Video Games Won't Be Part of the Paris Olympics (fortune.com) 220
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.
Good ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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'
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In terms of athleticism how is eSports different then from many of the Shooting sports.
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In terms of athleticism how is eSports different then from many of the Shooting sports.
Honestly, other than the ones where they ski across country first, or combine with athletic endeavours, Shooting isn't athletic and probably would be better out and not in the Olympics. It is historically part of the modern Olympics though and certain groups would probably protest if there were a movement to remove it. Shooting was probably first included by association with athletic endeavours. In the 1800's there were probably few people for whom shooting involved going to the gun range or resting in
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For the same reason, we wouldn't consider a piano competition a sport either, even though it requires a level of skill, accuracy, and practice on par with any Olympic sport and has been around for nearly as long.
I would definitely pay to see people throw pianos in a competition. In all four categories: spinet upright, studio upright, baby grand, and grand. The distance is when they first hit the ground, and not after they tip over.
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eSports: is a member of the team that makes 911 swatting call
Shooting Sports: is a member of the team that rides in the Swat truck to answer the 911 swatting call
Next up: competitive hot dog eating (Score:3)
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 bi
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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.
Of all things, you question commitment here? You couldn't be more wrong.
I don't give a shit what your skill is, when you've worked hard enough to master something and are considered one of the best in the entire world to compete at the Olympic level, I'd say you sure as hell demonstrated commitment. You certainly wouldn't question the commitment level of a well-respected history professor simply because they didn't bench press their own body weight while earning three PhDs.
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So... should History be an Olympic Sport? :)
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Provided we limit the top speed to prevent anyone from being left behind. No child left behind. Everyone deserves a trophy for participation. The fastest runners won't feel that their talent, training and hard work has been devalued by entitled people.
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What made me decide esports were true sports was seeing that they are every bit as corrupt and despicable as regular pro sports, and in all the same ways. It was actually seeing the filth that permeates esports which made me lose my disrespect of amateur sports players. I still think regular sports are boring, but I realized I had been unfair to them in the past. I was looking at the scum that had floated to the top of the professional leagues, management, and fanbase, and then tarring local softball teams
your underestimate esport commitment (Score:2)
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You should look into Korean gaming competition like StarCraft for example. Those guys takes it way more seriously than your "average" pro athlete. They make athletes look like amateurs in terms of commitment.
They may take it seriously. They may be very skilled and talented. It still isn't a sport though. Somethings like Poker, Board games, Video Games, Golf, Darts, etc... as talented as you might be to do them and even as dedicated as may need to be- they just don't belong in an atheltics competition.
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It's an e-sport, not a sport. That's why we have the 2 different words. The Olympics can add anything they like, there's no "sport-only" rule. They broke with tradition when they went beyond the decathlon - it's all just arbitrary competitions.
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It's an e-sport, not a sport. That's why we have the 2 different words. The Olympics can add anything they like, there's no "sport-only" rule. They broke with tradition when they went beyond the decathlon - it's all just arbitrary competitions. .
There is still generally a convention that almost all Olympic sports involve some form of athleticism. Olympics isn't really about "sport" either, there are some sports involved, but it is "Athletics" (and obviously most sports involve some athletics). They obviously can do whatever they want- they can even add basket weaving if they so chose.
But adding non-athletic games would dilute the brand and probably have a consumer backlash.
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There is still generally a convention that almost all Olympic sports involve some form of athleticism.
So? There are already non-athletic events, and were more in the past. Meh, it's a business and will calculate what will draw the biggest paying crowd, and highest TV licensing rights. Clearly e-sports aren't there yet.
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So? There are already non-athletic events, and were more in the past. Meh, it's a business and will calculate what will draw the biggest paying crowd, and highest TV licensing rights. Clearly e-sports aren't there yet.
There are some, yeah, and most have historical connection going way back when that non-athletic endeavour was frequently linked with either the military (and by virtue an athletic lifestyle) or linked with some other athletic lifestyle.
There's also some in the Winter Olympics that I think are there because they had to pad the Winter Olympics to have enough events at one point and now they've stuck as traditional events.
I'd be very happy if they split the non-athletic sports into a different event. Heck, th
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The Olympics were originally directly tied to skills a warrior would use on the battlefield. As you note, some of the non-athletic events are tied to that. Of course, the future battlefield will be dominated by video games skills, so it's just a matter of time,
and one emp will make them useless (Score:2)
and one emp will make them useless
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Perhaps so. The air force seems remarkably unconcerned. But the following generation will all be EMP-hardened, and that particular approach will stop working.
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Current drones don't really have any EMP hardening. I think it's just a cost control measure. It's makes sense if you're only thinking in terms of asymmetric warfare (which is all we've don'e for decades). I expect the generals will keep optimizing for the last war until the future surprises them.
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The precise rule goes like this: Any game where organised competitions are held is a sport. Any sport qualifies, provided it obeys the prime directive:
Do not make jocks look stupid.
That's why chess, go and shogi are out, and anything else is in. It doesn't matter that the skills for, say, water polo, are also arcane and difficult: As long as the spectators can pretend that they know what's going on and pretend that they could have done the same themselves if they'd only bothered, all is well.
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They obviously can do whatever they want- they can even add basket weaving if they so chose.
But adding non-athletic games would dilute the brand and probably have a consumer backlash.
Well they do have Synchronised Swimming, which (among other things) stops me from taking the Olympics seriously. In fact I just checked Wikipedia about it and they have recently re-named it "Artistic Swimming". So Art is now in the Olympics, explicitly.
My own sport interest is cycle racing, and it would get on fine without the Olympics : it has its own traditions and classic events. Meanwhile the Olympics has become more about showbiz and political posturing, which Synchronised, sorry Artistic Swimming sum
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There is still generally a convention that almost all Olympic sports involve some form of athleticism.
Like target shooting? Or curling?
curling needs a lot of arm power! (Score:2)
curling needs a lot of arm power!
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... for lifting all that beer.
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ARM is designed primarily (so far) for low power applications. Which is why it has an advantage over Intel in those types of applications. So Curling might need a lot of Intel power maybe.
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intel to hot for the ice go amd!
No one owns basketball (Score:3)
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.
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But I agree, eSports don't belong in the Olympics. Too nebulous and the games themselves change too often to be worth it... not to mention that the games themselves are franchises of for-profit companies. That's way too different from all of the existing games where the fu
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I agree, if eSports are to be an Olympic event, there needs to be some F/OSS software game that the Olympic committee maintains and tweaks the rules to.
It seems wrong to have a specific companies trademarks involved in the actual event, and also likely puts them at the mercy of a third party on if they're even allowed to broadcast events and what not.
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At the very least, once you require electricity in order for the sport to work, any 'game' that uses only the mind (board games, card games) should never be included in the Olympics. While Darts and Golf are 'games', they require some level of physical skill in order to compete at the top level (Darts shoudln't be in because it is boring, maybe if they played with spears as darts with a giant dart board across a field) (golf because it is on TV too much as it is).
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You should look into Korean gaming competition like StarCraft for example. Those guys takes it way more seriously than your "average" pro athlete. They make athletes look like amateurs in terms of commitment.
They may take it seriously. They may be very skilled and talented. It still isn't a sport though.
How about running around in circles? That's an event, right? What's your bar for "sport"? Lack of talent and skill?
Somethings like Poker, Board games, Video Games, Golf, Darts, etc... as talented as you might be to do them and even as dedicated as may need to be- they just don't belong in an atheltics competition.
The olympics isn't an athletics competition; there's artistic swimming, FCOL!
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By that same logic applying make-up should be an olympic sport.
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By that same logic applying make-up should be an olympic sport.
For men or women?
I did hear it suggested that setting up colour schemes, wallpaper and fonts in WIndows should be in it. Or Bash prompts in Linux.
Re:Good ... (Score:4, Funny)
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I will know the end is nigh when speed stacking becomes an Olympic Event.
Physical Activity (Score:2)
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They can't rule it out entirely without bringing up the debate as to whether all the stuff that's in there now should continue to be in there, hence the weasel words.
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They can't rule it out entirely without bringing up the debate as to whether all the stuff that's in there now should continue to be in there, hence the weasel words.
The bottom line is, not every competitive activity needs to be in the Olympics. Come up with your own criteria, but just because it's big doesn't mean it needs to be in the Olympics.
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You could tell that to the Olympic Rifle shooting teams.
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Olympic events require physical activity. Moving your thumbs doesn't count./quote>
Why? There's no such rule. It's hard to see much of a difference between e.g. Starcraft and target shooting.
The Olympics were originally competitions in skill directly tied to a warrior's ability on the battlefield. Seems to me that that's coming full circle.
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Olympic events require physical activity. Moving your thumbs doesn't count.
Some would argue that hitting a little white ball around a golf course is hardly a sport either, and yet we champion the shit out of that at the Olympic level.
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What games? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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also limits on dev's playing? local only mode? (Score:2)
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.
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And this is probably the major reason why Video Gameswill probably never be part of the Olympics. Yeah- they shouldn't because not athletic... etc..etc..etc...
But ignoring all that; having Video Games as an event means partnering with certain Video Game publishers. Sharing events. Olympics is already disgustingly commercial- but if you start mixing in events based around games by EA, or Ubisoft, or any of the other major publishers and it becomes a commercial and biased minefield.
Also, whereas many video
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There would have to be an established league and international organisation, so the choice of games is quite limited. CS Go and Street Fighter pretty much.
The other problem is that it's free advertising for the game maker.
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That's the Patent Office, not the Copyright Office.
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Except in the previous sentence the word 'anyways' can always be removed leaving the meaning intact, more concise, and perhaps even more clear.
Assuming that your porpoise is trying to communicate more clearly.
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The biggest problem I have with this idea is that in "e-sports" all of the games are franchises of one company or another. The game itself is not public domain in the way that all traditional sports/games are. Unless the games are ope
Mario and Sonic (Score:2)
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.
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Exactly this (on top of the previous one). No game is going to last for 1000 years. The concept of WR ... makes little sense either.
Let's keep video games on their own schedule. Besides, they really don't need to be associated to what the Olympics have become.
Good (Score:3)
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.
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
True, but up until 1948 the Olympics included architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture categories at various times.
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They also thought smoking was healthy back then... thankfully we learn from past mistakes.
Re:Good (Score:4, Interesting)
The founder of the modern Olympics wanted it to be about 'men being educated in mind and body competing in something other than war'. The art competitions were removed not because they 'were not athletic events'. but because they had difficulty finding amateur competitors, as well as the inherent difficulties in judging such works.
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True, but up until 1948 the Olympics included architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture categories at various times.
I'm not sure if that's a joke or for real- I'll have to google. If that were really the case- thank goodness those days are gone.
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I'll make it easy for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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I'll make it easy for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Thanks, yeah, I had already looked. That's actually rather amusing and shows that it was a bit of a mess even then. Award for architecture going to guy who designed the stadium used for that Olympics seems pretty damn biased to me. :)
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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.
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Well, sculpture would work. You have a hammer, chisel, and a block of marble in front of you and then wait for the whistle to blow before you start.
I must admit, that could actually be fun (fascinating might be better word) to watch if they were given a short period of time and had to work quick. Judging would be a hard task, but there again there are already so many subjective events in the Olympics.
It's not a sport (Score:2)
If you can smoke & drink while you're doing it, it's not a sport.
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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.
NBC Commentary (Score:5, Funny)
Athletes' Village (Score:3)
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.
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About 110,000 condoms were distributed during the last Winter Olympics, over 37 per athlete.
http://time.com/5137272/condom... [time.com]
It was a record for the Olympics...
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Are you sure? (Score:2)
Looking at pictures of Paris recently, it sure seems like they'd got some great Call Of Duty LARP'ing going on over there.
This is an outrage (Score:2)
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 [goo.gl]
Old School Olympians are rolling in their graves (Score:2)
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
Really?!? (Score:2)
Copyrighted sports (Score:2)
Replace badminton (Score:2)
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Comment removed (Score:3)
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Why the hell would anyone think video games are sporting events?
Obviously you haven't actually looked at an Olympic schedule in a few decades. There's plenty of silly shit we include in the Olympics. Video games, no matter how stupid, are the next natural progression.
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People think the ability to rapidly stack cups is a sport (at least it isn't an Olympic event yet as far as I know); so the bar is already pretty low.
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cause the same people will probably say that Golf is sport rather than a game... lol
I'd say Golf IS a game not a sport. Obviously it is one that takes years to master and there is a huge amount of skill involved and some hand eye-coordination. I'm not dissing the talent required to golf professionally- but I would classify it as a game not a sport.
I'd put pool, snookers, darts, archery and croquet in that list too.
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cause the same people will probably say that Golf is sport rather than a game... lol
I'd say Golf IS a game not a sport. Obviously it is one that takes years to master and there is a huge amount of skill involved and some hand eye-coordination. I'm not dissing the talent required to golf professionally- but I would classify it as a game not a sport.
I'd put pool, snookers, darts, archery and croquet in that list too.
Football, basketball, baseball are all just games too, you know. It seems to me that you're trying to draw an artificial difference between the various games so that you can place the traditional games in a more respectable class than the newer games.
I see very little difference between professional Starcraft players and professional football players, other than that one of those two is more likely to be useful outside of the game.
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One very good reason to declare esports actual sports would be if Wide World of Sports made a comeback.
If that happened, and they replaced the skiier racking himself with some noob getting pwned and teabagged for The Agony of Defeat; then I say do it. Do it nao.
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Is curling what they did for the ice before the invention of the zamboni?
I swear, that looks like one of the most dreadfully boring events ever imagined.
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watching some high-speed FPS or RTS, where any non-player doesn't have a clue what's going on.
Easy - you have to kill the things on the screen that look like monsters, as fast as you can.
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It is a sophisticated game, requiring extensive background study to fully grasp all of the nuances of the rules.
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But if Atari declines to participate, the IOC wouldn't legally be able to include Pong.
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