Come on, endurance? I have done the Cooper test, I have skied for 2 straight hours as hard as I could many times, in competition, I ran from the bottom of a mountain, to the very top of it and down again, without stopping. You can't convince me that video games has something to do with endurance.
They are sitting still in comfy chairs pushing a button. I went to an athletes school for three years, I know what endurance, reflex and dexerity is and it has very little to do with video games. I think it's a litte rude towards those who actually do sports, calling video games sport.
Oh, it can have something to do with endurance all right... And it DEFINITELY involves reflex and dexterity... I say that as someone who personally measures those two things as my single best traits. Sheer reaction/processing speed and coordination are what I'm known for. It's more than just those, though.
There's something I'd like to show here, if this actually freaking works. It's quite short, and I'm using it strictly to eliminate a misconception... even if you dont care about gaming, have a look, at least for the sake of what I want to say actually making sense.
Skip to 1:50 for the truly wild part:
To very briefly explain what is happening in that mess: the entire goal of this type of game is to not get hit by stuff. My character starts at the bottom and fires upwards. Enemies generally start at the top, and they fire that purple stuff. Just ONE hit from any of that purple stuff will end me. My character must be struck dead-center (that pulsing spot) to get hit. Which sounds like it should make it easy to dodge stuff, but this genre is often considered basically impossible even by most lifelong gamers. And this specific game is considered basically impossible even by most fans of this genre. This is, in fact, one of the single most difficult games ever made. Note that the video specifically shows level ONE. It just gets more absurd from there.
A lot of people cant even visually follow what's happening... let alone pull any of it off. But I've been doing these things for... too long. I'm capable of tracking & processing everything moving on the screen all at once... this is why I dont get hit even once during the video. In addition, my dexterity, control, and coordination are very, VERY high at this point. And my overall mental processing speed is beyond any of those. Most things... and I dont mean just in games... are almost in slow motion as far as I'm concerned. All of those concepts are not only being USED here, they're being IMPROVED in the process.
As for endurance, well... that's almost an entirely seperate topic in and of itself, too long for me to go into here.
I could actually keep listing benefits, and ways in which concepts such as dexterity, coordination, complex problem solving, memory, and all sorts of other aspects not only come into play here, but are actively enhanced by doing it. The stuff that
@Atrapa Almas hints at is a whole other variety of this sort of thing going on... people who play "ESports" games have to do things on a similar level in order to play at the level of a pro. Source: long-time fighting game fan here. And I'm better at fighting games than I am at the thing in the video. Not only that though, but most truly high-end players are also actually pretty physically fit. Seriously, just try doing ANY of that stuff I just showed when you're in crappy physical OR mental shape. It aint happening.
Does that mean that it's the exact same as traditional "sports"? No. You may as well be trying to compare rock climbing to professional woodworking. However, both can and often do involve incredible feats of skill, and both can result in incredible personal improvements, results, and benefits. IF you let them. And both require frankly rather silly amounts of practice to truly get good at.
While I've personally always thought the term "ESports" was silly (because it sounds like a marketing word to my ears) I can absolutely 100% understand the view of those who think of it and treat it like real "sports". Because in a lot of ways... it can be. Provided, of course, that the player WANTS to take it that far. Some gamers are plenty happy to just relax with Animal Crossing, and that's totally fine too.
@Metalhead The other reason I wanted to point all of this out is because I dont want you to think that what you're doing is this 100% useless silly thing that has no value. It's just like any other big hobby out there: You get out of it what you put into it, and the end results can benefit you in many ways... but it's up to YOU to make that happen. However, also like all hobbies... you need to do it in moderation. As long as you're varying up your activities well enough, and doing things like eating and exercising properly, getting out and getting some sun, stuff like that... then you're fine. The problems begin when you start letting your hobby... be it this or something else... consume you.
As long as you arent letting that happen... then to heck with what anyone else may think of your choices in terms of how you spend your time. If someone else doesnt like it, well, that's THEIR problem, not yours.
