Video Games considered Sport?

The popularity of videogames has excelled as a large part of new media technology, especially with prominent interest amongst youth. These games are continually becoming the socially acceptable outlet for physical play, and this is becoming more acceptable and is infiltrating more households, especially those with children. My arguement is not if videogames are appropriate, (although I think many are not, as they construct and play into generalised gender roles) but instead if we consider them a fully fledged extracurricular activity, to the point where as a culture the lines of technology and sport have become so blurred that we begin to associate values of sporting achievement with those of achievement in the undefined realm of videogame activity.

The clip below is an advertisement for Nintendo Wii which does just this. The game is a multiplayer format, which includes various simulations of sports, as played by a stereotypical nuclear family. The game offers various adaptors and controllers to perform the functions of such sports to a more realistic degree; just a few of these include car racing, tennis and boxing. As children grow into this obscure realm, where now sporting achievement is able to be simulated in a fun family environment, we look at the youth of today and their personal choices and they reside in a world full of technological choices, and it is not before long that they may begin to choose technology over the real thing. It is interesting that this product is marketed at the typical household or family, but without realising the potential results. The seriousness and popularity of this game is one which deems it successful and profitable to have made enough of an impact on a the present generation, and in doing so redefines sport, and demeans it to pressing buttons over competing in a physical game.