Organized competitions, teams, regular salaries, cash prizes, fans - welcome to the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL). Are video games a sport? That is the question raised by Gloria Goodale in an article published in The Christian Science Monitor (link below). The competitors regard themselves as athletes and as being engaged in sport. There are no sticks, no balls, and the competitors might not even break a sweat (or if they do, it may be more likely that it is due to being in poor physical health).
Chess, poker, hot dog eating, skateboarding, golf, baseball, figure skating, swimming, soccer/football, video games - which of these are sports? What do you think?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0808/p13s01-alsp.html
5 comments:
Love this question. I've been thinking a lot lately about whether geocaching is a sport.
Following Guttmann, I've always used his typology of play/game/contest/sport, where the defining characteristic of sport considered as play is its physical aspect.
So by applying that rationale, chess and poker would simply be games; physical video games (certain Wii games would seem to qualify) might be considered as "sport."
Surprisingly (to me at least), hot dog eating would qualify as a sport. There is a very significant physical aspect to competitive eating, including breathing techniques etc. not unlike that seen in e.g. competitive biathlon shooting. So I would find it hard to deny that hot dog eating isn't a sport . . but it's hard for me to swallow (!) the idea that competitive hot dog eating is fundamentally a form of play.
I would be curious what people think about geocaching. Is geocaching a sport?
What is Geocaching?
the wiki article on geocaching is decent
Indeed, Download Games, online or video games, no matter how you call it, are considered sports. An active pastime; like chess, basketball games, etc, make our mind engage to be more competitive. Practice us to hand and mind coordination. In addition to that, online games have rules like any other physical sports have...
Depending on the video Games, if those can be considered sports. There is obviously a game like Wii Sports is a sport. If the game requires motion, that can be a sport.
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