The Olympics are about humans striving for ATHLETIC perfection. I'd love to see video games get more mainstream coverage in general, but they fit better in their own category or alongside things like chess and hunting.

"This would be the equivalent of the Olympics hosting a Chain Smoking event."

Someone PM'd me the link to this article and it caught my interest, so I'll just tell you what I told them.

Yes, this is the biggest step that e-sports have taken in the industry's history so far with GGL's pledge for videogaming's recognition as an Olympic discipline. However, despite the money given out in all these tournaments, the average professional gamer (especially those playing games given less general attention for competition such as Call of Duty 2 and Day of Defeat) will be lucky to make as little as $3,000 in a year from gaming. E-sports still have a long way to go until many of us can ditch our blue-collar jobs and such in hopes of making as much money as football and baseball players by becoming professional gamers, but right now, I find it more than worthy of becoming an official Olympic discipline.

but they still dont have skateboarding at the olympics, or do they?

TintedChimes
"Olympic games tend to suck."

LOL!! Funny, because it's true... I'm not a fan of sports, but I would be pretty entertained by watching professional gamers pwn.

That would be CRAZY! In a bad way or in a sweet way? I say both

olympic video games suck

Could be good, long as the games are only Wii games... you will need precision and have to be able to play for hours on end hehe (i can see players being passed bottles of water during the 15sec break, puffing hard).

Computer games have been changing and the typical "frag fest" multiplayer would be a bad idea i think and its quite boring to watch... but there are alot of OTHER computer gaming areas that could suit and arn't too bad to watch

The idea could work, but the impression i get from this little article i they are after typical frag fest multiplayer (which is fun personally, but i would never watch it and its got nothing to do with being an athlete) and i think that isn't a great idea

Wow... that is just dumb. Have you seen gamers? Not what you call Olympic athletes...

Its like a dream come true

LETS WATCH PEOPLE PLAY VIDEO GAMES

you don't see that everyday

unreal tournament -->unreal championship -->unreal olympics!!!yay!!!

@cjek
lol, ya thats the guy i was talking about.

second article - the whole situation could have been avoided. crazy how kids can play for so long without moving a muscle. :S

The olympics had very different forms of non-active games in the past, in the early 20th century games like checkers were included.
"Greeks also played less active games like dice and marbles, and knucklebones, and checkers." (http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/games/index.htm)

lol get real

faizali86- Yeah heres a link about that
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm
pretty unbelievable when you think about it. Here's an even more worrying story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3441237.stm

Gaming is not a "sport". I mean really what's next? Competitive eating? Lego Construction? Chicken tossing? People wonder why no one watches the olympics, it's because it's all a bunch of stupid boring events that no one has heard of let alone care about. If the Olympic commitee is this desperate they should narrow it down to some basic athletic events and maybe someone might bother to watch.

Olympic won't work games cause their always changing and rules of each game are changing Ex UT99 to UT2k3 and a video game doesn't last forever lets see if anyone plays UT99 90 years from now.
I see chess more likely to happen than Gaming, you do see player faint at the GM Level

i like the idea of a olympic style gaming contest, but i dont think it should be joined with the olympics. i mean the olympics are very traditional and they shouldnt be put in the same catergory as videogames.

I don't know about gaming in Olympic sports. I don't think it would work. Good thought, but try again.

I see more logic in introducing skateboarding as an olympic event.

smells desperate.

Yeah this is a bad idea. leave gaming to CPL and MLG. Besides even if it did i would still only watch womens beach volleyball.

I agree with Magus704. There's no athletic component to gaming. It should not be an Olympic sport.

Gaming an olympic sport... please no... although the idea brings more attention to the gaming industry, which is a good thing.

Paintball would be interesting to see, but ex-commando dudes would probably rip it every time (not that that's necessarily a bad thing).

hey, if games like poker can be in the olympics, I really don't see why counterstrike can't be...it's closer to a "sport."

For that matter, target shooting is in the olympics...a test of precision and skill, rather than athleticim really, which is a huge part of a lot of games.

I can see it hovering above the event-horizon... "doped gamers".

You get the gold pwnage medal if you win

they should have paintball in the olympics.

I just hope the next Olympic video game will be fun.

They always are a waste of time and money.

it's not gonna happen for some time

Seriously, I love games...But they're not an Olypmic sport. I mean, next thing you know, we'll have things like fishing be an Olympic event, or foosball (sp?). This is just stupid.

SF

lol, imagine the next olympic video games,"you get to play a guy playing a video game......"

I am now ashamed to be a human.

i like gaming but the olympics?? if they want to communicate with younger audiences try wakeboarding, or skateboarding, you know, actual sports.
i have nothing agaist gaming competition but its reeeaallyy weird seeing that in the olympics

watching teh_owner pwn fatal1ty in an olimpic game would be awsome.

Well I dunno ... it's a little weird, but video gamimg could be seen as a competition....

Why do we need a way to reward people for playing games?

I love playing games, but they are constantly changing. Baseball hasn't really changed all that much in the last 20 to 25 years, but look at video games. You've gone from Pong and Pac Man to Halo and the like. That's such a huge change that I don't really see games as a sport. It's more of a hobby.

Now Paintball, there's a sport that could legitimately ask for recognition.

I bet the top pro gamers would fail any olympic doping test. Red Bull induced caffeine levels through the roof! No way...

Olympic games tend to suck.

Interesting.

bring home the GOLD FATAL1TY!!!

I think that'd be interesting to see, but the main problem i see with it is that playing games aren't consistent like other olympic sports like Track. the 400M dash is always going to be 400 meters so there can be records and what not associated with it.

I assume the video games wouldn't be the same every olympic competition, so each video game championship would mean less than the sports or events such as track that have steady measures of tradition to measure against.

Wow..out of all the countries..China seems to be the one...interesting
(i am wondering if they still have the internet/gaming/suppressing info limit issue...)
I really do not think the IOC will let gaming be an official olympic event, but the fact China wants more money and power doesnt suprise me.

cool? not sure if id watch other people play games though.

o cool! imagine gaming for a living!
lol i remember there was some asian guy who died playing starcraft for 2-3 days non stop. will we get to see more cases like these?

yay!... then again, those games dont turn out to be very good. look at torino 06

Video Games and the Olympics? Come on, I mean, honestly, I love video games, but in no way, shape or form should they be allowed as an olympic event. Playing video games does not make you an athlete. The Olympics is the highest level of athletics, therefore, the olympics and video games should be no where near each other. Even in crappy liscenced game format.

china!!