Dota 2: Now With Real Sporting Controversy!

[medv4380]

That's not the problem with any of the eSports.

Frankly it's absurdly obvious.

1) None of the games stay around long enough to become standardized. Baseball, Basketball, and Football might have slightly different rules between leagues, but in an eSport the "rules" are so fluid between different first person shooters that they can't be considered standard rules.

2) The core of game marketing and legal structure is toxic to Sports. If I get a bunch of friends together and we want to play "stick ball" there's no harm in it. No legal threats. Just a bunch of friends having fun. Do that with a game and someone's going to throw a fit. Someone's going to scream about licencing graphics this, or engine that. The skill level needed to do that is also absurdly tiled in a way that the average PLAYER can't actually do that.

Until little kids can get interested in, and learn to play for next to nothing eSports will never be Sports. Live with the segregation of never being considered a real Sport.

Your an eSport live with it. Embrace it.

 

[BX3]

Anyone got any links to those stories? 'cause I couldn't find them with a quick google search.

I'm guessing the Arteezy bear-baiting is based off that American Football player who was charged with attending dog-fighting and the rapist is along the lines of the small town defending those college players who allegedly gang-raped a girl.

Or Ben Roethlisberger. That's the first thing that sprang to my mind, anyway.

That'll get you somewhere here in America, but if you want international legitimacy you'd better have at least half a dozen people die in a stadium riot.

Half a dozen?! Your name's Rogue Wolf, so how about you stop thinking so conservatively? The bare minimum for international acclaim as a legitimate sport is 15 lives per riot. If we're gonna do this, we might as well go balls out.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Well, haven't we reached the point where fistfights break out because "the team I was rooting for lost and the guy next to me is happy about it"? I think that is stage 1 of becoming a recognized sport.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Well, haven't we reached the point where fistfights break out because "the team I was rooting for lost and the guy next to me is happy about it"? I think that is stage 1 of becoming a recognized sport.

And we've reached the point where we have betting scandals. I'd say we're getting there!

 

[gamerguyal]

Until little kids can get interested in, and learn to play for next to nothing eSports will never be Sports.

Dota 2 already does this. It's the only esport that is completely free to play, and it can be played on a laptop.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Does that mean Grey is not a legitimate internet "comedian"? We fans have never stabbed each other.

I'm not sure that'd help. I don't think stabbings would make Grey funnier.

(can't be a real comedian without hecklers. You're welcome.)

 

[Canadamus Prime]

You're not a real sport unless you've had at least one scandal.

 

[Hammartroll]

Gaming does not require a locker room which means there will never be a controversy about future gay team mates. As such, gaming will never be a true sport.

 

[Darks63]

I thought it wouldn't be considered a real sport until there is serious gambling surrounding it.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

That's not the problem with any of the eSports.

Frankly it's absurdly obvious.

1) None of the games stay around long enough to become standardized. Baseball, Basketball, and Football might have slightly different rules between leagues, but in an eSport the "rules" are so fluid between different first person shooters that they can't be considered standard rules.

2) The core of game marketing and legal structure is toxic to Sports. If I get a bunch of friends together and we want to play "stick ball" there's no harm in it. No legal threats. Just a bunch of friends having fun. Do that with a game and someone's going to throw a fit. Someone's going to scream about licencing graphics this, or engine that. The skill level needed to do that is also absurdly tiled in a way that the average PLAYER can't actually do that.

Until little kids can get interested in, and learn to play for next to nothing eSports will never be Sports. Live with the segregation of never being considered a real Sport.

Your an eSport live with it. Embrace it.

It's because it's not really about sports, it's about a need for validation, same thing as the "games as art" debate -- or rather, the people who took it too far and started complaining about games that were, you know, games, instead of being glorified movies like Dear Esther. A lot of gamers grew up under the specter of games being perceived as just for kids, and as they hit their teenage and young adult years, they're still insecure about it. Hence "well my games are legitimate because they're art!" "Oh yeah? Well mine are /sports!/ Take that, jocks!"

It's really sad. Besides, games aren't /really/ going to be sports until you get out of breath and sweaty playing them, and no, hyperventilating and/or breaking out into a nervous sweat don't count. So basically not until we're making like Captain Sisko and playing Baseball on the holodeck.

Edit: Whoops, quoted the wrong guy.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Well my sports hockey, not basketball or football, not perfect itself but there is a world of difference, so the point doesn't really apply for me. Although I guess an NFL fan could say the NHL isn't a real sport anyways, haha. I won't take that from he NBA though!

Regarding DOTA or any of these 'MOBA's' I could never really buy into them. If you look at 'real sports', in the professional leagues much of the audience aren't active participants but rather are just pure spectators. DotA and LoL have the biggest viewing audience in e-sports, but they also have by far the biggest playing audience. How much of a viewership do they have that simply watch the games without actually playing? I tried watching a game before, even threw in search titles like 'best' into the youtube search bar, and honestly I'd rather watch an MLB game *ducks*.

But seriously though, if you don't have any interest in playing the game yourself, which would lead to an active interest in seeing how the best play so you can improve your own game, then the game is like watching paint dry. Like I can see the appeal to Starcraft, which I can enjoy purely as a spectator to some degree, but MOBA's by design are boring as hell to watch without a vested interest.

And coming from an NHL fan, why does it matter if e-Sports get considered a 'real' sport or not? Why can't they exist in a similar but different space? I said coming from an NHL fan because being the smallest of the 4 big North America pro sports leagues a lot of our fans take a great deal of concern at how we're perceived (or a complete lack of perception) in the US. It's strong in some areas, and overall the gate revenue I believe is higher than the NBA, but the national media coverage and TV ratings are horrible... that shouldn't really effect a fans enjoyment of it though.

My above post was in response to this one, quoted the wrong person by mistake. Making this post so you'll get a notification.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Anyone got any links to those stories? 'cause I couldn't find them with a quick google search.

I'm guessing the Arteezy bear-baiting is based off that American Football player who was charged with attending dog-fighting and the rapist is along the lines of the small town defending those college players who allegedly gang-raped a girl.

If you mean Steubenville, nothing "allegedly" about it, they certainly did do it (the town still defended them). However, there's no particular reason to assume it'd have to be that rape, that is something we see in sports all the time.

Animal fights are rather unusual, though, if it had to be based directly off a real event (and not just general being evil), good chance of being that one, yeah.

So they did get convicted? About bloody time.

They are out already, though, they only got a year.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

or course, the missing link!

every respectable sport is a complete joke

 

[medv4380]

Until little kids can get interested in, and learn to play for next to nothing eSports will never be Sports.

Dota 2 already does this. It's the only esport that is completely free to play, and it can be played on a laptop.

No it doesn't because by little kids I mean 6 year olds. PC's are well outside of the means of children, and any responsible parent wouldn't allow their child online unsupervised. They would, however, let their kid kick a ball around with their friends.

 

[Vigormortis]

Does that mean Grey is not a legitimate internet "comedian"? We fans have never stabbed each other.

Speak for yourself. I've been responsible for the 'mysterious disappearance' of like twelve Penny Arcade fans in the last week alone.

I don't stab forum goers, I behead and stick on castle walls, just like a mod.

Psh. That's so old hat. So old reign.

The new method is piking them and then slapping them with a giant stick of bologna - repeatedly.

The more "inventive" also include subjecting them to marathon sessions of PewDiePie videos.

 

[Korskarn]

I'm pretty sure "fuck-ton" is not a metric unit.

Agreed - the metric unit is "fuck-tonne".

 

[Vladimir Eremeyev]

And I was charged with treason because I said that our (Rus. Federation) external policy is unjust.

 

[Artemicion]

League of Legends' had a lot of this lately. The sportsing is getting too real, I guess.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

*snip*

*snip*

God dammit. Beaten to it twice.

OT: I care as much about eSports be considered real sports as I do about watching them or real sports. I have never gotten the appeal of spending more time watching someone else play a game than playing it yourself. Although I've never gotten into Let's Plays for that same reason