Monday, February 24, 2014

Monday Question, February 24

Hello again friends. We're taking a break from your scheduled gender studies blogs to post the Monday question.

What do you think video games offer competitively that other sports and competitions do not?

See you tomorrow as usual, and looking forward to your answers.

5 comments:

  1. A multitude of opportunities not just in game but in real life

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  2. The ability for anyone to compete and not just spectate.

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  3. I kept trying to come up with a good answer to this yesterday. I really can't seem too. Finger dexterity and precision come to mind, not sure if those skills are unique to video games or not (I wouldn't think so). Low risk/commitment level can be offered just as well by board games, card games, etc.

    I think the best I can do is say that video games offer a huge variety of wildly different situations, mechanics, and rules. The possibility is there to develop most mental skills, I think. At the same time, saying that video games offer tons of variation is sort of a given, because we're talking about a broad category. It would be like saying real-life-games offer a wide range of possibilities.

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  4. I often get into conversation relating to this topic with friends and I always try to "preach" equality between sports and competitive gaming. Minus the physical activity, I think anything you can learn from a sport, you can learn from a video game tournament (ie dedication, outworking your opponent, adapting, controlling space). Likewise, I actually don't think there's anything you can learn from a video game that you can't learn from a sport.

    I do however, believe that the 2 activities emphasize different things. I think in sports, there is less emphasis on outsmarting the opponent/opposing team and more on just plain being better. In basketball for example, we don't often hear statements like, "What makes Wade a good player is how smart he is." No we hear about how Kobe can make shots with 3 defenders guarding him, how Shaq has the power to dunk the ball with 4 defenders at the rim, or how Nash is so precise with his passes that he creates opportunities that "shouldn't" exist. I think sports often emphasize pushing our "physical limits" (for lack of a better phrase) to the limits.

    Video games however, I think, emphasize good decision making. In smash, when discussing top players, we don't often make statements like, "Oh, he's better because he's just faster." Most players have around the same capabilities and control over their character, but the top players really seem to have an understanding of the game that's just on another level. Mango knows how to pressure really well. Armada makes really good trades. PP has a really good neutral game control with his lasers. It's the good decisions that are emphasized rather than say Shaq's ability to make something that would not be a good decision but can have payout anyways.

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  5. This is a bit late, but I think that what Bonbon said is very relevant, and I believe those differences happen because People are nearly limitless, while in video games, there's only so much you can do.

    See, if you're playing Soccer, say you normally run 100 meters in 60 seconds, but suddenly you manage to get a boost in you due to something on your mind, and you manage to make it in 50 seconds or so.
    But in videogames, there's only so much you can do, fox will always cross FD at the same speed if running forward, and Peach's DSmash will always have the same range.

    So in sports, you can do more than what seems possible, you can break barriers that you can't break in video games, because in games the characters will always run at the same speed and jump at the same height (of course, it's not that simple, since you can jump not-as-high, but my point is that you can never jump HIGHER).

    All in all, sports too have a ton of "mindgames", but since not everyone is held down by the same limits (two people run at different speeds, even if they serve the same function and are given the same tactics and instructions, but two foxes will always run at the same speed), physique makes for a much bigger impact and overall apparent difference, while in games your characters will always be limited to what the character can do, leading to a much more out-smarting approach

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