There is zero physical effort required in a game of Warhammer, Monopoly, Scrabble. Zero. That's it, cut and shut.
It's been said there's no physical effort in snooker or darts, but that's nonsense because there is, I play a lot of darts and it's not as easy as you might think, the hand eye coordination and muscle memory required is insane. I think that's the same with e-sports but then there's the reaction times there too, big factor in e-sports. Where are any of those things in wargaming? Where's the referee? The time limit on turn times, or segments of full turns? Where's the spectators? And where's the fans outside of the hobby? All the nerds sitting round a table playing Magic, they are athletes are they?
Full disclosure, I am most certainly not a Wargamer and never will be. I was put off it for life by the fact every time I ever tried to play I'd encounter some of the most odd individuals I've ever met, power gamers and spawn of the great unclean one himself. Nurgle dens infested with absolute cretins that stink to high heaven. I'm not saying everyone into wargames is like that but a large percentage ARE like that and it's disgusting.
And then what about the equipment? No one has talked about that. In a wargame I could use coins or bits of paper to represent the models, try that in football or curling or something.
Wargaming is not a sport. Never will be. It's ludicrous to me that anyone would think otherwise LOL
To dismiss wargaming as a sport is to dismiss Chess as a wargame, as it fits all the criteria of what you'd consider
not a sport. But yet, society as of today, considers Chess to be such. Same with Kriegspiel, same with Video Games, same with other sports that aren't about physical might, but mental might. The difference between Physical and Mental is that they're just that, different because they rely on two different types of muscle. The former relies on your more natural physical capabilities, such as height, strength, endurance, etc. While the latter relies on your more natural mental capabilities, such as problem solving, logical registration of the situation, and other such mental facilities. Some cases one can tap into the other, but it's not always consistent. After all, a dumb brute of a man can easily outclass someone skilled in Football due to his sheer size and strength by barreling through those that aren't as well physically capable.
But there's also the issue that technically that you can pull this logic against sports such as Football due to players pretty regularly cheat via steroids and other illegal substances to enhance their capabilities. But we'd see this no different in the field of someone rigging dice, or falsely swapping positions on a Chess board. The definition of what one considers a sport as a sport is very much on one's perspective, no doubt, but it is something to consider. But to dismiss is a fallacy of it's own. Forget the kind, but it's one where you're using one reasoning to justify the logic, while completely ignoring the effect that logic has against the thing you consider as a sport. It's a complicated topic, not as simple as to dismiss it off the bat. It is something that's fun to discuss and think about. Also, no need to be rude about nerds, I'm mean, we're all nerds of some kind here. Regardless of whether we enjoy one thin' or another. We're all some form of nerddom.
Course, I'm simply here to discuss and put out my thoughts on the matter, not a lot more, plus it's fun to read into other's POV.
As an aside to some extent quality of the "kit" can impact other actives though of as sport. I'm thinking things like cycling for instance or maybe weight of rackets, etc. things like that.
The comparison between sports fancy-dress and gaming fancy-dress (I assume it's LARP?) is an interesting one. I've always found it fascinating how society might on a macro scale consider one hobby perfectly "normal" and another "weird" and then the way that perception can attract and discourage people from said hobbies. I suspect you could argue for instance as something like "Warhammer" has become more mainstream and perhaps accepted it's interest to the more traditional hobbyist/gamer has waned and their attention has returned to the older more quirky and less mainstream versions.
It's certainly been an interesting thread so far, I doubt there is a definitive answer as such. It's interesting seeing each bit of potential argument for/against laid out - certainly made me think a bit more.
Aye, the comparisons I give I feel are apt because of the fact that a lot of my views on gaming is from a younger age bracket (1996 Millennial mind ya), but I still think to consider the aspects of what makes a sport a sport is simply whether it is reliant on a natural capability of some kind of a human being to make use of. And ironically, Wargames as a whole, from the earliest version of Kriegspiel and Chess, to the most modern wargame like 40K, I see as a sport because they all have something that physical sports also utilize, a natural ability. Just in this case it's mental rather than the physical. But hey, it's nice to learn of other's POV, and have this discussion, it's honestly fun to do.
