At the annual DICE summit that happened this week in Las Vegas, Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers - the duo responsible for the worldwide hit, Tetris - made an appearance and held a Q&A session. Discussing everything from the finer points of the initial negotiation process for Tetris to giving advice to young developers on how to succeed in the industry, the two legends told all. However, near the end of the session, a rather strange notion surfaced.
Using a video of “the world's first professional Tetris player" as proof, Rogers said he believes that Tetris will become a competitive sport in the near future, even going so far as to say it may have a place in the Olympics.
The time for computer games to be a waste of time or pastime is passed. 100 years ago, people played sports to prepare for a life of physical activity. When we play games, what are we preparing for? Most of what we do will happen in virtual worlds. We are preparing our children for a lifetime of virtual labor ... Tetris will become a sport, and hopefully it will be in the Olympics.
It may seem silly now, but only time will tell if Rogers is on the mark or not. After all, eSports do continue to grow in prestige and popularity each year; perhaps we're not too far off from video games making up a section of the Olympics.
What do you think about this? Could you see Tetris making its way into the Olympics? Let us know in the comments below.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 21
Yes tetris as a e-sport would be really fun to see.If more and more games get bigger and more competetive through e-sports then e-sports will die out, exactly as i planned muahaha, or it will get even bigger, hmmm!
I would imagine the introduction of Esports into the Olympics would be a hugely controversial move but it's definitely something I can see happening eventually.With the 2020 Olympics being in Tokyo it would be the perfect place to start but it's probably too soon.
The Olympics are supposed to celebrate human fitness, form and athleticism, I don't believe any of the sports delve into matters of intelligence of cunning.
Masterful play of Tetris is something that only a few could dare to accomplish with the likes of Tetris The Grand Master 3, but the dependence of a commercial product does not lend itself well to the Olympics.
If I'm not mistaken, Chess is not an Olympic event either.
There are however the Chess Olympiads, which are conducted to similar fashion to Olympics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Olympiad
@RupeeClock The Olympics recognize Chess as a sport, they just don't include it as an event.
I think esports are great and all, but most are very boring to watch... not unlike physical sports.
They really shouldn't let Ubisoft make Tetris games if they want Tetris to be taken seriously.
@RupeeClock @iphys What they said.
From the quote, it sounds less like he wants it in today's Olympics, which would indeed be silly, but more like he envisions a future where the Olympics is more of an e-Sports thing in general because everything we do will be digital in the future.
Watch this and tell me it takes less coordination and reflexes than say ping pong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwDUiCzPVU
As much as games are on the rise, putting them as an Olympic sport would be... just bad. They evolve and change way too much, way too quickly. Plus there is no real set standard to games. Like if you include one game... everyone else is going to want every other game there and there are really just too many of all different standards of play and everything.
@OneBagTravel
As much as reflexes are concerned... you are moving using your hands for that. Ping Pong you move your entire body so your reflexes are coordination are much more.
eSports are inevitable... the Olympics at their core, not so much the original events, is these days about competition on a worldwide scale. I see no reason "eGames" cannot make it based on that ideology. Guess it's all up to the Olympic board what's acceptable.
@RupeeClock chess used to be an exhibition Olympic sport back in the 80's.
I would LOVE to see this happen. I know people would be like "uh why would you watch someone play a video game" but honestly its the same to me as someone watching a sports. I'd rather play a video game than watch sure, but I'd also rather play a sport than watch.
If anything we should make an eSports Olympics, just depends on how we should go about it. We could also hold them in between the regular Olympics or better yet yearly.
This would be awesome. Tetris is intense and I'm proud to say I'm good at it. Not nearly as good as the geniuses out there but I hold my own. If Chess can be part of the Olympics, Tetris can be, too.
@OneBagTravel
I was going to link that. Glad someone else already did.
Only problem with that is that there is no version of Tetris outside of Japan that has that high of a skill cap, and no version anywhere that is available to the casual consumer.
How bout not? No one wants to see someone play Testris in the Olympics. The Olympics is about physical sports, not playing games of the mind. His point is pretty bad too. The sports provided good exercise for the body. I don't think Tetris does quite the same for the mind. And honestly, if things get that digital in the future, all the more reason to keep something like the Olympics only physical sports as we'll need all the exercise we can get. And no offense, but I think he's being a bit arrogant here.
@RupeeClock Yeah, I could see Chess getting inducted as an Olympic sport long before Tetris ever would. Notice that while the Olympics has a few Equine events, there are zero motor sports. If logic games were inducted, I doubt seriously they would be electronic in nature or rely on proprietary hardware, timing mechanisms excluded. Chess and Checkers as possibilities for mind games are far more traditional and likely.
@Jaz007 "The sports provided good exercise for the body. I don't think Tetris does quite the same for the mind"
Actually it does.
Another game the Koreans will pwn everyone at.
"Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris with the help of Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov in 1984. The game, first available in the Soviet Union, appeared in the West in 1986."
Henk Rogers? They were "only" 3 Tetris fathers.
Henk Rogers got tetrs worldwide right . But he is not a "father" of success.
@RupeeClock "Dependence of a commercial product" is right. The Tetris Company's 2012 victory in a copyright lawsuit makes it that much harder for Tetris to become an internationally competitive sport.
Tetris co-founder Alexey Pajitnov is on record as believing that free software, or software that the public can improve and share, "should never have existed" because it "destroys the market." But what really destroys the market is monopoly. Imagine if there were a Basketball Company LLC that could sue a city or school district for copyright infringement for putting a basketball court with correct dimensions into a city park or school gymnasium. There are multiple competing suppliers of basketball and chess equipment, unlike software for playing Tetris.
@SkywardLink98 The difference between Chess and Tetris is that Chess is old enough to have no owner. Tetris won't be in the same situation until 2090 at the earliest.
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