Vidya

Edwin Rodriguez

Mr. McCarthy

AP English Language and Composition

6/2/2016

Video games in the past have been considered nothing more than a fad, ranging from two-dimensional graphics, aimed at two people passing a ball from different halves of a screen on identical paddles, to a somewhat simplistic platformer in which an 8-bit plumber traverses stylized environments while ingesting power-ups, his goal being to save his precious princess from the clutches of an oversized turtle. While Pong and Mario in their respective eras were widely acclaimed and played by many, they were considered nothing more than pass-times, meant to be mindless fun for brief periods whenever some downtime was available. It was unheard of, the idea of devoting oneself to a set of video games for too long. In contrast, publishers in the last 5 years have been engineering projects of incredulous scales, large and immersive environments in which one can escape reality, winding storylines one finds themselves engrossed in, and communities one can discuss and interpret findings within a game. In short, one can conclude video games have become much more than an idle pastime. So much so, that in current day what would have been considered entertainment for children has escalated to heights never thought of before; a viable profession with the founding of eSports, meaning what was once a mere couch rivalry between two heated friends has now become a competitive career spanning countries and continents alike.

It has been a contentious topic, the labelling of video games as a sport, though needlessly so as we take into account the striking similarities the profession bares when compared to a “genuine” sport such as football or basketball. If competitive gaming (eSports) accounts for the same, in some cases more, network traffic through streams and televised specials than sporting events, follows the same structural hierarchy when it comes to teams and their management, follow similar forms of...