Week 5

I looked it up, and most martial arts are considered a sport. Although there are story elements of the game, I believe I can dissect the competitive, skill-based game, Mortal Kombat. The vast majority of video games I have experience in are in the story-heavy RPG genre, but there is one “sports-like” game I am at least slightly familiar with (although not very good at). Mortal Kombat is well known as the first-ever fighting game, with many similar games following its influence, such as Street Fighter and Dragon Ball. It is a Local Multiplayer, which is defined in chapter 3 of Macklin and Sharp’s book as, “A two or more player game where players compete or collaborate with each other while sitting in the same space together.” They are also games that require mainly Active Skill, which is defined as “A form of skill-based play utilizing the player’s motor skills in performing the actions in the game,” since the game depends on how quickly you can press the correct buttons at the correct time. Martial arts are highly competitive sports that require many years of training in strength and skill, similar to many other sports. It takes little to no equipment, making the sport more accessible to people without the money for those extra things, although training by itself is known to be fairly expensive. The sport is always played by two people going head-to-head, which is defined in chapter 3 of Macklin and Sharp’s book as, “Direct competition between players. Both ping pong and basketball are examples of head-to-head competition.” Depending on which material arts you are participating in, the rules may vary. There are some moves in martial arts that are forbidden in most cases, such as head butting, biting, gouging out the eyes, etc. The main goal is to pin your opponent to the ground until they tap out, or get knocked out completely. There are plenty of strategies and various courses of action that can be taken to achieve this goal that varies depending on the martial arts. There are different rules depending on where and when you play, which makes it not quite as clear-cut as many other sports. However, fighting video games like Mortal Kombat take this to a whole other level. In most MK games, moves are performed by pressing a button or pressing a series of buttons to perform a ‘special move’. Oftentimes, the more complicated the button presses, the more damage the move does. There are very few rules in fighting games, as long as an action is done within the parameters of the game without altering the game or its files, it’s legal. Each character has a unique set of moves, such as Scorpion acid-spit or Sub-Zero’s ice blast. Unlike real martial arts, the goal of a fighting game is to get your opponent's health down to zero, thus killing them. The different powers each character has adds a unique component that would otherwise be impossible, or at least not allowed, in real martial arts.