SimGolf's Level Playing Green

Sorenstam's Got Game, in Reality and Virtually - as part of the Sunday New York Times Week-in-Review section, game designer Sid Meier demonstrates how his SimGolf game could be used to model a match between Annika Sorenstam, the first woman to golf with the male PGA players in 58 years, and Vijay Singh, who said that Sorenstam shouldn't play with the male golf professionals. Meier designs a course that favors precision, and then establishes two avatars modelled after Sorenstam and Singh. The results of their virtual matchup? More questions in the use of sports games, and simulations over all, to model and forecast human competition. In this case, gender retribution has a guest-starring role, arguing for the video game as a level playing field, where an amateur designer can make a course that caters to anyone's strengths.

Comments

[Bowler]

Better still, the article talks about how the main difference between the PGA and the LPGA is merely the distances for the holes. For me, golf (for real), shouldn't be about distance, but about accuracy. I'd really rather see the gap between the two leagues eliminated, and have courses that favor a blend of the two styles.

I mean, seriously, games like golf and racing really don't need to have a gender bias.

[jane]

the only sport i know of in which men and women compete equally are the equestrian events. (they also don't discriminate between mares, studs, and geldings!). are there any other sports or leagues in which men and women routinely compete against each other?

[nowak]

Motor sports are generally open to men and women. Granted, there aren't too many women racers out in the major circuits, but there are some.

Anyway, three holes is hardly a simulation and why this getting media attention is beyond me. If the Sim line of games was an accurate simulation of the real world, then more city planners would be laying out cities with a phallic-like street plan.

[daveatron]

nice bit of pr he kicked up there. of course, when motivation, antagonism, and other less measurable metrics are integrated into the simulation, it may make a little more sense.

[hyhy]

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