Why do so many people in the "geek" community dislike sports?

Dreiko_v1legacy

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When I was a young child I used to love sports, really really love em. Mainly soccer (European dude here). You could have me play 12 hours a day and I'd never get bored. As I aged a bit, around the early teens age, it just stopped being mentally stimulating enough. It was boring. I'd much rather play games instead. Be it videogames or trading card games. I always played those as a kid too but back then I was more of an action fighting style player while as I got older I got into the more slower story-driven RPG stuff (of course I still loved the action stuff too) and compared to those, soccer just fell back.


Basically, at the times when we could do soccer matches in school around all of middleschool and highschool, I would play my copy of mugen that I brought with me every time (DBZ chars) or I would play magic the gathering with a few other people, or maybe pokemon/golden sun/FFTA on my GBA. As for at home, again a lot of magic the gathering, final fantasy, the legend of dragoon. I also got into anime around that time (in Japanese with subs) so watching that was a very big part of my free time.


Sports just were not quite as interesting any more. It's not a "hate" thing but more "I don't see the appeal and I DO get how it can be fun since I played for thousands of hours" bit.
 

sanquin

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Eh, I do like sports. But I don't like watching most of them. Some extreme sports can be entertaining to watch though. As much of a nerd as I am, I was actually a pretty athletic person in basic/middle school. I played some basketball and football (european one) in my free time, and spent some years in Judo classes. It's just that I find watching them so...pointless. E-sports however...I guess I like watching them in the same way I like watching let's plays every now and then.
 

Fdzzaigl

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I don't know what you would call "the geek community". Perhaps it's because a "geek" is considered to be someone who is not into sports but prefers other, less common, hobbies in the first place?

As for gamers in general, I don't think they are necessarily uninterested in sports. I am into water sports and running for example.
 

Vigormortis

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Kenbo Slice said:
I was in no way saying that everybody should like the things I like. I was just asking why such a stigma exists.
Well, when you can figure out why such a stigma exists among sports fans against geek culture, then you'll have your answer as to why the stigma exists within geek culture[footnote]And any other entertainment culture.[/footnote] as well.

And really, let's be fucking real here. Everyone is a geek about something. Whether it's video games, pen-and-paper games, sports, movies, music, television, literature, opera, etc, etc. Everyone. Geeks. Out. Over. Something.

So my question is: why are you acting as though this kind of behavior is exclusive to your narrowly defined definition of geeks? How is the dislike of sports by these "geeks" any different than sports fans dislike of "geek culture"?

BloatedGuppy said:
I like sports. A game is a game. I like games.

A lot of "nerds" dislike sports for fairly transparent reasons. Tribalism. Chip on shoulder from that time a jock hassled them. People who were once bullied often delight in turning the tables and bullying others. You see this perpetually in the "geek" community. It's as cliquey/culty as a sub-culture can possibly get, and more xenophobic and pre-emptively hostile than most.

Sleekit's response is a popular one, you don't hear about many nerds rioting and burning down the town square. They tend to restrict their rioting and shit-flipping to the internet. Possibly due to poor cardio. =P
For someone who tends to speak out against such things as dismissive, negative stereotyping, you're doing an awful lot of dismissive, negative stereotyping.

Come on, Guppy. You're better than that.

And while there certainly are people that dislike sports for the reasons you've listed, it's far from the only (or even the common) reason.
 

OldNewNewOld

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While I don't try to shut down a discussion about anythin (I will rather leave the thread if I dislike the topic, no one is forcing me to stay there), I will remind people that they are on the wrong board if they start talking about sports in a gaming related board. There is always a sports board or an off-topic board for that.

As far as I dislike sports... it's boring? Most classic sports are boring to play and to watch. American football/rugby are ridiculously boring. Like, nothing happens at all. Basketball as some (as far as I'm concerned) idiotic rules and it's most of the times 1 side scores, other side scores, first side scores, other side scores and so on with the occasional miss. I don't like wasting an hour for 2 interesting moments. Football lasts 30 minutes too long, has a field that's 2 times too big, 5 more player in teams they don't need and only German teams play well and with a heart from minute 1 to minute 95. Watching Italy teams play makes me physically sick, Spanish teams are annoying because of the favoritism they get from the judges, English teams are all muscle no brain play. Other leagues aren't even aired properly.
Swimming is only fun to do it yourself. Pool/snooker are as well. Darts? Boring to watch, too bad to play. Golf? Might as well overdose on sleeping pills.

I don't see any fun in them, and when there is some fun, it's usually an hour of boredom with 5 minutes of fun. Even anime sports with the magic and "skill" can get boring. Real life sports... nope.

Also geeks disliking sports is kinda given depending on your definition. For a lot of people geek means "likes games/sci-fi/fantasy and dislikes sports". So your questions is basically "why does a group which dislikes sports dislike sports?" Why do sports fans like sport? And I dislike the tone of some of the comments trying to paint "geeks" as the only bullies and in fact, implying that every "geek" is a nasty person. Especially since those same people are so much against stereotyping people and are fighting for "social justice".

EDIT: Oh, and the fact that it's expected from everyone to follow sports and getting weird looks when I say I don't follow sports certainly isn't helping.
 

Hero in a half shell

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I enjoy playing soccer (although I'm average at best) and love hill climbing and cycling.

Actually sitting down and watching a full sports game I'm not a fan of. I can watch tennis, and used to enjoy watching snooker, but actually keeping track of a football team;- all their game results, the number, health, and continued performance of every single player, their manager, potential signings, group positions, etc. etc. etc. - That's too much effort for something I'm just not emotionally invested in.
My work friends know all of this information about every team in the Premier League off by heart and will spend several hours each week watching games on TV, listening to games on the radio, and reading about games and controversies online.

Their knowledge of sports is as geeky and intensive as my knowledge of videogames and sci-fi stuff. I don't hate them for it, even when I'm obliged to participate in the ritual Monday morning match analysis (apparently I said I supported Liverpool once, so I now must take ownership of every crappy performance they give like it's a personal shameful failing of my own).

I don't mind it, I'm just not into it, the same way I'm sure my work colleagues wouldn't want to spend a Saturday afternoon watching Children of Dune clips on Youtube and building Minecraft castles
 

CrazyGirl17

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Personally, it's because I've never been a fan of heavy physical exertion, even when I was a kid. I do like watching sports like football and baseball, though. And I don't mind activities like yoga or swimming, hell, I should really get back into some martial arts...
 

BloatedGuppy

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Vigormortis said:
For someone who tends to speak out against such things as dismissive, negative stereotyping, you're doing an awful lot of dismissive, negative stereotyping.
How so? How is this dismissive? Or negative? It's explanatory.

Are you under the impression that there are noble, commendable reasons for someone to seethe with hostility towards the recreational past-time of other people? I'd love to hear what they are.

Vigormortis said:
And while there certainly are people that dislike sports for the reasons you've listed, it's far from the only (or even the common) reason.
Did you do a poll? How does one determine what is common, and what is not? I never claimed the reasons I listed were exhaustive, only that they are observable in "a lot of" situations.

I've been a sports fan since the late 90's, and a gaming fan/nerd culture enthusiast even longer than that. I was into stuff like pen and paper role-playing back when nerd culture was looked at like a communicable disease rather than one of if not THE predominant enthusiast culture. I had fuckin' Kara-Tur maps on my bedroom walls. And I lived in a small town that was all about loggin' and brewin', where the 15 year olds had full beards and straying from the consensus masculine ideal was "gay". My best friend was jumped and beaten in an alley for not being "manly" enough. And despite this, the amount of rancor and xenophobia I've observed in the "geek community" outstrips what I've seen from sports fans or "jocks" by an order of magnitude so large the latter barely registers. Some of the worst human beings I've ever known were "geeks". And they felt entitled to their hostile, shitty attitudes and hostile, shitty behavior because they self-identified as downtrodden.

Completely anecdotal, naturally, and I do not suffer from the delusion that my life experience = everyone's life experience, but I find the "poor, besieged nerds" narrative more than a little facile.
 

smithy_2045

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I don't think that generalisation holds true at all. Most people I know who are relatively nerdy still enjoy sports, and the sportsmen still enjoy video games.

In my experience, sporting clubs are more inviting than most gaming communities, especially if you're shit. The gaming community is just toxic, and turns everything into pointless rivalries and fights.
 

RandV80

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I wonder how much of the divide is an American culture thing. Through public school we take all growing adolescents and cram them into their own separate ecosystem. On top of that in the US sports like Football and Basketball are strongly tied to the local high school team, then to college, then onto the pro leagues. It's an institution that makes the star athletes all important in the high school/college ecosystem, and you get that 'jock' culture out of it.

In Canada on the other hand, our main sport hockey is not tied into the school system. In your typical youth league teams are based on municipal zones, and for kids that show promise as professionals we have the 3 major junior leagues. with about 20 teams each, for 16-20 year olds who get paid a small amount and those still in high school if they're from out of town live with billets. High schools will still have team sports with regional & provincial tournaments but no hockey they're more for fun and aren't really celebrated. End result is you don't really get a celebrated 'jock culture' in schools up here.

I'm not really sure what it's like in Europe, how they get that culture that creates football hooligans!
 

RaikuFA

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I like playing sports (except basketball, I hate that sport more than everything else). It's more or less the hardcore fanatics that treat every game like their life depended on it.

Oh and the whole JvG thing? How many times has a geek been excused for his behavior based on how well they can do what they can compared to how many jocks get away with the same shit just cause they can play sports.
 

joshuaayt

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We talk about games here because an interest in games is the only thing we're all gonna have in common- conversations about games are going to be easy to continue because we're all interested.
Sports have little to do with gaming as a rule, so there's no guarantee that someone here is interested in sports, so it's harder to find a good conversation about it.

Also sport sucks lol.
 

Kenbo Slice

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joshuaayt said:
We talk about games here because an interest in games is the only thing we're all gonna have in common- conversations about games are going to be easy to continue because we're all interested.
Sports have little to do with gaming as a rule, so there's no guarantee that someone here is interested in sports, so it's harder to find a good conversation about it.

Also sport sucks lol.
I posted this in the off-topic board, which is OFF-TOPIC. This board isn't about video games, you go to the gaming board for that. In off topic we can talk about anything non-gaming related.
 

Remus

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Sleekit said:
bartholen said:
I was wondering another facet of this the other day: why is exercise still something that's not discussed in these kinds of forums? It'll be a cold day in hell before I let myself look like the stereotypical fat fuck who just sits on his computer playing WoW all day.
because the truth of that stereotype is rather more complicated that it appears.

there are a lot of "ill" people play video games.

A LOT.

the mentally ill, the "socially excluded" due to various conditions (like "Autism") and so on.

although yes you can get fat and scruffy if you "let yourself go" playing endless video games a great many are not that way "because they play video games" but rather they play video games because they are that way...

...because the online gaming community and/or online gaming combats "social exclusion" (ie you can have "online friends") which is actually hugely attractive, arguably beneficial (from a mental health pov) and easy to enter into if you're a person in that position.

we also used to see people like thats inclusion in gaming as a positive thing...

[small]or at least that was the case up until last august...[/small]
Not just mentally, physically as well. In a raiding guild I was in, one player was terminal and literally could not sit in front of a computer for longer than an hour, two tops if heavily drugged. When he passed it tore everyone up even though we knew it was expected, and soon.

I'm neither top of the gene pool, nor bottom. I simply am. My job requires the minimal amount of physical effort that's not literally sitting down all day. Growing up, I had a disability that prevented me from doing many extracurricular activities, a disability later corrected surgically (the tech just wasn't there yet growing up). I had ADHD. Now, I walk on my off days, not too skinny, not too fat. I look like the Comic Book Guy's skinny brother, complete with ironic t-shirt. So by design, practically since birth, I was one of the most downtrodden, if not the most in my class. And often it was those jock assholes stepping on me.

I watch the occasional Super Bowl if only for the contact high and the ridiculous ads that are produced specifically for that broadcast. Baseball bores me to tears, and basketball? Never been interested beyond the glory days of Jordan's Bulls. Outside of the Superbowl, if you asked me about football, I'd tell you that it is a chess game played with grown men and as such is barbaric and stupid because it inevitably puts human beings in harms way in a way that no other sport outside of cage fighting does. Medical science, especially recently, more than supports this conclusion. As I cannot sit by an actual battlefield and watch men kill each other, I cannot support this sport.
 

Pandabearparade

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I don't hate sports or sport fans, I just have no interest and I'm not especially inclined to discuss the topic. If you want to discuss sports there's no shortage of forums dedicated to that, I'm sure.
 

TallanKhan

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I can't really tackle "the geek community" because that is a far too nebulous term that means different things to different people. I will however take a stab at answering specifically in relation to gamers.

Myself, I suspect a lack of overlap in interest is primarily responsible, different things appeal to different people with videogames being by and large a storytelling medium (having more in common with movies, comics and literature which is why these things are more readily accepted as talking points on a gaming website). This has little overlap with sports and while some people are certainly bound to find both appealing there is no natural synergy.

In addition sports tend to be very sport-specific. Where, as a gamer you might have a preference for different types of games most people play games from a few genres and franchises and one gamer can usually find common ground conversationally with another gamer, it isn't necessarily so for sports fans. Sports fans seem (as far as I've observed) to usually find "their sport" or occasionally a couple of sports and stick to it. One sports fan who loves hockey has no common ground with another sports fan if they like football and baseball.

Finally I think culture has a lot to do with it. Sport, particularly Football here in the UK, tends to hold itself up as some universally positive, aspirational endeavour. You always hear Footballers talking about how "sport builds communities, sport inspires people to improve their health, sport brings people together". And occasionally it is, in 2012 - 2014 we saw a significant increase in sports uptake in the UK following the Olympics. However, that isn't universal and what sport often inspires is division, violence and vandalism. Hell in 2012 there was even a report released linking the losses of national football teams to spikes in domestic violence incidents.

For me, I have never really had any interest in sport, watching or playing.

In regard to watching, while I accept there is a level of skill on display it simply isn't enough to hold my attention for the length of a sports match. I admire it, but in the same way I might stop to watch a street performer ride a unicycle, its impressive but not something I want to watch for 90 minutes. My ex was very into sport and avidly watched the last Olympics and I tried to be interested and watch with her but I just found it overwhelmingly boring, I even fell asleep twice.

In regard to playing, it just doesn't appeal to me. I walk pretty much everywhere (so far as is practicable) so get enough exercise and otherwise just don't see the point. I don't enjoy it and have better things to do with my time so... yeah.
 

Vigormortis

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BloatedGuppy said:
How so? How is this dismissive? Or negative? It's explanatory.
By implying "geeks" only dislike sports because they have a chip on their shoulder? I don't see how that's not negative stereotyping.

Are you under the impression that there are noble, commendable reasons for someone to seethe with hostility towards the recreational past-time of other people? I'd love to hear what they are.
I am not. The OP asked "I really don't understand what geeks/gamers/nerds/whatever have against sports." You said they have a chip on their shoulders and want revenge against "jocks". I was only pointing out that that was stereotyping.

Did you do a poll? How does one determine what is common, and what is not? I never claimed the reasons I listed were exhaustive, only that they are observable in "a lot of" situations.
Which is different than my own claims how? I never said my claims were exhaustive either.

I've been a sports fan since the late 90's, and a gaming fan/nerd culture enthusiast even longer than that. I was into stuff like pen and paper role-playing back when nerd culture was looked at like a communicable disease rather than one of if not THE predominant enthusiast culture. I had fuckin' Kara-Tur maps on my bedroom walls. And I lived in a small town that was all about loggin' and brewin', where the 15 year olds had full beards and straying from the consensus masculine ideal was "gay". My best friend was jumped and beaten in an alley for not being "manly" enough. And despite this, the amount of rancor and xenophobia I've observed in the "geek community" outstrips what I've seen from sports fans or "jocks" by an order of magnitude so large the latter barely registers. Some of the worst human beings I've ever known were "geeks". And they felt entitled to their hostile, shitty attitudes and hostile, shitty behavior because they self-identified as downtrodden.
And yet, from my own experience, the opposite is true. Some of the shittiest people I've ever met were die-hard sports nuts. (though not quite as shitty as some of the hyper-religious nuts I've met) The polar opposite of what you keep referring to as "geeks". So perhaps the reality of the situation isn't a clear cut as either of us thinks.

'Course, I won't lump all sports fans in with those shitty people. I try not to stereotype.

Completely anecdotal, naturally, and I do not suffer from the delusion that my life experience = everyone's life experience, but I find the "poor, besieged nerds" narrative more than a little facile.
So do I, but at the same time, I see the "angry, spiteful nerds" narrative as equally facile. And, just as I can't support the former as an excuse to be awful to people, I can't support the latter as an excuse either.

That's all I was trying to say. I'm not attacking you Guppy. Just wanted to ruffle some feathers since your post kind of surprised me. ;)
 

BloatedGuppy

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Vigormortis said:
By implying "geeks" only dislike sports because they have a chip on their shoulder?
Can you quote where I said that? Because I'm reading my posts and at no point do I see myself saying all geeks only dislike sports due to a chip on the shoulder.

Vigormortis said:
You said they have a chip on their shoulders and want revenge against "jocks". I was only pointing out that that was stereotyping.
Stereotype: to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same
Did I say that all geeks everywhere felt this way?

Vigormortis said:
So do I, but at the same time, I see the "angry, spiteful nerds" narrative as equally facile.
That strikes me as particularly amusing given the activities of the past six months, but that's your prerogative.

Vigormortis said:
And, just as I can't support the former as an excuse to be awful to people
Did I at any point make an argument that constituted "an excuse to be awful to people"? I'm confused.

Vigormortis said:
I'm not attacking you Guppy. Just wanted to ruffle some feathers since your post kind of surprised me. ;)
Perhaps not, but you're misquoting me, which is a bit puzzling. Unless it is your conjecture that no geeks anywhere have chips on their shoulders towards "jocks", as posts in this thread ALONE seem sufficient to disprove, I have no idea how anything I said was controversial or surprising in the slightest.
 

FirstNameLastName

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TheRightToArmBears said:
I suspect it comes down to most of us just being plain bad at them back in school, so we never developed much interest. I'm sure there's a lot of stupid jocks/nerds mentality as well, and a lot of people resent how much football gets shoved down our throats (mercifully only figuratively) over here in the UK.
You should try moving to Australia. Fucking AFL, it never lets up, even for a second.