In the article “Cybersport”, written by Dennis Hemphill, it is argued that videogames should be considered sports to some extent. He includes the evidence that videogames can reproduce the reality of sports by imitating their social and physical aspects through computer animated graphics and communication through the internet. However, I think that the mere fact that videogames only mimic these aspects of sports leads me to believe that they should definitely not be considered sports at all. In my opinion, sports are primarily based on face-to-face physical and social activity, and when videogames only mimic this activity it causes them to become the opposite of what my definition of a sport is, which is based entirely on physical and social activity. Eric Moody backs up my argument that technology does cause us to be less sociable which supports my main argument that the fact that videogames do not consist of face-to-face social interaction makes them the opposite of my definition of a sport. This argument leads to another proposal made by Moody, that by causing people to be less sociable, the internet, or in this case videogames, can actually harm a person’s psychological well-being. I also agree with this argument and think that it helps to prove my argument as to why videogames should not be considered sports.
According to www.dictionary.com, a sport is defined as, “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”. This definition emphasizes physical action/prowess, and the fact that video games either require little to almost no physical activity whatsoever goes against this definition and causes me to think of them as just a game or pastime and not a sport. Even though game consoles that allow you to somewhat control the game with your movements, such as the Wii, are available now they still do not require people to give as much physical exertion as the actual sport would give them. For example, I know from personal experience that when you play baseball on the Wii console you can sit on the couch and just swing your arm to hit or throw the ball. You do not have to run or even stand up for that matter when playing. You also do not even have to know how to hit or throw a ball in real life to be able to do it on the Wii.
The fact that you do not have to know how to hit or throw to play a baseball video game applies to any other game console as well. For example on the Playstation or X-Box consoles, which are controlled strictly by handheld controllers with buttons and joysticks, you would only have to hit a button or move the joystick a certain way to be able to hit or throw a ball. Examples of these controls can be found in the following link. Controlling instructions of MLB '09 The Show. This link shows how to control everything on the videogame “MLB ’09 The Show” on a Playstation 3 controller. A picture of the controller is shown below, and as you can see the controls could easily be done by anyone, and anyone could become good at this game after a little practice. However, in a real baseball game you would need special physical skills to be able to hit a ball coming at you at 90 mph or to throw a fastball at that same speed. The fact that video games do not require you to know how to perform any of the physical activity that would be required in a real game/sport causes me to disagree with Hemphill’s argument that video games should be considered sports.
Another reason I disagree with Hemphill’s argument is the fact that video games do not require face-to-face social interaction. Hemphill argues that video games do encourage social interaction when being played online with others. However, this type of interaction is not the same as face-to-face interaction that is a major aspect of sports. There have been many studies as to how playing sports can improve the social lives of people. Playing sports with other people face-to-face can improve ones social well-being by helping them make friends and actually interacting with other people in person. Video games cannot do this because, even though you can talk to other people online by using a headset, it is not the same as actually being with them and having face-to-face interaction with others. The following pictures help support this argument. The first picture shows kids playing soccer, socially interacting, and actually spending time with other people, whereas the second picture is showing a boy sitting by himself playing a video game. The fact that video games help to isolate you from other people can ultimately damage your social well being which could, in turn, damage your psychological well-being as well.
The same argument, that was mentioned previously, is made throughout the scientific paper “Internet Use and Its Relationship to loneliness”. The author, Eric Moody, does an experiment that concludes that excessive use of the internet can cause “negative effects on psychological well-being.” He also states that the negative effects of internet result from two factors which are the displacement of social activities and “strong ties”. I completely agree with these statements and believe that they can also apply to video games. I think that a person who plays video games excessively is much less likely to participate in social activities and to have strong ties with other people than a person who plays an actual sport with or against other people, and this loss of social interaction could definitely result in negative effects of a person’s psychological well-being.
The fact that Hemphill can argue that videogames are sports is very extreme to me. I believe that a sport is an activity that requires physical exertion as well as social interaction with others in a face-to-face manner. To me, the fact that videogames only simulate these actions would cause them to be excluded from the sport category. They require little to no physical activity and no face-to-face social interaction. Also, as Moody argues, the internet, or in this case videogames, can cause a person to become more dissociated from others. This could in turn lead to feeling left out, being unhappy, and other negative effects on their psychological health. This is the opposite of what I think real sports can do for an individual. I believe that a sport can broaden a person’s social life by introducing them to new people and places whereas a videogame could never do that. Therefore, by having a positive effect on their social well-being, sports would lead to a positive effect in their psychological/emotional well-being as well by helping them to feel accepted into a sports group or team.
