Interstellar Olympics-analog

A story idea that occurred to me is of Exactly What It Says On The Tin. Essentially the Coalition (effectively the Federation) holds an event analogous to the Olympics, but the actual game(s?) is effectively e-sports in a Matrix-level (but safer) virtual reality, and the species hosting the game(s) is the one tasked with designing and programming the current iteration of the simulation used for it. As such, the exact object, rules and environment of the game vary from one version to the next, but tend to be more combat-heavy than the terrestrial Olympics. I’m torn between the hosting species being forbidden from having a team and instead having their score determined by how the hazards and enemies in the simulation hold up against the other contestants and that species getting a team like the others but in exchange there are rules about how the simulation can be designed.

My primary thought is that the species designing the simulation would potentially have a major advantage over other species: Their contestants may well have access to the simulation during development, allowing them to develop skill with it before other species have a chance to do so.

And on a planetary scale, how feasible would it be to prevent this?

It would be completely impossible to prevent misuse of this power. Even if the programmers are forbidden to participate (which IMHO also misses the point of the olympics - prestige), they can still program in advantages. Like, imagine one species is capable of flight and so the designers make an obstacle course that is much easier if you can fly.

It would be vastly fairer to simply have each nation contribute programmers to an international club that makes the games, and each host nation gets to pick games from a pool, and a gimmick. And just like most real e-sports, gets to host the players in a big stadium.

Why does the whole thing need to be re-programmed anyway? That seems like a real waste of time. Shouldn't the host species simply have a admin interface which allows them to design the games, but not the program, which can have safeguards built into it.

It's not really how games work. You would need to fix bugs and exploits, which requires writing code. Any sort of functionality, even something as simple as a scoreboard, would require writing code. There's really no way around the fact that E-lympics would require someone to do programming, which makes it vulnerable to manipulation.

Not seeing it. How would it be conceptually different from how people design their own games on Roblox?

Because accurately programming in the anatomical abilities and capabilities of ALL those difference species combined, required WAY more work and code than a simple "game" like that would demand.

Realism is hard work to pull off.

Edited by TitanJump on Jan 25th 2022 at 5:34:40 PM

I have no idea how roblox works. But unless it's abandonware, it would still require updates to fix bugs, maintain compatibility etc. You could build a big sandbox like Garry's mod or hell even Minecraft, but you would still need to make sure it doesn't have bugs. The moment you want a new block in minecraft, you pretty much need to program.

The only real way to avoid any programming would be if they maintained specifically a set of ancient computers with untouched programming, but also every bug and exploit is still allowed. You would not be able to allow any interfacing with this or it could all be hacked in a heartbeat.

Edited by devak on Jan 25th 2022 at 8:25:35 PM

Why would the host planet have to do any of that? Don't they have the interstellar equivalent of the Olympic Committee?

Edited by DeMarquis on Jan 27th 2022 at 5:18:08 AM

Judging by the initial ask, no