Please... "set of skills"?... the only skill mashing gamepad buttons comes close to is typing, for crying out loud, and typing requires a higher skill than mashing gamepad buttons. And that these buffoons take themselves seriously, doesn't make what they do a "serious competition".

Just because you think gaming competitions are lame, doesn't mean that millions(and likely tens of millions) of other people agree with you. Gaming as a sport has been evolving for the last decade rather steadily, and has even started to creep into regular drinking bars(granted those are mostly in big cities, but still). It's something that many people enjoy and do take quite seriously, and can will/earn quite a bit of money. And to say that it doesn't require skill...why don't you go out and try to enter a professional SC2 or Counter-Strike or fighting game Tournament where all the best players are, and we'll see how long you last. About as long as a regular non-athlete would in a professional sports arena would I imagine, which is about 15 seconds.

Hey I got one:

Is pervasive sensationalism holding the journalism community back?

Competitive gaming? What a joke.

But then again, I got a stick up my ass, anyway.

People who are questioning the serious competitiveness of fighting games have obviously never attempted to play a fighting game seriously. I don't see how it's any more or less ridiculous than most sports which boil down to grown men playing ball.

Not what I was getting at; it's not about being in an actual fight being more "real" any more than taking a photo of a sunset makes you a better artist than someone who paints it. The point was that popular professional sports, boxing, football, baseball, hockey, whatever, are essentially people making a living playing a game. Kids around the world play these things to pass the time, and the small percentage of people who are the best at these games, are paid to play them against each other so others can watch. The stakes are higher and the game is taken much more seriously, players generally revolve their lives around it, but the basic concept of what they're doing is still the same.

Playing basketball is not what you would call "productive", and the skill of the players doesn't change that. Jersey-sweat isn't feeding the poor or curing disease. I'm not criticizing it for this fact, that's simply what it is, as well as other sports, a leisure pasttime that people built their own culture around. That's the point I'm making; just because an activity is physically demanding doesn't make it somehow "better", or more respectable, or more important, than any other leisure activity that is technically pointless beyond playing a game. That's why I said that as far as I'm concerned, aside from the literal skills involved, I see no meaningful difference between "skilled players competing against each other with a ball" and "skilled players competing against each other with a controller" that makes one undeserving of being taken as seriously, if you're inclined to take either seriously.

That fighting games are competitive, there is no doubt about. That playing them, "professionally", something of a sport or an actual competition is... eh... haha?
As for actual sport like football and crap, that's not much better really. [censored]s' shouldn't make that damn much money playing with balls...

But I'm an uptight person, srs bsnss certified and everything.

The girls want to be apart of the boys club....then complain when the boys treat them like equals.

She should have trashed talked back about his body parts and blah blah blah.

Two wrongs don't make a right on any planet.

Stop right there. It is not a "sport". It is a leisure pastime. Watching TV and using your thumb to change channels is not a sport, neither is mashing game pad buttons.

That would be true if boys didn't do it other boys. But thats the nature of it. She was being treated as an equal. If it's wrong then it's always wrong and they should never allow any trash talking during any competition ever. Regardless of gender. Is that the solution?

Depends on the game. Some games take practice, strategy and coordination. Like Tribes 2 or Battlefield 2.

People who box, play hockey, football, baseball, "whatever", they are not sitting on a couch mashing gamepad buttons sipping Red Bulls: They are making a living playing a "game" that is very demanding on their bodies and minds. To compare a game like football or basketball or "whatever" to a video game just because some kids get pay to play the video games on TV and say "it is basically the same thing", in the context of the pseudo-bravado these "gamers" display, which is pretty much the gist of the original post, it is just asinine.

If you are just referring to the fact these kids are getting paid by someone so they can be watched playing a video game, well, then you can compare them to Real Housewives of Atlanta or something of that nature, as those "housewives" get paid to be watched being total female dogs, which that would make them professional female dogs in the professional female dogs community.

Sorry if I don't understand the idea of 'competitive tournaments'. I always played games for

And if it is a pvp situation. It's all in light hearted competition. Not this trash talking like it's the Super Bowl or something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkzYssPZ9Rs

So have people guess your dike size is right in Fighting game community?

THATS A FUN GAME TO PL- What?

LMFAO! Gotta admit great answer and really makes my point more clear.

So the implication, then, is that being physically demanding makes something more important than something that's not. They're not sitting on a couch, no. They're running and throwing and other relatively basic physical tasks that almost anyone can do. They're much better at them than most people, I'm sure any of these athletes can throw a ball much further and more accurately than I can, but the concept of throwing in itself is not exactly unique or amazing. If anything, it's the skill at a technically simple task that sets them apart from anyone else capable of throwing a ball. Not unlike professionals at a videogame competition are, I'm sure, much better at that button-mashing than I am.

If the only relevant difference is that one of these activities is physically demanding, then why isn't all the respect going out to janitors and construction workers? I'm sorry, but that doesn't cut it to me. Stupid bravado is stupid bravado regardless of what kind of game is being played. It doesn't seem warranted in either case, and I don't see how running in circles for a while first is going to make it more deserving.

If he's being an ass, you gotta fight fire with fire. Why would you sit there and take it??

I fail to see how your point is clear.

Again you not answered, do guys in fighting community guess people dikes size? If not then that's the point there some stuff that isn't acceptable trash talk, this is one of those time, guessing person bra size in your team and being very sixual in remarks, would in most cases get sixual harassment suit, why shouldn't he get one in this case?

I'm not a part of any fighting community, but during my childish years in basketball, soccer, video games, wrestling, baseball etc. I've heard just about everything. I can't say that guessing someones dike size is "standard practice" and I can recall it as such, but I'm sure somewhere in there...something along those lines was mentioned.

Lastly, I want to say I don't agree with what he said....but if it comes with the territory then you shouldn't feel singled out.

This will be my last reply need to go to bed, it's not 'standard practice' therefore this should be taken more seriously, to prevent anymore of this, yes?

It's not standard practice b/c there isn't a set guideline for trash talk. There isn't a "Trash Talk for Dummies" book. Like I said, things of that nature are said all the time between boy cometitors. It's just whatever you can think of to get your opponent off his/her game.

You consent that fighting games are competitive, but you aren't okay with the idea of playing them as an actual competition? I think the problem is more in your head than with the idea. Real competition in fighting games has typically been restricted to the arcades, and only just now is it really able to take off with the exposure through the internet. I think it's just a new idea that most people aren't comfortable with yet because they're categorizing it in the same group as Super Mario Bros.

I can see calling professional sports and things like that silly, but at least group professional fighting game players into that same silly group.

I think this video helps to put things into perspective. See, I've never played StarCraft and have very little idea of what the point is. So, to me, this is just two people sitting there playing a game and, while I know they're competing against each other, I can't really appreciate what the competition is all about, much like me watching football. However, I can watch a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6sFms_oPQU and be totally into it, because I understand the finer points and mechanics of the game, and I'm watching the strategies playing out and the reactions and risks of the players, and how each competitor is trying to out-think their opponent, etc. etc.

I think many of you are like I am about StarCraft, you see the game and understand the competitiveness but don't truly appreciate the competition itself because you haven't learned the finer points of it.