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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'
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Having it every 4 years (or 2 if you want it both summer and winter) usually will mean the game playing would either be out of date, or the athletes will always be playing something where they are not at their peak with.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]
Well, I for one won't be satisfied until the International Olympic Committee finally includes Hungry Hungry Hippos as an official sport. Hey, you've got to push the hippo button fast and at the right time, so that makes it a sport now, and it's time it gets the respect every sport deserves. Hippo champions are athletes too, just as much as the gold medalists who spend thousands of hours training and living a strict exercise & diet regime.
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.
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."
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.
"curling needs a lot of arm power!"
... for lifting all that beer.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
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.
No they didn't. They absolutely did not say that. The range of an EMP is vastly greater than the range of a shock wave.
Either you are lying or you are misremembering... or you never had any military training whatsoever.
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.
Well how about making it part of the special olympics then?
...and are pretty unhealthy. Have you seen badminton players ? They have an arm 3 times the size of the other. Even compulsive masturbators are not that asymmetric !
Non-Linux Penguins ?