Video games a sport?!?

Yes, visa fall into the law category .

The person who mentioned darts:

Funnily enough, I think darts is classed as a game, not a sport, same with pool and snooker. You would not refer to any of those pros as sports people.


Is competition level gaming sport... Well I'd call it Esport yes.


Is it conventional sport.. Obviously not.

Are Esport players sports people, no way.


Does it matter.. I don't think so.

I think the "sport" part refers to competitive play.

Not to athletics.

If that were the case then literally anything from beer pong to pictionary is a "sport"

What about chess then?

A board game most definitely does not qualify in my books. I don't even consider stuff like running, swimming, and weight lifting to be "sports" because it is just competitive exercising rather than an objective based game but they obviously deserve to be called athletes. We could go on for days debating whether darts, pool, bowling, automotive racing, etc are actually "sports" but the word sport is synonymous with "athlete" and a high percentage of esport competitors are the furthest thing from athletic.

and sports has included the gaming scene to its definition.

I think the gaming scene has tried to label itself as a sport, not vice versa.

Most sport are just games, too. Chess is also widely considered a sport and it is probably even less physically challenging than most video games.

I guess you can make nearly everything in a competition and therefore a sport.

This plays a role, too. Although in a different manner. Of course people think about football (and American Eggball), the Olympic Games etc. first when talking about Sports. But just because less popular sports like curling, polo or whatever do not come to the minds of people that quickly, this does not mean they are no sports.

Well football does require some form of athleticism. Even the fat lineman, since they are all incredibly strong and have more physical endurance than a large portion of "fit" people. Polo might not be very popular but I don't think many people would contest it being a sport. As far as curling goes, personally I think its just a game and I'm sure a good debate could be had about it. But I'm not out to define everything as a sport or not, but when people want to refer to video games as sports and the players as athletes then I think it is pretty easy to draw the line there.

I actually think sport is super general, and can include practically everything.


What your talking about above is team sport. I would certainly call all athletics sports, just not team sports.


Motor sport, is defiantly sport (of sorts). Just not the same as more athletic sports.

I race mountain bikes competitively, which does not fit into your team and tactics definition of sport, but it is most certainly sport to me.

So just like motor sport has its own name, I think esports should just stick to its own terminology.

I'll tell you what, I get more stressed out playing this game than when I played volleyball, basketball, softball and in dart tournaments for money.

Videogames aren't a sport, give me a break. Is Chess a sport?

SNOOKER!

A game without exercise is not a sport, is only a hobby.

Videogames are hobbies. They may require skill and ability, but making model aeroplanes requires them too and isn't a sport.

Then what about U.S.A acknowledging e-sport athletes to be sportsmen?

Then what about U.S.A acknowledging e-sport athletes to be sportsmen?

The USA is run by colossal idiots these days, their opinion is void.

What? Ofc it's a sport.

I play it exactly because it gives me the same feeling and sesation as a physical sport.

Why - I even sweat, if that is an indication.

A game without exercise is not a sport, is only a hobby.

Videogames are hobbies. They may require skill and ability, but making model aeroplanes requires them too and isn't a sport.

Some people play games professionally so it can't be considered a hobby for them.

It is a sport, it is a new type of sport, an e-sport. It does not have to adhere to the same definition as sport.

The goal is to make e-sports as recognized and respected as regular sport but as wifidi pointed out that is hard to do when the trend changes.

Sport (or sports) is all forms of usually competitive physical activity which,[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators.[2] Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only two participants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.

Hence the term esports exists , placing more focus on other less physically related abilities , although physical has kind of a flexible definition .

What? Ofc it's a sport. I play it exactly because it gives me the same feeling and sesation as a physical sport. Why - I even sweat, if that is an indication.

If clicking is causing you to sweat, you should probably reduce your rigorous esport training regime.

We dont want you to have a heartattack of over exertion or damage your fingers from pushing buttons.

Perhaps you should try and train your clicking physique at a less challenging level, say for example, Hello Kitty Online?

What? Ofc it's a sport.

I play it exactly because it gives me the same feeling and sesation as a physical sport.

Why - I even sweat, if that is an indication.

Well, masturbation is a sport then. Makes you feel good and makes you sweat.
I'm relieved.


Not, seriously, if playing CoH makes you sweat that's the best indicator that it isn't really a sport.

That last sentence didn't make sense.

But lol@ pocket-pool being a sport.

Yes Chess is a Sport, but video games are not.

Sports cannot have 'element of luck' specifically designed into them.

As most games use some sort of Randomly generated Numbers and/or use randomly generated values to determine outcome, therefore it cannot be classified as sport.

However there is no policing or punishment that enforces or prohibits someone calling themselves sportsman or referring to the video game as sport.

As such its a can or worms and no one can be right or wrong, the parameters are not defined well enough to disprove anything as sport definitively.

Things like attending school can be classified as sport, but video game cannot by parameters (because of RNG)

If you think sports can't have an element of luck, you've never played a sport competitively before. Show me one definition of sport that excludes activities with elements of randomness. You won't find one, because it's bullshit.

And school = sport? What? A sport is an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc. (Source).

Just because a term has ambiguous bounds doesn't mean anything can be applied to that term. I don't think the title of competitive gaming is important. It doesn't matter if you call it a sport, or esports, or whatever else you want to call it. It just matters that it's a legitimate competition with a level of difficulty comparable to traditional competitive activities, many of which are traditionally classified as sports.

A sport is NECESSARILY a game. A game is not, in turn, necessarily a sport.

A game must have some sort of competition --against someone else or yourself-- and must abide by a set of rules. If these rules are disregarded, then it stops being a game.

I agree with what Riddler said, there are practical connotations from a realistic point of view, but those things won't necessarily make it a sport or not. If the Olympic Comittee wanted to declare Starcraft an Olympic sport, then yes, it would be an Olympic Sport (if only by definition).

Not going to get into academics, but there are strong discussions comparing war or even "laws" to a game. They follow absolutely all the core tennets of a game. They are not sports though (and war is arguably VERY athletic and competitive).

It's a label, with VERY broad definitions and consequences. Some traditional, some radical, but it really doesn't matter if it advances the gaming culture since in the end: videogames AND sports are about entertainment.