Why does Balamb Garden hate sport?

[Jiro]

The closest thing to sport that Balamb Garden has is the training centre which is used to fight dinosaurs. At first I thought it was because SeeDs don't have time to be fucking around with recreation given "The Mission" but they have a library and the Garden Festival, so I guess they're okay with cultural learning too.

But both Trabia and Galbadia Gardens have basketball courts, and Galbadia has a fucking ice hockey rink, and yet Balamb seems to hate it :confused:

[Loony BoB]

To be fair, T-Rexaur fighting does make Ice Hockey seem kinda tame and it clearly worked at making Balamb's SeeD extra-durable.

[Pumpkin]

As far as I can tell, Balamb started in order to train Squall and the others to defeat the Sorceress, because Squall is the one who came from the future and convinced Edea that he was the one to do it, so the training is more strict, I suppose? Tribia and Galbadia also train SeeD but they don't have the guy who started this whole thing so maybe they're a bit more lax?

Meaning, maybe Balamb's attitude is more "Go, go, go, we know Squall is the one who's supposed to defeat the Sorceress. Exercise should be done through training and fighting monsters."

And the other two don't have Squall so they add extra rec activities for their students?

I dunno.

[Jiro]

SeeD is Balamb only; Galbadian elite students join the military, and Trabian elite students join Balamb Garden to become SeeD.

I don't support this time travel stuff :colbert:

[Pumpkin]

I WAS JUST THEORIZING

For realz I think maybe whoever designed Balamb just didn't put a priority on adding in a soccer court or whatever.

[Shorty]

Clearly the solution here is to combine dinosaurs and ice hockey.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Maybe there are sports, and we just don't get to see them. I mean, it's highly unlikely that that entire school has one classroom, and yet that is all we get to see in the game.

Also, I like to think that all of the students are too obsessed with Triple Triad to care about sports. On an unrelated thought, I feel like the food must suck for the very best food that the school has is hot dogs.

[Jiro]

We're given access to a lot of Balamb Garden though, and there seems to be no sign of any sports. The closest thing to a stereotypic athlete that Balamb has is Zell, who is mocked for his energy and disposition. It wouldn't surprise me in sport was seen as too childish when compared to the battle training that they all do, but I'd've thought it would be an even better way to blow of steam without having someone cut your face off.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I guess that's true. I'll stick with the Triple Triad theory, then. I'd like to think that students have the option of going to the town of Balamb to play sports, but there are no sports there, either.

[Jiro]

I guess cultural education and pursuits are encouraged because they help you battle a sorceress? Maybe Cid is aware of Card Mod and that's why.

[noxious.sunshine]

Because Balamb is too busy training the students.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Maybe Cid just really hates sports and that's really the reason he bans such things as hover boards. That or NORG does. NORG seems like a sport-hating guy, and the faculty are kind of under his control.

[Jiro]

Maybe Cid just really hates sports and that's really the reason he bans such things as hover boards. That or NORG does. NORG seems like a sport-hating guy, and the faculty are kind of under his control.

NORG would hate sports, he's a gigantic blob of crap.

[noxious.sunshine]

NORG is a giant testicle.

He probably got hit too many times in dodge ball.

[maybee]

Balamb is too serious for sport. It may look fun and outgoing but it's most likely one of the most serious Gardens of the bunch. Though it does have a town nearby for Fishing.

[qwertysaur]

Triple Triad is Balambs sport of choice, along with Table Tennis and eating hot dogs.

[Depression Moon]

Galbadia had a tennis court too. I also agree it was probably because of NORG. Why is the guy's name in all caps anyway?

[qwertysaur]

He bought them

[maybee]

eating hot dogs.

They could have Hot Dog eating competitions during the summer, that counts as a sport i think

[Rantz]

They do all their sports in the bathrooms.

[Synoptikal]

Galbadia had a tennis court too. I also agree it was probably because of NORG. Why is the guy's name in all caps anyway?

A. Galbadia also had a hockey team!

B. Because you're meant to shout his name everytime you speak about him. It's very Fujin-esque.

[Lonely Paper Star]

Maybe Cid just really hates sports

Because he was probably always picked last for teams.

[Shiny]

Cid spends the school's money on cheap hookers and booze. That's why.

[noxious.sunshine]

NORG wouldn't give Cid funding for sports.

Like I said, he looks like a giant testicle.

The other Shumi probably made fun of him.

[supernaps]

Because Cid, is a terrible, terrible headmaster.

[Sephiroth]

Have you ever seen the Galbadia Ice Hockey Hall? There are Ice Hockey monsters. Who would watch a game there or play there? You need to take your weapon with you. Balamb is smarter.

[James_Cub]

Maybe there are sports, and we just don't get to see them. I mean, it's highly unlikely that that entire school has one classroom, and yet that is all we get to see in the game.

Also, I like to think that all of the students are too obsessed with Triple Triad to care about sports. On an unrelated thought, I feel like the food must suck for the very best food that the school has is hot dogs.

Ditto. To me it always felt like you only see half the Garden. You go from your dorm to SeeD dorm, you have one classroom, apparently there's a parking lot, which you don't see and you don't actually get to see the whole stage when they perform, so maybe the sports/rec area is hidden amongst the whole thing and the designers just didn't think to put it there. Plus, there's Triple Triad too, I mean, as far as we know the game is played around the world, but there's only one CC Club. One of the best sidequests ever in my opinion :)

[Ayen]

Budget. They have a training center with monsters and dinosaurs and a huge basement for NORG. Do you have any idea how much that would cost!?

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Perhaps it's because it was the first Garden created, and the later Gardens built in things that the original lacked?

I always wanted the option to swim in all that water you can see on the first floor. Though as others have said, it's probably just the fact that there's places in the Garden you can't see. You only visit the ballroom once for the dancing scene. You know it exists you just can't get to it when the event is over.

[supernaps]

I always wanted the option to swim in all that water you can see on the first floor.
Damn right; though to be honest, I've always wanted to have the option of "pee" in there. That could be some good Zell trolling Squall storyline with that.

[Iceglow]

Interesting points raised by this thread: What would Wakka be like if he was in Balamb fighting NORG? Dodgeball here we go!

Secondly if they did a HD remake of VIII I think they'd need to spend some serious time and effort making areas bigger. The towns, the Gardens, they all felt a little small. I mean sure places like Balamb were small towns but THAT small? 5 or 6 screens small? I'm guessing the small size of areas you can explore is because they clearly wanted to cap the number of discs off at 4. Not to mention, when going through places like Balamb Garden which you can do on any one of the discs they needed to include all that data + data of the other locations pertinent to the story and so forth.

[Jiro]

Seeing more than one bloody classroom would be great

[Aulayna]

Because it's full of nerds and nerds hate sport. Stereotypes.

[sir helix]

Just to ask... How the hell is selphie a soldier?