2016/03/11 by Seth E. Jenny, R. Douglas Manning, Margaret C. Keiper +2 · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Digital Games and Media #Educational Games and Gamification #Sports, Gender, and Society
paper · doi:10.1080/00336297.2016.1144517
crossref issued 2016/03/11 · crossref published 2016/03/11 · crossref published-online 2016/03/11 · openalex publication_date 2016/03/11 · crossref created 2016/03/11 · crossref published-print 2017/01/02 · crossref deposited 2017/02/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/08/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Electronic sports, cybersports, gaming, competitive computer gaming, and virtual sports are all synonyms for the term eSports. Regardless of the term used, eSports is now becoming more accepted as a sport and gamers are being identified as athletes within society today. eSports has even infiltrated higher education in the form of an intercollegiate athletic sport, as two university athletic departments have made eSports an official varsity sport where scholarships are provided to collegiate eSports athletes. Thus, the intertwining of eSports and university athletics brings into question whether eSports should be considered sport by broader society. This article provides a brief history of eSports, a further developed definition of eSports, and a comparison of eSports to traditional philosophical and sociological definitions of sport. The purpose of this article is to provoke thought on the academically accepted definitions of sport and debate whether eSports should be considered a sport. Attention will be given to the following components of sport: play, organization, competition, skill, physicality, broad following, and institutionalization.