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U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

gamespot.com

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Re: U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

#21

Post by notatoad »

kawsper wrote: post #8
Lusake wrote: post #4

I love video games. The problem I have with recognizing video gaming as a sport is mainly that the rules and playing fields change too often, and with no regulatory bodies to provide checks and balances to these changes. The developer of the game being played can change and patch whatever they want, whenever they want, with no oversight. Not to mention, the sport being played is essentially whatever the "cool" game i…

> traditional gaming and sports haven't changed a whole lot over the hundreds or even thousands of years we have played them They change less frequent, but they do change. Wikipedia has a list of rules and changes of soccer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_the_Game_(association_f...

i think the point though, is that the governing body for soccer has stayed the same, and a soccer player's status continues to be recognized despite a change in the rules. the structure of governance for whatever game is currently popular gets tossed and re-established as soon as a new game gains popularity. The organizations sponsoring these gamers for immigration purposes don't have much in the way of permanence or reliability. it seems like a huge potential for fraud or abuse.

Re: U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

#22

Post by mahmud »

stephengillie wrote: post #19
ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

Heh. So they can get a P-1a visa now? That is an improvement over the mess of an O-1 or a dicey Tourist visa. A long time ago when the robotics club invited some Japanese Sumo robot competitors over there was a tremendous fuss over what sort of Visa they could get.

Are you an entrepreneur who failed to get a visa? Do you like video games? Do we have an opportunity for you!

I might be wrong, but don't entrepreneurs usually need long stay visas to do long term work? An athlete/performer visa only allows you to stay for the duration, only. Hardly any residency.

Re: U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

#23

Post by kbar13 »

smacktoward wrote: post #20
thejosh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from the fact that most "Western" (ie: Non Korean) players who dream about becoming the next major eSports hero will never make it, due to them not practising enough. The reason why Koreans seem to dominate eSport games such as Starcraft 2 (SC2) is that they practice 12+ hours a day in a tiny apartment chockfull of other players. The winnings are good: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Winnings , and the to…

> Apart from the fact that most "Western" (ie: Non Korean) players who dream about becoming the next major eSports hero will never make it Of course this is true of most of those who dream of a career in "traditional" sports as well.

let's just say the competitive gaming scene in ridiculously smaller than the physical sports scenes.

you have a ridiculously higher chance of going pro in a video game than playing in the NFL, etc.

his point, while perhaps not really the best worded, is correct. there are way more Koreans who are better skilled than western players (called foreigners... even by westerners themselves).

also, as an american, I feel that it's kinda sad that american gamers are in no way able to compete on a large scale against europeans or asians in most big competitive games.

this doesn't include console fps games, since playing an fps game with sticks is like playing hockey with your penis.

Re: U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

#24

Post by grogenaut »

jbri wrote: post #17
datalus wrote: post #10

Maybe I should be a cyberathelete.... How crazy is this. Recently parents everywhere discouraged the amount of time spent playing games. Now it could be argued by the kid they're working on their professional skills.

Spending all your time playing games at the expense of your education is about as good a strategy as spending all your time playing sports in the hopes of becoming a professional athlete. Only a few people become good enough to get paid to play sports, and of those people even fewer can get paid enough to turn it into a viable career. Banking your life on getting lucky like that without any kind of fallback plan is n…

at least playing real sports you get exercise.

Re: U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

#28

Post by HistoryInAction »

mahmud wrote: post #22
stephengillie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you an entrepreneur who failed to get a visa? Do you like video games? Do we have an opportunity for you!

I might be wrong, but don't entrepreneurs usually need long stay visas to do long term work? An athlete/performer visa only allows you to stay for the duration, only. Hardly any residency.

True, but I'm sure we can hack it:

"Individual Athlete - Time needed to complete the event, competition or performance, not to exceed 5 years

Individual Athlete –Increments of up to 5 years in order to continue or complete the event, competition or performance.

Total stay is limited to 10 years."

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b...

Re: U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

#29

Post by pi18n »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

Heh. So they can get a P-1a visa now? That is an improvement over the mess of an O-1 or a dicey Tourist visa. A long time ago when the robotics club invited some Japanese Sumo robot competitors over there was a tremendous fuss over what sort of Visa they could get.

Oh, is it about visas? I was going to snark it up and say they also recognize pizza as a vegetable. I approve of pro gamers getting visas to compete even if I'm not interested in watching.
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