Video games are a staple of today’s culture.  They are a favorite pastime of children and teenagers of all ages and possess a strong presence in the entertainment and computer industries. Ironically, video games, an activity that is considered lazy by many people, have developed a strong connection with sports.  From “Pong” to “Punch-Out!!!” to “Need for Speed,” sports video games have been played by thousands of athletes and gamers alike.  Over the past few decades, video games evolved to have better, more realistic graphics and more immersive and fun gameplay.  However, one thing about sports video games has still not seemed to change during all this progress: how realistic they are compared to the sport that they are trying to depict.

As previously stated, sports video games have come a long way since the 80s and 90s regarding their appearance.  Even in the past ten years, sports video games have gone on to improve the animation of the players in the game, the smoothness and quality of the gameplay, and the resolution of the background environments and atmospheres.  This all makes for a more realistic gaming experience, sometimes even too realistic where it looks as if someone just filmed an actual game.  But when it comes to sports video games, capturing the overall feel and spirit of sports is much more important and convincing than boasting impressive visuals.  Sports video games, while very fun and involving, often fail to accomplish this.

“Wii Sports,” along with the Wii, is laughably crude and dated by today’s video game standards, but it is an engaging game that allows gamers to play a simplified version of baseball, bowling, boxing, golf, and tennis.  The key word that separates the sports on “Wii Sports” from real sports is “simplified.”  When playing baseball on the Wii, players do not have to worry about curve balls or other unpredictable and unexpected things when they are up to bat like how baseball players have to in real life.  This might be the purpose of the sport. Wii isn’t exactly going for accuracy, they just have to worry if the game receiver will pick up the swing signal the player gives off from the remote control.  The actions that actual baseball players do are all done by the game, with little involvement from the player.  This makes the sport seemingly easier than it seems, and it can be deceiving to the players who are “playing” baseball in front of a glowing TV screen.  The same goes for Madden NFL games on Playstation and XBox consoles.  Comparing that to an actual game of football is outlandish and absurd, since all a person does while playing Madden NFL is moving their fingers and pushing buttons with their thumbs.  Football players do anything but that when playing a game in real life.

Sports and their virtual gaming counterparts illustrate the difference between reality and fiction.  Sports video games act more as an artificial simulation than an accurate depiction of an actual real life sport.  While fun and sometimes exciting, sports video games should not be seen by the general public as faithful portrayals of such rigorous and physically demanding activities.  To put it simply, sports video games give players false and deceiving perceptions about sports, and to an extreme degree, can further disconnect them from the real world and place them in a spurious reality that is completely unlike the reality that they live in.