Monday, November 28, 2005

CYBERATHLETES

A story of a gamer who won a tourney's top prize of $150,000 takes today's Raised Eyebrow Award. That and the term they used to describe him, "Cyberathlete." Excuse me? Oxymoron alert!

I don't begrudge the winner. Anybody who wins $150,000 has good fortune and good for them.

But c'mon... twitching thumbs and great hand/eye co-ordination is a skill set, certainly, but ATHLETE it isn't.

I've never gotten into the games I've seen. They just don't interest me. Like The Simpsons - so many have described it as the best writing on TV but I can't get past the cartoons. Some people hate clowns. I just can't spend time watching animation on that level.

I'm sure no expert of the gaming world but from the ads I now see in heavy rotation on TV for the X-Box Xmas season, I'm still not interested. (I admit I have wasted some time on my IPAQ playing whatever it is that came with it, a game which requires strategy, not hand/eye.)

Years ago I tried a flying simulation computer program but it was just too disconnected from the real thing (I have an old crusty pilot's license) for me.

My mother couldn't navigate a microwave's control panel. I wonder if my lack of gamesmanship-interest is the same thing for the next generation?

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