I just want to preface this blog by saying that I'm a pretty big gamer. I consider myself to be in the echelon of hardcore, but probably at the lowest tier. I've certainly played more games than today's young gamers going as far back as the days of Atari personal computers. I play many different genres, and I spend tens, sometimes even hundreds of hours, on my favorite games. The only thing that I don't really do is play games competitively.
With that said, I do respect and acknowledge that gaming has a true competitive spirit. eSports is getting larger and larger every year, expanding across the globe with new genres and venues being added. As with anything that expands, so does too the amount of money involved and the audiences that speculate. For the past several years, professional gamers have been trying to get their hobbies and professions acknowledged as sport, also trying to get their "sport" into the Olympics.
This is no new debate. This has come up a few times before and you would think, even though I'm not a professional gamer but a hardcore gamer nonetheless, that I would be thrilled for my passion to be honored and recognized as an Olympic event. Unfortunately, no. I cannot give credence to the idea that playing video games should ever be an Olympic event, let alone even a sport. I feel those who do have lost themselves too far in their virtual realms. Olympics have, are and should always be a competition of athleticism. In order to participate in athletic sports, you need to be an athlete.
Merriam-Webster defines the term athlete as such:
: a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina
Now, think about what a gamer does. They sit in a chair, hold a controller and press buttons. Or, they move a mouse around and type into a keyboard. That is hardly athletic. I'm racking my brain here, but I cannot for the life of me find anything athletic about gaming. I guess people who really want to stretch the term will say that it requires stamina to sit in a chair for hours on end and play a game. Yes, it does require stamina, but usually because you are NOT moving, your body cramping up and trying to keep your head from dipping. Sitting still is hardly a physical activity and if using stamina to not fall out of your chair is really the argument you want to go with, congratulations. You're putting world record holding taffy stretchers to shame with the definition you're stretching.
So, let's discuss a few common arguments I've seen for gaming being included in the Olympics.
There are tons of events in the Olympics that aren't athletic!
Ok, let's take a look at all the official Olympic events for 2020.
Summer
- Aquatics
- Archery
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Baseball/Softball
- Basketball
- Boxing
- Canoeing
- Cycling
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Field Hockey
- Football
- Golf
- Gymnastics
- Handball
- Judo
- Karate
- Modern Pentathlon
- Rowing
- Rugby
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Skateboarding
- Sport climbing
- Surfing
- Table tennis
- Taekwondo
- Tennis
- Triathlon
- Volleyball
- Weightlifting
- Wrestling
Just for the hell of it, I'll list official Olympic events for 2018
- Alpine skiing
- Biathlon
- Bobsleigh
- Cross-country skiing
- Curling
- Figure skating
- Freestyle skating
- Ice hockey
- Luge
- Nordic combined
- Short track speed
- Skeleton
- Ski jumping
- Snowboarding
- Speed skating
Now, going through the list, I can think of maybe three things that arguers will try to use to validate gaming as an Olympic event. I'll start with Equestrian. I will admit, I've always been puzzled by this as an Olympic sport. At the surface, it doesn't seem like there's much athletic about equestrian but if you take just a couple of minutes to research what it involves, your perception will begin to change. For starters, riders need to be at peak physical condition in order to pull off their skills while also being in control of a 1,000 pound animal. You also can't weigh 300 pounds and expect to have a good performance on a horse. Riding is taxing to the body, and that's where the fitness comes in. The more fit you are, the more control you have over the horse. Equestrian just seems like an odd choice for an Olympic sport because there's an animal involved but rest assured, it's far more physical than gaming.
Shooting also doesn't seem like it would be all that physical. That is, until you think you can do it and pick up a rifle, fire it and dislocate your shoulder. Aiming is easy in gaming. You just point your mouse and click. But shooting... you're holding a gun steady, pulling a trigger while keeping your gun straight, and bracing it when it kicks back. And you do this over and over. It's a physical exertion to your body while firing guns in video games just isn't. Although hand and eye coordination is required to be an excellent gamer, the level of coordination you need to be a skilled shooter is on a completely different level.
Then, there's bobsledding. Some people might think, "How is that athletic? All you do is push a sled down a hill!" I'm not going to even debate this one. I'm just going to suggest to anyone who doesn't think bobsledding is athletic watch Cool Runnings. Bobsledders go through a hell of a lot more than you think they do.
Oh, there's a fourth people might try to argue: curling. Well, I don't really understand the sport, but all it takes is just watching what they do to understand why it's athletic. You need full body control to glide that stone down the ice while in a lunge position, and you need full body control to skate and push a broom without being clumsy and running into your teammates. All these events, regardless of what you think of them on a personal level, are FAR more physical than gaming.
Olympics is a sports competition! Ever heard of eSports?
Yes I have, but I also understand why it's called eSports and not sports. A sport is something that's physically demanding, and this ties into what I wrote about earlier with athleticism. Just a quick Google search of the definition of sports yields this:
noun
plural noun: sports
- 1.an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
What, exactly, is physically exerting about gaming? We're back to the chair example here. If you feel exhausted because you've spent a few hours in a chair, tensed up from not moving your body, that's not exactly the same kind of physical exertion as someone throwing a ball to another player or lifting 500 pounds. Again, if you think the physical exertion a gamer feels is the same as an actual athlete, you're getting a few evil looks from those taffy stretchers....
So no, gaming isn't a sport. That's why there's an e in front of Sports. eSports needs to be its own division, separate from sports. Gamers calling themselves athletes because they are playing eSports are delusional and need to come back to Earth. If you still insist eSports being sports just because the word sport is in it, then I'll assume you believe virtual reality is reality just because the word reality is used.
So no, gaming isn't a sport. That's why there's an e in front of Sports. eSports needs to be its own division, separate from sports. Gamers calling themselves athletes because they are playing eSports are delusional and need to come back to Earth. If you still insist eSports being sports just because the word sport is in it, then I'll assume you believe virtual reality is reality just because the word reality is used.
Well, if NASCAR is a sport, then gaming can be a sport!
This one makes me facepalm all the time. Clearly, the people who use this argument have no idea what a driver has to endure when they're racing. True, it may not seem like a sport since all they're doing is sitting in a car driving around in a circle, but let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen a fat NASCAR driver? Neither have I. You know why? Because they all have to be fit. You need to be strong in order to be able to control a roughly 3,300 pounds of car fighting you at every moment.
You're also inside a closed environment where temperatures exceed 100 degrees. Drivers can actually lose weight after racing from just sitting in those conditions for hours at a time, up to four pounds if they don't stay hydrated. Put any gamer in a NASCAR car for a couple hundred laps and see if they don't pass out. Plus, you also need to be fit to pull yourself out of a burning car should you be unfortunate enough to crash.
Chess is in the Olympics! Gaming should be, too!
Except, it isn't. I don't really know why or when gamers started believing this. Committees have applied several times for Olympic inclusion, but just applying for something doesn't make it so. Although some consider chess to be a sport, it's really more of a mind sport. This designates it separately from actual sports just as the "e" does in eSports. Apparently, a committee has also been trying to get bridge into the Olympics. Tell me, honestly, with your gamer bias aside, do chess and card players really have any business alongside physically fit athletes? If you say yes, I'm sorry, you still haven't controlled your bias.
But, the Olympics is about competition! Gaming is very competitive!
True, gaming is competitive. Very competitive. So competitive in fact that some of the world's best players win millions in tournaments. There is no question that gaming is competitive, but just because something is competitive does not mean it deserves to be in the Olympics. There are many competitions out there. Should singing be an Olympic sport? Gardening? Baking? Hell, beard grooming? Are you telling me that just because you believe something is competitive, it should be in the Olympics, so you'd be happy if beard grooming became an Olympic sport? If you truly believe that, I'm sorry, but you're just blowing smoke.
There HAS to be a standard. There HAS to be a solid line that keeps certain competitions out of being included in the Olympics. The Olympics was created as a competition for athletes, and should always remain so. A certain level of physicality should be required in order to be considered an athlete and thus an Olympic athlete and again, nothing about gaming has anywhere close to the level of physicality the Olympics demand. Well, unless your discipline is Dance Central...
There HAS to be a standard. There HAS to be a solid line that keeps certain competitions out of being included in the Olympics. The Olympics was created as a competition for athletes, and should always remain so. A certain level of physicality should be required in order to be considered an athlete and thus an Olympic athlete and again, nothing about gaming has anywhere close to the level of physicality the Olympics demand. Well, unless your discipline is Dance Central...
What's it to you? Why do you care?
Ok, so this one isn't really an argument, more of an inquiry on the validity of my opinion. Why should I be bothered? It doesn't affect my life in the slightest, so why try to argue against gaming being included in the Olympics? Well, I've always been one to believe that things should be called what they are, and I dislike lines being blurred by people who wish to alter definitions in order to fortify their beliefs. I dislike people deluding themselves.
Ironically, the passion that I have for gaming that SHOULD be cause for me to rally behind the inclusion of gaming in the Olympics is the same thing that's causing me to voice my opposition against it. I love gaming. I love being a gamer. I love my gaming community. I, however, simply cannot see gaming being a valid Olympic event because I feel it's insulting to actual athletes. Gamers get scrutinized all the time for various reasons and we are at a constant struggle to reaffirm our hobbies and lifestyles against a plethora of different stereotypes. Unfortunately, there's a fact of being a gamer that we are helpless to combat against when it comes to the world's perception of us: we're static. Everyone in the Olympics are not. If we as gamers want to be taken seriously, we need to stop trying to put ourselves in places we simply don't belong.
Ironically, the passion that I have for gaming that SHOULD be cause for me to rally behind the inclusion of gaming in the Olympics is the same thing that's causing me to voice my opposition against it. I love gaming. I love being a gamer. I love my gaming community. I, however, simply cannot see gaming being a valid Olympic event because I feel it's insulting to actual athletes. Gamers get scrutinized all the time for various reasons and we are at a constant struggle to reaffirm our hobbies and lifestyles against a plethora of different stereotypes. Unfortunately, there's a fact of being a gamer that we are helpless to combat against when it comes to the world's perception of us: we're static. Everyone in the Olympics are not. If we as gamers want to be taken seriously, we need to stop trying to put ourselves in places we simply don't belong.
Now, there's also another reason why gamers, both virtual and board, should not considered athletes: our activities put us at no physical harm. If you've ever watched the Olympics, both Summer and Winter, you've no doubt seen at least one injury during competition. Pulled muscles, torn ligaments, broken bones, cuts, scrapes, bruises. Some athletes don't even make it to the games because they injure themselves in training just trying to get there! Hell, athletes have even lost their lives in the Olympics! What risk of physical injury is there in gaming? Carpel tunnel?
So, I think I've illustrated my opinion as clearly as I can as to why gaming should not be included in the Olympics. Don't view this as an attack on gamers, because it isn't. This blog isn't meant to put aspiring gamers down, nor is it to discredit all the hard work and training that professional gamers go through. I am not invalidating any of that. I recognize and understand all of that. I'm just saying that gaming isn't a fit for the Olympics, and that should be perfectly fine to understand. If the Olympics wants to make a division solely for eSports and call it eOlympics, that would be perfectly acceptable, but to say that a gamer, someone who may never have a run a mile in their lives, are just as able to obtain the same kind of medal as say, Usain Bolt who had to overcome scoliosis just to be able to train, is laughable. Downright laughable.
So, I think I've illustrated my opinion as clearly as I can as to why gaming should not be included in the Olympics. Don't view this as an attack on gamers, because it isn't. This blog isn't meant to put aspiring gamers down, nor is it to discredit all the hard work and training that professional gamers go through. I am not invalidating any of that. I recognize and understand all of that. I'm just saying that gaming isn't a fit for the Olympics, and that should be perfectly fine to understand. If the Olympics wants to make a division solely for eSports and call it eOlympics, that would be perfectly acceptable, but to say that a gamer, someone who may never have a run a mile in their lives, are just as able to obtain the same kind of medal as say, Usain Bolt who had to overcome scoliosis just to be able to train, is laughable. Downright laughable.
