Overtime

Sports. The final frontier.

Wait, that’s something else entirely. Though some might say it’s not, when thinking of our audience’s view on the matter of sports; the Boys in Basements stereotype pops to the minds of many, and it doesn’t generally include sports. But sports are some of the top-selling videogames year after year. For a group of people who don’t like/know/play sports, that seems awfully strange. Further proof the stereotype is not true.

I played sports, ages ago. OK, well, I suppose it wasn’t really ages. Given my current level of physical fitness, combined with a certain looming Birthday of Consequence (I hear 30 is the new 20 …), it feels like it must’ve been in another lifetime. But yes, I played sports: basketball, volleyball, softball, soccer. I even ran track. I played intramural flag-but-often-progressed-to-tackle football and indoor soccer at university. And I miss them all. I want to be playing them still.

As an adult, getting out of work in time to see daylight, let alone corral a whole group of other adults to play sports, is difficult to say the least. So, instead, we relive our more active days by watching professional and college sports. We have parties about specific matches. We yell and swear at the TV and refs. We analyze and ponder and fill out complex brackets.

And we play videogames. Or fantasy <insert type of>ball games. Or perhaps simulation sports management games. And these fulfill some of that need to compete, some of that need to play together and yes, even some of that need to get up and move around.

This week’s issue of The Escapist, “Overtime,” delves into some of these topics – into the needs met by sports games and the gadgets loved by sports gamers. Russ Pitts gets fit with the help of Nike and the iPod. Richard Thomas runs an analysis on our species’ need to compete. Colin Rowsell introduces us to Colin Running. Bryan Brown talks about how geeks and sports fans complement each other. And Pat Miller uncovers the newest sporting/gaming/exercise intersection: exercise-driven gaming devices. Find these and more at The Escapist. Enjoy!

Cheers!