Taylor Response

I thought the reading was interesting. At first I thought I was not going to understand a word because my knowledge of e-sports is nil. I did find it interesting how similar e-sports is to what people call real sports, like football and basketball. The athleticism, the practice, the scrutiny, the ego, etc. I really do not see a difference between e-sports and sports. I was surprised how huge it is all across the world, but I got the feeling from reading her book that here in the US it is not the big or important. Like it is just something that people do in their dorm rooms and at the friends houses and that is it. While everywhere else around the world it is a major event. When I was reading, I thought it was interesting how much a place like South Korea gives to e-sports. The money, the time, the attention to the athletes, and realizing the benefits that e-sports has to the country. I thought why doesn’t the United States does this? If they just support the athletes or at least make it open for other competitors to come and play or at least escape, the economy could benefit. Additionally, the beneficial technological advances, if we opened the doors, will help not only the economy but also the competitive aspect may increase. I understand the many problems with this idea, but why is it we and companies give millions and millions of dollars to the NFL or MLB, just to watch people hit or throw some sort of ball. The benefits of e-sports does exist both economically and physically, but that is just little capitalist in me peeking out, which is really bad.

I think where Taylor misses the mark is I wish she expanded more on the issues of race and sexuality in e-sports. She does write about it but I wish she wrote more than just a few pages. We know about the issue of whether e-sports is actually athleticism or not, even if we do not know a thing about it e-sports. I am not saying it not important topic to discuss, but it is an old topic that I think is questioned to cover up other issues. Like the issues of race and sexuality. And it exposes that games are not escapist at all but a continuation of either racist agendas or WASP male agendas.

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