Bacchus2 also compares video games to poker, and makes the common claim that if poker can be played as a sport, certainly video games can too. Once again this is utter nonsense. First off, poker is not a sport. Just because ESPN televises it, and for some unethical reason people actually watch it, it does not constitute sport. Secondly, you cannot cite the Wiki for poker that self proclaims it as a sport for evidence of its sport-ish qualities. If self proclamation determined what or wasn’t sport, then there’d be no discussion to be had on the matter at all, we would simply consult Wikipedia for the answer. Poker is not a sport; it’s a game, one of several games that can be played with cards. I’ve watched some intense matches of Go Fish come down to the wire, with each side desperately trying to find that last crucial card to throw the momentum in their favor, but I don’t see anyone trying to legitimize Go Fish as a sport, and rightfully so. Just because categorical mistakes have been made in the past does not mean they can be used as excuses for making more in the future. Citing the mistaken identity of Poker as a sport fails to support the notion that gaming can be viewed as a sport as well. If anything, Poker being thought of as a sport in any respect proves that people will watch anything that’s being televised on a Sunday afternoon, or that the general North American population is far less mentally stable than once believed.

More than that, “professional gaming” can’t really be compared to either traditional sports, or sports of the less traditional variety. Video games are still primarily a medium utilized in a variety of unique ways to expand the means by which a creative work can involve its observer. Many times in the past I have advocated video games as having a great potential to be an artistic medium, either creating moving images of visual splendor that entertain and attract the eye, or using the interactivity of the images and the player to engage the player in some sort of emotional episode. The medium can be used to this extent perfunctorily in the form of narrative, where the player is not only engrossed by characters and plot, but is a part of it, and in some cases actually influences how the narrative itself unfolds. As a teaching tool, a way of educating and training a person’s brain, video games again can excel in this area by presenting sometimes lackluster information in an interactive and charming way. And yes, as a forum for competition, video games have proven themselves capable of taking something like chess (which is a game, not a sport) and expanding it into a real time strategy game where not only the strategy of chess is evident, but the skill with which one actually moves their pieces also plays a part in winning the game.

But does that lend merit to the notion of competitive, professional, athletic, gaming? What is football but a strategic movement of the pieces, performed in real-time, where the actual pieces themselves determine the effectiveness of the strategy? Again, in this case, I don’t think the comparison stands at all. Those who argue for gaming as a sport downplay the importance of physical dexterity and prowess by comparing sport to games like poker, and those who supposedly play video games as a sport overstate the importance of their physical attributes in determining their effectiveness in the game. While twitch shooting may be a skill one can improve, it is in no way comparable to skills employed in most sports that require all around physical fitness. Therein is the key difference between competition on any level, and the competition involved in a sport.