Posture; and eSports.
Stop slouching. Or don’t. Idc. But I do.
Ok, that’s enough bipolarity from me. You can keep slouching, but I do care.
It’s a love/hate thing when it comes to standing up straight. The clashing belief of being relaxed and being correct: posture.
Oh, Calvin! Haha your rapscallionisms enthrall me to a tee. But he’s on to something there. Though most of us do not have the problem of facing backward, today’s postural plague is a result of the beneficial adaptation to computer tech: the slouch.
With the scapulothoracis (not a word, but you know what I mean) in a fixed depression, and spine flexion like an 4 hour ab curl, a gamer can live a crooked life. And. And I sympathize. I was a gamer. I have spent 48 hours straight pointing and clicking with friends online. It was then, when I made a lifestyle choice to be physically active, and make my new game the human body. I’ve plugged into the game of life, with my competition as myself, and everyone I meet as my allies, because no one cared for my lvl 185 Arch Fire Mage with an +7 upgraded staff. Wearing 5 Warmog’s screaming FOR DEMACIA was exhilarating, but fuck that life.
E-sports is where the primary aspects of the “sport” are facilitated by electronic systems, semicolon;
the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces.
Then the omniscient wiki page goes on to talk about the video game culture to always have been rooted in tournaments and spectatorship. Of course. I’m all for setting bouts to establish ranks within my tribe of Super Smash Brethren. After all, martial arts has the belt system in their competitive sport. But where does the culture go too far? In America.
In a country that promotes its own culture by whatever money pays it to do. The growth of any culture depends on the biopsychosocioeconomogeographical precursors. Athletes throughout a 30-year span have changed dramatically throughout the generations. Basketball players never dunked from the free throw in the 60's. Shiiieet, the slam dunk was banned that decade by the NCAA. Then it was brought back in the 70s or something. Idk, I googled “Vince Carter Olympic dunk” and concluded that dunking is too dope to ban, because dominance had to be defined.
If we can learn anything from Sports in general, is that MONEY shapes the competition, and not the other way around. As much as we’d like to believe that money keeps the playing field even, we have seen too much nincompooperous antics from professionals. Commissioners playing favorites, city teams gaining power over entire leagues, referees bought out, but worst of all, players’ livelihoods being threatened.
There is too much at stake when there’s too much at stake. But in this NEW modern day colosseum, at least we can rule out players’ livelihoods, right? After all, they’re just pressing buttons on a screen.
But if you’re going to call yourself eSports, just be aware of the cultural values you’re setting in momentum. You’re full of computers, you’re smart.
Sports culture.
Much like sports, eSports allows only a selected few to proselytize about their methods of success, leaving the masses to follow limited and dogmatic secularisms of a game with rules to level the playing field. And in a culture of consumerism, we’ll take any advice the winner will throw at us.
But to each their own.
Aaron, where are you going with this? Honestly, I don’t know. That’s because I don’t know where eSports is going either. Will there be sponsorships from energy drink companies? Mental supplements/nootropics? I don’t know. But I do know that there are A LOT of people participating in these eSports events, and it’s crippling the active culturing of ingenuity of gaming and sports alike. It’s a can of worms.
This is me, taking a firm stance. Fuck League of Legends, Dota 2, Starcraft 2, and other multiplayer online battle arena platform games that harness the power of groupthink in maladaptive ways.
But I’ve always believed that the power is in the people, not the system. And with this glimmer of hope, is my 2 cents; Posture is not to be corrected, but behaviorally modified.
I asked one of my gamer lifting brohemoth’s for a chair he would recommend. He says the DxRacer is the way to go. As you can see, it’s top pad to support the C-1 to C-7 vertebrae, bottom pad for the lumbar, THEY WANT US to align with natural spinal curvature. If we’re still talking about cultural consumerism, gamer chairs.
But since he’s too cheap, he just uses a $100 chair from Staples and good posture. I wish I could show you his lower back from when we started lifting (about 2 and a half years ago). He’s only 25, but his back had been enforced in a slouch over years of gaming, MOBA’s fucked my friend’s back up. WHICH IS EXACTLY MY BEEF WITH GAMING AND ITS CULTURAL TIE WITH A SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE.
But since he started lifting 2 years ago, he’s become more health conscious. He’s even mustered up the confidence and sociability to maintain a somewhat active and sporadic romantic life. He’s a slut now, he can learn relationships the hard way. But since vanity and health consciousness go hand-in-hand, I’ll let that be settled in the gray area.
But whether it be gamer, or not, we all sit in front of a computer for hours, either for money, or enjoyment. If we’re talking about cultures, this technological age has us slouching. And I’m not having it. Neither should you.
I’m not bagging on lifestyle choices, just one. Sit up straight. We’re not supposed to be comfortable in front of a screen for hours.
I’ve always believed that the power is in the people, not the system. And with this glimmer of hope, is my 2 cents; Posture is not to be corrected, but behaviorally modified.
Winning has become synonymous with raising your hands up upon declaration, like studies on those with congenital total blindness suggests. And if were talking body language DURING an eSports competition, what are our bodies saying to themselves?
With eSports projected to be bringing in 1.9 billion dollars by 2018, how is this money going to shape our competition?
