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Do All-Star Games matter anymore?

CNNSI.com's Jacob Luft and Jon A. Dolezar went Head2Head on whether All-Star Games matter anymore. Here what some of our users had to say:

The answer is YES! The All-Star game does matter, especially to the fans. The All-Star Game is supposed to be the one time of year where the fans can watch the most elite players of the sport compete with and against each other. The All-Star Game is a fantasy come to life for any true sports fan. What is the first thing any child does when they receive a new sports video game? They trade and fix their team so they have the "All-Stars" on it. When adults put together "Fantasy Teams," who do they fill their teams up with? All-Stars. Fans love the idea that the All-Star game is the chance to see the greatest possible match the sport has to offer.
-- Patrick O'Flaherty, Chicago

I do think that All-Star Games matter. It's a chance to see the best of the best compete against each other. What's more important is the fact that we the spectators get a chance to put our hands into it, we get to vote on who makes it. I think that is one of the greatest parts of it, knowing that I helped send my favorite player there. Any player that thinks it's a burden to go to that game is an idiot. The fans that help keep a part of their career going voted for him or her and they should be thankful for that. There are a lot of players that don't get to go who wanted to, and you are telling me that some are complaining about it is totalmind-blowinging. All-Star Games are excitineventfulull, traditional, and also another reason to get friends together and have a good time watching the best athletes of their sport.
-- Tony Nugen, St. Louis

You guys are taking this way too seriously. For Pete's sake, WHO CARES if the games "matter" or not? They're still fun to watch. Sports are supposed to be fun, remember? If the fans prefer watching slap shot contests and home run derbies, so what? If the fans decide not to use their vote as some sort of mid-season achievement award, so what? So long as people still have fun watching these games (and I do), who cares if they don't matter? Leave the games alone; they're fine.
-- Nicholas Kim

I Like football, "soccer" to you wankers. Americans are the only wankers who have All-Star games, so "good" players can show off their "talents." I say bollocks. MLS is trash. You don't see an All-Star Game in the Premiership ... no All-Star Games ... football, or soccer to you wankers , is best sport ever. MLS is not football. It's ninny poofs kicking a ball about, so don't tell me it is. It's trash. Get out of here. The end. Period.
-- Gordo, Manchester, United Kingdom

Growing up in Baltimore and watching the NL beat up on the AL each year was painful. Now I anxiously await the Midsummer Classic and anticipated revenge each year. Baseball's All-Star Gadefinitelyely matters.
-- J.M. Cooperman, Baltimore

The all-star game in ANY sport has become a shameful, commercial exhibition of shallow ego worship promoted to a hero starved culture in an attempt to add some sort of legitimacy to the nefarious self-promoting athletes who so desperately want us to believe that they are somehow more than the rest of us and therefore less accountable for their actions. It's simply an opportunity for the MOST overpaid of a class of people that have no basis in reality to demonstrate their lack of culture and intellect. It's one more chance for the most bloated egos on earth to once again remind us that they can command more money than the average person can even conceive for exhibiting behaviors that would get a 3rd grader shackled with ritalin for the next 10 years.
-- Randy Qualls, Ogden, Utah

I would rather watch the Harlem Globetrotters on Scooby Doo than watch an All-Star Game.
-- Mark A. Cady, New Boston, Mich.

There are a lot of nice plays like Torii Hunter making that beautiful catch to deny Bonds, or a 3-on-O in the NHL All-Star Game, but there is never any intensity in the games. Well sure, there is offense, and plenty of it, but when you look at why they play All-Star Games, it's to embarrass goalies and defenses ... If you really want to make a point of it, ask around to see how many hockey fans prefer big hitting, fights, and shutouts in the regular season rather than the "weakling-like" All-Star Game. I rest my case.
-- Richard Kallberg, Sao Paulo, Brazil

I bought a ticket to last years baseball All-Star Game, so I guess you know my answer! These games are a complete joke! It makes me sad, I wish I was born 30 years earlier than I was, so I could see some real sports!
-- Marc Tenebruso, New York City

Sorry to kill yargumentsents super sports fans, but All-Star games are really geared towards your novice fans. They are a stage in which the respective leagues attempt to drum up new attention and new fans by showcasing their big-name players. Any one who doesn't watch sports religiously has any idea if the players are trying their hardest. I think you guys are missing the point. All-Star Games aren't meant for die-hard fans to be able find out how the best match up against the best. They are meant to be attention-getting, money-making exhibitions.
-- Matt Boehlke, Minneapolis