Because there’s more money to be won each season than just about any other competitive video game in the states
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Yes! I can’t stand when people don’t understand how superior mouse/key is to pads. It angers me a lot more than it should.
I definitely don’t think that any video game should ever be considered a sport and I also disagree that fighting games are the most competitive genre.
I would rank strategy, FPS and fighting as the top 3 unless there is 1 I cant think of. I would put them in that particular order only if I was forced to make the decision between fighting and fps. However they are very close and it all depends on the individual really. I would say strategy games take more strategy (duh) and more mind games than sf4 while FPS takes more reaction and reflex than sf4. Fighting games are more of something in between these 2 despite it having its own high requirement of both.
Strategy games I think will always be the most competitive genre if i had to choose though. A well balanced one simply has way too many options. The amount of concentration and thinking involved is immense.
FPS I think are 2nd because only certain people could ever adopt such a high sense of eye hand coordination. Top counter-strike players are better than aimbots and thats just crazy. The amount of reflex and timing (in games like Team fortress, juggling with rockets) is an art form that most people could never do regardless of amount of time spent practicing.
because putting a ball in a hoop or hitting a ball with a stick is more prestigious?
the competition is the most important part of the game.
Well a sport usually takes some sort of physical exertion. However lets for a moment take out this simple requirement. In terms of everything else, I guess street fighter really could be a sport. Does it have the competition needed? Check. Spectator appeal? Questionable but I’ll give it to you since I watch a lot of sf videos online. Skill requirement? Check.
However a sport is more than that. It needs to go through the test of times it self. Not only can I play but my son, grandson and great grandson will play the exact same thing. Meaning it has longevity. Video games however come and go with no actual stability. Sf4 is simply a fad if you compare it to a sport. I doubt more than a few only play sf as their only video game. I play this game because I am a gamer and sf4 is a good game. I could of been playing this game for since the alpha testing of the original shit street fighter 1 but in the end, I feel no commitment to this game. Sports players specialize in their given sport because that is the type of dedication you need.
Do you really think there can be interest in sf4 that would last all the way to the next street fighter? I highly doubt that. Releasing substantial amount of sequals will only kill the series. Why do popular sports never get invented? Because they are perfect. Based on a simple set of fundamental rules that everybody can understand. They do not need to be changed or updated like sf will need to do to maintain ongoing interest. Sf4 is a niche game within a niche type of people alrdy. A sport is something that has the potential to appeal to anybody.
In the end, its 5 am where I live right now and im dead tired. I was trying to make a point from the beginning and lost track and realized I wrote a jumble of unconvincing sentences. I rambled on and after trying to proof read the trash I wrote, I realized you will probably feel even stronger about your position. However as I try to recall more points, I realize its probably easier to prove that sf could be considered a sport as opposed to vice versa. Regardless it is my personal opinion, the definition of sport itself could mean a lot of things. However I still think that video games and sports should be kept in seperate categories. Not because I have anything against video games but because I have not seen a game ever that could meet the many parameters it would require for me to call this game a sport.
Because we haven’t been playing some form of SF2 ever since it was in the 'cades… OWAIT!
ultimately, you have a definition of the word “sport” in your mind.
i assume the basis of this definition is “respectable competition” but there are going to be exceptions and ammendments to that unspoken definition as the discussion progresses.
i do not want to argue about the definition of the word "sport."
sometimes people put down what is important to others because it is not important to them.
sometimes people forget that grown men are playing with a ball when they refer to timeless sports.
the technology to provide other kinds of competition is here.
if it is fun and you are not hurting anyone, fucking do it.
Hell, if you are hurting someone, fucking do it!
unacceptable!
Well we aren’t playing Street Care Bears IV are we?
Street fighter is by far the best spectator game because it’s exciting and makes you want to yell and shit.
Nobody’s every yelled for some shitty bunker being built.
while this thread has gone severely off-topic to the point where it’s now discussion about fps/rts games and how competitive they really are, i’ll say a few things on it.
i’ve played on upper-levels of competitive FPS games for years now. in fact, I’ve played on what was considered to be the #1 team in the world in Team Fortress 2 (at minimum, we were absolutely considered #1 in North America). so i guess i can say i’m “qualified” (lol) to chat about this, and i’ve definitely been there and back with knowing what that sort of competitive value has to offer, as well as with other games, regardless if i was just a spectator or not.
without question, the most competitive game is Starcraft. The balance in Starcraft is perfect right down to the dot. Starcraft is HUGE in Korea (payed players with salaries, a Starcraft channel on TV, football stadiums filled with fans for a big match, etc.)
in terms of FPS games, I’d say the most competitive (and successful) game is Counterstrike 1.6. I don’t really like it, but everyone else in the world does :P. The game is just too old for my tastes, haha. Whatever the case is, the game is still incredibly competitive, though not as competitive as it used to be (as in, not as many teams, but still having a large playerbase).
Street Fighter 4 and fighting games in general are definitely competitive. I’m not going to say that FPS/RTS games are more competitive because fighting games just don’t have the same competitive values, but FPS/RTS games have been more successful competitively for whatever reasons they are. Fighting games are easier to follow than FPS/RTS games, but i guess it’s the depth of the FPS/RTS games that give it a more successful competitive edge, at least thus far.
I believe that the balance of Starcraft is a fluke and will not happen again for a long time (even with the upcoming SC II).
As games get more complex balancing them just exponentially gets more difficult.
Competition wise FPS has a leg up on fighting games for several reasons. However, I prefer watching fighting games. The views and angles in FPS is never really fan friendly. It is either too wide or too narrow in perspective. With fighting games - there is one perspective. It is the same perspective as the players seeing.
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imo fighting games are not only more competitive(because its in a 1v1 set up rather than team based) but much easier to watch and tell whats happening then a FPS. now dont get my wrong FPS deserve the respect they have, they are highly competitive and being able to communicate and act as a team is a must. Team play incompises more skills then a 1v1 game, but imo makes it marginally less competitive because there is the ability to rely on another player’s help(also the random/ammo generation but i wont get into that) that a game like Street Fighter would not allow, if you cant beat the guy infront of you then its over, no grenade will help you.
but that being said i would still rank RTS as the king of competitive games i dont think much really needs to be said about them, id say the tier would be
#1 RTS, #2 Fighing Games, #3 FPS.
now there are always exceptions to the rules, some fighting games implement mechanics that derail my opinion but i usually refer to Street Fighter(and mostly 4 now).
That’s exactly why Blizzard stuck with the same three races in StarCraft 2. It’s very possible that they’ll hit a level of balance the original did.
Games aren’t really getting more complex, either. The FPS genre has been the same for almost a decade. Games are getting prettier, but not more complex.
True, FPS rate of change in regards to mechanics have been glacial. But they are there. Changes have been subtle.
But for other genres like RTS, fighting games, Competive RPG (Guild Wars), etc the mechanics behind the engine is getting quite complex not only for the makers but for the players. We are moving slowly away from rock-paper-scissors type of choices (yet, ironically, that kind of balance is what we seek).
Well this thread is defintly going all over the place. But I’ll add my two cents. I’ve played both genre’s competitively.
For one thing. A video game isn’t a sport. I don’t see why people think calling Street Fighter a sport legitimizes it. It’ll never be a sport and no Poker is not a sport either (just because it’s on a sports channel doesn’t make it a sport, WWE is on Scifi and I’m pretty sure WWE isn’t science fiction).
Video games are however, highly competitive. In fact, I got my competitive edge from video games which now I put that same work ethic in multiple things including MMA and rap. Major League Gaming will most likely only get bigger as time goes on.
As for why fighting games doesn’t get as much coverage. Well…it’s pretty simple. Fighting games have much shittier promotion and they don’t sell as well. Most people don’t know shit about the fighting game scene, and most people I know don’t even understand how fighting games work. In general, the fighting game genre looks outdated and way less flashly then FPS and RTS. Also the absolute biggest reasons why RTS and FPS are more popular is because of online multiplayer.
We as a community, are truly lucky that SF IV was finally released. Does anyone remember how this forum was 2 years ago? It was way smaller, way less traffic, way less advertisement. Shoryuken.com and anything fighting game related has sky rocketted way up this past year.
More and more people are discovering how good fighting games are, and eventually our tournaments will get bigger.
As for Street Fighter being a spectator attraction. Eh, fighting games are fun to watch - but this is coming from someone who plays fighting games. I could defintly see how a person who is flipping through channels, might watch a fighting game match. But in general, people watch fighting game matches because they play fighting games themselves.
In general, fighting games are a lot more fun to watch and they are easier to record than a FPS and RTS. So I suppose in that sense, fighting games could surpass FPS/RTS in that department.
On another note, lets not get into a debate on what’s more competitive. RTS and FPS require a ton of skill, and the person who said one bill fits all they are completely wrong. I use to play TFC, Quake, CS, Earth Special Forces (technically a 3rd person shooter) & The Battlegrounds and they are all completely different games. The fundamentals for FPS’s are no different then the fundamentals for fighting games.
i see where you are going, and i hear where you are coming from. i love videogames just as much as anyone else, but lets not get all crazy calling videogames sport. its competitive gaming, and thats all. sports are played by atheletes, and videogames are usually dominated by the non athletic.
the only reason i am continuing to argue is my disagreement with what i believe is a simple form of elitism: athletic competition > intellectual competition.
a person may believe this, but it does not make it true for anyone else.
fundamentally, a sport is a diversion.
also, being athletic does not prohibit a person from excelling at video games.
combofiend looks like he curls.