It really depends on what definition of "game" and "sport" you use. The line between the two is really blurry. Personally i really welcome this development, as it shows that simracing is now starting to be taken more seriously in society, which can only be a good thing for our hobby. We have come a long way over the past decade and i'm looking forward to see what the future brings. PS When i leave my simulator after a 2h long online race, it definitely feels like i've engaged in a sportive activity
So once health & safety get their way and Lewis Hamilton has to sit in a room adjacent to the track and drive his drone car from there, he will lose his sportsman tag and be reduced to a mere gamer? I'm sure he won't mind on 40M a year. As far as I am concerned, if it's competition, it's sport (apart from fishing, fishing sucks!) and if some people want to stamp their feet and froth at the mouth in protest, it's their prerogative but now the Sim racing world wheels are rolling, only an asteroid is gonna stop it.
If Fishing, Chess, Darts and Pool are official sports, is see no reason why sim racing should not be an official sport.
Drinking games are sports, then. So is shopping with (or against ) a shooping mate. Watching TV series without missing one episode - sports. Eating all that you can "competitions" - a sports. ROFL Not one of you guys will have his health benefitting or showing better perofrmance on a long trekking or bicycle tour just because you play to be a great sport performer on TV. Can anyone of you buy real stuff in a real shop by merely acting as if he were a millionaire? BTW, poker, fishing, chess (as I already describe din detail), even darts and pool have anything but a consensus on being a sport. Just that they have been pushed through by special interest lobbies here and there, means little. And always economic interests, MONEYMONEYMONEY, and legal tax relief options form being recognised as a sport or sport club/association were the driving motives. What comes next? Want to play Monopoly at home, claiming that to be your job and expect to get paid real money loans for it? LOL I still love to sim-race. I like to play this kind of game, and I do not stop anyone doing it as well. I just do not take it for more than what it is: playing a game (without physically excercising at all). There is no physical benefit in itk, and no health improvement. I do it just for fun. When I want to do sports, I drive in real - on a real bicycle in the real world. And then up to 150 km and over hills and loosing plenty of sweat and sometimes cursing if the wind once again is strong in my face. Its like with sex. A rubberdoll does not make a living lover.
Hey Skybird, you're destroying all illusions and high hopes of all the e- kids (within a man) here, shame on you Like your post, its always good to have at least one who is swimming against the tide, at least you could say "Told ya folks" if it goes down the drain...
Hmmmm, I suppose if you are driving a sim car, and the immersion factor is good enough to believe you are driving a real car, then believing you are participating in a real sport, is not that big of a stretch, REALITY BE DAMMNED! or to quote George Orwell "Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else"
So much arguing about the meaning of a word... but language evolves and words get to mean different things with time, so what does it matter if some people think only physical activities can be sports while others use the word for all professional-level competitions in general? It's just a word...
In order not to look silly - first study the topic, or open Wikipedia ... Sport (eng. Sport, abbreviation from the original old french Desport - “game”, “entertainment”) - organized by certain rules the activity of people (athletes), which consists in comparing their physical and (or) intellectual abilities, as well as preparing for this activity and interpersonal relationships arising in its process. Sport is a specific kind of physical or intellectual activity committed for the purpose of competition, as well as purposeful preparation for them by warming up and training. In combination with recreation, the desire to gradually improve physical health, increase intelligence, gain moral satisfaction, to perfection, improve personal, group and absolute records, fame, improve their own physical abilities and skills, sport is intended to improve the physical and mental characteristics of a person.
If people, use the same term but for very different quality and content,t han language becomes pointless, communicaiton impossible and we do not tlak the same thigns when using the same language anymore. SVG Biosport tried to remind of that "sport" does not mean just anything, does not decribe just any arbitrary meaning, and I tried the same on page one with refering to the understanding that the German Olympic laymen association DOSB - one of the biggest of its kind in the world - proposes and bases its statutes on. The difference is that the DOSB excludes mere intellectual activity (then Sudoku or scienhtific research wpould be sports too) by saying it doe snot include the needed motor/phyiscla acitvity that "spöoprts" necessarily includes", whereas Biosport lists it as sports nevertheless, and the other difference is that sports must be amateurish and fore the saake of not being commecial/professional - because then it is no sports anymore, but your job, work, occupation. Physical excercising. Real sweat. Health, metabolistic and physical performance training benefits. Non-commercial, non-professionally. Three key ingredients. And e-"sports" fulfills none of these, even violates them. Lets be both honest and precise both at the same time. Lets call it professional gaming. With sports it has nothign to do. Nothing. Heck everywhere in the Wetsenr world the herlath status of kids and juveniles is detoriating, obesity is spreading, physical coordination skills are not even build, more and mroe kids cannot swim, endurance is in a dive. To tell thewse kids iof they sit at a PC and play comoputer games this would be sports", will not prove to be helpful. Not as long as drinking Coca Cola and eating chips are considered benefitary to people's health. This move this topic was about, is due to fincial interests. Tax reliefs that are granted via recognition of being a sport, and even state subventions. Tax reliefs and state subventions for playing computer games. Holy cow - world, get back to your senses.
I like to sit between all seats. Plenty of unoccupied space there just for me alone. I am a single child, I have never learned to share.
They do excercises. spoprts it is as long as it is for the sake of sport and physical self-optimization (stmaina, health, etc). When you start making money with it, it is no sports indeed, but your profession, job, labour, employment, whatever. This is exactly the old dispute about the participation of "professisonal" athletes at the Olympics. Olympics, before they got corrupted by big money and business lobbies seeing the coin milking options, propahgated the amateur sports, the non-professio9nality. Athletes even got banned in sports that were allowed, if said atheletes trained by means that were considered to be "professional". Non-professionals, amateurs (of ambition, but still) are what the Olympic idea is about. They destroyed that by now, and completely. Today, most participants at Olympics are professionals indeed, and it is alsmot impossible not to be a pro if you weant to be competing for the medals indeed. The sport turned into the job, the profession. Sport is for the sake of the sport and its experience, and is a purpose in itself. Professionalization turns it into a profession indeed. Be precise then, call it a profession, occupation, job, work, employment. You see, this dispute is old. Very old.
I guess it depends what kind of simracing you do. You can turn a few laps in your favorite car just for the enjoyment of the experience. Or you can spend hours on end perfecting your laptime and fighting hard with other competitive drivers on track, which demands a very high level of concentration and focus. After a race like that you will feel physically exhausted, trust me. My point being, you can treat simracing like a game or a sport. Both approaches are legitimate.