The creator of World of Warcraft chimes in.
Photo by Flickr user Circuito Fora do Eixo
Five months after ESPN legitimized e-sports as a marketable stadium sport by broadcasting the final rounds of the DOTA 2 championship on ESPN3, and six months after the X-Games included a Call of Duty tournament in the competition, the creator of World of Warcraft is making a case for video games to be adopted as an official Olympic sport.
There is certainly no doubt that the addition of e-sports to the Olympic sport roster would draw crowds; recent championships have packed 40,000 seat stadiums. The issue would come in making the leap from “mind sport” to “physical sport.”
“If you want to define sport as something that takes a lot of physical exertion, then it’s hard to argue that video games should be a sport,” Rob Pardo told BBC. “But at the same time, when I’m looking at things that are already in the Olympics, I start questioning the definition.”
Until then, fans can fill their video game spectator cups with Twitch, the leading source for live e-sports broadcasts. Some of these guys really do break a sweat.
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