What is a “sport”? According to Merriam- Webster’s Dictionary, a “sport” is “a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other.” Competitive video gaming and playing video games in general fit this description because they require co-operation, mental capacity, focus and competition, just as physical sports, such as football, does. Both video gamers and athletes have similar experiences when playing their sports. Gaming teammates also have the same cooperation and technique as athletic teams do.
Most video games and sports both require co-operation and teams. Moorhead and Griffin define “…a team as ‘a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose,
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They have to predict what the game is going to present to them, how they will respond, and how the game will respond. “As players, we have become incredibly adept at recognizing the kinds of choices we make in games and the impact we expect these to have on our overall experience. We are well-versed in discriminating and categorizing the choices we want to make, when and how… As players, we know that not all choices matter in the same way.” (Davidson 57)
Both athletes and video gamers experience the same emotions when playing. Both experience fear, excitement, loss, anger, anxiety, and self-doubt. When gaming:
Many types of emotions can trigger similar physiological states: both fear and arousal, for example, can cause your heart rate to go up and adrenaline to be released… high stakes gameplay and crushing difficulty are vectors for physical stress in the player…and once the player is stressed and their physiological state elevated, all the game developers have to do is introduce the scary content. (Davidson 201)
When participating in