are the logical next step. $5 for participating in a wave, a dollar for a cheer.. - the possibilities are endless.

 

[RA-5C Vigilante]

Oh god I hope its even worse than the canned audience the Barclays Soccer games have had that totally aren't awkward and make it even worse to watch

can they animate a baby getting crushed by a flying bat? i didnt think so

That is too entertaining for modern baseball

 

[Exterminatus]

These places are going to such stupid lengths for a virus that has like a 98% survival rate, it really is clown world. Even with the spikes from all the idiots out rioting, it's just prolonged madness.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

I live in an area with excellent color commentary on the radio. When I watch my local sports teams I mute the TV/stream and turn up the radio broadcast. The crowd is irrelevant to me. That it will be faked makes me hate the end product even more.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

This is beyond sad and pathetic. There are no words on how confused I am right now.

 

[Coffee Shits]

This is beyond sad and pathetic. There are no words on how confused I am right now.

The show must go on.

Ah, who am I kidding? It's saving money on janitors and concession stand workers because wE'Re kEepInG yOU sAfE.

 

[MuuMuu Bunnylips]

This is right up there with adding a glow effect to hockey pucks in televised games because Americans were too lazy/stupid to follow the action.

 

[Idiotron]

From what I've read, ticket sales from MLB games generate $10 billion per year more or less.
30% of their total revenue.
How much revenue will the CGI fans be generating?

 

[ToroidalBoat]

This is a crappy cyberpunk dystopia story.

 

[Bland Crumbs]

The Rays have been playing in empty stadiums for years, why did Fox wait until now to implement this?

I just kind of figured this was standard for MLB for years. Everyone looks the same in the crowd and I cannot buy that people would repeatedly watch grown men scratch their balls for 12 hours.

 

[FaramirG]

I just kind of figured this was standard for MLB for years. Everyone looks the same in the crowd and I cannot buy that people would repeatedly watch grown men scratch their balls for 12 hours.

MLB has more action ("in play" content) than the NFL with fewer commercials and roughly the same broadcast time per game. The NFL has just filled up the dead time with commercials to such an extent that they had to introduce mandatory breaks specifically to show commercials. I cannot buy that people would repeatedly watch ads saying "buy a Ford, you pussy. You don't want to buy a Ford? What are you, a bitch?" for 2 full hours to get literally 11 minutes of actual football, but somehow it still happens.

Football has just done a flawless job of selling everyone on their gimmick. Any moment of dead time in the other sports (baseball/basketball/hockey) is a cardinal sin. But if the NFL takes a literal tv timeout, it's all good.

 

[dunbrine47]

I'm just waiting for the interns to fill the seats with things ranging from blow up dolls to stuffed fursuits.

 

[Cast Iron Pan]

This actually makes me sad. Never before have we been so connected yet so isolated.

MLB players are probably all going to be sporting BLM (convenient anagram) crap. They'll kneel for the national anthem and twerk for {random rap song}. I hope the lack of attendance chokes hundreds of millions of dollars out of them.

^--- draft from hours earlier.

Now 30 minutes ago:

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1286441177051549701

That's right, get on your knees you whimpering simpering punks.

"It was before the anthem! They only sucked the dicks of an illegitimate marxist anti-white anti-American terrorists organization during a moment silence, it's totally cool."