Do 'e-sports' actually have anything to do with computer games....?

[abaxas]

Ok, a bold statement but I'm beginning to think that most competitive gaming has little ot nothing to do with the game itself. They are mearly functions of mouse/keyboard/joystick dexterity and hand eye coordination rather than the game itself.

Maybe we should ditch the FPS games, star craft, etc and simply have 'mouse movement, clicking and button pressing competitions'

Discuss....

[mikerr]

When did you last get out of breath/break a sweat playing a computer game or console ?

The wii fit board based games were the nearest thing, and maybe kinect
- and also the most social games (I don't count online as social)

- but that's not been followed up in the next generation of consoles.

[Gerrard]

When did you last get out of breath/break a sweat playing a computer game or console ?

You don't when you play darts, snooker, chess, shooting, archery and so on; it's not what defines a sport. It's also about skill as well. So therefore, I would say e-sports do have something to do with games. Whilst I agree there are definitely based on dexterity, as are a lot of sports (see above), there are strategies to most of them.

[peterb]

You don't when you play darts, snooker, chess, shooting, archery and so on; it's not what defines a sport. It's also about skill as well. So therefore, I would say e-sports do have something to do with games. Whilst I agree there are definitely based on dexterity, as are a lot of sports (see above), there are strategies to most of them.

I'm not sure I'd class any of those as 'sports' as such. They might be competitive, and so fall into a 'games of skill' category.

[Andy3536]

Ok, a bold statement but I'm beginning to think that most competitive gaming has little ot nothing to do with the game itself. They are mearly functions of mouse/keyboard/joystick dexterity and hand eye coordination rather than the game itself.

Maybe we should ditch the FPS games, star craft, etc and simply have 'mouse movement, clicking and button pressing competitions'

Discuss....

Many of the games are played as team events, so also require tactics and player co-operation. It's not just those with the fastest reactions win.

[Saracen]

.... it's not what defines a sport. It's also about skill as well. So therefore, I would say e-sports do have something to do with games. .....

And perhaps, therein lies the problem - define "sport".

Wikipedia is quite interesting on that. My inclination is to go along with the Olympic view, I.e. requiring physical athleticism, or physical dexterity. But in that case, "merely functions of mouse/keyboard/joystick dexterity and hand eye coordination" would seem to qualify.

I fly radio-controlled aircraft, mainly helicopters. There are some types that more or less fly themselves and are little more than toys, but "proper" versions are actually extremely difficult to fly, and do indeed require a very substantial degree of both physical dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Otherwise, you crash. One little model I have, a Blade Nano CPX, is rather like trying to control an angry, drunken hummingbird on speed. It is one ultra fast little beggar. It's only about 7" long, weighs next to nothing, and if someone unfamiliar with it can get it off the ground and keep it airborn for three seconds, I'd say they have huge natural talent or enough luck that they ought to go straight out and buy a lottery ticket.

It is HARD to fly, yet phenomenally controllable if the pilot knows what he/she is doing.

So, if an archer handling a device (a bow) that then controls an object (arrow) is an Olympic event, why not a pilot handling a device (radio control) that then controls an object (model helicopter)? All you'd need is to devise a method of assessing competitive achievement. But think of gymnastics. There, judges are assessing a series of predefined moves, and the skill with which they're executed. Or even, in cases, the artistic interpretation of music in a routine. Ditto ice-skating. It's not quite as simple as fastest, strongest or most accurate.

Most e-sports do indeed seem to come down to lots if frantic clicking and IF that's all there is, then no, not remotely "sport" IMHO.

If, however, there's more to it than frantic clicking, then maybe it comes down to calibrating the exact speed of clicking, and the degree and direction of mouse movement, and the exact timing of mouse movement, corresponding to something going on, on-screen.

Back to my little helicopter. The art of flying it is constant, SMALL adjustments to the control. But you have to read the movements of the heli, to see it signal what's going to happen, and get exactly the right movement, not too much or too little, at EXACTLY the right moment. Get that right and you can pretty much make it do anything. Get it wrong, just a little bit, for a fraction of a second, and the little beggar is like a wall magnet - whoosh, smack. And probably, SNAP. It can get quite expensive, right quick. Though for that, fly the bigger models.

[Gerrard]

I'm not sure I'd class any of those as 'sports' as such. They might be competitive, and so fall into a 'games of skill' category.

Well, the last two are in the Olympics, along with horse dancing (I think the proper name is "dressage"). Certainly darts and snooker requires some sort of manual skill, whereas chess doesn't. I think it was bridge was recently refused entry as an Olympic sport on that ground.

Coming back to OT, I would therefore say that games like CS:GO are a sport as they do require some manual dexterity, whereas Hearthstone is more a "game of skill (and luck)" if we were to define sport as requiring some sort of physical skill. Starcraft is bit more complex, as certainly for the pros, the clicks-per-minute seems to be a fairly defining quantative in general. Note, I haven't played or watched it myself and am making that statement by heresay only. But I can see where the OP is coming from; is it little more than just placing a cursor over a target and clicking as quickly and accurately as possible?

[StayedSpark]

I'm pretty certain E-sports can be anything that has the main component being to do with electronic systems such as a PC and is also fun to watch and good enough to take off in popularity