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from the it-worked-for-judo-and-beach-volleyball dept.
Alibaba is venturing out of e-commerce and further into esports.
Esports will appear at next year's Games in Indonesia as a "demonstration," Alibaba said, but will be an official medal sport in China's 2022 Games. The Asian Games are recognised by the International Olympic Committee, meaning in 2022 esports will be an official Olympic sport.
Esports is a growing market that is expected to garner 191 million global enthusiasts by the year's end, according to research firm Newzoo. As of last April, the industry was worth over $450 million -- a number expected to grow to $1 billion by 2019.
That growth is manifesting in many ways. Not only is esports now technically an Olympic sport, the NBA will soon be creating its own esports league, and there are gaming schools to groom the next generation of pros.
Can't decide--is this exciting, or sad?
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Thursday April 20 2017, @12:26PM (1 child)
False equivalency. Randomized events within video game-play confer advantages and disadvantages to players during the actual contest. The random firing of the starting gun is by design to deprive any advantage to a contestant who might anticipate the start. The ONLY reason I brought up random events was to refute the absurd idea of placing video games outside the realm of "luck based games" with my own absurd list of Olympic contenders (Monopoly, Candyland, Rock-paper-scissors, etc) should video games be deemed worthy of Olympic acceptance. The items on my list each require some level of skill just like video gaming. Perhaps not like the -chuckle- "extraordinary human ability" skills required for Starcraft though...
So are you arguing that OpenTDD should be nominated for inclusion to the Olympic Games? My whole point in this thread is that the trend of watering down the Olympics by adding the equivalent of "Dancing with the Stars" level contests has cheapened the whole event to the point of irrelevancy. Look at the TV ratings of the last Summer Olympics an you can see where the trends are heading.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday April 20 2017, @05:40PM
Neither of the above. Luck and random chance does not play a large part (to my knowledge) in any current Olympic competition, and it's generally minimised or controlled wherever possible (e.g. starting order when going down the ski slope). I just wanted to flag that absence of random chance isn't a suitable criteria for the exclusion of video games.
I would not argue for OpenTTD or any other video game to be included in Olympic competition: I don't see them as being very equivalent or compatible. (My personal opinion is against the likes of chess, too.) I think gamers would be better served by developing their own top-flight competition instead.
Given the effort required by the International Rugby Board to get a form of rugby included in the Olympics (when it had already been included until 1924!), I don't think the IOC waving e-sports in through the side door is good practice.