Armchair Olympians

[Dillgaar]

Over the years, the Olympic Games have included a number of unconventional sports... Bowling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling), Handball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handball), Korfball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korfball), Badminton (http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/31/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm)...

Now the Global Gaming League (GGL) wants a piece of the action.

By petitioning for the Beijing 2008 games to accept video gaming as a demonstration sport the GGL hopes to promote video games as a viable competitive sport around the world, avid gamers and the existing competitive leagues would tend to agree.

Read more about the movement here (http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/31/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm).

[Azzerhoden]

Hmmm, I do not know about bowling being a demonstration report, but it is not part of the Olympics. It has tried several times, but is always refused.

But financial and network interest don't earn a sport an Olympic berth; Just ask fans of golf, motorcycle racing and bowling - or, for that matter, baseball, which (along with softball) will be dropped from the Olympics in 2012. And the fact that video gaming is so technology dependent could be particularly damaging.

Not really part of the story however.... :D

[Navid]

that would be great! but I'm not sure if the olypics is the place for gamers, I mean how would you judge it? by game? bye type? I do think we need more cometitions!

but hey if I had to vote I would say...Sure!

[Giftmacher]

Sure why not, FPS gaming requires fast reflexes and and even less twitchy games require skill If chess is recognised then I can't see much of a case for excluding gameing.

Gift.

[Nargroth]

Wasn't there a big Starcraft tournament where they even televised the final fights?

Sure you can judge or declare a winner in games. Surely not in MMO's which are too free, and without an actual "end goal".

But in other games, such as RTS (Real Time Strategy) including Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Dune series and so forth, as well as the FPS genre (First Person Shooers), such as Counterstrike, Day of Defeat, Planetside, Halflife 2 there is certainly a way of pitting players against eachother to have a final victor.

As for rules, and judging, most games have their rules already in them as part of the mechanics. Some games might be team-vs-team, where others are flat out Free-for-all, or Last man standing if you want.

If they do get gaming recognized, then I'll be excited to see which games get recognized.

[Razorwire]

I think a major problem lies in the fact that gaming has such a high turn over of games. For the Olympics every time they know exactly what the discus throw will be and what a discus is and what the rules are.

In gaming the shift in 4 years would make it impossible to have a consistant set of competitions through out the years. Do we want the Olympic Video Game team to be playing Castle Wolfenstien forever?

I personally don't think Video Gaming belongs at the Olympics, but that is just me and if it was included I would watch.