Is Video gaming a sport

[Mormolyce]

You don't get grass stains on your knees so it's not a sport.

[RoninaThorstone]

You don't get grass stains on your knees so it's not a sport.

I think we had the same Dad.

[Mormolyce]

Never heard of e-sport?

An e-sport is a sport as much as an e-peen is a penis.

[Fencers]

The English language lost all credibility when it added "bling-bling" to its dictionary.

Language is malleable and ever changing. The boon of English is the integration of new forms of speech & communication.

It shouldn't offend the 20th century reader/speaker that bling-bling is listed in the Oxford anymore than "flapper". Or the still hotly debated origin of the word, "jazz".

Reflect on that for a while.

[RoninaThorstone]

Reflect on that for a while.

/Reflects
+10char

[transorD]

according to the wiki definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport
It is

"Sport is all forms of competitive physical activity..."

Stopped reading with the first line, and I completely disagree that this should include video games. Ok, I lied, I kept reading, but I didn't really need to. The entire opening paragraph constantly uses the word 'physical.'

For me, sports are activities that require exertion and control of the muscles in your body to perform well. This can be running with a football or using the correct force on the curling stone or wrestling some other guy to the mat. Yes, there's is brain power at work here, but it all comes down to executing physically.

Games, on the other hand, are activities that force your brain to work, like chess and video games. Yes, you do have to put in some measure of physical movement to accomplish these things, but it's a less important factor than knowing what the right thing to do is.

[Blueobelisk]

General rule of thumb: A sport involves some sort of ball like object where there is no limit to the score potential. (I'm looking at you bowling).

[Fitzgerald77]

Sport: An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.

So.... No.

As someone else has already stated, there is a difference between sport and competition.

[Redblade]

General rule of thumb: A sport involves some sort of ball like object where there is no limit to the score potential. (I'm looking at you bowling).

List of Olympic sports 2016:

archery
badminton
basketball
beach volleyball
boxing
canoe / kayak
cycling
diving
equestrian
fencing
field hockey
golf
gymnastics
handball
judo
modern pentathlon
rowing
rugby 7s
sailing
shooting
soccer / football
swimming
synchronized swimming
table tennis
taekwondo
tennis
track and field
triathlon (swimming, biking, running)
volleyball
water polo
weightlifting
wrestling

But hey only 12/32 is sports according to your rule of thumb, and that's including badminton.

Furthermore, The governing bodies of following sports, though not contested in the Olympic Games, are recognized by the IOC.

Air sports *
Auto racing * (provisional from December 2011)
Bandy
Baseball2
Billiard sports1
Boules1
Bowling1
Bridge
Chess
Cricket
Dance sport1
Floorball
Golf (will be part of the 2016 program)
Karate1
Korfball1
Lifesaving1
Motorcycle racing *
Mountaineering and Climbing1
Netball
Orienteering1
Pelota Vasca
Polo2
Powerboating *
Racquetball1
Roller sports1
Rugby (sevens will be part of the 2016 program)
Softball1, 2
Sport climbing
Squash1
Sumo1
Surfing
Tug of war1, 2
Underwater sports1
Water ski *
Wushu

If the international Olympic committee recognizes chess and bridge...

[Fencers]

"Sport is all forms of competitive physical activity..."

Stopped reading with the first line, and I completely disagree that this should include video games. Ok, I lied, I kept reading, but I didn't really need to. The entire opening paragraph constantly uses the word 'physical.'

And the second paragraph reads:

Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,[3] and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.[2] However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports,[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.[1]

How can you cite a written encyclopedic explanation when unwilling to recognize and leverage the entirety of the article?

The defense of words includes all words, even the ones we don't like.

[Adam Jensen]

I really don't think Bridge or Chess counts as a sport, no matter what the IOC says. And golf is questionable too.

Yes, they take skill, but they don't require any physical exertion.

[Pandamists]

Esports, It's not physical but it's just as competitive. So... yes, yes it is.

[Coombs]

Have you seen some of the events at the olympics recently? They are complete jokes and if they pass as a sport then competitive games definitely are.

[Sj]

I really don't think Bridge or Chess counts as a sport, no matter what the IOC says. And golf is questionable too.

Yes, they take skill, but they don't require any physical exertion.

Idk, I'd consider golf a sport. That shit is tiring if you go 18-holes.

[Nirawen]

My problem with calling gaming a sport isn't so much the lack of physicality but more a problem with deeming it a sport simply because there's an aspect of competition. If that's all an activity needs to be viewed as a sport then thumb wars is a sport, basically any activity where there's a winner is a sport. I just think there're more things to be considered, you can't really draw a line with a simple description of a sport without certain activites being out of place which is why sporting organizations have to state which they recognise in the first place.

I personally don't count it as a sport.

[skrump]

It's what I consider an imaginary sport just like Golf,Nascar,Archery,hunting, while they share some similarities with Real sports they don't however force you to push your body to it's physical limits in order to win, so in my opinion pingpong is more of a sport than the ones I mentioned above.

But yeah real sports not only require one to have endurance/stamina but they also help one to increase their capabilities is those area's.

[Flaks]

It is a competition, not a sport. And yes, there is a difference.

One of the few /threads I could agree with.

---------- Post added 2012-11-28 at 06:04 AM ----------

Have you seen some of the events at the olympics recently? They are complete jokes and if they pass as a sport then competitive games definitely are.

Name a single game in the olympics that could be considered a bigger joke sport than gaming.

[degstar]

Videos games are sport.

BY DEFINITION!

also the arguments that "x" isn't a sport is silly. Just because you feel that something isn't sport because the exertion on the game day is not that of other sport doesn't make it not a sport......

[VincentWolf]

No it is not, games are for FUN and it's a real pity that developers keep forgetting about that in most, if not all, online games.

[Unionoob]

it is not sport as classical sport, it is E-Sport.