Can video games be a sport?

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23 April 2015
INTRODUCTION
The Information Age or the Internet Age has produced technologies, whose progress knows no bounds if compared to the stagnant way of life since past centuries, classical antiquity, and prehistoric ages. Old Stone Age had its own kind of revolution with stone tools, fire etc. New Stone Age saw the domestication requisites of life and first social organizations. Then followed a continuous building of society, mainly architectural and social, with thoughts and theories playing a huge role. It is these thoughts and theories that broke free from their closed spaces and have given a huge global integration of mental and material ground together. The most advanced form is the computer, with the Internet, and its various software packages, not to mention e-mails, video games and so forth.
Body
A video game is an indoor game that entails an electronic system, such as the input device, user, graphics tools and an output or feedback system. It is a sport as all indoor games like chess, cards, etc. are. But that is one-half of the story. Games use logic and puzzles, but a full sport uses physical and mental agility, team spirit, and sportsmanship. Hence the outdoor part is hugely important, or at least a simulation of the outdoor model. Thus table tennis is a sport, although played indoors, but from here the question remains whether video game is a full sport or not, because the player is only involved with himself or herself, and at a mental level mainly (Jason 122).

Video games, however, have two categories, the casual and the serious. The former is easily accessible and more suited for relaxation while the latter has a learning message of some sort. Educational software falls into the latter category. Seeing from a technical perspective, a video game is no easy matter since a lot of controls need to be operated, and just like chess it is highly mental, albeit on a more mechanical level.
CONCLUSION
There is a thin line between the terms game and sport. Both are common in terms of the play and action themselves, but while the former is more mental, the latter is both physical and mental. Even physical sports are referred to as games, but whenever the word sport comes in, a full spirit or force behind that play is expected to exist, and it is not just the mental – mechanical, but a more passionate and conscience oriented temperament.
Work Cited
Jason Whittaker. The cyberspace handbook. Routledge. 2004. Print.