a day ago
- The author distinguishes sports from games based on how much their skills apply to real-life activities, with running and MMA ranking high due to minimal contrived rules.
- Only three activities are truly considered sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; the rest are games by one definition, though the author partly disagrees.
- Many sports like ice hockey, tennis, and fencing have game-specific techniques that don't translate to practical real-world scenarios, reducing their aesthetic appeal to the author.
- Minor rule changes in combat sports (e.g., adding takedown threats in boxing or simulated strikes in grappling) could make them more realistic without altering their core nature.
- Gamification occurs when sports evolve away from realistic origins due to competitive rule exploitation, such as BJJ's gi-based attacks or fencing's flexible foils.
- Judo's 2010 ban on leg grabs prioritized entertainment over realism, illustrating a trade-off between sport and game qualities.
- The author advocates for developing new sports that maximize both real-world applicability and entertainment, especially for kids, to build better character skills.