Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

[igotrhythm]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

On top of there being competitions for it, there /is/ a fair amount of physical conditioning involved, as well as necessitating detailed study and practice of various situations.

However, insofar as you can't actually do much to affect the other player's performance in most tournament formats, it's not a "sport" to some. However, gymnastics and other "performance" sports (diving, etc.) break this rule wide open.

So yeah, I'd say it's a sport if DotA and SC can be considered sports.

[Emo_Saur_]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

When people think sports, they think mainstream - football, soccer, hockey, tennis, volleyball, etc. They think everything that is not on ESPN is not a sport. (ie. pool, table tennis, bowling)

By the definition Trogdor The Burninator made, FFR would technically be a sport..


so sure, DDR/ITG.. why not?

Bowling is on ESPN, well I know it used to be.

[ShadowSpawn13]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

Man ive thought about it so many times!
i think it should definetly be considered a sport, ive been playing for years and it is very physically demanding and difficult to perfect.
you have to have timing, control of your muscles, good footwork; theres many factors to the game that can make it be considered a sport.
in my opinion, the only reason it is NOT a sport is because its not popular enough and also because its more of a solitary thing and when people think sports they think TEAM sports... (then again golf is also a solitary sport and its barely physically demanding. :P)

[Jerry DB]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

If curling is a sport then yes

[TC_Halogen]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

On top of there being competitions for it, there /is/ a fair amount of physical conditioning involved, as well as necessitating detailed study and practice of various situations.

However, insofar as you can't actually do much to affect the other player's performance in most tournament formats, it's not a "sport" to some. However, gymnastics and other "performance" sports (diving, etc.) break this rule wide open.

So yeah, I'd say it's a sport if DotA and SC can be considered sports.

Not entirely true in tournaments. Like many games where you analyze your player/competitors in a case by case scenario (poker is a great example of this), you can pick a player's weakness and use it to your advantage. It's not affecting their physical performance in terms of stamina/speed/etc., but you can pick a certain type of thing to wear your opponent down or out perform them.

In any event, there used to be huge tournaments for ITG, and there are STILL huge tournaments for PIU like WPF. PIU is a huge sport down south of the border in places like Chile/Mexico, as well as Korea. It's actually cool to watch footage of tournaments because you see CROWDS of people cheering on the players, rather than a few people sharing a common interest. See what I'm talking about with this video.

Definitely a sport - it's a minor sporting event, but it fits by any stretch of the imagination.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

I think there is a difference between a sport and a game. Sometimes an activity can be strictly a sport (e.g. running), strictly a game (e.g. chess), or both (e.g. football). In the case of DDR/ITG, I think a strong case could be made for it being a sport and a game, albeit a very unusual form.

I mean hell, many say, nowadays, that dancing is a sport, etc. I think it's just one of those things where we're so used to "sports" being defined by football, baseball, soccer, hockey, tennis, etc -- activities where you move around some sort of open field -- that everything else feels niche. But really, I think a better way to look at it is that some forms of sport are just more mainstream than others, but they need not necessarily confine themselves to the form of "open-field" team-play.

tl;dr, sure, it's a sport. But I wouldn't bother saying that to people unless I wanted to get laughed at.

[justaguy]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

is pacman a sport

no

[wildfireskunk]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

is pacman a sport

no

is DDR pacman

no

[Anaru]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

What you guys don't get is..

The answer to this question (as answered by FFR) = yes.
The answer to this question (as answered by people who don't know much about DDR in the first place) = no.


Sorry you guys have to hear this but I'm sure almost everyone else besides people of the DDR/ITG/FFR/SM or whatever community would not call DDR/ITG a 'sport'.

I think it is though. Same argument goes for e-sports (LoL, Dota, CS, SC, etc)

[Reincarnate]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

No. Those are strictly games, not sports. No physical exertion.

[Anaru]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

300 APM IS NOTHING TO LAUGH ABOUT.


grumble grumble..

[MrGiggles]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

physical activity: check
improves physical condition: check
provides entertainment: oh god check
winner identified by objective means: check

Yeah I guess it's technically a sport. West Virginia has been using DDR as a fitness tool in public schools for a while, and is an official sport in Norway according to wikipedia.

[Wineandbread]

Re: Would you consider DDR/ITG a 'sport'?

I basically agree with Reincarnate's first post. You can call it a sport and that's fine and all, but it has such an insignificant community to back it up.

That being said, if ESPN decides to showcase stuff like poker, billiards, and cup stacking, who knows. (o:

I mean, it isn't like billiards isn't entertaining (to some people) and require skill, but they don't fall under the traditional definition of sports. Taking a page out of good ol' Wikipedia: "Some non-physical activities, such as board games and card games are sometimes referred to as sports, but a sport is generally recognised as being based in physical athleticism."

I don't really see a need for DDR/ITG to be defined as a sport in any case. I think that it is just more related to the category of 'competitive gaming'; DDR/ITG require more physical exertion from the players, but in the end they are still games. And that's not really a problem given the rise in competitive gaming in recent years. 'ESPORTS' like Starcraft (iirc one of the last MLG gets like ~50000 people max on their stream) or League of Legends (~200000 live viewers online for the last Dreamhack I think?) have pretty considerable audiences online, and even on TV or stadium in Korea (I forget which final this was exactly, but I remember it was 2005: http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content...tadiumqm17.png).

Competitive gaming shares many similar characteristics of competitive sports. But they're still a long ways off from being lumped into the same category imo. It's not a matter of being similar, it's a matter of acceptance from society and the willingness to treat games as sports, which comes hard for a lot of people.