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Video Games Won't Be Part of the Paris Olympics (fortune.com)
The Olympic Games regularly add new events, but officials aren't quite ready to embrace eSports. From a report: This weekend, the International Olympic Committee met for the 7th Olympic Summit, where competitive video gaming was among the topics of discussion. The verdict? It's still "premature" to discuss including them in the Olympic games. That's bound to be disappointing to supporters, who had hoped for a breakthrough in the 2024 Paris games. Tony Estanguet, co-president of the Paris Olympic committee, is a proponent of bringing video games to the Olympics.
OK, sure ... video games, er, ''eSports" is a skill.
But, seriously, let's not start pretending like this is on the same level as the lifetime of commitment that actual Olympic athletes have put in to get where they are.
I'm sorry the little nerdlings won't get to compete in the Olympics, but in no way do I think playing a video game is on par with the actual athletes competing in the Olympics.
This is dumb in my opinion. I refuse to consider pro gamers as 'athletes'
Why the hell would anyone think video games are sporting events?
Olympic events require physical activity. Moving your thumbs doesn't count.
The part of eSports that is the biggest problem for the likes of the Olympics is the standardization on what game(s) to play, and how soon will that game be too old to be interesting to watch anymore. Having it every 4 years (or 2 if you want it both summer and winter) usually will mean the game playing would either be out of date, or the athletes will always be playing something where they are not at their peak with. Games that are 8, 12, 16 years old are less on the eSports list.
However I do think it would be hilarious if these were open internet games, and during the Olympics the Gold metal hopeful gets shot down by some kid camping out and got a lucky shot.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
While having a separate 'Video Game Olympics" would make sense and be quite interesting, I don't think video gaming fits into the International Olympics - it is not an athletic event.
[Insert pithy quote here]
The the Olympics won't be part of video games. Seriously, those licensing fees are ridiculous.
I'd rather license Jim Madden.
video games are not sports. of any kind. Idiots.
If you can smoke & drink while you're doing it, it's not a sport.
Just because you can compete doesn't make it athletic. Until chess is an Olympic sport no way should video games be a sport.
Video gaming is not esports, it's video competition.
This is like how so many fields seem to add the word "science" to their name.
Data science, social science, bioscience ....
It's literally a participation medal for the esteem impaired.
You don't need to call it esports to be worthy of respect in its own field.
Personally I have been waging an effort to use the word engineering. Like bioengineering . Yes same crutch to dress up the very worthy field of biology in the garb of engineering . But my feeling is I'm elevating the word engineering back to where it belongs. Engineering is not science for lightweights.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Knitting should be considered long before video games as olympic events.
I don't care how dedicated or skilled a video game player is, putting nimble-fingered couch potatoes on a level with people who exemplify physical excellence is an insult to the idea behind the olympics. (Not the "it's all about the money" sh*t-show that it's degenerated into, but the original purpose.)
Video game players can have their own events and competitions, just as poker players do, but they shouldn't be part of an event that's supposed to be celebrating physical excellence.
I can only imagine how the commentary around this would go. "Well Jim, it looks like the American team successfully headshotted the French team flag carrier and now appears to be disrespecting their corpse by teabagging it. It's really hard to see that sort of sportsmanship."
The olympics have all kinds of bullshit games in them, so why not gaming?
My preference would be to cut back significantly.
When the folks in curling can beat you up in a fist fight, you know you're not participating in a real sport.
I can watch athletics, winter sports, swimming, whatever, and have a decent understanding of what is going on in a small amount of time.
Contrast that with watching some high-speed FPS or RTS, where any non-player doesn't have a clue what's going on.
I have a couple of friends who are involved in the behind-the-scenes organizing at the Olympics. One thing they said that I found interesting was apparently the amount of sex and associated hanky-panky that goes on at the Athletes' Village is impressive. Can't remember it was London or Vancouver, but one comment was made that they actually ran out of condoms.
Makes sense - You put all those uber-fit young people together and stuff is bound to happen - Particularly amongst athletes whose events have completed.
Would be fascinating to watch if you put "eSports" "athletes" into that mix as well... Nerd heaven.
Now before the gamers get all upset, do we have blackjack or texas hold'm as an olympic event/sport? No. They can be fun to watch the events, but they're not olympic events. Sorry, not sorry.
also limits on dev's playing? the bigger thing needs to be an forced an local network only mode? so that any internet issue can't mess the game up.
curling needs a lot of arm power!
They probably could not procure enough Mountain Dew and Dorito to feed the eSports "athletes" in such a short space of time.
As other have pointed out, games come and go, so what games do they run, if everyone is on a level playing field, then they would need to show up with a standard rig, that gets a clean OS install put on which is 100% locked down so people can't install aimbots and wall hacks etc.
It's a digital minefield, because people*will* cheat.
sport /spÃrt/
noun
noun: sport; plural noun: sports
1.
an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
https://www.google.com/search?...
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
Looking at pictures of Paris recently, it sure seems like they'd got some great Call Of Duty LARP'ing going on over there.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Either it gives you a disadvantage, or if no, it will be considered doping.
So no, you can't "smoke and drink while doing it", if any of your competitors doesn't. Cause he will win.
Why you would come up with something as retarded as this in the first place, is interestingly pathetic though.
Given that all sports are merely games, so simplified artificial environments to (supposedly) train for the real world, and not actually real life undertakings with real life meanings. (Making a business out of it itself, dose not count.)
As a fellow /.er said:
Those who can, do.
Those who can't, teach.
Those who can't teach, play.
And those who can't even play, become fans.
RoTfLmAo @ your "little nerdlings" - thanks for the laffs!
* :)
(Lastly - By the way, I totally agree w/ your sentiments also w/ myself having been an NCAA 1st string athlete @ one point in my life in college as well as having always been a "nerd" to some extent the entire way - I know "both sides of the fence" & you ARE correct!)
APK
P.S.=> There is a HUGE world of difference in what it takes either way & yes, both are effort, but to be an Olympic athlete takes a dedicated TRULY physically special, & yes, mentally tough, person vs. say, a programmer (which I was professionally from 1994-2008 - this takes mental effort alone, NOT physical & thus, imo, only 1/2 the game "top jocks" have to endure (albeit not so much academically, but more in WILL/DRIVE & competitiveness vs. like people of equal ability - the MOST IMPRESSIVE of their lot imo? Gymnasts - specifically rings (which I've done & it's HARDER than hell, especially IF you're too tall)).. apk
Actual people with more than 2 brain cells know the FACT that eSports (and thats the correct term you fucking imbecile) are sports requiring more time, dedication, skill and persurverance than any "real" sport. Compare any decent eSports champion to the most successful, say, skiing idiot, and you'll see how much smarter, skilled and simply amazing the eSport champ is.
and one emp will make them useless
And we're not sure, if you are joking.
Art, entertainment, education and sports are the four subsets of the set of games.
Their purpose, in each case, in to communicate, train and teach insights. :))
* Art is a communication medium for insights, mostly on an emotional level. (So no Jackson Pollock is definitely not art. Just pretentious snobbery shit.)
* Entertainment overlaps with art, but with such a focus on fun (Nature's indicator for good learning.), that it sadly forgot that it's supposed to teach something useful.
* Education is what we call games, that sadly forgot that good learning requires fun (and also being relatable). (Or, often, even useful in daily life.)
* And sports focus on training mainly physical skills for real life. Which, for Olympic games, again sadly, are mostly of zero use whatsoever for real life. Now since the brain is a physical part of the body as well, obviously you can do sports that exercise the brain, just like with any other skill. And since big-business computer games also are just as completely and utterly useless for life, humanity, and everything... they fit right in!
Sad times we live in, when those "AAA video games" are considered games, and actual art is considered a joke.
But hey, a second dark age, on top of our current humanity-caused biggest extinction event in Earth's history, seems fitting. Hopefully "intellectual property" will manage to wipe any and all traces of human expression off the face of the planet, so that Earth can never again catch this planetary pathogen we call homo "sapiens".
I was not joking. Also, I did not mean to imply that I think including 'esports' is a good idea. I was just pointing out that, historically, being 'an athletic event' was not a requirement for something to be in the Olympics.
Pong.
It is a sophisticated game, requiring extensive background study to fully grasp all of the nuances of the rules.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Those who can't, become managers.
Those who can't manage, teach on the subject.
Those who can't teach, become consultants.
Those who can't succeed in consulting, run for office.
Those who can't get elected, become lobbyists.
The problem is that everyone lower down than "those who can" incorrectly perceive the value hierarchy to be inverted to make themselves feel better.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
I'm extremely upset about this. I've been training my entire adult life for the eSports at the Paris Olympics. And I was really looking forward to appearing on the Wheaties box.
Here's a photo of me training:
https://goo.gl/images/77oZs4
You are welcome on my lawn.
It's bad enough we have Olympic Curling, but E-Sports ?
I know they're desperate for viewers but come on . . . . .
An Olympic medal in E-Sports is nothing more than a participation trophy from the perspective of the true athletes that compete in the games. :|
It's embarrassing. It's akin to walking up to a total stranger and trying to impress them by telling them you're a level XYZ Tree Elf Unicorn Herder in WoW.
( Pro tip: Other than perhaps the WoW crowd, NO ONE CARES )
Maybe we can add any of the following as well since we're considering the absurd:
Olympic Texting
Olympic Cooking
Olympic Underwater Basket Weaving
Olympic Flower Picking
Olympic Yodeling
Olympic Hot Dog Eating
Olympic Debate Club
Olympic Line Dancing
Olympic Twerking
Olympic Internet Trolling
The point is, there are lots of things many people are really good at and, admittedly, some are more popular than others.
( I have never figured out the allure of watching someone ELSE play a video game )
Trying to compare those activities with Olympic level athletics is just insanity.
Bowling is much more of a sport than eGames, and you can do that while smoking and drinking beer!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Olympic Safespacing...with a real long podium because every participant wins a medal!
hahahahahaha
esport ...nuff said
The difference isn't even whether it's athletic or not. It's that nobody owns exclusive rights over team handball or basketball or over the dimensions of a regulation court. By contrast, someone owns exclusive rights over StarCraft or Tetris or whatever form of electronic competition one might consider.
We can go back and forth on the definition of sport all we want, and I'm of the opinion that maybe there's merit in that discussion. That said- My real concern is that no matter what video game(s) was chosen, it would be something entirely owned by one company (or companies). Boxing isn't owned by Pepsi. Discus doesn't get patches every few months from EA that change how spin works to deal with changes in the meta. Nobody is going to release a Fencing 2. All of those are things that can and do happen with video games. To me that makes most of the discussion of including video games in the Olympics meaningless.
Knowing all sort of people doing either at a high level you have roughly the same lifetine commitment as some olympic sport (e.g. archery and other similar sports). And frankly you dont need that much body muscle for many either. The only valid reason i see is that it is nigh impossible to agree on any esport due to copyright and similar issues.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Unless the games are open source and managed by a non-profit, choosing any video game would be an instant profit center for one, and only one, company.
Here's an idea: In any given Games, make the esport the edition of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games from four years ago. That way, it's a work over which the IOC still has some stake.
Just replace badminton with e-sports. Both rely on hand- eye coordination and twitch reflexes.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
But if Atari declines to participate, the IOC wouldn't legally be able to include Pong.
Well how about making it part of the special olympics then?
As someone who enjoys watching eSports, I don't think this is the wrong decision at all. Simply because something has the word "sport" in its name doesn't mean that it belongs in the Olympics. The Olympics have always been a show of physical prowess and that's why there's not a chess competition or a math test at the Olympics. It's just not what the event is about.
Now that having been said, a co-branded eSports event during (or perhaps before) the Olympics would be a good idea. And I want to say that there was a Starcraft tournament in Korea that did this during/before the Winter Olympics. While everyone is excited about international competition, use the excitement to promote an eSports event. Just don't try to become a part of the Olympics proper.
Sadly, you're probably right.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
E-sports as an event would be like NASCAR becoming an Olympic sport. The competition might as well be for number of products shilled, rather than skill at CS:GO.
There are already eSport events bigger than they could ever make on the Olympics. This ship has sailed.
and how hard will it be to have an local esport only server with open code for an 3rd party judge to audit?
Imma guess the giant condom bowl in the video game dorm won't be going down very fast.
( Goes up to a FAF female athlete) "Hey, I'm FAF*, too!"
* Fat As Fuck
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Things which negros are not good at cannot be allowed at the Olypmics. (((They))) wish to promote negro worship to the goyim.
In WoW level doesn't matter. They all level cap about a week after the new expansion comes out. The endgame these days is about transmog. That is, it's about finding the right costume for your cartoon to wear.
That's all
Just because there is a physical component does not make it a sport. It is not a sport if ...
The winner is determined by the subjective viewing of judges
The activity is totally choreographed ahead of time
The activity is called a 'performance' or 'artistic expression'
What you are describing is closer to ballet than a sport.
Look, have an eSports Olympics, like chess and Go championships. It's ABSURD to put eSportsinto a venue where people have to *physically* train for years to succeed.
I can't wait until watching a movie becomes the next Olympic sport. It takes real dedication and commitment to site through the Star Wars prequels one after the other.
Or spelling? It's really discriminating.