What do you think? Is it a sport or a hobby? It was first started as a hobby when people got bored on their homes and they need to play video games for fun. At present, it turned out to be a sport. Tournaments here, competitions there. From regional to the grand stand of them all, WCG or the Word Cyber Games where you compete with players around the world. As a gamer, I tend to be curious why gaming, at first as a hobby, turned out to be competitive, lest a sport. My mom went to Manila for a meeting 2 years ago. She called me if I want a computer magazine, and I said yes since I’m addicted to PC Mag Philippines at that time. When she came home, I was lucky to have the first gaming issue of PC Mag Philippines. Let’s recap the beginning of gaming.

The beginning of gaming was way back 1950’s when the game OXO was popular. The computer was by far running with a 256 Kb of RAM, that’s according to my computer teacher in high school. Than in 1961, Spacewar was programmed. Until 1972 where Atari released Pong. Since then, gaming started to evolve. It was 1971 when the first hardware game was introduced. It was Computer Space, the first coin-operated arcade machine. Ohh. That’s the beginning of arcade machines. 1976 came when Fairchild VES (Video Entertainment System) was launched. Was that made by Grand Stand? Nah. Maybe not. 1982 came when PC began to process games. It was the Commodore 64 who came first in the PC gaming industry while Commodore Amiga and Atari ST was introduced to the US in 1985. Since then, gaming totally evolved. In 1989 both Sega and Nintedo released there own hardware video game. The Sega Genesis and Nintendo’s Game Boy. Came 1991 where Nintendo released Super NES or Super Nintendo Entertainment System (I have 1 here at home sadly was broken though.). In 1994 Sega has released it’s Sega Saturn and at the same time, Sony came to the competition, released their own PlayStation or dubbed PlayStation One. 1996, the time where I got hooked on video games. The same year Quake was introduced. 1998 when Sega finally released their last hardware video game, Dreamcast and at the same time Half Life was released. Also, Counter-Strike was introduced in the same year.

Wow. Looking back at history truly was exciting. 256 Kb of RAM. That was unimaginable. But, I haven’t answered the question. Is gaming a sport or a hobby? What I can say is, gaming can be both be sport and a hobby. If you want to prove yourself that you’re the best gamer there is, then you can use gaming as a sport. If you’re at home, you can play it as a hobby.

Me, as a gamer, I can use it both. Since I play arcade and at the same time play here at home. Practice sessions? Maybe. I don’t fit on the competitive side of the games but I can try. We as a people has the chance to try. You just need to grab the opportunity when it’s still there.