Esports are not sports, and they don’t need to be – 01/17/2023 – Sport

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After all, should esports be considered sports or not? The controversy stirred up social networks in the last week with an avalanche of opinions, which ranged from blindly passionate about virtual competitions to prejudiced conceptions about electronic sports.

The controversy began last Tuesday (10) with a statement by former volleyball player and new Minister of Sports, Ana Moser. In a relaxed moment of her interview with UOL, when asked if electronic sports would be part of the scope of the portfolio she commands, the former volleyball player was emphatic in saying no.

“In my view, electronic sports is an entertainment industry, it is not a sport. So you have fun playing video games, you had fun. The esports athlete trains, but Ivete Sangalo also trains to put on a show and she is not an athlete, she is an artist who works with entertainment. The electronic game is not unpredictable, it is designed by a digital, cybernetic programming. It is a programming, it is closed, different from sports”, he said.

Although she has shown an apparent lack of knowledge about electronic sports, by stating that they are not unpredictable, and even a certain prejudice, by comparing her athletes to an axé singer, the minister is right when she says that, from the point of view of public policies, esports are not sports. Mainly taking into account the current scenario of electronic sports and the guidelines that she established for the folder.

In an interview with Sheet, the minister had already stated that one of her goals is to reduce the rate of sedentary lifestyle in the country, seeking to create a sports culture and paying special attention to amateur sports. According to her, only 30% of the population was active before the pandemic, and the number has worsened since then. Thus, it makes sense that esports is not a priority for the folder.

Another question is whether there is real interest from the main players in esports, in particular the game developers and publishers —who today are the “owners of the ball”, with total control over the games and the main competitions—, in submitting to the bureaucracies and supervisions that are part of the world of official sport.

For example… In order to have access to funds from Lei Piva or Bolsa Atleta, two of the main federal programs to encourage sports, esports would need to be represented by an official confederation, removing, at least in part, the independence of the companies that own the games over their products. and creating yet another actor to compete for sponsorships.

Following what happens with other sports, championships, teams and players would eventually have to be subjected to a series of transparency and “fair play” policies, such as anti-doping authorities and sports justice.

In addition, as the journalist Demétrio Vecchioli —author of the question to Ana Moser about esports— recalled in his blog at UOL, electronic sports events, as they are considered a cultural manifestation, already have access to a series of public programs of incentive and reduction of taxes, most of them even more advantageous than those offered to the sports area.

Is it worth putting all this on the line just to earn the nickname of sport?

The biggest advantage in being recognized as a sport is gaining a status that helps esports to be taken seriously by society in general as an important economic and competitive activity, something that goes beyond mere entertainment, as Ana Moser mistakenly described.

Even so, this will not actually happen with just a pen stroke from some authority in Brasilia. This recognition will come as a broader cultural change in society, which will eventually happen if the actors involved in the e-sports area continue to work seriously, as they have already been doing.

Esports don’t have to be a sport. Its development as an economic activity and cultural phenomenon does not depend on it.

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play

game tip, new or old, for you to test

Factory

(PC, Switch)

“Factory” is a construction and survival game that will awaken the engineer in you. In the game, you control an astronaut who crash lands on a hostile planet and needs to build a rocket to get back home. Meanwhile, the player must build complex automation systems to extract resources from the planet and build the necessary equipment for their survival. Developed by Czech studio Wube, the game spent four years in early access until it was released for computers in 2020. The Switch version, however, was only released in October last year.

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update

news, launches, business and what matters most

• Brazil is the third country that most downloaded mobile games in 2022, says a report by data platform Data.ai. According to figures released by the GamesIndustry.biz website, there were 4.62 billion game downloads in the country, behind China (31.43 billion) and India (9.65 billion), and just above the United States (4.57 billion). billion).

• According to the same report, although the number of mobile game downloads increased by 8% worldwide compared to the previous year, spending on mobile games fell by 5% in 2022.

• Ubisoft shares fell 14% after the company revealed last Wednesday (11) that it would cancel three games that had not yet been announced. The French company said it will concentrate efforts on its main franchises and that the measure aims to reduce its costs by US$ 200 million (R$ 1.02 billion) in the next two years and avoid layoffs.

• Google and Nvidia have joined Sony in reporting concerns about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard to the FTC, Bloomberg reported. According to the publication, the companies claim that the deal could harm competition in the areas of cloud games, subscription services and mobile games.

• Saudi Arabia increased its stake in Nintendo from 5% to 6%, according to a Reuters report. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

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download

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“Persona 4 Golden”*: R$ 99.99 (Switch, Xbox One/X/S), price not available (PS 4/5)

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