How do you make CCG a sport?

[yudencow]

This is regarding to other collectible games and board games as well.

What I mean by that is that it would be preceived as more than a game but a sport as well.
I'm talking about endorsement and such things sport have and tabletop games usually don't.
How can that be done?

[Kevashim]

If you want a lighter (as in, not as detailed/complex) idea as a starter, perhaps look at the BloodBowl card game. It has some interesting ideas that could be expanded upon to make a more focussed sports themed game.

[yudencow]

Sorry Kevashim for being misunderstood.
I want to make the CCG into a sport, meaning like Basketball and Athletics and stuff like that. I want it to be treated and respected as such.

[Trevor]

Chess is an olympic event in the mind games category. What you need is very large popularity, and that's pretty much it.

[r0cknes]

Trevor brings up a great point. However the reason that chess is so popular is because it is a good game that has been around forever.

What makes chess considered to be a sport though is:

First, it is abstract. Although it does have the theme of medieval warfare the pieces could easily be interchanged with different pieces based on other themes without changing anything in the game. IE Starwars chess and such. For a board game or card game to be considered a sport, yes it must be popular but it also must be abstract. This theory counts out almost any CCG imaginable, because frankly the only thing that makes CCGs popular is the themes involved.

Second, the game must have zero luck involved. Can you imagine coin flipping as an Olympic sport!? I am not saying coin flipping is bad in all cases, nor am I saying that random game play is bad in all cases, but what I am saying is that random doesn't work in sports. Sports are determined by pure skill, or strategy, or both. In their current format all CCGs that I know of include some random aspects. They are great games but they could never be sports. The only way of avoiding this is to give everyone the same card pool to select their cards. Then all the cards have to be in their "hand" until they are used by the player. You can't have a deck of shuffled cards. Again, I love CCGs, but in their current format they can't work as a "sport".

Also, from a marketing standpoint, for a game like this to work it would be very difficult for you to make expansions. Checkers or chess have not had expansions, because there just is no way of doing it. All cards or components needed to play the game must be included with the first edition of the game. That doesn't work for most developers these days. Most are looking to produce their expansions before their game has been released to public yet.

In conclusion, the game must be abstract and have zero random aspects to it, including opening booster packs and decks of shuffled cards. I would love to see a game like this, but the chances of someone coming up with the next "chess" is very slim. I am not a chess fan, but it is the only board game i can see as a sport.

[r0cknes]

Sorry for the double post but I did think of another sport card game. POKER!

Again it has at least one of the two aspects of the two that I required. It does have luck, but the best players will make very calculated and educated guesses to determine their next move.

[Kevashim]

I guess similar to poker in that regard would be Bridge. Definitely a game in which skill is of far greater importance than luck. It's just not as popular as poker...

EDIT

and while I think about it Mahjong could be played with cards if you were desperate, and it is most definitely a sport in China.

[yudencow]

Thanks for the input. Deducing from your comments, CCG can't be an actual sport for its randomness. Well, like a ball game it can be random in the amount of possibl situations. I think the difference between CCG and other sports is the when you say CCG, there are tons of diffrent kinds, like chess and board games. But, every CCG can be a sport on its own if there are regular leagues and tournaments supported by different organizations and advertisement. Probably also because there is no tabletop Olympics or Games like normal sports. Extreme sports went through the same transition.

[yudencow]

I just thought of something. Fighting games have EVO and other tournaments for competition, and a lot of people, from Japan mostly, even take it as their job. Then in this context, do fighting games are considered a sport? If card games had such tournaments would they be also?

[Turonik]

It's a matter of opinion really, I guess anything can be seen as a sport as long as there is a group of people considering it as such. To me however, a sport needs to be some sort of game played against one on one or in teams that involves a physical activity.  While there can be competitions for cheerleading and such I don't consider them a sport.

CCGs to me will always be just games to me. I love them to death, I like playing in tournaments, and some have huge tournament scenes but they are still just a game, not a sport.