[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by FlamesFanTrev

I don't know, I guess it seems to me that the idea of sports is athletic in nature, and e-sports is actually the antithesis of that. Again, I actually have no problem with vids, or people that make a living doing that. Good on em. But this concept of calling a video game a sport, and the people that play them an "athlete" cheapens the term, at least to me.

This is interesting to me because it suggests that you have attached some intrinsic value to the word (or concept) of an "athlete." By doing so you are also, possibly inadvertently, devaluing other leisure activities or forms of entertainment for not conforming to an ideal you have about "athletes."

I'm not a professional athlete, but I played football, rugby, baseball, and swam competitively as a kid. What I took from those activities was a sense of team work, discipline, fair play and dedication. I imagine that there is some of the same principles that could be derived from people competting in competitive gaming. I guess what I dislike most that it's possible to be a part of a team that never actually meets or competes in person and misses out on the social education that I experienced on actual sports teams. The long bus rides, the dirt being mashed into open cuts, sweat stinging your eyes as you go to war against your opponent. Supporting each other on the equally long bus ride home when you come up short. To me, specifically, thats probably the biggest part of my issue.

I think this also feeds into your own value-perception of what constitutes "sports," which does not necessarily equitably reflect the entire gamut. I am an older guy, and as such there are social dynamics which are really important and meaningful to my kids that drive me crazy. By the same token, there are other dynamics and truisms which I value, but which my kids find to be irrelevant. Whether we like it or not, our world is changing. Our means and methods of "social education" and interaction are changing dramatically. It is neither becoming something better or worse, it's just the way our world works.

But now that I have my own kids, when they are of age, they will absolutely be enrolled in sports to learn those core beliefs that have carried me a long way in this life. When they come home with a permission slip to be part of their high school e-sports team, I will re-evalute my thoughts on the subject then. For now, all I can use to set my postion is my personal experiences.

What if your kids have no desire to play any sports? What if they don't wish to be enrolled? What if they would prefer to spend all that time playing video games within their huge social networks?