The e-Sports Manifesto

Here at Arcadian Rhythms we’re quite literally sports mad. Why just yesterday I remarked to Shaun on the amusing incident of Football Europe ‘96 where the man had a ball in the basket and won. And don’t get me started on the rules about the other thing; bloody cheating foreigners boil my blood. But there’s more to sports than rapists and small men on horses – more and more it’s becoming apparent that video games are adding themselves to this melting pot.

e-Sports is already a big deal for some, but for the average chap on the street it’s a laughable or alien idea. That will change in time, of course. Any given ambition of the video game industry will one day prosper as the medium becomes more ingrained and accepted in our society, and a lot of the big names in both video games and e-Sports communities are already stretching to embrace this change. However, this runs the risk of teething problems as and when the e-Sports revolution finally arrives – a whole load of shit games will have poorly realised ‘sports’ modes and set the whole thing back half a decade in the process.

So let’s cut them off at the pass with the creation of an e-Sports Manifesto. A single document which defines what can turn a game into a sport, which any fledgling up-and-comer must be compared against. As with God and Moses and the like, there will be 10 commandments. Probably. I haven’t counted how many things I’ve thought of, but I reckon about 10. Let’s find out together how many there will be!

1. No Franchises

Updates are fine, but new instalments: No. There is not a new Tennis every year and if there was no-one would play it, far fewer people would understand it and everyone would be generally confused by the whole thing. Although it would be helpful if they just counted upwards instead of mixing up random numbers and words in the scoring system. Perhaps Tennis 2 will finally right this wrong.

The franchise model is not correct for e-Sports, no matter how much Activision try to make CoD the next big thing. If they really want to dominate they need to release a single game, CoD e-Sports, and then only ever update it with very carefully considered fixes and very, very occasional new maps (not guns, not rules, not vehicles – Sports are consistent, and players hone their skills for years on the grounds of those consistent principles).

 

2. Permanent and Transparent Support

Games which are released into the wild and then do not have constant additional support from their developers are doomed to die. Bugs HAVE to be fixed. Imbalances WILL need tweaking as players discover more of the game. The developers must understand that they are in effect an organisational body: judge, jury, parent and boss of every player. They must be constantly in communication with the player base, and any and all updates to the game very clearly explained.

 

3. Limitless Potential (player)

By which I mean: the extent to which players are able to excel at the game is tied to their ability and experience, not by arbitrary restrictions imposed by gameplay mechanics. You may disagree with my choice of example but to give this point some context, I don’t believe that anyone will ever get so good at Street Fighter that they cannot possibly get any better. Further practice will always yield additional abilities, better reflexes, more knowledge – in the same way that a sportsperson in a traditional setting will never be ‘perfect’ at their game.

 

Street Fighter

 

4. Limitless Potential (game)

By which I mean that the players of said game are never in exactly the same situation twice. An element of randomisation is fine to achieve this – after all, high-calibre players have to learn to respond to any situation and dealing with both good and bad luck is part of the skill. More important, though, is depth of gameplay. With the right balance of mechanical complexity and good design a game can craft an experience wherein each match introduces its own unique challenges and organic scenarios. A sportsperson reacts to the situation right then and there, in that moment; they don’t remember the 30,000 other times they were in exactly that situation before and just do the same thing again (unless the sport in question is Bowling).

 

5. Respect Thy Spectator

Sports aren’t all about playing. In fact they are in equal amounts about watching and discussing. This needs to be recognised by developers and built into games: no more relying on the modding community (and excusing consoles from the running in the process). I don’t want to watch videos of matches that are conveyed through only one player’s perspective, or show me ‘Your Score’ instead of comparing teams’/players’ scores. I want in-built spectator modes with automated statistical analysis, alternative spectator-specific UIs to enhance the experience, commentator slots and custom camera options, all so that spectators can see the entire game in overview and see all the action from the best possible perspective at any given moment.

 

6. PvP is King

Sports are about one person (or team) pitted against another, and it is imperative that the actions of one side directly affect the other. If a person wants to chase a high score and compare that score to others, that is all fine. I want to do that too, and people shall continue to do so. Surely in this day and age there is no such thing as a score attack game with no global leaderboard *ahem*dieburnoutcrashdie *ahem*. But it is not a sport. By this logic, neither are bowling or darts, as both games could be played in separate venues, at separate times, and neither player’s actions have any consequence on the other’s. Unfortunately for Billy Mitchell, Donkey Kong is not a sport – it’s just a game.

Billy-Mitchell-Tattoo

7. Brain learning is important two

Though they might look and sound more like trees than people, footballers are actually quite smart. In fact any sporting type is because, like in games, foresight, understanding and quick analysis of the physics of movement, force, angle, timing and intent is key to ongoing success. But there are also tactics to consider. Team tactics, individual tactics, communication and obfuscation are all critical too, and if you burrow deep into any widely-played team game you will find such things. e-Sports should be no exception. Reflex tests are all well and good but a balance between physical skill and coordination should be backed up by a brain working to the best of its abilities.

 

8. Community

There are lots of reasons why e-Sports are superior to boring old traditional sports. They don’t get rained off. The referee is never wrong. They’re cheaper to access. They’re actually fun. But for my money the best thing is that there aren’t any silly restrictions. Do you eat fifty cakes a day? Are you too tall, too small, the wrong gender, have physical disabilities, the only person within 100 miles actually interested in your team sport of choice, or currently incarcerated in a Mexican prison? Guess you can’t compete in the Olympics then, but there’s nothing stopping you from gaming away ‘til your heart’s content or you’ve served your sentence.

However, all of this is pointless if the community around you can’t let go of its silly prejudices and embrace the cultural love-in of competitive online simulated violence. A sport needs a community around it to grow, and that won’t happen if girls aren’t allowed in the treehouse. Developers who want their game to be enjoyed by everyone and not just those with thick enough skins to take the abuse need to bear considerations such as griefing into their design, ban offenders, and moderate their forums properly.

Left 4 Dead Racism

Great, some disgusting racism. Thanks for helping guys!

 

9. Open and Comprehensible Rules

How is Left 4 Dead scored? I’ve spent a couple of thousand hours playing it, discussing it, watching it, reading about it, and I’m not entirely sure. I know which things make the score go up and I know which things make the score go down, but the exact mechanics of it are a mystery to me. In fact in the majority of competitive games I watch online the commentators generally avoid discussing the score, because whenever they try to they look stupid (they aren’t – they just look it because the game’s system is so impenetrable). How do the suit powers work in Crysis 2 multiplayer? You’d have to check the forums for people who’ve extensively tested the game to find out, because there’s no official explanation anywhere. Of course, most people just stopped playing it instead because of the dual frustration of having not been told the rules, and discovering the truths they were taught in single player no longer apply.

No-one likes sitting through a dry and too-detailed tutorial in games but for those who play something enough and at high enough levels to care, these details should be freely available online or in-game (and, in the case of Left 4 Dead, fathomable without help from an Excel spreadsheet).

 

10. It should be fun

Just so that Eve gets ruled out.

Comments

13 responses to “The e-Sports Manifesto”

  1. Jonathan McCalmont Avatar
    Jonathan McCalmont

    e-sports just remind me of those times when you'd go to your mate's house as a kid and he'd 'show' you a game, which meant him playing it on his own for hours while you sat in silence thinking up ways to murder him.

    1. @sw0llengoat Avatar

      I know what you mean, the show-off bravado look-at-me side of it goes hand-in-hand with the competitiveness – an element which, in essence, I could take or leave.

      However, what I enjoy about watching e-Sports is seeing the games explored to their full potential and people really taking apart and exploring the mechanics to engage in new ways – without the competitiveness I doubt that would happen. I suppose it's a necessary stepping-stone.

      Sadly, I've never found a competitive community not comprised almost exclusively of either rude, arrogant cockheads or normal people blunted into staying silent due to the cockheadery of the rest of the community.

      1. Simon_Walker Avatar
        Simon_Walker

        Oh, brilliant. Nerd jocks.

        1. @sw0llengoat Avatar

          But who will they give wedgies to?

          I vote each other. Bring it full circle. Although, I guess tea-bagging is already their wedgie.

  2. ShaunCG Avatar

    Anything with a cheap shot at Billy Mitchell in it gets my vote! TO THE MANIFESTO!

  3. badgercommander Avatar
    badgercommander

    For one I kind of disagree about rule set changing. In nascent sports like the UFC a lot has changed in the last decade and if they were sticking to the same rules (no weight classes being a glaring one) then I think that it would have remained underground.

    Even in games that are over a 100 years old you still see new rules being incorporated (example: Football legislation on the offside and also on acceptable gear and equipment used, drug testing etc) so as to freshen up the game. Hell F1 is almost as messed up for their constant and sometime fatal game changers (RE: Aryton Senna).

    Rather than keep the rule set the same, they need to learn to identify what keeps their game tight and competitive but also add flavour.

    As for the dig at Darts, really playing in the same room as the person is really important. The psychological nature of nailing a 180 straight after they have, knowing how much that triple 20 has taken damage over the length of a gruelling tourney is as important to a Darts player as the grass buoyancy is to a bowler in cricket or the wind is to an archer. How dare you belittle the proud sport of Darts.

    1. @sw0llengoat Avatar

      In regards to the rules, I think you are right – there's a fine line between updates and changes I suppose. I definitely think that if problems are identified, they need to be fixed, but at the same time I don't think all-new games are consistent enough to maintain a decent community. If it weren't for the fact that it's a beloved franchise for other reasons, the fact that CoD rethinks core components of its rules with each iteration would likely squeeze it out of the competitive scene, or at least severely reduce its relevance.

      Darts. Hmm. Keeping a cool head is important I guess, so psychological pressure being applied becomes a part of it. But at the same time, if you were playing for real money there would still be some degree of psychological pressure in your game, even if your opponent was going to play their side of things a week later, in a different country, and then email the score to you.

      I just can't help being facetious about it, sorry.

      It's a really fun game, and I have nothing against it or the people who play it (obviously). I just think that a sport should involve true direct involvement between the players – psychology doesn't cut it for me, just because… well, it doesn't.

      1. ShaunCG Avatar

        My favourite pub game is bar billiards.

        1. @sw0llengoat Avatar

          Mine is 'Give Pete Four Pints And Then Ask Him Bizarre Hypothetical Questions'.

          In all seriousness though, what *would* be the effect on the French economy if all elephants in the world gained the power of flight simultaneously?

          Dammit, now I want to know. Get Pete, we're going to the pub.

  4. mwm Avatar
    mwm

    You left out one rule: LAN support+Non-excessive DRM+Licensing the game for commercial use. In short, this rule states that: 'If you make an eSports game, don't screw it over.'

    Another one, arguably, is to have a game with a range of difficulties. Yes, you need the competitive field to be a brick-wall of difficulty, but you still need the non-experts to be able to play the same game and enjoy it. Bonus points if you make certain roles more difficult than others but just as useful, so that intermediate players can play right alongside world champions without constant beratement (i.e. World In Conflict, with its manageable Armor role, and its super-incredibly-fucking-difficult your-only-purpose-in-life-is-to-die-for-your-country Infantry role)

    1. badgercommander Avatar
      badgercommander

      Agree with the LAN support, especially given the possibility of servers being taken down. As for DRM, that shouldn't be a e-Sports rule but instead a common decency one.

      In other news, anyone read the rumours about the new Xbox?

      1. ShaunCG Avatar

        I heard that if you scrape away the outer layers of the new Xbox, Peter Molyneux is inside.

  5. Sexington Hardcastle III Avatar
    Sexington Hardcastle III

    " But there’s more to sports than rapists and small men on horses" Great line, but I'm not sure it's true. Is there really anything more to sports than that? or indeed life?