Video Games Scoffed As Competitive Sport
This week was a first for Street Fighter fans. Paddy Power, Ireland's top online organized betting site arranged a bout between Street Fighter masters Ryan Hart and Femi Adeboye. Ryan Hart took the tourney as expected.
Being the first Street Fighter tourney to have a public wager has turned some heads and some are saying that video games will never warrant the kind of respect garnered by contact sports like boxing or football. Telegraph.co.uk blogger Ian Douglas argues just that in his scathing article posted this Wednesday. He had this to say:
Even the most fumbling clumsy makeweight member of a minor league down-table football team deserves many times the admiration that could possibly be given to even the most accomplished contestant in a series of fights between cartoon martial artists, controlled by a barely animate blob in a gaming chair and an ironic t-shirt. Moving your fingertips doesn't count as sport. No amount of betting will ever change that.
As a fighter fanatic myself, I find Ian's statement to be lacking in education. Here is someone who clearly has never taken the time to sit down with a game like this and spend the hours required to learn basic mechanics and the language inherent to each character. If Ian had this knowledge maybe he would see that well balanced fighters have more in common with a game of Chess than a cartoon show. In Super Street Fighter IV you are constantly vying for control the arena, waiting for your opponent to make a mistake. The variables between arial and projectile attacks alone could fill pages. Just check out the Street Fighter forums for countless examples.
Douglas' assumption that the demographical draw of this bout is limited to teenagers is also narrow minded and offensive considering the base Street Fighter crowd became fans over 15 years ago. That would make the average fan at least 26. Douglas would do well to spend some time immersed in the culture he so unabashedly thrashes.
Capcom has come to the defense of their community saying they are more than willing to furnish Douglas with a copy of the game provided he make himself available to all challengers for one evening. I wonder if I could convince Paddy Power to host a bet for this tourney. Douglas verses the world? Now that's a bet I'd be willing to place.
ROCsteady
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 1 May 2010
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: arcade, capcom, femi adeboye, ian douglas, paddy power, pc, ps3, ryan hart, street fighter iv, xbox 360
Videogames are at least as much of a sport as Nascar. Whether Nascar should be considered a sport is another matter though.
NASCAR is definitely a sport. It takes strength and stamina to keep that car under control for 500 laps, and you lose several pounds of sweat in a race. Not to mention all the strategy and teamwork involved..
To me the key definer of a sport is whether it's competitive. And competitive in a concrete sense. A definite winner and loser that is defined objectively and not purely aesthetically.
In the video game realm, Super Street Fighter 4 fits that perfectly. Save the complaints for when someone tries to claim a linear RPG or adventure game is a sport.
@NaviFairy: Burr is totally right about NASCAR. I used to work at the Long Beach Grand Prix and you really should have seen some of those guys before and after the race. They really do have to have a huge amount of stamina to be able to drive 100+mph for 500 laps. And there isn't a pause button for bathroom breaks either.
I think what Douglas was trying to point out is the lack of physical exertion that we all know has been a part of video games since before Wii Fit was invented. If the requirements for being recognized as a competitive sport were only chalked up to skill, then I would agree that video games is a sport. However, as we traditionally view sports, there have always been some physical elements of exertion. Personally, that's where I feel video games fall short.
I think the question we should be asking isn't "Why isn't video games considered a sport?" Instead, it could be "Why do we need video games recognized as a sport in the first place?" WE know how much time, effort, and skill goes into getting to a competitive level in video games. Hell, even on a casual level you still need some heavy skills to play on par with friends so as to not look like a n00b!
So, in my honest opinion: Video games a sport? Nope. Video games competitive activity that requires sharp skills and hours of practice to even be considered competent? Push 'A' to Continue and 'X' to Confirm.
Actually, people consider poker a sport, and that doesn't require any physical skills. And in fact, video games do require physical skills. The dexterity to to advanced combos in SF4 (the very game in question), is astronomically difficult to master. I would never compare it to the training people do in traditional sports, mind you, but what defines a sport is vague, largely undefined, and ultimately unimportant.
In South Korea, Starcraft is more popular than most sports, and pro Starcraft players are celebrities in the way baseball players are here.
People who try and outright define something that has never been successfully defined are narrow minded, and just rabble raising to get a minute of attention. It's no different than the recent hubub about whether games are art.
I say pay these people no mind, and let society and history define what games are or aren't, both are on the side of games, I assure you.
This guy bashes it and they offer him a game... I like Street Fighter and disagree with this guy! Where is my free copy? I'll let people play me too. Tip: bet on me to lose.
That's pretty awesome of Capcom. Kudos.
Just wanted to note how ridiculous of a comparison Street Fighter to chess is, despite how wrong Ian Douglas may be... :P
"Just wanted to note how ridiculous of a comparison Street Fighter to chess is, despite how wrong Ian Douglas may be... :P"
Probably true (I've never played any of the Street Fighters) but Starcraft would be a much better analogy.
Remember when people said rap wasn't music? No, because you're all freakin' children, but trust me it used to happen a lot. Now, rap and hip-hop are dominating the limelight. In the same way, people will make a bigger and bigger fuss about all the things that videogames "are not" before they accept that videogames obviously "are".
Two Quotes:
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." --Schopenhauer
"Some say it's gibberish,
Some say it's silly shit,
but some people pay a cover charge to listen to it,
Some people take the Path train to Jersey for it." -- mc chris