I will write this opening statement twice, to stress the point. Take this article with "a pinch of salt", because I hardly think you should outlaw Red Bull, or prevent Loekino from tripping out on Golden Power. I even have a can or two from time to time. But the conflict in issues cannot fail to go unnoticed, if not for irreverence than seriousness.
There's always going to be a limited scope within the confines of a game which can be altered to produce what a person may deem beneficial in terms of boosting their performance. In ET, CoD, and other widely played multiplayer games,
you have the standard variety of configs, key configurations, etcetera as player look to customize their set-up to their optimum usage. However, such modifications are of course limited in their nature, especially with 3rd party limitations such as league settings, punkbuster interaction and so on restricting many of the game variables.
And so we see the switch to outside sources of gain, for this example in particular the use of "performance enhancing" substances, something which our friend
Loekino is able to tell us much about. If you have had the time to browse his FTP, you will have seen various large and blurry photos showing the mass storage of a certain Golden Power energy drink, containing the magic ingredients of caffeine and taurine, displayed in stacked form here. Now despite said player's refusal to admit the drinks were there to boost playing performance, instead just to "wake me up", it can be said plenty of people recognise the benefits that caffeine and taurine bring. But is this a truth, and if so, to what extent? Just what effects can drinking say, a Red Bull have on a round of ET?
There have been numerous investigations carried out by respected organisations into the effects of these substances on the body and the reasons they do what they do. However, let's start off with some simple facts of interest:
The International Olympics Committee (IOC) restrict the amount of caffeine in the body to 12mg /per 100ml, ie, no athlete is legally allowed to go over this limit for risk of disqualification. Yet in a single can of Red Bull, note single can, there is 32mg /per 100ml. This means that gamers would be prevented from playing if they consumed under a quarter of a can of the energy drink, a noteworthy point particularly as we hear of Ted Owen's campaign in association with the Chinese government to include v-sports in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Indeed, there is absolutely no doping control at LAN events - the only viable location to introduce such measures with gaming predominantly still a household vocation.
While it is probably safe to say given the size of ET that few players go to the extremes of using substantially more powerful steroids and drugs, this issue has spread to the highest levels of gaming, with the use of tranquillizers considered common among top-level professional gamers, who often turn to herbal solutions to achieve a reduction in such unwanted symptoms such as nervousness and anxiety. The main point to note is that there are certainly far more extreme or powerful substances gamers can ply their bodies with in the hope of reaching their pinacle, so should such a big deal be made out of a simple, innocent energy drink?
Perhaps not. But the effects have caused enough concern to warrant 3 countries, Canada, Denmark and France banning the sale of drinks such as Red Bull completely, with only the former example having lifted this boycott. Yet the evidence seems shaky. In the example of France, officials recommended the ban partly because a study found that rats fed taurine exhibited bizarre behaviour. That behaviour included: "anxiety, irritability, a high sensitivity to noise,sudden jumps in their cages - and most of all, self-mutilations". Worrying stuff indeed. Yet from later study, it has been found that taurine actually suppresses self-mutilation in nerve-damaged rats. I hope you don't think I am comparing the ET scene to a bunch of rats. But certainly there is scope for some strange and wacky effects on the human body here.
Namely, reactions. In a game where reactions are key, it isn't unheard of to have even players like the much over hyped Raziel preaching the word of reflex.exe, and it isn't hard to see why players look for methods of improving reaction times. From our simple caffeine / taurine example, to alcohol, illegal drugs and amphetamines, steroids and the like, there is so much opportunity for abuse in the gaming field. The extreme example is of course that majority of the best gamers are all benefiting from some artificial substance ... unlikely but the point is made. Is there any point in trying to make the playing field as level as possible with config and rule changes, when clearly the very essence of gaming itself is to get ahead on a very much individual basis. For all we know, with the help of some nandralone, Fusen could be transformed into a Quakecon champion overnight.
No, of course he couldn't. But you cannot claim two evenly matched players will perform the same in a high pressure game when one has taken stress reducing methods ... methods traditionally outlawed in many of the top sports such as football, motor racing, althletics and so on. The trouble comes with so much exposure on the changes such substances can have and the lack of a central regulating body (which isn't going to happen unless your neighbour decides to become a V-sports doping officer). Even popular UK games magazine PCZone published their findings of the effect of alcohol on gaming performance. Who would be put off by reading that upto pint 7, performance increased?
So then to end, back to our example of ET. Cheating is an issue which has been done to death of late on Crossfire, but I would just like to bring your attention to one last thought for the day. Suppose you downloaded an aimbot, are you breaking any laws of your country? Not in any I know of. Same with buying an energy drink? Not unless you live in France or Denmark. And supposing you used your new aimbot in a game, that'd be gaining an unfair example, right? So what's the difference in changing the source of that advantage from binary to chemical?
Again: Last thing to remember: take this article with "a pinch of salt". I hardly think you should outlaw Red Bull, or prevent Loekino from tripping out on Golden Power. I even have a can or two from time to time. But the conflict in issues cannot fail to go unnoticed, if not for irreverence than seriousness.
There's always going to be a limited scope within the confines of a game which can be altered to produce what a person may deem beneficial in terms of boosting their performance. In ET, CoD, and other widely played multiplayer games,
you have the standard variety of configs, key configurations, etcetera as player look to customize their set-up to their optimum usage. However, such modifications are of course limited in their nature, especially with 3rd party limitations such as league settings, punkbuster interaction and so on restricting many of the game variables.And so we see the switch to outside sources of gain, for this example in particular the use of "performance enhancing" substances, something which our friend
Loekino is able to tell us much about. If you have had the time to browse his FTP, you will have seen various large and blurry photos showing the mass storage of a certain Golden Power energy drink, containing the magic ingredients of caffeine and taurine, displayed in stacked form here. Now despite said player's refusal to admit the drinks were there to boost playing performance, instead just to "wake me up", it can be said plenty of people recognise the benefits that caffeine and taurine bring. But is this a truth, and if so, to what extent? Just what effects can drinking say, a Red Bull have on a round of ET?There have been numerous investigations carried out by respected organisations into the effects of these substances on the body and the reasons they do what they do. However, let's start off with some simple facts of interest:
The International Olympics Committee (IOC) restrict the amount of caffeine in the body to 12mg /per 100ml, ie, no athlete is legally allowed to go over this limit for risk of disqualification. Yet in a single can of Red Bull, note single can, there is 32mg /per 100ml. This means that gamers would be prevented from playing if they consumed under a quarter of a can of the energy drink, a noteworthy point particularly as we hear of Ted Owen's campaign in association with the Chinese government to include v-sports in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Indeed, there is absolutely no doping control at LAN events - the only viable location to introduce such measures with gaming predominantly still a household vocation.
While it is probably safe to say given the size of ET that few players go to the extremes of using substantially more powerful steroids and drugs, this issue has spread to the highest levels of gaming, with the use of tranquillizers considered common among top-level professional gamers, who often turn to herbal solutions to achieve a reduction in such unwanted symptoms such as nervousness and anxiety. The main point to note is that there are certainly far more extreme or powerful substances gamers can ply their bodies with in the hope of reaching their pinacle, so should such a big deal be made out of a simple, innocent energy drink?
Perhaps not. But the effects have caused enough concern to warrant 3 countries, Canada, Denmark and France banning the sale of drinks such as Red Bull completely, with only the former example having lifted this boycott. Yet the evidence seems shaky. In the example of France, officials recommended the ban partly because a study found that rats fed taurine exhibited bizarre behaviour. That behaviour included: "anxiety, irritability, a high sensitivity to noise,sudden jumps in their cages - and most of all, self-mutilations". Worrying stuff indeed. Yet from later study, it has been found that taurine actually suppresses self-mutilation in nerve-damaged rats. I hope you don't think I am comparing the ET scene to a bunch of rats. But certainly there is scope for some strange and wacky effects on the human body here.
Namely, reactions. In a game where reactions are key, it isn't unheard of to have even players like the much over hyped Raziel preaching the word of reflex.exe, and it isn't hard to see why players look for methods of improving reaction times. From our simple caffeine / taurine example, to alcohol, illegal drugs and amphetamines, steroids and the like, there is so much opportunity for abuse in the gaming field. The extreme example is of course that majority of the best gamers are all benefiting from some artificial substance ... unlikely but the point is made. Is there any point in trying to make the playing field as level as possible with config and rule changes, when clearly the very essence of gaming itself is to get ahead on a very much individual basis. For all we know, with the help of some nandralone, Fusen could be transformed into a Quakecon champion overnight.
No, of course he couldn't. But you cannot claim two evenly matched players will perform the same in a high pressure game when one has taken stress reducing methods ... methods traditionally outlawed in many of the top sports such as football, motor racing, althletics and so on. The trouble comes with so much exposure on the changes such substances can have and the lack of a central regulating body (which isn't going to happen unless your neighbour decides to become a V-sports doping officer). Even popular UK games magazine PCZone published their findings of the effect of alcohol on gaming performance. Who would be put off by reading that upto pint 7, performance increased?
So then to end, back to our example of ET. Cheating is an issue which has been done to death of late on Crossfire, but I would just like to bring your attention to one last thought for the day. Suppose you downloaded an aimbot, are you breaking any laws of your country? Not in any I know of. Same with buying an energy drink? Not unless you live in France or Denmark. And supposing you used your new aimbot in a game, that'd be gaining an unfair example, right? So what's the difference in changing the source of that advantage from binary to chemical?
Again: Last thing to remember: take this article with "a pinch of salt". I hardly think you should outlaw Red Bull, or prevent Loekino from tripping out on Golden Power. I even have a can or two from time to time. But the conflict in issues cannot fail to go unnoticed, if not for irreverence than seriousness.
