Project 2 Rough Draft
Click Clack, I hear that distinct sound of gamers hitting their keyboards and mice in rapid succession as they are nearing victory in their online battles, I hear laughter and chatter over at the televisions that are surrounded by gamers enjoying themselves by playing casual console games. It feels like a whole different atmosphere than anywhere else at Florida State University. All the people that were here at the Askew Student Life Center enjoying their time gaming online or offline with friends intrigued me. I never seen a large community of gamers gathered at one location before. It seemed like a place where gamers can come hang out with other gamers in a social environment without being judged by anyone outside. I can relate to these people, and once I discovered this location on campus, I wanted to become involved in it and learn more about its purpose.
The Askew Student Life Center is home to FSU’s Cyber Café, which is a hub for gamers to come and hang out in a socially orientated environment while having access to several gaming consoles and gaming PCs. With all this unique gaming equipment, the Cyber Café attracts all kinds of gamers that attend FSU. I visited the Café a few times every week to check out what was going on and played some video games with one of my high school friend. Every visit I notice something in the Café, and that is the attendance and the different type of gamers that attend. Besides playing games myself, I truly enjoy spectating. Each time I visit I notice that around ten people are their hanging out, and as time progresses, more people start showing up. Video gaming itself is a very general topic, similar to sports. They both categorize things within themselves. In video gaming, you have two main diverse groups, one consists of casual gamers, and the other consists of competitive gamers. I enjoy spectating gamers in the café to see everyone’s different play style and what games everyone is interested in. You can tell a lot about a person just by seeing what games they enjoy playing. I find myself striking up conversation with those who play the same game or the same genre as me. I enjoy spectating the casual gamers play fun party games such as Mario Party, and Super Smash Bros. My favorite is watching the competitive gamers play on the PCs. You can feel the intensity as they focus on pushing the correct keys on their keyboards and timing their clicks on their mouse
perfectly to be as effective as possible. These games are unique in my opinion, anyone can play them, but few people master them. These competitive games take practice and learning to be considered good at it. That’s why I prefer watching these competitive players play, because they spent their time practicing these games to be good at them.
That leads me into my questions. Why does such a massive university, have such a small gaming community? What makes competitive video gaming different from a traditional sport that everyone is familiar with in this country? Can and should video games be considered a sport? The main argument that is made in the classification debate on video games is that video games lack true physical exertion. Video games don’t require physical exercise and conditioning that a football or basketball player requires for their sport. People argue that video games don’t have that same team dynamic that traditional sports carry. These people who view video gaming this way, are uneducated in todays competitive video gaming scene. These people look at gamers as lazy people who don’t go outside to play “real” sports. Competitive gaming is huge today and it has changed immensely from what it was ten years ago. These qualifications that people say video gamers don’t have such as physical exertion is completely false. ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is one of the largest sports broadcasting networks today. ESPN has broadcasted all kinds of sports, including a very well known board game known as chess. Chess requires deep knowledge of the game and strategy, which is what is required for a competitive video game. Once again, the other side of the argument can argue that chess being broadcasted on ESPN does not make it a sport, since it is called “Entertainment AND Sports Programming Network”. I struggled finding a counter argument for video games being a sport, until I found something that debaters on both side miss. What is a “sport”? Merriam-Webster defines sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” That brings me back to the physical exertion argument behind video games. Video gamers are prone to joint injury and wrist injuries from intense mouse movements and rapid finger tapping
on a keyboard. If someone can physically hurt himself or herself playing video games, then they’re had to clearly have been some sort of physical exertion. Video gaming continues to apply to the rest of the definition as well. It involves skill and it is not something where someone can just sit down for the first time and beat someone who has far more experience than the other person. It takes time and practice to be familiar and good at that particular game. Video games also involve teamwork just like the definition implies. There are so many different kinds of games, the big competitive ones, Dota 2 and League of Legends, are played in a five versus five style for an objective both teams are trying to complete, which is defeat the enemy team. Both of the games have a huge fan base behind them, which satisfies the last part of the definition since video games are entertaining.
