Olympic torch burns for gaming?

Head of Global Gaming League has Olympic-sized dreams for joystick jockeys; discussion with Chinese gov't in works for demo at Beijing.

The Olympic torch burns for gaming, says Ted Owen, founder of The Global Gaming League. Owen has already been in discussions with the Chinese government to make gaming a demonstration sport at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, according to CNN/Money's Chris Morris.

The idea of gaming in a competition as tradition-rich as the Olympics may seem hair-brained to some, but the argument can be made that a shot in the arm is just what the Olympics need. The international games have gotten stale in recent years and have used some nontraditional sports as life preservers. Beach Volleyball and Snowboarding have steadily gained popularity, while doping scandals have tarnished popular pastimes such as track & field, weightlifting, and swimming.

"You need to bring younger viewers back if you want to keep making money," Owen told Morris. "To do that, you need to embrace nontraditional sports. Video games deserve to be seen as a nontraditional sport."

Competitive gaming is still in its early years, but with the rise of gaming into the mainstream, its exposure has been growing exponentially. In addition to Owen's Global Gaming League, Major League Gaming, the World Cyber Games, and the Cyberathlete Professional League have grown in popularity, particularly in Asia.

Earlier this year, MLG signed a deal with the USA Network to air several one-hour episodes of competitive gaming, last year's total purse at the WCG was $2,500,000, and the Global Gaming League and America Online partnered up to bring competitive gaming content to the nation's largest Internet provider.

So while things may sound good so far for Olympic gaming, there's still one group that Owen has to convince: The International Olympic Committee. Not only is gaming not an officially recognized sport by the committee, but other big-name sports, such as baseball, have been cut from the Olympic curriculum.

So what if the Chinese government gives gaming the green light and the IOC doesn't? "We would do it anyway," said Owen. "We may not have the circles, but we'd do it right by the stadiums and would bask in the glow of the Olympic light."

49 Comments

  • Dyrvom

    Posted Oct 2, 2006 9:22 am PT

    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.

  • nerdmike

    Posted Jul 10, 2006 11:39 am PT

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

  • Troy-M

    Posted Jun 1, 2006 11:09 pm PT

    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.

  • gdogg4210

    Posted May 31, 2006 8:50 pm PT

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

  • JLCrogue

    Posted May 31, 2006 7:15 pm PT

    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.

  • Shingo

    Posted May 31, 2006 7:06 pm PT

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

  • linegrinds

    Posted May 31, 2006 5:40 pm PT

    olympic video games suck

  • DMWhiteDragon

    Posted May 31, 2006 5:11 pm PT

    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

  • NeoJedi

    Posted May 31, 2006 5:01 pm PT

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

  • Artur_Hawking

    Posted May 31, 2006 5:00 pm PT

    Its like a dream come true

  • Tomtomtom1990

    Posted May 31, 2006 4:04 pm PT

    LETS WATCH PEOPLE PLAY VIDEO GAMES

  • gameloverx

    Posted May 31, 2006 3:51 pm PT

    you don't see that everyday

  • winnazdaluza

    Posted May 31, 2006 3:40 pm PT

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

  • faizali86

    Posted May 31, 2006 2:59 pm PT

    @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

  • MagiTek-

    Posted May 31, 2006 2:52 pm PT

    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)

  • bobreturns

    Posted May 31, 2006 2:41 pm PT

    lol get real

  • cjek

    Posted May 31, 2006 2:14 pm PT

    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

  • troakun

    Posted May 31, 2006 2:08 pm PT

    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.

  • AnimeFalcon

    Posted May 31, 2006 2:05 pm PT

    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

  • LordGamer0001

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:57 pm PT

    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.

  • HyruleanLink

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:49 pm PT

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

  • psykolikwid

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:48 pm PT

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

  • SNKrock

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:47 pm PT

    smells desperate.

  • Dimb

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:43 pm PT

    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.

  • visuall_basic

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:40 pm PT

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

  • qaz88aof

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:38 pm PT

    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).

  • iscariot83

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:28 pm PT

    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.

  • Ced_Quijote

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:16 pm PT

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

  • rokkuman09

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:01 pm PT

    You get the gold pwnage medal if you win

  • living420

    Posted May 31, 2006 1:00 pm PT

    they should have paintball in the olympics.

  • blackIceJoe

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:54 pm PT

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

    They always are a waste of time and money.

  • BrainedMyDamage

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:52 pm PT

    it's not gonna happen for some time

  • SpiderFreak

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:52 pm PT

    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

  • PyroSean30

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:26 pm PT

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

  • TheGreatGuero

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:17 pm PT

    I am now ashamed to be a human.

  • Rato51

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:16 pm PT

    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

  • decebal

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:09 pm PT

    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....

  • MoonUnit

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:06 pm PT

    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.

  • AKGermany

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:01 pm PT

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

  • TintedChimes

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:57 am PT

    Olympic games tend to suck.

  • ubj007

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:55 am PT

    Interesting.

  • gwilo007

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:53 am PT

    bring home the GOLD FATAL1TY!!!

  • BarronMatthew

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:51 am PT

    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.

  • 1337knight

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:46 am PT

    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.

  • darkninja31337

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:45 am PT

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

  • faizali86

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:45 am PT

    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?

  • juanfraino

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:44 am PT

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

  • magus704

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:44 am PT

    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.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted May 31, 2006 11:39 am PT

    china!!

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