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Yeah, "real sports participants" there are already way more gamers then "participants". In fact gamers are proven to be in better shape than non-gamers. probably due to the fact that we don't eat out and waste time watching other people exercise. I've got way more time to work out at home and I don't need to watch sports when I can compete with racing professionals online or against other skilled gamers.
If you like both, you'll want to see the Windward Code War this Saturday. Top universities are fighting using artificial intelligence. Should have video at: http://windward.net/code_war.p...
Great article, I definitely don't agree with the title but I can without a doubt say this was a good read ;)
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Video games are not better than sports, and sports are not better than videogames. I find sports entertaining. I also find videogames entertaining. It does not benefit anyone to devote time to perpetuating stereotypes of people. Just because you like sports does not mean you are a jughead and just because you like videogames does not mean you are a non-social and overweight.
What you've done with this article is perpetuate irrational, elitist prejudice.
Nobody forces you to watch sports, and the fact that you look down upon people who value a certain form of entertainment over your personal favorite, well, that's just not very decent of you.
I think if you personally play the sport you get a sense of how hard what they're doing is and you gain a certain appreciation.
neither watching sports nor playing video games is productive. people just have different ideas of what is fun. don't judge
Wow, you must really take my comments to heart. This article is fucking dumb. You're just some fat faggot who was always picked last in gym class.
I think it is fair to compare the sports from a fan's perspective, however comparing the 2 sports relative to the player's perspective is incredibly unfair. I LOVE my video games, especially competitive ones, but the only people who look down on sports are fat kids who don't want to sweat and would prefer to move 1 hand and a few fingers to improving their body and lifestyle.
"I agree, at least I participate in video games, but I will never play for the SF Giants"That is a pretty bad analogy, thats like comparing your local mens recreational soccer league to playing for SC2's pro SC team IM.
This overwrought and way too long article seems to be based on the faulty premise that watching sports and playing games are not activities that a person could possibly both enjoy, and possibly for different reasons entirely!
This is likely very obvious, but sports are popular not only because they play off hetero-normative connotations of gender, i.e. "If you like sports you must be a powerful man like the powerful men playing the sports," or play to socialized conceptions of attractiveness, i.e. "Look at the muscles on him/her! They couldn't possibly be a douche in real life, such that I would like to date them!" but also because it's easy for people to fantasize about playing sports for real, and by that I mean, professionally.
The guy shooting hoops in his driveway, even if he's an absolutely crap shot, and couldn't run up and down a court five times without stopping to stoop over for breath, can *fantasize* about being able to play the game quite easily just by picking up that basketball. There's an amazing amount of self-deception I've found in men who plays sports at the amateur level (I can't speak to women in this regard).
I understand sports fandom kind of like nationalism. I generally don't give a shit about sports but when the Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals, I was psyched, because MY CITY might win. Like that has anything whatsoever to do with me, or provides any kind of minuscule reflection on who I am. Of course not. It's preposterous. Just like nationalism...
Watching sports, IMHO, is also no less an exercise in fantasy than watching Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Imagine if WE were the hero!
And, finally, there's the whole gladiatorial combat thing. Watching human beings punishing each other, sometimes brutally, speaks to us on a deep, primal level. We're all just savages at heart. ;)
...and this concludes today's session of Nonsensical Polemic Editorializing 101.
I watch sports. I love them. Think I'm a jughead for it? By all means -- you're entitled to think what you want.
Sports can be really beautiful and inspiring. These are people who are either living their dream, or chasing it. So more than (like Dennis said) fantasizing about their physical abilities, it is inspiring to watch people work so hard for things they want. And for what they love -- they are tangibly "living the dream." In college sports, I feel connected with them when I follow a player from enrollment to graduation, and begin his or her journey onward. Maybe that connection is false, but how is it any MORE false than being connected with a fictional character?
Also, I shoot hoops a lot, and I don't have ANY fantasy about going pro. It is just nice to work as a team for a common goal. Anyone who plays sports on a non-professional level isn't just cheating themselves, they can be doing it to make staying healthy fun. Or to challenge themselves.
And Dennis, talking about someone who sucks at basketball deceiving themselves by imagining being famous in a VIDEO GAME comment might be deceiving himself. That's called escaping, bro. And there ain't nothing wrong with it.
Sports can be very intellectual. People who don't follow sports closely think using "sports" and "intellect" is ludicrous, but it really isn't. There is an enormous amount of acumen involved in beating an opponent -- from player to coach. It is both gutsy and cerebral. In football, if you understand the whole process of playcalling, scheming, and execution, offensive and defensive coordinating, watching the games can be like watching a debate. It's beautiful. Thrilling, with immediate results. Eleven humans creating a mechanism to overcome a different eleven-human mechanism, there's actually a lot of mental chess behind that. Which is why sports fans aren't just hot-dog chugging bums. There is cultural value in it.
The movie When We Were Kings made me appreciate Ali as a boxer and strategist and human being. But then I realized that there will never be another human being like him so I don't ever have to watch boxing again.
There's a difference between escaping and delusions of grandeur. :) What I'm referring to is the preposterous nature of someone who played a sport in high school pretending he or she has anything in common, or any meaningful connection, with someone who plays a sport professionally. The analog would be someone playing Gears of War who actually thinks they could save the world from a rampaging alien horde. I don't normally get that from gamers.
I think you're right that sports can be intellectual in the sense of strategy and tactics, but that's all the potential sports have for higher-order thinking. Comparing football to a forensic exercise is a real stretch, but okay. :)
Dennis I don't think you know anyone who plays sports. Most people who play sports don't have the delusion of going pro...even scholarship athletes generally know they aren't going pro. This idea that most people who play sports decieve themselves to think they can play professionally isn't accurate at all. ALL athletes know that you have to be supremely fucking great to be on the level of a pro.
It's called an aspiration. It's far fetched indeed but it's not impossible, unlike your gears of war analogy which is.
That's my point. They don't have anything in common, not really. One of them plays a sport, and the other pretends to play it.
Being a person means you have something in common with another person. What's wrong with that?
Also, I don't think THINGS have to be high-minded to be good. They can just be. And that's awesome.
Funny article, Gus. While I think that you can't really compare the experience of playing sports to playing video games, it is hard to see the difference between a sports nerd and a video game nerd.
Otherthan real sports participants actually socialize IN PERSON (GASP!) with others. And aren't 50 pounds overweight from sitting on their worthless asses all day chugging Mountain Dew and eating cheetos.
I agree, at least I participate in video games, but I will never play for the SF Giants, WHO ROCK BTW! Just saying, people say video games are a waste of time (well some ill informed A-holes say that) but the guy who spends more money then I do on games on jerseys and tickets is no better. That being said, sports are great, and I think that competitive anything is good in general. Of course, Starcraft 2 will never make it into the olympics, but shuffleboard! Hell yeah.
