Like our natural environment, the environment for electronic and digital enhancements to or extensions of tennis are vast.
We have selected a few of the most important elements, that reflect our major challenges, and which we believe that our approach addresses.
We have a participation problem, and these are the most commonly referenced reasons why:
No Partners/Family/Court Availability/Inadequate Fitness/Work Conflicts/Injury/Other Sports/Weather/Age/Not Fun/Time/Cost/Difficulty/Other.
Hovering over all of those, though, is the Elephant in the Room: Screens. Kids and others are spending too much time on the vast assay of screens that dominate their lives.
On those screens are often computer video games, electronic games [egames], which are often in the form of “electronic sports”: “esports.”
Esports have for some time made a case for entry into the Olympic Program, to confirm at the highest level their legitimacy as sport and to benefit from the global infrastructure of Olympic sport.
That overture has been both embraced and rebuffed by the IOC, Embraced, by the hosting of the 2018 Esports Forum, in Lausanne, and the subsequent establishment of the Esports Gaming and Liaison Group [on which the Virtual Sports Association serves].
The broad impression exists that “esports” is “bigger than the movies,” which is not correct. Esports is about 1% of the global egaming industry. Another impression is that most computer games are violent, and if we wish to connect with young people through them, we simply must accept that violence is an unavoidable path. This is also untrue.
An emerging phenomenon in electronic gaming and experience is Virtual Reality [VR], which is now finally coming to the fore.
Five key forces are fast converging that can drive the revolution in gaming and sport:
The Rise of VR… the Rise of Virtualisable Sports… the Rise of Virtual Sport… the Rise of Esport [and the strategic gap it creates]… the Rise of Olympic Focus on Youth.
Please also refer to our Social Impact section for other environmental factors that we believe we can address.
We have a Participation Problem… and these seem to be the reasons why.
Hovering above all of them, though, is the Elephant in the Room: Screens.
Speaking of screens, there has been a concerted effort from esports game developers to engage with the Olympic Movement.
We believe that their motivation to do this is simple: to benefit from the main stream legitimacy and organisational infrastructure of the Olympic Movement, both of which they covet, neither of which they have.
This overture has been both embraced and rebuffed by IOC President Bach. Click HERE for the press conference referenced above.
After the IOC/GAISF – sponsored Esports Forum in Lausanne in 2018, a high-level Esports and Gaming Liaison Group was formed, on which VSA CEO Victor Bond now serves.
The most recent meeting of this group gave rise to President Bach’s comments in support of Virtual Sport.
The Facts of the Matter…
Esports advocates often note that the global video game market, at about $50 billion USD is “bigger than the movies”, which is correct.
What is not correct is the implication that esports are somehow a significant part of this gaming juggernaut.
Few things are farther from the truth. The slide above gives a more accurate picture.
We discuss this environment further in our Opportunity and Threat quadrants.
For the moment, it is important to know the facts.
More facts…
It is also often suggested that violence is a kind of necessary evil if we want to engage with young people through gaming.
Esports advocates maintain a mixed demeanor about this apparent contradiction with Olympic Values by holding either that their game violence is either not really violent [it is] or that in any case it’s completely safe for society [it’s not].
In either case, they eventually fall back on the Inevitability Argument, which is essentially that, if you want to engage with young people through gaming you’re going to just face the fact that you’re going to have to accept violence.
No we won’t.
The great majority of video games, for women and me, and girls and boys, are not violent.
Each of these forces is at work and converging.