Michigan To Start Esports, Receives $4M

BlockM, you seem to have hit the nail on the head to start the comments.

Many here complain that e-sports aren't sports, or mock complain that football can't be a minor, but neither seems to be the University's concern. It's not adding "e-sports" to the athletic department.

Instead, as you point out, it's a business class. If anyone wants to complain, perhaps it should be that "business" further degrades the liberal arts tradition.

But an e-sports minor is no more or less academically legit than selling Coco Puffs (marketing).

Don't forget about the food packaging program at MSU. Add in a degree for Doritos and you really got something.

This take is so bad, I’m tempted to believe it’s sarcasm ... 

The article describes this: "Michigan plans to hire its esports professor by the end of the 2021-22 school year, with an introductory course on esports in place for the following year. A handful of other existing courses have been identified to be included in the minor track, a curriculum that includes data analytics, user experience, design, game development, economics and sports management."

It might not be described as such, but it seems like you could package up some classes that would constitute a minor that would be the sports equivalent. Maybe a kinesiology minor or something?

It's about the business of e-sports, which is undergoing explosive growth.

Also Kotick is CEO of one of the largest video game companies on the planet, and $4m is absolute chump change for him. IMO this is more of a tax advantaged investment than a donation :)

Keep in mind that these are businesses and the spectators make up the vast majority of people involved and are what make the businesses profitable.

I am not seeing any difference between sitting on my couch watching some people play football vs sitting on my couch watching people play starcraft.

Isnt rifle shooting an Olympic sport?

Next you’re going to tell me that e-sex is not real sex, & that I’m some kind of a virgin.

Can we please stop getting bent out of shape about semantics instead? It's extremely competitive, the players practice and train hard at it. Yes you sit in a chair but it still requires extreme reaction speed and hand eye coordination. Call it gaming if it makes you feel better, but it's a distinction without a difference.

Good luck trying to control how people use the language.

I know many comment on usage from time to time—including fool me—but one of the frustrations AND glories of American English is that it has always been a mutt, combining logic, habit, "rules," different languages, and joking into a dynamic creation that bursts through any boundaries that get set up.

Though it drives me nuts, the possessive form "its" will eventually be replaced the pronoun contraction "it's." I suspect that people trying to sound formal by using the Brit's "whilst" will make that ugly word normal.

Meanwhile, "gaming" is the gambling's business PR attempt to make gambling sound refined.

And e-sports is here to stay.

In my previous incarnation, worked alongside venue designers (stadia, arenas, exhibition) and e-sports venues are definitely an incoming prospective market. There are few purpose-built facilities, but people are exploring them since they can be much smaller than most sports or multi-purpose, but have a variety of other technical requirements.

Also, I'd imagine that in most parts of the world where people's individual homes aren't well connected like they are in the US, there are going to be (and are already) places to go for kids who want to wire in to a fiber connection with a station that's got better specs than they can get at home, and have a variety of games to play. Sort of like the video game arcades of old but on steroids. 

Huh?  It's optional... well at least for LSA.

https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/academics/lsa-requirements/minors.html#:~:text=Current%20Policies&text=Students%20in%20the%20College%20may,minors%20a%20student%20may%20elect.

I watch Starcraft II tournaments every year, and I agree that lots of e-sports are not interesting to watch. Seems like some developers have been taking some steps recently to punish turtling, which makes for a better spectator experience.