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Computer games are not sports

You can call computer games e-sports if you like - nobody can stop you. But why would you want to do that? What could be the motivation for attempting to rename computer games as e-sports? Usually, when people try to 're-brand' something, they have deep reasons for doing so. We used to do 'cookery' at school - now it`s 'domestic science'. We also had Rl (religious instruction) - now it's called RE (religious education). Our teachers had all been to TT (teacher training) institutions - now they all go forTE (teacher education). In these three cases, cookery sought to rebrand itself with a highsounding science label, but this was justified by greater theoretical content and less actual cookery. Rl and TT wished to cast off the implications of 'instruction' and 'training', and so re-branded themselves as 'educational' enterprises. Similarly, if you really want to re-brand computer games as e-sports, you will need some justification for doing so. There really should be some test for this neologism to see if e-sports really are sports. For this, we will need a concept of sport against which to test it. People use the word 'sport' to refer to all sorts of things. Hunting, shooting and fishing are 'field sports`; bull-fighting is a 'blood sport'; jogging is a 'recreational sport'; chess and bridge are 'mind sports'; dance wants to be 'dance sport'; yoga wants to be `yoga-sport`. Our question is: are all these activities really sports? Does anything count as a sport, if someone wants to call it a sport? Does e-sport count as a sport, just because someone wants to call it a sport? What I have in mind, when thinking about the concept of sport, is Olympic sport. And what I have in mind, when thinking about computer games, is just those games that are currently seeking recognition from the International Olympic Committee as Olympic sports. Now we stand in need of a definition of an Olympic sport. To address this question, we need a methodology, and I shall employ the philosophical technique of conceptual analysis, which involves the search for 'logically necessary conditions' for the use of a word. I shall suggest six such logically necessary conditions for 'sports'. To begin with, they are all human activities. Secondly, they are physical activities - by which I mean that the physical element is crucial to direct engagement in the activity, and to its outcome, and thirdly it is physical skill that is at issue. Fourthly, all sports are contests (competitions) and, fifthly, they are governed by rules. Finally, sports are institutionalised, with national and international federations administering their affairs. If we put these six `criteria' together, we arrive at a simple definition of sports as: institutionalised, rule-governed contests of human physical skill: This chapter is divided into two sections. Firstly, I will establish these criteria as definitive of Olympic Sport, and in the second part I will test them against the idea of Competitive Computer Gaming. I have argued that e-sports are not sports because they are inadequately 'human'; they lack direct physicality; they fail to employ decisive whole-body control and whole-body skills (and cannot contribute to the development of the whole human); and because they are not institutionalisable (i.e. their patterns of creation, production, ownership and promotion place serious constraints on the emergence of the kind of stable and persisting institution characteristic of sports governance). Thus, e-sports fail on four of the six proposed criteria for sport, when failure on just one would be enough to disqualify. Neither will recourse to 'resemblance' arguments help out. For example, there are those who wish to assert that sport is religion. Often, their tactic is to try to show some resemblance between sport and religion. Sports fans 'worship' their stars, Wembley is a 'cathedral' of football, we 'pray' for victory, we have 'faith' in our team; so. it is said, sport is a kind of religion. It seems to me that this might show at best only that sport resembles religion; not that sport is religion. Similarly, it is often suggested that, because e-sports bear some resemblance to some quality or characteristic that has been attributed to sport, this is evidence that e-sports are sports. It is not. E-sports may attract large crowds, players may be called 'athletes', earn a lot of money, train hard, etc. But there are also very many non-sport activities that bear some resemblance to some quality or characteristic that has been attributed to sport. Competitive computer games do not qualify as sports, since they do not pass the test. No matter what 'resemblances' may be claimed, computer games are just that - games.
© Copyright 2020 Das Phänomen E-Sport - Eine sportwissenschaftliche Annäherung aus verschiedenen Disziplinen. Julkaistu Tekijä Meyer & Meyer. Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.

Aiheet: E-sport terveys liikuntatiede vapaa-ajan liikunta määritelmä urheilu
Aihealueet: urheilukilpailut teoria ja sosiaaliset perusteet yhteiskuntatieteet vapaa-ajan urheilu ja urheilu kaikille
Julkaisussa: Das Phänomen E-Sport - Eine sportwissenschaftliche Annäherung aus verschiedenen Disziplinen
Toimittajat: A. R. Hofmann
Julkaistu: Aachen Meyer & Meyer 2020
Sivuja: 10-26
Julkaisutyypit: artikkeli
Kieli: saksa (kieli)
englanti (kieli)
Taso: kehittynyt