Can "e-sports" be considered true sports?

[Eric Staples]

I consider them more of a game, like Chess or Poker. That said, both are played competetively and get media coverage, so I don't see why gaming can't be considered as well.

Because, being competitive or getting media coverage doesn't make something a sport. I can play basketball outside, by myself, with no competition or media coverage, and it would still be considered a sport. Again, having competition or media coverage does not make something a sport nor do sports require those things.

 

[sosolidshoe]

No they aren't. Sport is sport, it involves running around competing with people. Same way motorsport isn't a sport, it's motorsport.

Why take two really useful terms and combine them into one much less useful term? Why does calling games Esports make them more valid?

How about just calling it professional gaming, or even competitive gaming, or tournament gaming?

Not that I'm the biggest fan of it, but what is the real difference between men competing over how fast they can traverse a distance on foot, to men competing over how fast they can traverse a distance in a vehicle?

In addition, your point makes little sense. It's isn't a sport, but it is a motorsport, which would seem to directly contradict the first statement. Further, you imply that prefixing "sport" with "motor" grants legitimacy through delineation, so how does the same not apply when prefixing "sport" with "E-"?

A sport is an organised activity which features codified rules and competition, and as this particular aspect of gaming meets that definition, it can absolutely be considered a sport. Evidently, sitting on your couch at home with a couple of mates playing Tekken is not a sport, but then neither is kicking a football around in your garden with a couple of mates a sport, yet nobody will contest that Football(soccer) is a sport.

Also, that Destructoid article is lol-arious; first because it labours under the weight of the writer's numerous and evident logical fallacies, and second because it's hypocritical in the extreme - whinging loudly about people who whinge loudly, especially as the initial whinging was the direct result of a deliberately provocative, even trollish, article that YOU posted on your site. Couldn't make it up

 

[Mad1Cow]

Is chess a sport?

There's your answer. I don't know why you'd want it accepted as a sport though. Even when comparing such things as rugby(football for you yanks) and hockey, hockey will be compared as the lesser sport because the injury rate is lower and apparently it isn't as manly. So how do you think e-sports are gonna fair?

That said I'd like to see the injuries you could get at e-sports...mostly RSI I'm imagining...maybe a broken nose from face-planting the keyboard...

Hockey may have a lower injury rate than rugby, but it's got to be higher than American football -- because fights are so common, if for no other reason. Rugby and football are somewhat similar, but they're really very different sports, and people tend to get injured more often in rugby -- although the injuries in football tend to be more serious. If hockey is seen as a lesser sport in the US, it's because it's Canada's main sport, kind of how Cricket is mostly a UK thing, and both American football and Baseball are primarily American (although Baseball may actually be more popular in Japan than it is in most of the US these days.)

Really, though, those of us in the US don't see it as any lesser of a sport than football, it's just that football is hugely popular as a spectator sport here, and hockey is only moderately popular. It's made worse by the fact that people don't actually have much chance to play hockey in large portions of the country, due to a lack of frozen lakes in the Winter. Unlike football, which can be played anywhere with a large enough field, and basketball, which can easily be played indoors, hockey requires ice, which is in short supply down south, and keeps most high schools and colleges from having teams. Without those teams, people don't grow up playing it, and they really don't care as much about watching it. I mean, I never played an organized sport in school, but I still played plenty of pickup games of football, and I played a few baseball games in P.E., but ice hockey? I've never played it in my life, and I don't think I know anyone who has.

By Hockey I was referring to regular Hockey. See, ice hockey does exist over here but like you said it needs an ice rink or a frozen pond. Since the UK stoppped having freezing ponds we play Hockey on astroturf (plastic grass) or in sports halls like basketball (the former more then the latter though). Instead of a puck and ball is used and it's roughly the same rules after that.

Also it must be a UK thing here then since everytime I said I played hockey and called it a sport I'd get laughed at and then people would respond "HOCKEY ISN'T A REAL SPORT, RUGBY IS A MAN'S SPORT!" (in pubs, bars, out and about etc). So my point was that if Hockey get's that kind of ridicule compared to Rugby how do you think E-Sports are gonna fair? Though on reflection I didn't know if this was the same situation across the pond or elsewhere...

 

[C2Ultima]

Wow, I'm seeing quite a lot of varied opinions. I didn't know there was such a wide range of opinions about it.

 

[Idocreating]

I don't see gaming as a sport because it's frankly not a sport. It's a game.

Think of any Sport that involves a team that competes against another team. Hockey, Football, Rugby, Tennis. The list goes on. Those are all Sports. They're also Games.

 

[Kryzantine]

I don't see why certain gaming competitions can't be considered sports. Sports don't have to be athletic in nature, and I would consider certain tasks that involve arduous mental thought to be sports. Poker is an excellent example of a sport so arduous mentally that its lack of a physical aspect should not prevent it from being considered a sport - playing thousands of hands while staying on the top of your game for hours and hours, and not breaking down into tilt is much, much harder than people think it is. Players reach levels most people will never reach in their lifetimes, daily. Isn't that what being a sportsman is about?

A game like Starcraft, which requires you to stay at the absolute top of your mental game for extended periods of time, constantly changing strategy and playing the logistics game with your opponent, it's the same thing, really. Just because you're not running around doesn't mean that you aren't putting your body to the test, you're still doing things most people would never be able to do. Same with shooters, fighting games, even a few MMOs. I'd call EVE Online a sport at this point, one waged by bankers and entrepreneurs rather than athletes, but a sport nonetheless. It's even got its highlights already.

 

[StBishop]

No they aren't. Sport is sport, it involves running around competing with people. Same way motorsport isn't a sport, it's motorsport.

Why take two really useful terms and combine them into one much less useful term? Why does calling games Esports make them more valid?

How about just calling it professional gaming, or even competitive gaming, or tournament gaming?

Damn you ninjas. It was almost word for word too. You even used motorsport. (Which has a much greater claim to sport than Esport ever will, have you been in a race car?)

Oh well.

OT: No it's not, it never will be. Gaming is awesome, it's hard, it's great, it's well suited to a similar business model to many sports. It's still not a sport.

Where's the physical contact in E-sports? There is none? then it's not a sport.

Maybe if it were some kind of virtual NFL game.

Running is a sport.

I agree with your idea, but your argument sucks.

 

[Nouw]

Chess is a sport, why not video games?

Snooker and table tennis are sports, surely atleast SC can be too

I can let you off snooker but table-tennis isn't any less of a sport than tennis.

It's chinas national sport afaik

I see the point you're making. Was kinda vague the first time.