Gaming: Not just fun anymore

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One day I asked my son what he gets out of by looking at fictional characters killing each other. He answered me with a question:
«What do you get out of watching football?»

I told him that football is played by real people, not some fictional characters.

He said, «You’re not the player, right? That’s the point. There are real players behind the fictional characters. In both cases, it’s the entertainment what we get. And it’s a multimillion-dollar tournament like the Premier League or La Liga.»

His argument seemed logical, although I still can’t understand how to call it entertainment to watch others playing computer games. But whether you or I, as a parent, understand it or not, watching video games has become very popular among young generation. Children, particularly the adolescents, don’t watch sports today. They watch live streaming of videogames online, on YouTube and also on TV. For them, it’s not a game anymore, it’s sport.

Traditionally, sports are defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which individuals or a team compete against others for entertainment. And games are an activity that you do for fun. Gaming has become a source of both.

Why do we watch a football game? An NFL or a basketball game? The only answer is – entertainment. Yes, games are not only limited to playing now, but it has also entered the entertainment industry.

Watching others playing video games has gradually become more and more popular. When Pewdiepie (Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg), the most famous Youtuber in the world, started the channel in 2010, he only played horror and action games. What was fun for him was entertainment for his followers.

Youtube, Netflix and other video streaming services have already replaced the traditional TV entertainment, and now video games will define sports-related entertainment. Maybe there will come a day when there will be no sports channels to broadcast a football match because there will be very few viewers interested in watching it? It’s our children who are going to shape the future. And we, as parents, should accept it.