We’re back with another meeting in The War Room. Competitive shooters are very popular. Gamers have teams, strategize, and compete to become the best. Sounds like a sports game doesn't it? Well can we consider competitive shooters a sport? We discuss it...Then you can discuss in our forums and vote in our poll.
Mercury53: I don't think they can because they are not considered sports themselves. Soldiers in battle don't consider their job a sport, its war and shooting. Call of Duty and Halo have their own separate gaming categories called first person shooters or shooters. I really don't think that these types of games can be put in the same category as Madden or NBA Live.
LucianoJ: Competitive shooters have teamwork and competition at their core. To really be considered sports, rather than just blood sport, one has to tie in a real life game/sport: baseball, basketball, football, soccer, hockey, among others. I don't mean to criticize people who do like FPS. A lot of them do play sports games, some were probably athletes, too. Just like you don't see paintball in the Olympics, its hard to consider FPS as sports games.
Poutlipper: Depends on the game and how it is played. In a clan system, you're required to play as a team in order to have success. With this in mind, this organized competition, where these teams practice, have scrimmages, it becomes a sport.
Ferny72: Honestly, after playing in some MLG tournaments for Halo, I think they should be considered sports gaming in a sense. The complete focus of preparation, practice, and persistence to getting the team working like butter can be compared to a regular sports franchise in some things. I know the top teams in MLG practice for 8-10 hrs a day before a tournament and it is their full-time jobs in a sense. It certainly depends on the game but it really can be considered competitive in that sense
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| Shooters like Gears of War require team strategy to succeed in tournaments |
Sportswriter32: I think there are several aspects that need to be tied into a shooter type game to consider it competitive sports. For one, it has to be multiplayer, and it would make sense if it were in a tournament format. As said before, it involves teams and strategies to beat your opponents just as if you were paying a football game. In the end you need some sort of strategy to beat your opponent in a competitive situation. One strong example of a competitive sports game would be a “Hunting” game.
Fred: In a sense they could be considered a sports game, but not in the traditional sense. When I think of sports games I think of Madden, NCAA, NBA 2K, etc… Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, I consider first person shooters. As Ferny mentioned, some of these gamers who play on teams are pretty hardcore. They prepare as a team, and strategize as a team. This does happen in real life sports. Unless the game is skeet shooting, I really don’t consider competitive shooters sports games.
Masta Solidus: I think competitive First Person Shooters, and some Tactical Third Person Shooters, can definitely be considered 'sports gaming' if the definition of 'sports gaming' is not limited to games based on sports. There is a genre based on sports, but I make a difference between that and the type of gaming that some games have. Some games can not be sports gaming because they inherently are made not to win, but to just have fun.
Everything about shooters is competitive like sports are. Team play, strategy, execution...if done correctly, competitive shooters can even become sport. The communities behind games in the 'Sports' Genre and all shooter genres are the same. So yes, depending on what the definition of the term 'sports gaming' I think FPS/TPS games fit the bill.
