Is Videogaming a Sport?

Here is what Coakley (2004) has to say about whether videogaming is a sport: "Maybe people in the year 2100 will define activities played in virtual reality as sports and see what we defined as sports today as backward, overorganized, and funless activities geared to the physical abilities of the few rather than the interests and fantasies of everyone" ( p . 25). Consider the influence of digital media and technology, and our changing lifestyles and culture, on possibilities for defining sport. Case in point: Videogaming.

Watch the PBS video The Rise of Competitive Gaming and E-Sports below and read Video Gaming Slowly Becoming a Pro Sport on the growth of competitive gaming. Can you envision a future in which videogaming is widely understood as a sport? Please note that you do not need to state whether you think it is a sport, or should be a sport. Rather, discuss whether you can see a future where it is universally recognized as such.

Video 2.2: The Rise of Competitive Gaming & E-Sports.