Sports Nerds Are Nerds Too

[yunabomb]

The injury rates discussion prompted me to think about the injuries and accidents I saw while watching gymnastics competitions:
Achilles tear
ACL tear
Knee cap injury
Fall on head (fortunately without injury)
Broken femur (it's pretty tough to break your femur)
Various other leg injuries

Maybe if he wants to see catastrophic, hope-killing injuries, he should pay more attention to gymnastics.

Too bad it's not a sport that would make a good videogame.

 

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Wow you've accomplished quite a bit at 29... color me impressed.

Spoiler: Also, how has nobody posted this yet?

 

[Angel Molina]

Wait... So if all that is true, then pornstars are sex nerds?

*My mind = Blown!* 0_o

 

[Falseprophet]

Injury rates for soccer are 6.2 per 100 hours of participation on average. Basketball is 1.03. Tennis 0.07. Weightlifting was down near the bottom at 0.0006.

Didn't say about Fencing, unfortunately.

Just for perspective, for how long does a weightlifter actually "participate" (i.e., lift weights) in a typical competition? Because an hour is about a typical match for a soccer or basketball player.

I'm sure weight-lifting is still way down there for injuries, even if only by virtue of the fact that you don't share space with 9 other guys jockeying for position.

 

[ascorbius]

There was a great article on The Onion a couple years ago about a guy who had 40 years of sports statistics for 3 or 4 pro sports just about memorized, who was mocking his neighbour's geekiness for being able to describe every issue of the last 40 years of X-Men comics. I don't think it's online any more, sadly.

Is this the same The Onion with the article of John Maddon eating an RV? http://www.theonion.com/articles/john-madden-finally-just-eats-rv,29842/

and this... http://www.theonion.com/articles/biden-unleashes-torrent-of-vomit-on-debate-stage,29886/

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I wouldn't call it roleplaying per see. All fantasy football is that you select an 11 man team and receive points based on the performance of the players in the matches they play in. While a knowledge of football and some knowledge of player performances would be useful, it is quite possible for someone with no knowledge of football to do well in a fantasy football league. And really the only "managerial" decision you make is changing your captain or subbing out players who aren't earning enough points, meaning you have to put anymore effort into it beyond that. Comparatively fantasy football is not as involving as roleplaying or D&D, though I guess it could be argued it is in the same ball park as them.

Yes, that's true - we're just talking about a group activity in which a player assembles a group of heroes (i.e., team) to embark on a quest (series of games) to defeat enemies (opposing teams) to earn a treasure (Super Bowl trophy) using statistics to represent that group of heroes' skill at various real-life activities (ability scores) and decide the outcome of encounters (games).

Nothing at all like role-playing games.

You can look at it like that but when I take part in a fantasy league all that happens is numbers go up based on goals scored, conceded, wins, defeats etc. ie. things that you have absolutely no control in. The only thing you can do is hope you get lucky. Technically I would consider fantasy football to more like gambling games such as roulette than D&D.

Now of course I don't understand much about D&D, but I do understand that dice can add the same type of random element as I describe in fantasy football. But if I understand the correctly the rolls of the dice are influenced by the attributes of the characters, something which is not present in fantasy leagues. Now I don't disagree that you could call fantasy football similar to roleplaying, however the point I'm trying to make is that games like D&D are much more complex and involving than these leagues. As such to compare them to something as basic as fantasy football could be considered more of insult to D&D games than to people who play fantasy football.

Now Championship Manager, Master League mode in PES, and Be a Pro mode in FIFA on the other hand, they are without a doubt role playing games, and quite in depth ones at that. I think they would be a better comparison with D&D.

 

[Erttheking]

Gotta say I didn't see this coming. Nice to see Yahtzee not insulting someone...or rather insulting everyone so that it levels out. That works too.

 

[Mike Fang]

"And went 'WHURRRRRGH' like a walrus that's just spotted a sinking herring trawler."

Oh God, must not laugh out loud or my coworkers will give me strange looks...XD

 

[maninahat]

I've heard this argument before, and yes it is somewhat right - sports fans are nerdy. But we are focusing on the similarities instead of the differences. By and large, people who are into sport play sports. People who play a lot of sport are more fit, and their hobby demands them to be more outgoing. There is a marked differences between a guy who sits at home painting his airfix, and a fullback who's a little too into his Madden. I'm generalizing of course, but you know I'm right.

There's no good in trying to tell a jock he is a nerd because he collects sports statistics, because he lacks almost every stereotypical quality associated with a nerd, something which I'm sure he'll explain to you whilst putting you in a bin.

CAPTCHA: "Exercise more".

Fuck off.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

There's no good in trying to tell a jock he is a nerd because he collects sports statistics, because he lacks almost every stereotypical quality associated with a nerd, something which I'm sure he'll explain to you whilst putting you in a bin.

I kind of agree, but it's not like the stereotypical qualities make or break the trait. I mean, if you look at it this way:

[Nerd; def.] 2. single-minded enthusiast: somebody who is considered to be excessively interested in a subject or activity that is regarded as too technical or scientific (often used in combination; offensive in some contexts)

anyone with any sort of hobby can be considered a nerd, because EVERYTHING has some 'technical' aspect, and calling something 'too' technical depends on how much interest you have in that particular area. For example, football (the American game, this time), is 'too technical,' in my books. There are an inordinate amount of players on the field, too many plays to make, or ways to change the plays on the fly, (Audibles? So, what, do I just shout at you?), not to mention you have two entirely different line-ups for offense and defense, and positions only exist in one or the other. It just gets RIDICULOUS.

I know that you weren't wholly disagreeing with the point, and, yes, because of the lack of the stereotypical qualities, a lot of people wouldn't see it, but taken in context, even lacking the stereotypes, you can't really successfully refute the argument.

Also, I'm not particularly worried about being shoved in a bin, because the jocks at my high-school were actually fairly well-mannered, (save for the few who were just complete d-bags), and I don't think an adult could get away with shoving people into bins.

CAPTCHA: Talk to strangers - they wouldn't shove me in a bin. Just into the back of a van. With no candy in it, despite the fact they promised me candy.

 

[grimer30]

I can't believe he used to have a hot tap in the changing room!

 

[Draconalis]

I remember one time, someone was insulting cosplayers, which promptly lead me to make this:

(No comments on how bad it looks... it's supposed to)

 

[Entitled]

I would say, that the subject of the obsession being obscure, or it's intensity discouraged by mainstream society, is also an important part of the nerd definition.

In this sense, wearing a football T-shirt or being really excited about the upcoming big game are not particularly nerdy traits, (though neither is recognizing a Star Wars reference, or knowing what a Tardis is).

On the other hand, memorizing the whole membership and long term track reckord of several dozen football teams, or being enthusiastic about the upcoming national women's lacrosse championship, are both as extremely nerdy as memorizing the list of all Battlestar Galactica episodes, or being excited about the next MLP episode.

 

[Mahoshonen]

Another way sports fans are as big of nerds as the rest of us-tribalism! My cousins are huge White Sox fans and they love talking smack about the Chicago Cubs and their fans, a team the Sox will play only 6 times a season. On the other side of town, Cubs fans are always sure to mention what a crappy ballpark U.S. Celluar is. And on AM Radio, 'Screw the Packers' is the regular mantra of callers during the fall (and pretty much the rest of the year, too).

 

[Proeliator]

I have to say, the gap already has a bridge over it. I know a few gamer/DND nerds who also happen to be sports nerds for American Football. Enter quote from Fantasy Greg, "What? Fantasy Football is still fantasy!"

OT: But Yahtzee, the FPT has no right to exist!

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

I play a bit of tennis and it's true that the only reason I would bother playing a tennis videogame is to find out how close the visuals/physics are to the real thing. And ultimately it would only hold my attention for a few minutes before I got bored after finding out that it's nothing like the real thing (and how could it ever be ).

Question - can what Yahtzee said apply to games about musical instruments as well?

For example I love playing guitar (shredding mah Ibanez for 5+ years). I played Guitar Hero 2 for about ~30 seconds on the friend's console before saying out loud "dude this is fucking stupid. The controller is stupid. And the crowd is boo'ing at me for not being able to play the same song that I have mastered on a REAL fucking guitar!!"

So ultimately a game about what I'm supposed to love has completely turned me off the game. And you'll find similar opinions from 95% of other guitar players who have tried their hand at Guitar Hero and found out that it was aimed at actual guitar players as much as it was aimed at horse-riding enthusiasts (i.e. stay the fuck away from it if you actually play guitar).

Video games are great for achieving unattainable fantasies (e.g. killing dinosaurs with lasers, killing Nazis with an M16, etc) but with fully ATTAIANBLE stuff like playing sports or music instruments, how the hell can people invest so much time into games instead of the instrument/sport itself?
Do you realize that a soccer ball is cheaper than the game itself? Or that you can get a nice beginner guitar for the same price as Guitar Hero + controller? And to learn a real guitar you don't even need to get off the damn couch!

It's a question directly aimed at you Mr Croshaw, you Guitar Hero nerd you

 

[kwagamon]

Another way sports fans are as big of nerds as the rest of us-tribalism! My cousins are huge White Sox fans and they love talking smack about the Chicago Cubs and their fans, a team the Sox will play only 6 times a season. On the other side of town, Cubs fans are always sure to mention what a crappy ballpark U.S. Celluar is. And on AM Radio, 'Screw the Packers' is the regular mantra of callers during the fall (and pretty much the rest of the year, too).

Because gamers NEVER get into feuds like that. I mean, look how very little enmity there is between Ps3, Wii, PC, and XBox360 users. It's VERY rare to find a member of any of these groups who actively hates members of the other groups purely based on that affiliation.

Anywho, I think the big gap in thinking comes from the fact that a much more sizable quantity of sports nerds are in VERY good physical shape, so they view themselves as superior, so their hobby is thereby superior to your hobby, so those that wish to emulate them sing that hobby's praises, and then they've basically fooled themselves into thinking they like it based on the hobby's own merits and go on and indoctrinate more this way. Not saying there's no such thing as a sports fan who likes the sport based on the sport's merit, in fact there's a lot of them, but there's probably a definite chain of events you could trace here.

EDIT: Also, the jab at bronies made me sad. At least I think that's what he was getting at.

 

[SycoMantis91]

I'm a sports nerd and proud of it. I play Fantasy sports (well, american football, the other ones require too much daily tracking and adjustment), I wouldn't say as much D&D as say League of Legends. You go in and compete with others, drop and equip players, you can sit idle and not accomplish nothing, but if you go in and manage your experience, you're much more likely to get better as a player, and literally through points or stats in the game.

 

[Darth_Payn]

What's this? Yahtzee saying nice things about people who like different things? Well shut me down! Wait, he didn't mention fans of JRPG's, did he?

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Another way sports fans are as big of nerds as the rest of us-tribalism! My cousins are huge White Sox fans and they love talking smack about the Chicago Cubs and their fans, a team the Sox will play only 6 times a season. On the other side of town, Cubs fans are always sure to mention what a crappy ballpark U.S. Celluar is. And on AM Radio, 'Screw the Packers' is the regular mantra of callers during the fall (and pretty much the rest of the year, too).

Because gamers NEVER get into feuds like that. I mean, look how very little enmity there is between Ps3, Wii, PC, and XBox360 users. It's VERY rare to find a member of any of these groups who actively hates members of the other groups purely based on that affiliation.

Isn't he saying that tribalism is one of those things they have in common with us other nerds? I mean, correct me if I read that wrong but "as big of nerds as the rest of us" seems to imply it's a nerdy thing that we do as well. Which we do. Though admittedly, not as rapidly, we don't beat up opposing team supporters or riot we just post long detailed scorn ridden posts on the internet.