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The Real Scars of Korean Gaming
An anonymous reader writes: Professional e-sports have been slowly but steadily gaining a following in the U.S. over the past couple of decades, but in South Korea, it's already arrived as a popular form of entertainment. An article at the BBC takes a look at the e-sports scene there, which is generating huge salaries for the top players, but also injuries and insular lifestyles. It's growing more similar to traditional pro sports all the time. From the article: "A scar, half an inch wide, stretched from just above the elbow and up over his shoulder. 'Our company paid for full medical expenses, so he had an operation,' explained his coach, Kang Doh Kyung. [He] is the best player in StarCraft and has won everything in this field and is still going strong.' Repetitive strain had injured Mr Lee's muscles, deforming them and making surgery the only option to save his illustrious career."
next up: all the gambling tricks.
[He] is the best player in StarCraft and has won everything in this field and is still going strong
i mean thats cool and all...but button mashing is now a sport???
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
The new United Fascist Front is not a child's game. It is real and it is here!
The thug underclasses which pollute our culture must be eradicated and reeducated. No more will the hard working subsidize the thug's murderous lifestyle. No more will moral society lend a hand to the thug.
The thugs of this country and the world will be steamrolled out of existence and out of their ashes a new Fascist state will emerge. Efficiency at the detriment of the thug, we will rise as the one world power.
Once in power, the one fascist party will set up reeducation camps around the country for the thug. They will be rounded up and put to use.
Those with the best hope will be properly reeducated as productive members of society. Those too indoctrinated into thug culture will be put to work and eventually liquified.
Our estimates state that we will be able to run our empire's power infrastructure for 30 years by anticipated undesirable thugs.
From Boston, New York, Los Angeles, to elsewhere the thug will be rounded up with no where to hide.
Join the cause join the fascists.
Society's advancement will stand on top of the bones of the weak.
Wolf Bearclaw Hitler II
Can Mr. Lee fly around the world delivering lectures on free software? He's allowed to be picky.
Button mashing is not a fucking sport. And it's not worth anyone's time watching for a second. You who are interested in watching are about as stupid as anyone who endlessly obsesses over real sports.
No. Competition does not equal sport: I've heard professional chess players do weight lifting, but chess and StarCraft competitions are not a sport. There isn't the mind-body involvement demanded by traditional sports.
How does clicking a mouse cause RSI? Besides, these injuries have been preventable since the 1980s. Such injuries say more about the stupidity of the e-competitors than the authenticity of the 'sport'.
Is this a case of a bad 'work' environment, the usual cause of RSI? A dedicated e-competitor should be using equipment like the Space mouse, dedicated to high-speed input.
Can Mr. Lee fly around the world delivering lectures on free software?
That depends on how long until a game's publisher makes the news for using copyright to stop "public performances" by a league that the publisher doesn't like. An article by Kyle Orland mentions that Nintendo has already shut down Smash Bros. tournaments, and Capcom routinely requires royalty payments to hold Street Fighter tournaments. Once more publishers adopt that practice, e-sports leagues may have to move to developing games for distribution under a free software license.
watching e-sports is just as boring as watching other sports - i fast-forward over it when watching Good Game just as i fast-forward over sports during the news. fortunately, GG only wastes a minute or two on it every few weeks, while the news wastes 10-20 minutes on it every night.
playing sport and video games can be fun. watching other people play is fucking tedious.
Then I took an arrow to the wrist.
So is weightlifting, ping pong, darts, or golf a sport?
Bobsledding, target shooting, archery?
Rubiks cube?
What about furniture movers, and garbage men - there's athleticism involved there.
My point is - it's a gray line. There's some sort of athletic skill - hand/eye coordination involved and reflexes that is needed to play.
If they stopped pressing every hotkey on the keyboard just to increase their e-peen APM, even though they do nothing half of the time... Switch between Command Center and barrack... 200 in a minute... wow, you so pro... serves no purpose... doesn't make the cooldown any faster...
Oh, because sports is running around smashing into other big dudes and getting drain bamage instead of using your most powerful organ?
I don't think that most of the activities I perform with *my* "most powerful organ" count as sports. Uh... huh huh huh.
Oh... you meant the *brain*?
How many injury and/or operations does a usual sports player get in the course of his/her career? Basketball players, football players (both American and European), tennis players, skaters, swimmers, runners, etc, ALL suffer injuries over their career and not surprisingly some of them are repetitive injuries from practicing the same motion over and over. Where's the outrage over those? Where is "The Real Scars of American Sports"?
Heck, even *office workers* suffer RSI for using the mouse for too long!
Oliver.
for anyone who wasn't sure who Lee Young-Ho was.
See subject "Forrest" & this -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme...
Aren't people hating on the e-sport label the very reason behind it being called an e-sport? Let me expand on that a bit;
I personally couldn't care less about how we label the competition. I specifically look at following "Dota 2/CS:GO players or teams" or whichever game they play.
This whole nonsense about e-sport makes me think that people who weren't happy with or couldn't understand why some people would call themselves "pro-gamers", would argue that they could play X and Y game very well and should be labelled as pro-gamers themselves (think your average Joe playing something on xbox/ps). I could play football (not the american kind) quite well and I never in my life thought about calling myself a pro footballer.
I think that kind of affected the people with influence/money/connections in the professional gaming community to think about validating the gaming in the eyes of the clueless(and sponsors) and coming up with the e-sports crap. I doubt anyone who genuinely enjoys computer games and watches other, way more skilled people play games, needs to have a fancy name for it. It is gaming/pro-gaming or just plain playing computer games and that's it. If you cannot take it for what it is and have to start calling it something else or hating on it, then you should probably just not pay attention to it.
imagine the io is redirected to and from the physical world
See subject "Forrest" & this -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme...