A Realistic Fantasy

So today we're going to take a break from the serious issues and talk about a subject that is purely about fun and entertainment. I apologize to all my female readers (if there are any) before I begin, because today we're talking about video games. 

Many, namely anyone over the age of 30 not living with their parents, consider video games to be a waste of time, a pointless activity that distracts people from more useful things like studying, reading a book, making money, writing a blog post that hopefully six people will read. Some also say that video games are used as an escape from the real world and therefore lead to a lack in social skills. But what no one can deny is that video games are extremely popular, especially with today's youth, they bring lots of entertainment and joy into people's lives, and most important for this blog, they have changed the way people look at, partake in, and follow sports.

The first sports video game created, and apparently the first video game ever, was a game called Tennis for Two, which was played on an oscilloscope and basically served as a predecessor to Atari's popular semi-sports game, Pong. By the 1980s, some very basic baseball video games were available, with the most popular one featuring the Orioles' beloved former manager in Earl Weaver Baseball. By the late 1990s, three-dimensional graphics had hit the scene by way of the Nintendo 64 and Playstation, and games like Madden NFL and Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball were released, rapidly gaining large followings. As the years went by, graphics got more realistic and so did the gameplay. Now, with a complex playbook and realistic audibles, playing a game of Madden is like coaching a mini-NFL game while controlling the players at the same.

But enough with the history lesson. The question is how do sports video games actually relate to the sport? Well for one thing, I think that video games are quite beneficial to the professional sports that they emulate due to the fact that they increase their followings. A countless amount of children fantasize about playing in the big leagues and winning the championship, but only a fraction of these kids even make their high school Varsity teams. With the advent of these realistic sports video games (some that even allow you to create a player to control from his rookie year to retirement), these kids can win that Superbowl or World Series that they've always dreamed about. Now until college, I wasn't that into video games, so I asked a lifelong gamer friend of mine why he has loves them. "Playing sports video games gives everyone an even playing field to start off," he said, "it gives the chance to people who love sports but are not blessed with the ability to excel at them, the chance to dominate against bigger, stronger faster, opponents."

Basically these sports games give the non-athletes a chance to feel like one of the insiders, and this can only increase the popularity of sports. They provide anyone with the purchasing power a chance to feel that rush that comes with competitive sports. So maybe video games are in many ways, bad for you. Just about anything is bad for you if not done in moderation. And besides, video games provide millions with an asset that can't be measured. They provide happiness.