Bogost – What is a Sports Videogame

First of all, I like how Bogost connect sports and videogame. Before I’ve read Bogost’s “What is a Sports Videogame?”, I thought he is referring to the combination of sports and videogame as e-sports in League of Legend, Overwatch, and more. However, his main point was not even close to what I thought. His main point was that we need to consider sports video game the same as a sport such as soccer and a baseball. But I kept thinking about how he could even connect sports video games with dynamic real sports. I know there are many sports video games such as FIFA, NBA, and Madden.

FIFA is the most popular and famous sports video game in South Korea. My friends are crazy about this game because, in South Korea, the most popular sport is soccer. I tried several times with them, but it was too hard for me. Also, I didn’t know a lot of rules about soccer at that time. FIFA has the same rule, player, and stadium as a real soccer playing. But many gamer or people think FIFA is just a video game, not a real sport. I was one of them before reading Bogost’s “What is a Sports Videogame?”, but now I agreed to his point that Sports video game is like a real sport.

Sports Video games are like a miniature version of the real sports. The difference between sports video game and sports is the existence of the player. In a sports video game, the player is out of the game world but he or she actually plays with his or her avatar in the game in order to win the sports game. Except for that one little difference, rules of the sport and the existence of win or lose exist in the world of sports video games.