J.R. LeMar

SPORTS AND VIDEO GAMES

I am not really into sports, and never have been. I didn’t play in any sports growing up (not even basketball, despite being tall, skinny, and Black) and never followed teams. There are certain athletes that I like, and I root for them to win whenever they play. Like Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, & Floyd Mayweather. I also found myself rooting for Lebron James to win a championship, just because so many people were hating on him and I tend to instinctively take the side of the underdog. But I’m not a fanatic about anything.

But, as I was saying on my Facebook page a couple of weeks ago, sometimes I wish that I was into sports. Just because I see so many of my friends getting all into and being so excited for their teams. This is especially during basketball and football season, and to a lesser extent during European soccer season. When the games are on, my Facebook home page is full with a stream of updates from folks about what’s happening. And I can’t help but be a tad envious, just because I wish I could get that excited about something like that. Like when I see folks posting pics of parties their having to watch some game, or tailgating parties in a stadium parking lot. That looks like fun! Or even just going to a sports bar, where everyone’s watching a game and drinking together. Must be a nice way to pass the time. And then there’s the big events like the Superbowl. Everyone gets so darn excited for that, but I have zero interest in watching it, so I miss out.

But then there’s the flip side of the coin. I see many folks sometimes getting really angry over sports. I see people posting updates cursing out rival teams, individual athletes, or referees when things don’t get their way. I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve seen folks on Facebook threatening to delete people from their lists, over the other person’s opinion about sports. And that’s when I think that I should be glad that I’m not into sports. I’m glad I don’t get so emotionally involved over a frakkin game, that should just be for fun.

Speaking of fun, another thing I never really got into is video games. I used to play a few games, when I was a wee lad, way back in the days when they had arcades, and you had to use a joystick. I’m talking about the simplistic games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Centipede. But the type of games I hear about today might as well be science fiction to me. I don’t know the difference between a Playstation, X-Box, or Wei. But I see folks getting so excited about the latest games, and talking about them, and the characters they play, and the storylines, and I’m like…”storylines”?!? How do you have a story in a video game? That’s new to me, I don’t even get it. But several months ago I read this article about MASS EFFECT and I thought, damn, that sounds pretty frakkin awesome! If I was going to be into a video game, that would be it. Also, Star Trek Online has this interesting timeline, which I liked reading about, but I’m just not compelled to try the game.

Clearly, I’m missing some sort of “Fun” chromosome.

17 comments

  1. I am pretty apathetic to sports, but video games are just the best. To me there is no more diverse and malleable medium of artistic expression. Everything from the pretentious, yet low-brow horse shit that is most of Halo to the regal majesty of Tetris. From the seemingly simplistic run and jumping fun of Super Meat Boy to the intellectually-stimulating (in several ways) Braid. Saints Row 2 was INSANE, but in a good way. Anything with a streaking mini-game and a mini-game where you shoot sewage at people through a hose has earned its place in my heart. Also, Limbo. And 4 out of the 6 Fallout games. Especially New Vegas. I mean it has guys dressed like Roman soldiers wielding assault rifles and laser guns! That is the pinnacle of human achievement.

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    • HALO is another game that, from the description, sounds like it should be the kind of thing that I’d be into. I’ve been planning to get one of the novels and/or comic-books.

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  2. I feel you on video games! I could get down on some Super Mario Bros., original NES haha! But nowadays, forget about it! To put it into perspective, I bought myself an XBox 360 as a gift for conpleting my master’s, for the sole purpose of watching Ne.tflix. About five weeks ago, after having my XBox nearly two years, I bought a USED kinect and Dance Central, part 1, just to get in some kinesthetic exercise… And that I only manage to do maybe twice a week. As for sports, I have noticed a decline in the interest of watching them that is in direct proportion to how long it has been since I have actively played sports! I stopped coaching last year so have not been as active about playing volleyball; it has been even longer for basketball. But not by choice, simply no time. I plan to start back up again with both very soon, since I would much rather be playing than watching, in any event!

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  4. Let me go on record as saying almost all motion controls are lame shit. I sold my Kinect within 6 months of getting it and I almost never use my Wii for actually playing Wii games. This is coming from a guy who likes to play video games a lot.

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  5. I already said this on Facebook, but it bares repeating for future generations who stumble upon this page or whatever that Donkey Kong did have a story. Not a super deep one, but it was there.

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  6. […] and some of her family and friends, and hung out with some of them on the strip, I enjoyed it. And, as I wrote about recently, part of me wishes I was into pro sports and video games, just because I could join in with others […]

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  7. Oh, I miss the days of NES. Those were some games to get into. To this day I love, love, love metroid. As for the arcade, I used to play an X-men game (with Wolverine, Cyclops, and I forget the other 3 characters) and Teenage mutant ninja turtles.
    I know of Xbox, PS3 and wii games but I know very little about them. The last good game that I recall playing with a storyline was on a Nintendo 64 and the game was called Doom.

    As for sports, I feel ya. These days I am not into sports. I think most of the sport stars are whiners, crying about how they spend their millions. I used to like basketball. I tried out in high school and a failed miserably at it but eventually I ended up becoming a co-manager for the team in my senior year. In my freshmen year in college I was on an intramural team that was in last place. The hardest part of that was when I had to referee a intramural game. If you get the calls wrong you better start hiding. Also in high school I used to bowl. I also played a little touch football with friends and a little table tennis (if you want to call it a sport) but that is the extent of my sports career. But like you said, the dark side is when people take sporting events too far and want to harm some one just for being a fan of the opposing team. It’s just a game guys, come on.

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  10. […] Supernals and it was also only .99 cents, I went ahead about this too. Also, y’all know that I’m not into sports, so I had no idea until after I read the first comic and posted about it on Twitter that the […]

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