I may be a gamer, but I do not follow sports. However, a couple of recent headlines caught my eye. One was about politicians and blocking transgendered people from participating in campus sports. The other was about pay inequality between men and women athletes. These stories got me thinking…Why aren’t their more professional co-ed sports? Maybe it is time to overhaul sports to make them more inclusive instead of more restrictive.

My Problem with Sports

When I was a kid, my parents pushed me to play sports. I do not think poorly of them for wanting me to be well rounded. Unfortunately, I have never had much interest in sports. Even though they enrolled me in soccer and baseball, I had no interest in playing competitive sports. Maybe my disinterest was because this was around the time I learned I needed corrective lenses. Maybe I lacked confidence and did not feel coordinated. I have never grasped the concept of dribbling a ball. I was constantly penalized for either traveling or double dribbling. Maybe I lacked that competitive spirit, and just enjoyed playing.

My disinterest in sports was not because I was inactive. I was a very active kid and got my exercise in many other ways. I enjoyed playing tag, hide-n-seek, and capture the flag. Even though I could not dribble the ball, I loved playing Horse and Around the World. In the summers, I practically lived in the swimming pool. And, when I wasn’t in the pool, I explored the world around me on my bike. I am more of a couch potato now, but I still enjoy being active. I have even overcome some of my coordination issues by learning how to walk on stilts, bounce on a pogo stick, and juggle.

I believe my lack of a competitive nature boils down to how I generally approach games. For sports, there is a push for excellence. It’s all win, win, WIN! People who follow sports retain the statistics and number of wins. That is not how I play. I do not keep score long term. I enjoy a good game in the moment and how a game is played. I do not track how many times I, or anyone else, wins. I do recall the impressive strategic moments. But, to me, it is more about playing a good game and having fun.

Another difference between sports and games are the conditions of the participants. Sports favors the more elite participants who are athletic. Games are more more available to a general audience. There are some games, like Scrabble and Pictionary, which favor intellect and creativity. Most games, I feel like anyone can pick it up and play it, and the more a person plays, the more exposure to different strategies, and the better they can get without exercising more or without studying or reading more. Most games are tailored to be very accessible.

My beef with games are more about balance. I choose not to play unbalanced games. For more on this, see these blogs about Clue  and Rummy. If a game is not fun, I choose not to play.

The Sports I Want

Touching back on those two articles I mentioned in the opening paragraph, what could be done to improve player equality? Why not restructure sports to be more inclusive and equal? Support more co-ed sports. Support more sports that do not favor strength, intellect, or creativity. Support sports allowing for more well-rounded players who put up a good game.

Finding a sport supporting well-rounded players means looking for more well-rounded games. What games have a decent balance and do not favor the strong, smart, creative folk? What games are more accessible to a wider variety of players? Where do we go for inspiration to find these kinds of sports?

As a couch potato, I suggest looking at TV for inspiration. My wife and I love watching The Amazing Race. There are people from all walks of life on that show. Sometimes, you go into the race thinking the most athletic teams are going to do better. Sure, they might be able to run faster or carry more weight, but often they overlook details or struggle with grasping simple concepts. The more well-rounded teams often perform the best.

The Amazing Race reminds me of the Nickelodeon game shows in the 80s (isn’t there a documentary about these?) or Battle of the Network Stars in the 70s. Teams had a variety of players, and they did both physical and mental activities. What other forms of inspiration?

What about Role Playing Games (RPGs)? RPGs involve more mental and creative activity than physical. There is the Live-Action Role Playing (LARPing) in which players act out their role playing. Before jumping into a campaign, gamers construct a variety of character types to improve their chances of success for anything they may encounter. A campaign would not last nearly as long if all the characters were barbarians or all were wizards. If you don’t think watching people play a role playing game would be interesting, you should check out Geek and Sundry’s Titansgrave campaign run by Wil Wheaton. Or, look up the documentary Uber Goober.

Many years ago, I read an article in Games Magazine about a group who had started a company of Live-Action Puzzle Hunting based off the 80s movie, Midnight Madness. In a way, The Amazing Race reminds me of this type of event. Even more so is the short-lived reality show, The Mole, which Netflix has recently revived. I enjoy The Mole more, because viewers at home can play along by looking for clues and observing the players to figure who they think is the Mole.

What would I suggest?

First, let me stress that I am not suggesting the elimination of the sports we currently enjoy. I am suggesting exploring new, more inclusive sports that most anyone can watch and think, “That looks like fun and something I could do! Where do I sign up?”

One thing I would like to see different than reality shows is getting rid of the weekly eliminations. Allow viewers to root for the same team all the way through a season, hoping to make it into the finals. For reality shows, I often root for certain teams, and then hit a moment of disappointment when a team is eliminated and long to see more from that team, but still watch half-heartedly to the end of the season, because I have invested enough of my time to continue watching to see who does win. If I were to design a game, all teams fight for a place at the end, and then the finale is an elevated version of what those teams had been through. These two teams have proven themselves to be the best two, what happens when they go head-to-head?

I could see the creation and execution being split into two types of seasons. I may not have watched much of them, but I know there are reality shows in which individuals or teams show off their creativity. Imagine a sport with two types of teams: the creators and the competitors. This new sport could have creative teams pitching concepts for what teams could experience in the next season. Teams design and pitch ideas for things like escape rooms, mini golf holes, hide-n-seek venues, puzzles, or other kinds of features experienced over the competitive season. The sport could go on all year long watching both the creation process and the competitive progress for both seasons.

Like The Mole, the experience could be enhanced by including a play-at-home aspect. I suppose there could be something like fantasy football or call-in-with-your-vote. I think it would be more immersive if the presentation of the games does not reveal the answers, but provides the same parts for viewers at home to figure out themselves, or a variation of the same puzzles. As for physical activities, people could post videos of themselves performing similar activities to be ranked by their peers. Maybe even advancing up the at-home leaderboard could help recruit new players.

What is Your Opinion?

The world today has so much potential, but we often hold ourselves back from exploring what more we could do. I am open to changes in the world of sports. Where do you stand on the possibility of reinventing sports? Are you fine with how things are? Or, are you looking for something more? What would you suggest to make the world of sports more equal or inclusive?