Video Gaming in the Olympic Games

Read the article about video gaming and the Olympic Games. Write a summary about the arguments for AND against including video gaming in the Olympic Games.

Should video games be allowed in the Olympics?

What is it about competitive video gaming that appeals to Olympic officials? To begin with, e-sports are extremely popular on a global scale. Competitive gaming first gained popularity in the 1990s and has since grown to be a $1.5 billion industry, with approximately 300 million hours of professional e-sports competitions being watched globally each year. This means that e-sports would significantly increase the size of the Olympic audience, which is difficult to ignore. At the same time, the fact that so many people are interested in e-sports suggests that they could be a significant source of revenue for the Olympic Games, which could take the form of increased ticket sales, for example.

The first modern Olympic Games, held in 1896, featured nine sports. This figure had risen to 28 by 2016 and is now at 33. As a result, the Olympic Games now feature nearly four times as many sports as previously. People who oppose including e-sports argue that the Games are already too large and that events should be removed rather than added.

In historical terms, video games are still in their infancy. As a result, gaming fans are typically young, and the Olympic Games require more young supporters. However, e-sports have only been around for a short time which creates a problem: there aren’t many standard rules and regulations. Compare this to table tennis, which has a single set of rules that are used in all table tennis competitions around the world. Even though video games are still relatively new, there are thousands of different ones to suit a wide range of tastes. However, this creates a problem for the Olympic Games: reaching an agreement on which video games to include in the Olympics appears to be impossible.

One of the founding principles of the Olympic movement was the promotion of physical activity. As a result, the most common objection to including e-sports in the Olympics is that they simply do not do so. However, e-sports fans point out that professional gamers train for the same amount of time as professional athletes, which can be up to 12 hours per day.

If e-sports were introduced into the Olympic Games, they would require electrical power, which would be a completely new element for the Olympics. Opponents of e-sports argue that the Olympics should continue to focus on humans rather than machines.

Clearly, the debate is far from over. However, experts believe that if the e-sports industry and fans work hard enough, video gaming will one day be included in the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games feature a range of sports, but what about video gaming? If included, more people would watch them because they are very popular worldwide. This popularity would attract more younger people to follow the Games who enjoy watching and participating in them. By drawing a larger global audience, it will also generate more money for the Games.

However, there are fears that the games are already too big and that selecting which video game to include will be tough. Other arguments against it include the fact that they do not promote physical activity and would rely on a machine to perform the action rather than a human which is not in keeping with the spirit of the Games.