Random Image Thread!

[Starfe]

As a big sports fan as well as a believer in the validity of gaming as a competitive enterprise I feel drawn to this. Mostly I think terminology is the problem. We have a set of terms in existence already that describe people who compete in 'games' for money/glory/recognition/whatever. The problem is that video games are also games, and people compete in them. So why not use the same terminology? Thats where it becomes a bit of a problem.

I don't like to use the term athlete to describe people who compete in video games and I don't like to use it to describe people who compete in games like poker or chess. Skill vs physical prowess is how I look at it, though I acknowledge that many sports require both. I feel its a mistake for people to assign the term 'athlete' to competitive gamers, because video games are more a situation of skill than physical prowess. Using the same word to describe what a Starcraft player does, which is a skill based activity, to describe what a boxer, or distance runner, or basketball center does is a mistake. The connotations around that word are too strong. The man in the picture above, in the wheel chair, probably has incredibly negative connotations associated with the term 'athlete', for example. Its a loaded word. It drips of physical prowess and strength, things he is severely limited in. He could never hope to play football, or baseball, among those lauded as great athletes. By contrast, I once knew a competitive Counter-Strike player who didn't have fully formed fingers, and was wheel chair bound. He could never compete in any conventional sport, and would never have called himself an 'athlete', but he did something that people envied, and he did it well, better than me, even. What I think is that this brand new situation requires a new word, or a less loaded word.

Truly I don't know what word to describe competitive gamers with that is really satisfactory, though I very much admire their skill. If anything I would lean towards 'entertainer'. I feel that the fame that some of them do draw allows them to be 'entertainers' or 'idols' quite easily, as those terms are very loose. A magician, certainly a skilled trade, is an entertainer, or an actor, or musician, so why not a gamer? I feel those crafts are easier to compare to competitive gaming than being punched in the face and not falling down for 36 minutes. If they entertain or inspire through their work, then absolutely, and its not a lesser term. Certainly our entertainers are often more revered then star athletes, so why not? But why co-opt a term that is so laden with baggage associated with the physical when the competitive gaming world is only starting to rise? Why force it to undergo this argument at all?

Deep down I feel the need for competitive gamers to call themselves "Cyber Athletes" or whatever stems from exactly what scy was pointing out with his 'lunch money' comment. Its the need to prove that what they poured their time into was just as good as those who didn't get cut from the baseball team. Or even that they became an athlete, one way or another, and Johnny Beer-Gut didn't. I've never felt a reason to live up to the standard of the school yard ruling class, but then again, I was never bullied or cut from anything I tried out for, so I guess I can't really speak.

tl;dr I think 'athlete' is the wrong term, but competitive gamers are just as important or impressive as what we would conventionally describe as 'athletes'

[scy]

I really don't care much for the term cyber athlete either, if only because I think it as a phrase doesn't roll off the tongue so well. The problem herein is that the same vitriol towards the "athlete" part is spewed forth towards eSports, Professional Gamer, and basically any other term revolving around the whole sport.

"Entertainer" is demeaning in the same sense you find "Athlete" a loaded word, if we want to go this route; that the notion of the competition comes secondary to the entertainment value.

As for the lunch money thing, it was more of a snide comment than anything. It's less about the idea of "athlete" and more on the notion of being taken seriously. Because lol games, amirite.

Edit: Though, re-reading Kino's post, that's just me snapping at her without reading it thoroughly (all of the one sentence that was there to read). I'd blame exhaustion and sleeping pills before posting but excuses excuses. My bad.

[Kimiko]

Professional gamer sounds quite correct to me. What's the objection there?

[scy]

[zamisk]

this:

and also this:

[Ninten]

herp derp

[zamisk]

Demonicas are awesome

[Skele Von Mann]

best demonica user is Demonee-Ho hee ho

[Ninten]

[Ninten]

[noodles]

is


is that Kate Beaton doing a SMT Devil Summoner comic

[Skele Von Mann]

Considering I've seen a dozen "Oooh ____!" edits, probably not.

[noodles]

ok

[Kinokokao]

Kate Beaton is in the 2011 Best American Comics anthology.

I was reading it at work yesterday.

[Ninten]

I dunno anything about her, but maybe I should read her comics!