Doping In Sports
Immacolata
Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2140Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2140Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
<div class="IPBDescription">Let's talk drugs!</div> This debate is generally about sports doping, but the rationale behind it applies for all competetive games, including NS.
We've presumably all witnessed some sort of doping scandal in the sports pages of our daily news paper or tv-news. This or that high profile sports man gets caught with his knickers down, EPO-syringe still sticking out of his left buttock. First, all the people stonewall, then later everyone starts to promise that this ghost of doping shall be banished.
I am afraid, though, that sports people are caught in an impossible dillemma, a catch 22. They can chose not to use doping, and they will always get beaten in the game by those people who does dope themselves. Because competitive humans will use any means at their disposal. Still, we don't like to hear about it, we want our sports guys to win "on their own" but still, they must use themselves to the limt.
So my question is: Why not have sports disciplines where doping is legal? Our sports people already use extremely specialised gear to optimise performance. Special drag reducing swimsuits, carefully engineered running shoes, light weight carbon fiber bicycles etc. In computergames people use special high sensitivity mice, scripts, keyboard binds and some also use various hacks. I jack up the brightness of my monitor so I can better see the dark areas in NS, of which there are many.
For sports, we happily augment our human bodies by mechanical inventions, but when it comes to drugs, everyone seems to be against it. The problem is, we are probably just moving the doping into the shady lands of illegal money and dodgy doctors. Many eastern bloc countries had doping developed into a fine science decades ago, and they took many medals because of it. We found out about that after the wall fell. Doping is not gone, and I doubt it ever will.
so why not make a sports league of doped athletes? Already sports people are getting injured and worn down early in their lives due to the maximum duress they are under. Doping will probably just add to that - but it's just further down the slippery slope we're already on. So why not come clear on it? In the end, it's sports, it is games, so instead of having rules that no one follows, why not adapt the rules to fit reality? We know that the winners are those with the biggest budget teams backing them up.
I demand many controversial views on this one <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
We've presumably all witnessed some sort of doping scandal in the sports pages of our daily news paper or tv-news. This or that high profile sports man gets caught with his knickers down, EPO-syringe still sticking out of his left buttock. First, all the people stonewall, then later everyone starts to promise that this ghost of doping shall be banished.
I am afraid, though, that sports people are caught in an impossible dillemma, a catch 22. They can chose not to use doping, and they will always get beaten in the game by those people who does dope themselves. Because competitive humans will use any means at their disposal. Still, we don't like to hear about it, we want our sports guys to win "on their own" but still, they must use themselves to the limt.
So my question is: Why not have sports disciplines where doping is legal? Our sports people already use extremely specialised gear to optimise performance. Special drag reducing swimsuits, carefully engineered running shoes, light weight carbon fiber bicycles etc. In computergames people use special high sensitivity mice, scripts, keyboard binds and some also use various hacks. I jack up the brightness of my monitor so I can better see the dark areas in NS, of which there are many.
For sports, we happily augment our human bodies by mechanical inventions, but when it comes to drugs, everyone seems to be against it. The problem is, we are probably just moving the doping into the shady lands of illegal money and dodgy doctors. Many eastern bloc countries had doping developed into a fine science decades ago, and they took many medals because of it. We found out about that after the wall fell. Doping is not gone, and I doubt it ever will.
so why not make a sports league of doped athletes? Already sports people are getting injured and worn down early in their lives due to the maximum duress they are under. Doping will probably just add to that - but it's just further down the slippery slope we're already on. So why not come clear on it? In the end, it's sports, it is games, so instead of having rules that no one follows, why not adapt the rules to fit reality? We know that the winners are those with the biggest budget teams backing them up.
I demand many controversial views on this one <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
A sport that has doping commonplace will become boring, just as Formula 1 has now. Formula 1 Racing, when all the cars had to be the same, used to be interesting. It was a test of the drivers skill. But now.... Now it's just whoever can afford the better engine, the better wind tunnel etc... I agree that there is still skill in the drivers, but stick Schumacher in, say, one of those Toyota cars, he'd lose. Maybe he'd cause a bit of trouble, but all the cars would just smash the crap out of him.
That's what the dope like sports would become. It would be all about who can afford the better experiments, who can afford better doctors, more efficient drugs etc... It would just get plain boring.
Oh yeah, and the fact that injecting drugs constantly into a body just can't be healthy. There's that too <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Perhaps it is our expectations of what sports is supposed to be like that interferes with good sportsmanship. If people expect the spectacular and ground breaking, that is what the athletes will try and give us. There's no rewards for finishing last, you know, for participating in the game.
Might be interesting to let them absolutely wreck their bodies into vile freakish proportions and compete.