At its best, sport is actually something elegant. The body moves in a synchronized rhythm, the heartbeat adapts to these movements and supports them. This is how professionals and those who consider themselves to be professionals swim through water like fish, jump lightly over hurdles or run at an almost unbelievable speed.
We’re seeing this again at the Olympic Games in Paris. Personally, I’ve never really been interested in watching sport. Neither the World Cup nor the Olympics. When I’ve watched sport on screen, it’s only been in video games. And that’s always anything but elegant.
The controller is not a body
Of course, this may still work well in football matches. In a Fifa (or. EA Sports FC) or International Superstar Soccer (who still knows it?) it depends on reflexes. And also on strategy. And especially online or in multiplayer mode on the couch, a match may not feel as realistic as football – but it does feel like sport. This is also how the various games used for e-sports work.
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But things are different in other disciplines that also play a key role at the Olympics. It is still clear today that physical sport is difficult to translate into a video game. Ultimately, it is all about quickly pressing buttons or turning the analogue stick.
Sometimes you have to press a button at the right time or move the stick within a certain radius. This is often the most basic game mechanic in golf. But it quickly becomes clear: the controller is no substitute for a moving body. Unless the controller is a Wiimote.
Bleeding palms
I remember the year 2000. International Track & Field for the Nintendo 64. Swimming, sprinting, weight lifting – I could do all that and more in the game. Of course, in what, by today’s standards, is an incredibly ugly polygon look.
And I had chosen probably the most thankless platform for the game. The N64 controller is known for destroying many palms. Why? Because these mini-games, which often make up sports games, required me to turn the analog stick as quickly as possible. If you wanted to break records, you didn’t do it with your thumb, but with your whole hand.
But since the analog stick was made of hard plastic, the palm of my hand quickly became a blistered patch of skin. In a way, that was also a bit of a sporting move: it was a sports injury after all.
Little has changed in these sports game mechanics to this day. The analog sticks are softer and the graphics more realistic, but Olympic sports in video games are still pretty lame. Perhaps that is why this year there is For the first time in 30 years, no official console game.
These days I do my screen sports with a Playstation VR2, Meta Quest 3 or the Apple Vision Pro. Because I’m actually using my body. But what I like best is jogging. Outside, without a screen.
Video games of the 90s: 8 moments that every gamer probably still remembers
Video games of the 90s: 8 moments that every gamer probably still remembers
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