Can video games make it to the Olympics?

**D.B. Cooper** · 01-31-2014, 09:44 AM

Can video games make it to the Olympics? - Sport - Al Jazeera English

I found this interesting and thought it might start some discussion on if people agree with this. For me, I think if things like Bass Fishing and Chess are considered sports, why not?

**Barra** · 01-31-2014, 09:57 AM

I agree with this

Quote:

...that the acceptance of e-Sports is only a matter of time.

But also this

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It will not be easy for the e-Sports community to twist arms and convince people at the top of their worth.

It will be a long time (if ever) before gaming is an Olympic sport, but I can see it becoming a "real" sport (under the accordance of SportAccord) much sooner than that.
As well as a gamer, I am an avid squash player, a sport which has never been in the Olympics and is still struggling to get anywhere near. If the IOC cant put squash in, I doubt gaming will get a shot anytime soon.

In saying that, Id LOVE to see gaming get its day among the traditional sports.

Cool article. Thanks for sharing.

**Dudebro** · 01-31-2014, 11:04 AM

I don't think it should count as an olympic sport. If we group it with other real sports then we'd have to call these pro gamers "athletes" and I just can't agree with that. To me gaming isn't a sport, it's a competition or a recreation.

Calling it an electronic sport is fine though and I hope that catches on more.

**Kong** · 01-31-2014, 11:34 AM

I'm all for competitive gaming catching on but it doesn't belong in the Olympics.

Sport: a competitive physical activity played for entertainment.

Video games are not a sport.

The Olympics are based on the ancient Greek Olympic games and are designed to test the human body in fairly simple games. Adding technology to it ruins the spirit of it.

Games chosen for the Olympics are supposed to be timeless. No video game competition will ever be timeless. Starcraft is the current fad but it will not be in 10 years. The gold winner of the Olympics is meant to be compared to previous games. If you change the game rules (swap Starcraft 2014 for Starcraft 2016) then you can't compare scores.

Side note. Nanobots are close. In a few years it will be possible to replace 25% of your red blood cells with nanobots that are dramatically more efficient at carrying oxygen to your cells. A rich fat couch potato could easily hold his breath for 15 minutes or sprint full speed for 30 minutes without being winded or tired. When rich untrained slobs can routinely destroy all records without effort sports will lose their meaning or have to change. At that point video games could likely replace sports. Watching Madden 2020 might be more entertaining than watching real football.

**Dudebro** · 01-31-2014, 11:59 AM

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Starcraft is the current fad but it will not be in 10 years.

It's already on the way out in favor of MOBAs like League of Legends and DOTA2. I'm not even sure if they have serious SC2 competitions outside of S Korea anymore.

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When rich untrained slobs can routinely destroy all records without effort sports will lose their meaning or have to change

Or just develop a way to test for performance enhancing machines?

**Kong** · 01-31-2014, 01:07 PM

They probably would be able to test for it but in a few decades it would probably be common for the average middle school kid to destroy all olympic records. How entertaining would it be to watch then? I don't know, I already think spectator sports is about as boring as the weather channel. Maybe people will still want to watch the naturals or we will just watch the most doped up super humans. Either way, if I die of old age then the idea of sports will change drastically within my lifetime.

**Slime Slayer** · 01-31-2014, 02:10 PM

Won't happen. The problem lies in the fact there are an astronomical amount of different games. Chess is acceptable because everyone is playing the same game, and the game is not owned by anyone. Ugh, I want to elaborate and express my opinion more efficiently, but I got a baby pulling at my monitor, mouse, keyboard ect.

**D.B. Cooper** · 01-31-2014, 02:35 PM

One of my favorite t-shirts has a couple of overweight rednecks sitting in a canoe filled with empty beer cans. Both have fishing poles in their hand and the caption reads, "If fishing is a sport, does that make us athletes?"

I don't think video games should ever be in the Olympics unless they are part of an "Electronic Olympics" for most of the reasons Kong posted. But I don't have a problem calling it a sport but I don't think I'd ever go so far as to call the participants athletes. Most of this is just semantics but I'm pretty open to calling just about anything that involves competition a sport but in order for me to call someone an athlete, they need to do something athletic. Race car drivers, fishermen, bowlers and golfers are in the grey area for me but playing chess, poker or video games clearly is not athletic.

**Jason L. Davis** · 02-04-2014, 02:42 AM

It won't ever happen. But to be honest, I say why not? Gaming consist of using the most complicated and powerful muscle in your body, The Brain! Hand-Eye coordination, Massive Thinking plays a big part in life, Not to mention you can still sweat your ass off doing it....Lol

**Demon-Mask** · 02-10-2014, 09:05 AM

Competitive gaming is super cool and I'd love to see something like, say, fighting games reach a more mainstream audience and be even more widely played and watched, and I put a lot of time into getting better at them in the hopes that someday I'll be in an area where competitions occur, but I'd never consider it anything close to a sport, and it could never stand up in the Olympics, since the Olympics is built around physical challenges, things the average person couldn't even hope to do.

I feel like putting video games in the Olympics would be one of the absolute worst ideas.