Despite my tongue-in-cheek take on gaming as a sport, both outlets share the ethical problems presented by doping. Last month, Gameplayer hitched an interview with Alex Walker, head of the World Cyber Games’ Aussie prelims. In countering drug use, Alex has few options.

That said, gamers can take all the drugs they like, as long as it’s not happening in the actual tournament area. Nobody has the budget to bring in any form of anti-doping agency, let alone keep it afloat or professional enough to adhere to standards that would make it reliable. The scene isn’t big enough or stable enough for any world agency to enforce it right now, let alone stop gamers from taking drugs.

When Barry Bonds et al. juiced their way to every significant slugging record in Major League Baseball, my anger was directed towards the endless denials. At the time, MLB rules didn’t prohibit their use. Had players admitted to using steroids and cited the lack of regulation, they would have been exonerated far more than “I didn’t do it” would allow. But does the gaming community care for a problem once reserved by athletics? It’s low on the list:

I think as events get larger the focus will still remain on cheating in the digital form. As things get larger, you need more people to referee the rules and one of the biggest issues with expanding tournaments is really the organisation of getting all those people together. Drugs simply aren’t on the radar, because there are so many other pressing issues to deal with. If one major event goes bust it could spell doom for all the others. Most major events rely on sponsors for capital and until these events become self-sustainable for the most part you’re not going to see people getting tested for dope or speed.

The majority of gamers won’t care about doping because their culutre of cheating revolves around hacking. Unless pills become more effective than an aimbot, the former will never affect them. And if they have no incentive to care about doping on their level, they won’t care if the pros do it. Compare to sports, where everyone who played at the high school level knew the ninth-grader with more facial hair than their own dad. (For me, it was my fellow freshman classmate bench-pressing two-hundred-and-sixty pounds at summer football workouts.) And while athletes have numerous opportunities to reap scholarships and financial benefits, professional gaming isn’t providing that incentive to anyone but the cream of their class. So unless gaming becomes hack-free, or professional gaming opens an untapped line of employment, expect this to be an important problem that no one will care about.