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Sports Videogames And Sports - Symbiotic Or Parasitic?
Thanks to CNN Money for their column discussing whether sports themselves are helped or hurt by the increased popularity of sports videogames. The author argues: "You've got to wonder if sports leagues are sleeping with the enemy embracing video games. Youth participation in sports is declining, as is overall viewership of sports on cable and television by the targeted group." The NBA's licensing director also mentions a perceived change in attitudes: "In the past video games wanted to look like TV. Now TV wants to look like video games." Although the leagues argue "the [video] games can spur participation and viewership in the [real-life] games", the CNN columnist isn't so sure, concluding: "The leagues may not have a choice but to try to embrace the video games. But the video games' popularity isn't a long-term win for the sports themselves."
It's not cheap to buy into the league, give up time for the kids, check up on the coach to make sure he's not a child molestor, peddling steroids, or administering cortizone injections.
On the otherhand, $50 bucks every couple of years for a console little Timmy already has, which keeps him docile and occupied for hours on end without the need for direct supervision, pretty freaking cheap. A game which a middle class parent might have to shell out for anyway, to keep up with the Jones' pop warner or not.
The things that the game has added that look like a video game don't come from video games, but from the same demands. We all want to know exactly what happened, and have a common set of information with which we can form our own opinions, and we want it to be there at our convienence. It makes it easier to enjoy the game if some of the finer and more esoteric points are blatently spelled out for you. If everyone wanted to spend years learning something so they could enjoy it, we'd all run linux.
I've always disliked sports games. I tend to think, if I want to play sports I'll go outside and play sports. I never saw the point in playing a game-of-a-game.
Now it seems like there's no point in playing sports when you have the game!
For instance, American Football is a sport which is known for tactical depth and rule density.
In addition to the NFL, I'm a huge fan of NFL Europe (arguably a bigger fan of NFLE than the NFL). On online fora (web boards and mailing lists), I've encountered large numbers of people (mostly under 20) in the UK who became fans of the sport thanks to playing Madden. The game allowed them to get into the rules and understand the strategies, which is a critical part of becoming a fan of the sport.
I broke my jaw two years ago while in a Tae Kwon Do tournament
Dude, it's a martial art. "Martial", as in fighting. I think it's sort of amusing (except for the guy getting hurt) when people who engage in this sort of sport are surprised about injuries.
I fenced in high school--there was a particularly gruesome accident in our city HS league, where some girl was hit in the mask by a guy using an old foil; the blade had metal fatigue, and snapped when he lunged at her, broke, and drove straight through her mask and out the back of her head. Now _that_ was awful.
Now I do kendo, and regularly get beaten black and blue, armor notwithstanding--I'd hate to break or otherwise fuck something up, but it's just sort of part of the game. My father played handball for a long time, and I think he's had his knees rebuilt several times over his 60 years.
Sports can hurt (although it'd be nice if they didn't.) I can understand being wary of a particular sport if it causes you pain once, but it's sort of a shame if you completely cut it out.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
These two are totally unrelated. I love how the media will pick out all BAD aspects of society and blame it on games. Kids nowadays are just lazy. It's much easier to sit on your rump and play video games than it is to go find friends to play with. It's sad but true. If more kids are sitting at home playing sports games rather than going out and playing sports themselves because of this "gaming link", wouldn't the same twisted logic say the violence that the kids are participating in as they play their games would lead to a decrease in violence in society? Yet instead games are blamed for the violence. So by this logic again, playing sports games should lead to an INCREASE in kids playing sports.
Kids are out of shape and lazy. That's the simple truth. Don't try to blame it on games. Blame it on the parents who feed their kids fat and calorie laden food with no veggies, the parents who say it's ok to stay inside and play games for three or four hours a day and then watch another three or four hours of TV each day.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Sports games co-exist with other forms of sports entertainment. In the same way that a person may now go to a bar to watch the game, or throw a ball with their kids, or read Sports Illustrated, they may also now play the videogame. One could just as well argue that adults read the sports page instead of watching the game. If a college kid is playing a round of NBA Basketball between classes, that is not going to prevent them from playing in the intermural sports teams after dinner.
Videogames are now irrecoverably part of the sports ecosystem, the same way that radio broadcasts created sports heros and television broadcasts created the instant replay.
Lumping all videogames together in this article is unnecessary, and shows a lack of understanding on the part of the author. It's as if supporting sports gaming implies the support of Deus Ex. He doesn't say how non-sport television shows doesn't do anything but hurt... Or how bars that don't show the game are contributing nothing to the cause.
Honestly, professional sports is on a slow decline in this country because they are out of touch. While most kids are skateboarding, rock climbing, and doing other physical independent activities, sports broadcasters have stuck with the idea that large traditional team sports will always be the ideal. We're moving away from a team-oriented society, to one where individuals and very small groups work with a great deal of autonomy and specialized knowledge to achieve their ends. A weekly x-games show would probably be a hit with the ratings, but the chance to do such a thing has passed by the broadcasters (again) because of their lack of vision.
They might receive more sympathy, if professional sports weren't prohibitively expensive. Certainly, not being able to afford actually going to the game has nothing to do with waning interest. With tickets going for roughly the same price as a trip to the Opera, most people are priced out of seeing any professional event in person. Playing hockey will make you like the game, but seeing it in person will make you a fan of a team. That fandom is an essential part of the sporting ecosystem.
Part of the image of the classic baseball player was that of the clean-cut but slightly unshaven man sleeping in a bus on the way to his next game. They were hardworking individuals with a strong ethic, rough but approachable. With player salaries hovering around 800,000 per year, the image has changed to that of the pampered superstar, likely to get off the plane and have a manicure before being wisked away in a limo to the Park Plaza. Sure, they train all of the time, but that hard work is only emphasized in Gatoraid's commercials. And certainly, no modern sports star from the majors can be considered approachable, emulatable, or otherwise attainable. Tony Hawk retains this ability (and whose public stardom is based on his tremendously successful videogame) because Tony is "one of us" who worked hard and got good at a sport, but retains his middle class status. Barry Bonds is now firmly upper class, and would never be seen with any dirt on his uniform.
The sports moguls lost touch, plain and simple. This demonizing of videogames is just a sign of that.
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