Video games are NOT sports!

Video games are in a completely different category than sports, so it is really odd for some people to want to call them a sport. Games and sports can both be hobbies and careers, and they both involve a lot of coordination, practice, and focus- but their core elements are very different. Games are typically played with a controller of sorts which is connected to a screen on which the game is played on, and most are played while stationary. Sports typically involve various objects, whether they are balls, bats, racquets, etc., and involve a lot of movement and physical activity. Most sports need a lot of space in order to take place, while games can be played in a small room.

However- there are some video games that do require quite a lot of physical activity, and some of those are a bit of a grey area. Stuff like Wii Sports or Wii Fit doesn't really count, since the movement there is limited, but games such as DDR do involve quite a bit of activity. DDR is closest to dancing, which I do believe is a sport- it involves a lot of physical movement and concentration, as well as a lot of timing and rhythm. I still don't believe that DDR itself is a sport, but it is very possible that some games in the future will require physical exertion similar to that of major sports. DDR was just an example of the somewhat grey area in this topic.

Games can definitely be competitions and can be played in tournaments, much like sports can be- but overall, they are way too different from most major sports to be actually labelled as a sport.

 

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, professional gaming is called esports.

 

No. Just because something is a game played competitively, doesn't mean it's a sport.

 

Yeah gaming is definitely not a sport. Doesn't mean that its lesser when people take part in tournaments and such (even though I wish some of the competitive people would chill a bit, they can get quite nasty occasionally)
I mean; gaming was designed for entertainment but we decided to make it competitive as well. Probably because that seems to be in the nature of people, win or lose, and who is better than the other.

And while DDR is a pretty active game, I think Dance Central is more like dancing, as it involves your entire body, and you aren't limited to a square board. There's another game too but I forget the name of it. (Though I wish dance central would just. Release more songs in a single game instead of making multiple games. Its got a great system it just needs to quit it with the whole small pool of songs per game.)

 

I'm thinking that the one you can't name is Just Dance.

 

True. video games are not "sports". They are "eSports".

If we are talking about definitions, the definition for eSport is "Electronic sports (also known as eSports or competitive gaming) is a term for organized multiplayer video game competitions."

eSports have been declared to be legit "sports" on some degree. Only thing really separating Sports and eSports is, as you said, physicality. But lets look at the other aspects that are identical with "sports".

Huge viewership: Check
A lot of well organized teams, with hundreds of hours of practice on their field A.K.A professionals: Check
Multiple forms of competition. Real time strategy, Fighting games, First person shooter and Multiplayer online battle arena A.K.A MOBA: Check
Sponsors and Bets. Huge amounts of Money: Check
International: Check
I cant come up with anything different besides "physicality".

And if i were to really fuck a dot here, There is a difference between "a Sport" and "a Competition", which suits bit better to eSports.

Anyway "eSports" are still no lesser to "Sports". League of Legends tournament got bigger viewership than The World Cup last year Internationally.

The difference between Sport and an eSport is the same as Mails and eMails. Both function as well, but other is just electronic.

EDIT: Also i love how you marginalize gamers. Keep up the good work.

 

Let me throw out here some different wordings of definitions for some of these key words:

Sport: Recreational activity. Something that does not contribute to society, but passes time and is generally fun, an inherently has a winner and loser at the end of its event.
(You with me so far? Good, let's keep moving forward)
Athlete: Person who participates in a sport (see above) as a source of income or other secondary reinforcement.

So, a football player can train all week to do something that other people do for fun, only if he does well in it, he gets to take home a paycheck. He is an athlete.

But if a gamer can train all week to do something that other people do for fun on the condition that he gets paid if he does well in it, he's not an athlete?

Both people are doing a recreational activity better than other people do it, and are paid for doing it, and don't make their income (or just make less of it) if they don't do that recreational activity the best.

The only -- ONLY -- way that sponsored gaming does not make a player an athlete is the physical activity part. In which case yeah, there's no way gaming is a sport. But that one non-essential word in the definition of sport is the only catch.

 

Going to clear up some of my definitions. Notice how I say "My", not "The". You see, things aren't as rigid and as inflexible as you're insisting they are. There are multiple definitions to words, more than one way to skin cats.

By this definition of sport, there will be, by the end of the task, a person or group who does and who does not meet a desirable criteria on which a reward or better reward might be based. You show me a musical competition in which a participant does or does not get income or a reward, and I'll argue that the participants in that event are vocal athletes or somesuch. Same for "Mathletes" who compete for a scholarship, they're trying to be the best at this thing so they can earn a reward. On the other hand, people who have a solid recurring gig with an orchestra that performs every other week or who do showtunes at the same restaurant a couple of nights a week aren't trying to out-perform anyone. They're doing what they do without competition and without the risk of someone else "beat" them and taking their rewards.

As for income and you saying that I considered high school athletes et cetera to not be athletes since they're not being paid, I mentioned "or other secondary reinforcement". In psychological terms, secondary reinforcement is defined as a reward that means nothing on its own, but may be traded for things that do have meaning. Money is secondary reinforcement, since you can use it to buy food and shelter (otherwise known as Primary Reinforcement), but without things on which to spend it, the paper rectangles and metal circles mean nothing. Athletes also perform for popularity or fame, either of which means nothing until the spender uses those to gain friends, happiness or more opportunities to gain more secondary or primary reinforcement.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make things confusing, or rely on a particular context. Confusing things never become illuminated once discussed, and context is entirely unimportant in debate. But isn't this the reason why this is in the "Debate" forum, not the "Lecture" forum? You give your title to the thread as a stated fact, not as a question to be elucidated, which makes me wonder if it's worth talking about this at all.

 

Personally, I can't even fathom how this is even a debate. Video Games are not a Sport. I can live with the term eSport, but that's about it. I can understand that a lot of games are competitive, but they aren't sports. You can't get a concussion playing a video game (unless someone hits your over the head because you kicked their ass).

Here's a review on this from ReviewTechUSA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8rXrbe7Qck

 

Even something like DDR, Wii Fit, Kinect games etc. aren't sports because in most of those games, it's just a self-workout. Yes, it counts as exercise. Yes, it's a video game. No, it is not a sport. Whomever originally thought of video games as a sport must be extremely unproductive, relatively illiterate, or both. Video games are entertainment, and as such, they classify as a hobby.

 

Sport (N): An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.


An activity involving physical exertion- One Ever play Dance Dance Revolution? That requires ALOT of Physical Exertion. Particularly on the hard songs.... And some people can get VERY physical when it comes to games. There is also the Gamercise for the Playstation. It's called Exergaming.

skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.- Video games take both individual skills as well as team skills, especially in multiplayer mode. And you can play against others for others entertainment....

Therefore your definition of Sport can be applied to video games.

You might not see games as sports but you should also respect other peoples opinions on the matter. My best friend lost 60 pounds playing Dance Dance Revolution. If you can loose weight playing a video game it should be considered a sport. Particularly when the person is competing against someone. I won 600$ just playing Dance Dance Revolution at an arcade .

Okay, You need to learn a little think called respect. Saying that someone is "extremely unproductive, relatively illiterate or both" is just just disrespectful. Particularly when it is their own opinion. No one has the right to put down someones opinion. If a person sees video games as a sport that does not mean you should basically say they are stupid. The only type of person who is "extremely unproductive, relatively illiterate, or both." are people like you who feel the need to insult someone for their opinion, particularly when the opinion can easily be argued as true. This type of argument can be argued forever. Neither side is going to win. That doesn't make either side wrong or right. It all has to do with opinions.
[Mod Edit: Do not double post. Thank you.]

 

I'm not insulting. The definition is right there. Definitions are based on facts, not opinions. If any language were to be 100% opinionated, we'd all speaking our own tongue. English would cease to exist. Spanish would cease to exist. French would cease to exist. We'd all have our own opinionated language. I see no coherent argument from you to what I've said, other than you claiming I'm "disrespectful". That couldn't be further from the truth. The topic here is video games and sports, not how to type in a way that pleases everyone and their grandmother.

 

I think you're giving games WAY too much credit.

 

I'm only going to assume this regards the controversy of Heroes of the Dorm and so forth.
Now I get your firm stance here and yes Video Games are not a "Sport"
Now no where in your argument do you bring up "ESports". Video Games are ESports, which are Electronic Sports. Now the whole reason this controversy started was due to people tweeting about how airing a Video Game tournament on ESPN was inappropriate as it was not a "Sport". People forgot that Chess, Poker, and more are not sports, and yes the E in ESPN stands for Entertainment, thus why those kind of events are aired on ESPN. Nobody ever bats an eye or complains about those events because they don't involve any form of controversy. Video Games have always been used as a way for people to argue about something. I mean literally some tweets were just ridiculous, one lady even went as far as to say ESPN was airing the problem with obesity in America. Video Games are not sports, they are Esports, anyone who says its a sport, you should ask if they are referring to Esports or not, otherwise no they are not a sport.

Also I like how the pictures you decided to use have no inclusion of any actual Esport gamers, at any events, only random google image pictures to make it look like Video Games make people completely stupid.

As for the coordination argument, i don't even know why that's even an argument, yea you got your teams wearing headphones communicating with one another, but why in the world would coordination be an argument to begin with?

As for the competition aspect of things, besides the fact that there are professional gamers and such, the comparison people make is the fact these professional gamers just like athletes get sponsors, coaches and legitimate practice before big events. That doesn't mean that Video Games are sport, they just use that argument for comparison sake.

You lack some information in your opinion and argument, and at one point, felt I was reading an article from a soccer mom only because of the random pictures that doesn't relate to the argument at hand.

 

Basing your argument around the definition of "sport" is a weak point. To some extent, I do agree that video games and sports are different, but the word "sport" has many different meanings.

If for example, we were to take the definition of sport regarding recreation, then video games would undoubtedly be a sport. Another definition of the word simply states sports as contests with specific rules that competitors must follow, which also would easily encompass video games. Let's not even begin to consider the variation of the word regarding sexual interaction, as I'm scared to start a debate on the accuracy of that.

I personally view the idea of sports as separate from athletic competition. Bowling, for example, is a sport, but it is not a sport of strength or physical exertion, as your definition states. It is almost purely based on skill, as I learned after I was beaten by someone with half my age and even less of my proportional strength.

So is bowling not a sport? No, bowling is absolutely a sport. It's a sport that may be a part of the Olympics in the near future, in fact. My point is that your definition is a flawed base to form your argument from when there are so many more valid points to be made in opposition to the very basis of your argument.

Really? Because I'm pretty happy that it's debatable. Video games require skill and precision, as well as strong mental capability, in some cases. How many athletic events can claim to be focused more on the mind than on pure physical ability? Very few can.

I don't think video games and athletic competitions should be viewed in the same way, mainly because they are completely different sorts of competition. You wouldn't set up a fashion show with a judging panel of basketball coaches. You wouldn't have stylists go and try to coach a basketball team. These are both competitions of a sort, but each are a part of a separate world of competition. The same goes with video games. Athletic competition and video games shouldn't be compared in similar ways because they are simply so vividly different.

 

Nothing you just said made any sense, whatsoever. How is saying that anyone who believes that Video games are sports are basically stupid not being rude and mean? You were being very insulting and nothing you say can change the fact that what you said was very insulting. There are many people who do consider video games to be sport. You can even turn the definition of sport and apply it to MANY video games. There are also MANY definitions for the word sport.

Sport(v): to amuse oneself with some pleasant pastime or recreation.

I'm pretty sure video games are considered a pleasant pastime.

Also I don't know how you were raised but I do know that I was raised not to insult people just for their opinion or belief.

You should probably learn that as well. Because one day you might say something like that to someone who wouldn't even hesitate to punch you in the face.
People get insulted very easily and that little comment about people who think video games are sports are "extremely unproductive, relatively illiterate, or both" would definitely insult someone. Good people avoid insulting people.

Saying that someone is stupid for believing video games are sports is just like saying someone is stupid for believing in god. Or believing that gay marriage should be legal. Those are both things that everyone and their mother would argue about all day long. So as my grandmother once said "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all."

Or maybe you just aren't giving games enough credit.

I'm just saying the definition of sport can easily be applied to games.