We hope you enjoy this argument about whether or not video games should be considered a sport.  As assigned, we will research and present both sides.

On one side of this debate, people may think that video games should be a sport because they are rooted in competition, involving athletic ability, requiring practice and physical activity, taking place in stadiums, and cheered on by die hard fanatics.  Video games and the playing of them checks all of the required boxes. Let’s start by throwing the idea against some of those definitive words conjured up when thinking about the meaning of “sport”—competition, entertainment, athletic ability.

Some systems have controllers that in order to do stuff, you must swing your arms and punch, and that gives you exercise.  A sport such as soccer requires an athlete to run; in video games you can do that without breaking a sweat. Video games can make exercise really fun, and it’s competitive too.

There are video game tournaments where people play “around the world,” play competitive games, and, so it’s just like a sport.  Some video games take place in the real world. Some sport video games are for the Wii; you actually swing your controller forward and back.  On screen, it looks like you are playing tennis, baseball, basketball, and much more. A good exercise/sport game for the Nintendo Switch is Arms.  The player actually punches in real life with a controller in his/her hand, and it punches in the game as though the player is boxing in real life.

Since boxing is a sport; we would think that boxing through a video game would be considered a sport as well.  Another good game is Rec Room Virtual Reality (VR); it has all kinds of VR sports, and you can talk to players while they are in the game.  It’s social, helps people exercise, and is competitive like a real-life sport.   

On the other side of this debate are those who think that video games should not be considered a sport.  A sport is where you have to be active and have a possibility of getting injured.  With video games, people have very little opportunity to be active. Sitting on your couch, interacting with just your TV is not a sport.   It’s just pressing buttons and talking into a microphone. A sport is where you sweat, because you are being so active. You don’t exercise while playing video games; you just sit still and can be lazy.  It’s really not a sport at all. 

Moving your hands and fingers is by no means physically challenging.  Many of those who say that video gaming is to be considered a sport are trying to convince themselves of a lie by going to the extreme.  A sport constitutes legitimate physical activity. Real sports take place in the real world; while video games take place in a made up or virtual world.  Some video games can’t possibly be considered a sport, like horror games. They can’t be a sport when all they do is scare people. 

In conclusion, while some games may give you exercise, you exercise so little that it barely makes a difference.  Kids get unhealthy from playing these games all of the time. Therefore, video games cannot be considered a sport; although others will forever disagree with this conclusion.

By: Debate Team Bloggers, Wyatt Myers & Nolan Paris