What puts the 'E' in E-sports? VR may have something to say about the notion that 'electronic' sports can't be physical, and could even further legitimize the growing field. Anyone remember Sports Champions (2010)? Essentially Wii Sports (2006) for PS3 using PlayStation Move, it featured a table tennis mode that remains, to my eyes, the greatest motion-control game ever published. It was the closest anyone had come to the dream of a ‘1-to-1’ sports game. In reality of course, you were just seeing the paddle on your TV, and there was plenty of assistance with each hit, even on the hardest difficulty. VR motion control changes all that. With a VR headset and controllers like Oculus Touch, your hands aren't abstracted on a TV in front of you, they're in your vision, placed exactly where you expect them to be. Sports Champions seems archaic in comparison. Project Arena, a work in progress title from CCP Games, is built for VR and motion controls from the ground up. The game pits two players opposing each other in a Tron-like environment. Each player has a disc in one hand and a shield in the other; the goal is to throw the disc and get it to strike the opponent without being blocked. I first went hands-on with Project Arena back in April. As you bring your body into the game, input becomes more human. If you want to swing a bat, you don't do it with the press of the button, you simply swing your arms in the same way that you would swing a bat in real life! This opens the door not only to factoring our real-world skills into the game, but also our physical ability. [gfycat data_id="BlackGraveApisdorsatalaboriosa" data_autoplay=true data_controls=false] Speaking with Project Arena Architect Programmer Adam Kraver, I learned how CCP is incorporating elements of spectatorship and physicality into the game, and how physical ability can be a major factor in match outcomes, much like we see in the world of traditional sports. This is only starting to become practical through improved consumer tracking technology. A prototype of Project Arena shown last year was a very different beast. At the time the prototype used a VR headset combined with a Microsoft Kinect for tracking. "[Improved input] has changed the concept in some ways," Kraver explained. "Specifically, with the tracked controllers, we have a lot more fidelity in motion for the hands. With the Kinect experience, you couldn’t turn your hand over, or accurately show that you were holding something; it was just this ghostly image. But with the controllers, you really get the sense of precision where you think ‘I can really get good at throwing this disc or hitting this specific spot’." [caption id="attachment_46407" align="alignright" width="325"] See Also: Hands-on - ‘Project Arena’ Aims for Competitive VR Motion Combat[/caption] Improving form and skill through practice is essential to any sport, and after a few rounds of Project Arena, I came away confident of its depth. It was clear how much more proficient I had become in a short space of time, and yet there was much more nuance in the technique left to master. "We actually have a Pro mode for [Brawl mode] too," Kraver revealed. "This takes the buckler [small shield] away entirely, so when you throw your disc, you have zero defense, and the game becomes a lot more strategic and you really have to concentrate on your timing and how your opponent is moving." Much like a traditional sport, high-level can be physically demanding. "...it’s got the rules and the structure of a good sports game. And the way you get better at it is by getting better physically," Kraver told me. "I had this amazing moment last year when I was playing with Callum [Underwood] from Oculus. He loved the original [Project Arena prototype] and played the hell out of it. He said ‘right I’m gonna kick your ass’ and as I built the original prototype I was like ‘whatever!’ So we get in there and we’re going at it, four or five discs at a time, and then I started getting exhausted. I ended up losing because he had more physical endurance than me, and that was a profound moment. I had actually lost because of my low energy reserves; I wasn’t thinking as fast and my game just crumbled! It makes you think ‘I’ve got to keep playing this’—I get up in the morning and wish this thing was out there because I would make this part of my morning routine. Get in, play 5 rounds of top-tier Brawl mode, come out with heavy breathing and a sweat, ready to get on with my day! So that’s why we view it as this true E-sport where physical proficiency makes a difference.” Continue Reading on Page 2... [caption id="attachment_46565" align="alignright" width="325"] See Also: VREAL’s Innovative VR Livestreaming Platform Feels Like Something Completely New[/caption] Without spectators, a 'sport' is just a 'game'. Playing to a crowd is a natural fit for E-sports, and it’s clear that CCP have paid close attention to satisfying the spectators in Project Arena as well as the players. "...we’ve got a couple of people in the Brawl arena and four or five of us in the studio ‘courtside’ as giants looking down on these little guys playing, and we all cheer at the same time—we know we’ve got something!" said Kraver. "I envision a day where you’re at the office and the world championship of Project Arena is going on and you pull out your Gear VR and watch the match, and you can’t wait to get home so you can enter the tournament yourself. So by focusing on the player as well as the spectator, we’re making an all-around compelling E-sport experience. It was great seeing everyone at Fanfest in line staring at the matches playing out on the big screen in the demo room.” But spectators aren't just watching to see how the score comes to pass; an element of traditional sports is the drama and personalities behind the players. Thanks to the expressiveness of motion input, players have many opportunities to come into their own. This is perhaps showcased best during the ‘knuckle-up’ sequence before each match in Project Arena, where both players are positioned close to each other, much like a boxing weigh-in. You can trash-talk and gesture all you like, and thanks to the capacitive sensors on Touch, your fingers get involved too (although I was unable to ‘flip the bird’!). "My favourite technique is to do an index-finger point at your opponent, then you stick your thumb up, and slide it across your neck and then with the other hand you knuckle-up to start the game. It really works, it’s very intimidating!” Kraver said. In Kraver's experience, people are primed for this sort of expression. It's something that traditional games have stifled because simply lack the available input to accurately convey the player behind the avatar. "People love to perform. I have a long background in motion capture; I remember in the late 90s, we had an electromagnetic system that could run in real-time, driving the game characters directly off the motion suit. The second you put anybody in that suit, they became some sort of diva, strutting around and posing!" said Kraver. "It’s exactly the same in my development space for Arena, where it’s like a hall of mirrors; you put anybody in there and they do all kinds of stuff, kissing their biceps, immediately performing—to themselves!” With an increasing number of elements that mirror traditional sports—competition, drama, expression, and outcomes dependant on physical ability—VR games like Project Arena could well blur the line between E-sports and actual sports, and VR gamers may end up burning quite a few extra calories in the process. Disclosure: CCP Games provided airfare and lodging for Road to VR to attend Fanfest 2016 where information for this article was collected.