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‘Fragging’ is the word used by computer gaming participants for the scoring of a point (a ‘frag’) by defeating an enemy avatar in competition. Electronic Sports is the term used to describe computer games when employed as competitive sports. The term is abbreviated in several different forms such as ‘e-sports’, ‘eSports’, ‘competitive gaming’, ‘V-Sports’, ‘cyber sports’, ‘cyber athletics’, but most commonly known as either e-sports or eSports.
Dictionary.com 2006 applies the following definition to the word ‘sport’:
noun.
1. a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.
b. A particular form of this activity.
2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
3. An active pastime; recreation.
From the above it can be seen that sport can be defined simply as something that needs to have physical activity, rules, and a competitive aspect.
If these aspects were the only requirements for eSports to be regarded as professional sports, then any competitive eSport competition would fulfil all requirements. Any eSport requires physical activity in the coordinated hand, eye and arm movement that is required. Each game is played to its own set of strict rules and all require a participant to play competitively against another human, through their avatar. The rules are set by the game being played and even cheat protection software is in place to enable an absolutely fair competition. Matches can become extremely intense and competitive. The purpose of this paper is to provide an argument for the acceptance of eSports as a recognised national sport throughout the world and in particular the United Kingdom.
There are many forms of computer game which can involve the competition against another human through the internet. All computer games evolved originally from single player games where the participant played against the computer. As the internet developed the bedroom coders throughout Britain and the world created modifications to the programs that enabled players to play each other even when on opposite sides of the world. Developers soon began to realise the promise of this situation and started to include software which shipped with the games and provided the ability to create modifications to the game engine easily, which encouraged more amateurs to design their own levels and even total game modifications. Highly popular forms of the media include extremely realistic driving simulators, sports games and role playing games, but eSports are games commonly considered to be from the following four for the purposes of competition. These four are the four most popular multiplayer games in the world. As the sport develops in popularity other forms (as mentioned above) may become as popular. One advantage that the following game-types hold is that any owner of a personal computer with an internet connection can take part without the purchase of any further hardware (for example a steering wheel is considered necessary to gain maximum immersion in a driving game, a piece of equipment that not every computer owner has):
(i)Counter-Strike:
Based upon two teams (Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists) the object of the game is to either plant an explosive device somewhere in a target area whilst the counter-terrorists try to stop them. The maps and strategies involved can be very intricate and can often be representations of real world locations and require many hours of practice in order to master. Counter-Strike is one of the world’s most popular eSports games, originally developed by the modding community (the name given to home programmers who amended the program scripts to create extra content) and was a freely available modification for the extremely popular single player game ‘Half-Life’. The game setting is modern urban fighting and has highly realistic physics which can impact the game.
(ii)Quake series:
This series of games is based upon some of the earliest designs for multiplayer games, such as one versus one, death match and capture the flag. Because these game-types have been established now for several years they have developed very large and dedicated player bases and are arguably considered to be the foundation genre of eSports.
(iii)Warcraft 3:
Warcraft is an extremely popular game all around the world, with many millions of players, but especially in Korea where more strategic games are favoured over ‘first person shooters’ (FPS). It is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game involving fantasy armies with unique abilities and strategies. A match between two players can be expected to last 15-30 minutes and the strategic depth comes from the player having to micro-manage research, development, offence and defence.
(iv)Starcraft:
Starcraft, like Warcraft is also an extremely popular RTS game, again particularly in the country of Korea. A match between two players in Starcraft can be expected to last 7 or 8 minutes and is a significantly more aggressive game. It is set in the science fiction environment of man versus machine versus alien.
Dictionary.com 2006 applies the following definition to the word ‘sport’:
noun.
1. a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.
b. A particular form of this activity.
2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
3. An active pastime; recreation.
From the above it can be seen that sport can be defined simply as something that needs to have physical activity, rules, and a competitive aspect.
If these aspects were the only requirements for eSports to be regarded as professional sports, then any competitive eSport competition would fulfil all requirements. Any eSport requires physical activity in the coordinated hand, eye and arm movement that is required. Each game is played to its own set of strict rules and all require a participant to play competitively against another human, through their avatar. The rules are set by the game being played and even cheat protection software is in place to enable an absolutely fair competition. Matches can become extremely intense and competitive. The purpose of this paper is to provide an argument for the acceptance of eSports as a recognised national sport throughout the world and in particular the United Kingdom.
There are many forms of computer game which can involve the competition against another human through the internet. All computer games evolved originally from single player games where the participant played against the computer. As the internet developed the bedroom coders throughout Britain and the world created modifications to the programs that enabled players to play each other even when on opposite sides of the world. Developers soon began to realise the promise of this situation and started to include software which shipped with the games and provided the ability to create modifications to the game engine easily, which encouraged more amateurs to design their own levels and even total game modifications. Highly popular forms of the media include extremely realistic driving simulators, sports games and role playing games, but eSports are games commonly considered to be from the following four for the purposes of competition. These four are the four most popular multiplayer games in the world. As the sport develops in popularity other forms (as mentioned above) may become as popular. One advantage that the following game-types hold is that any owner of a personal computer with an internet connection can take part without the purchase of any further hardware (for example a steering wheel is considered necessary to gain maximum immersion in a driving game, a piece of equipment that not every computer owner has):
(i)Counter-Strike:
Based upon two teams (Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists) the object of the game is to either plant an explosive device somewhere in a target area whilst the counter-terrorists try to stop them. The maps and strategies involved can be very intricate and can often be representations of real world locations and require many hours of practice in order to master. Counter-Strike is one of the world’s most popular eSports games, originally developed by the modding community (the name given to home programmers who amended the program scripts to create extra content) and was a freely available modification for the extremely popular single player game ‘Half-Life’. The game setting is modern urban fighting and has highly realistic physics which can impact the game.
(ii)Quake series:
This series of games is based upon some of the earliest designs for multiplayer games, such as one versus one, death match and capture the flag. Because these game-types have been established now for several years they have developed very large and dedicated player bases and are arguably considered to be the foundation genre of eSports.
(iii)Warcraft 3:
Warcraft is an extremely popular game all around the world, with many millions of players, but especially in Korea where more strategic games are favoured over ‘first person shooters’ (FPS). It is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game involving fantasy armies with unique abilities and strategies. A match between two players can be expected to last 15-30 minutes and the strategic depth comes from the player having to micro-manage research, development, offence and defence.
(iv)Starcraft:
Starcraft, like Warcraft is also an extremely popular RTS game, again particularly in the country of Korea. A match between two players in Starcraft can be expected to last 7 or 8 minutes and is a significantly more aggressive game. It is set in the science fiction environment of man versus machine versus alien.