Rosell Llorens, M. (2017). eSport gaming: The rise of a new sports practice. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 11(4) (Ricky)

From Digital Culture & Society

| Llorens, M. (2017). eSport gaming: The rise of a new sports practice. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 11(4)

This article discusses whether or not playing video games sometimes referred to as “eSports” as a digital mass media pass time and activity, should and/or could be deemed in fact a sport itself. Rosell Llorens, goes into great depths explaining why eSport does indeed meet the requirement of a sport. For the most part that is. This being a range of topics and requirements such as secularisation, equality, specialization, bureaucratization, rationalization, quantification and obsession with/the quest for records. These are the characteristics deemed necessary for something to be considered a sport. In short, the author of this article, for the most part, believes that video games as esports or sport could be conceivable at some point in the future if not now but lacks for good reason some infrastructure which will be discussed further in the review of this article.

The article discussed how eSports could be deemed a sport based on Guttmann’s definition as well as Joansson and Thiborg agree that some characteristics of a sport are met. They also cite Bernard Suits’ as meeting his definition of what sport is. That is part of the issue of this article that is it uses so many different definitions/requirements to be considered a sport. Which in part is a result of society as different people consider some things sport while others do not. That being said the article agrees that video games (some of them) could be considered a sport. For two main reasons one being that it requires some level of skill to achieve goals and part of that activity is physical those who play games competitively could suffer wrist or elbow injuries from practice or playing which would result in early retirement in some cases. An example of one of this injuries could be something like carpal tunnel syndrome. Furthermore, the article sheds light on some other important issues about video games as a sport, not all games qualify. Some games are more competitive than others and although the type of game being played changes over the years with technology the audience of eSport seems here to stay. Not only that but that there is a lack of infrastructure for developing children into professional gamers or athletes which is particularly challenging due to the fact that the only true requirement to play games online competitively is that the user has an internet connection. There is no place which they must go unlike hockey, football or baseball you must use an arena with ice or some kind of field. This could result in abusive hours of training on the child’s end also this activity, in particular, interferes with schooling. Having gamers be deemed athletes was up for discussion and petitioned to the U.S government in 2010 this issue is unresolved after reading this particular article but would be something interesting to look into. Something else which is interesting is that video games and eSport allow for a seemingly completely equal playing field in terms of gender, unlike more traditional sports. However with the exception of few professional teams, many do not have women on them. This could be looked into further but the assumption I personally would be going with and is suggested in the article is that women do not wish to put the hours into eSport due to lack of interest not lack of skill.

The biggest strength of this article is it’s looking into a new field and helping scholarly defining where video games are situated in a developing industry and this article offers some interesting and compelling insight into that issue. However, this articles biggest strength is also a weakness the different uses of the definition of sport becomes somewhat muddled. The article is trying to prove why eSport could be defined as a sport and is using a wide array of definition to different extents. That being said is also becomes quite confusing. Another weakness of this article although not a huge deal is it is a little dated at this point. But this becomes more of an academic journal writing issue rather than just this article in particular. In an evolving field and rising industry, the most current information is wanted. That being said it could take a year to research and another year to publish. Which would leave academic articles about two years behind at least. Once this form of digital media becomes better known to a larger population of society how it is situated will become better defined and these changes won’t be so rapid. In the years to come more articles should be published to see the shifting opinions of academics as well as society as a whole. This is a quality article for the foundation of a new industry.