Many sports started and exist as a form of ritualized combat or fighting. Boxing is a good example of this. The rules of boxing are different than the rules of an actual hand-to-hand street fight. There's no bell in a real-world fight, no gloves, no referee, no rules about rabbit punches, etc. People who are serious about boxing spend time training for boxing matches in particular, and have goals related to winning sanctioned bouts. They learn ways to "game" boxing, such as figuring out what actions will earn points in a judged match.
When someone decides to take up boxing, it would be very odd indeed to hear another chide them that "boxing isn't real," or suggest that they only practice boxing under "realistic" scenarios. Few people have any difficulty understanding the concept of boxing as a sport, in and of itself. Winning a boxing title isn't generally pursued in preparation for the possibility of a street fight - it's a goal in and of itself.
However, despite this abstraction from a "real" street fight, you generally want to avoid getting into a fistfight with a seriously competitive boxer. (The same might be said about wrestlers or football linemen.) Their knowledge of the rules on clinching won't carry over, but their hand speed and power will, as will their ability to slip or block your punches. They might be vulnerable to the kinds of grappling that boxing prohibits, but you're going to have to be very good at grappling and/or lucky to make that matter before you get knocked senseless.
I feel like a lot of cross-talk among shooter would be saved if we could see the obvious parallels between the action-oriented competitive shooting games and boxing. They're ritualized and abstracted. They don't have the same rules as a "street" gunfight. Most people who get serious about them are treating them as a sport. And, despite these limitations, you probably don't want to get into a gunfight with a GM in one of these games.
When someone decides to take up boxing, it would be very odd indeed to hear another chide them that "boxing isn't real," or suggest that they only practice boxing under "realistic" scenarios. Few people have any difficulty understanding the concept of boxing as a sport, in and of itself. Winning a boxing title isn't generally pursued in preparation for the possibility of a street fight - it's a goal in and of itself.
However, despite this abstraction from a "real" street fight, you generally want to avoid getting into a fistfight with a seriously competitive boxer. (The same might be said about wrestlers or football linemen.) Their knowledge of the rules on clinching won't carry over, but their hand speed and power will, as will their ability to slip or block your punches. They might be vulnerable to the kinds of grappling that boxing prohibits, but you're going to have to be very good at grappling and/or lucky to make that matter before you get knocked senseless.
I feel like a lot of cross-talk among shooter would be saved if we could see the obvious parallels between the action-oriented competitive shooting games and boxing. They're ritualized and abstracted. They don't have the same rules as a "street" gunfight. Most people who get serious about them are treating them as a sport. And, despite these limitations, you probably don't want to get into a gunfight with a GM in one of these games.
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