Three not so sterling stories from the world of Esports including a potential ban in China for games such as Fortnite and PUBG, a shake of the head from the International Olympic Committee, and a new project for The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
I dug out an old box of Star Wars, DC and Marvel figures from the garage, gave them a spit wash and thrust them into my two-year-old daughter’s dolls house alongside Mickey, Minnie and Donald.
She wasn’t a fan of Jabba the Hutt.
That’s putting it mildly.
Luke Skywalker made her smile.
She loved Superman.
But mainly, she loved Wonder Woman because “She has boobs!”
Don’t tell the Chinese.
The growth of the Esports industry (expected to be a billion dollar market by 2020) is good business for the gambling industry, but at this rate, there will be no games to gamble on.
A thread on Reddit (read it here) believes that China is about to ban nine Esports or video game titles (I am not sure what the difference is), including Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
Fortnite!
The game that gets more use than plastic lemons full of juice on Shrove Tuesday!
Cor blimey, governor!
It’s believed the decision to drop the guillotine blade came from the Chinese government’s Online Ethics Review Committee, and the reasons behind the bans include too much blood and gore.
Four more titles more popular than the episode of Dynasty where Emma Samms was in stockings, and suspenders include League of Legends (Riot), Overwatch (Blizzard), Diablo (Blizzard) and World of Warcraft (Blizzard), whom the same committee has told to take ‘corrective action’ or else face the same fate as the Battle Royale titles.
The Reddit post claims WOW and LOL have upset the busy bods because of their “inharmonious chat rooms”, and Overwatch is facing a kick in the boobies, because of, well, too many boobies.
“Overly revealing female characters’.”
Tencent will feel the pinch more than most with six titles on the banned list.
Talk of Esports Inclusion in Olympics ‘Premature’
So Esports is on the floor.
Let’s keep kicking.
Over the weekend, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met at the seventh annual Olympic Summit in Lausanne to talk about, amongst other things – the approach of the Olympic Movement to esports/egames – and it didn’t end well for gamers harbouring hopes of being the Esports equivalent of Eddie the Eagle Edwards.
Summit members decided that adding competitive video games and Esports to the list of Olympic sports would be ‘premature’ with the following reason standing out in a crowded car park of excuses.
Some egames are not compatible with the Olympic values, and therefore cooperation with them is excluded.
Really, killing terrorists and blowing shit up is not compatible with the Olympic movement?
The members of the Summit didn’t dig a hole, shoot Esports with a nail gun, roll it into said hole and then pour sulfuric acid over it. Instead, it agreed to keep a close eye on Esports growth because of its popularity among young generations around the world.
Fortunately, Rahul Sood said that nobody in the Esports community could care less anyway.
Here are the minutes of the meeting.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) UK Create The Immersive and Addictive Technologies Inquiry
Finally to a country that has its shit together (ok, on a gambling front at least), and the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) is worried about the prevalence of Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) worlds that will one day replace the tedium of life.
The DCMS has created the Immersive and Addictive Technologies Inquiry to explore the potential concussion the world could have if someone doesn’t keep a beady or two on the gamification of people’s lives.
A recent Ofcom Communications Market Report suggested that people in the UK check their smartphone every 12-minutes, and one in five spend more than 40 hours a week online.
Doesn’t anyone work in this country?
The new committee will take a look at the link between video games and gambling, especially the act of in-game spending, leading with the goal of answering this question:
‘What challenges and opportunities do gaming and esports offer the gambling industry and how should that be managed?’
Damian Collins, Chair of the special committee said, “The way we interact with cutting-edge technologies is life-changing for our generation and generations to come.”
Yes, Damian, I get it, but where is the committee that keeps an eye on my daughter and her interest in 1980s plastic superhero figures, especially Wonder Woman’s boobs.
