Having just showered and gotten back to my room I stood in front of the mirror on my closet to brush out my hair. I hear noise outside of my dorm coming from the hallway but it takes several minutes before I start to process what I’m actually listening to. I start to listen to the words-- it sounds like a TV-- a sports broadcast or commentary of some kind. Not being the sports type my mind wanders from there.
I think about why I don’t have any sort of interest in sports. Maybe its because I’m not very coordinated or athletic. Maybe I didn’t’ have sports really in my childhood—sure I played soccer but I never loved it or even enjoyed it that much as I got older. None of my family ever would sit down and watch “the game” or any game for that matter.
My mind then wanders to why other people like sports. I have many friends that enjoy sports (most—actually, all of whom I know through WoW). Is it because they used to play this sport or watch it with family? Is it an admiration of the athleticism? Then I think about my high school, FIRST robotics team (short version: these competitions are more like competitive games or sports than battling robots)—I was passionate about that and I loved to see our robot compete and even more than that I loved to see our robot do well.
Maybe that’s what it’s like for people who enjoy watching their favorite sports.
So, in my mind these types of robotics competitions are like a sport in many aspects. Which leads me into a sudden flashback I had.
Over a year ago, now, as I finished my summer internship at NASA I found myself with a lot more free time. Even though school had started back up I had enough time to be able to start playing WoW again. Over the summer my Guild had found a group or alliance that they started raiding weekly with. As soon as possible I too started raiding with this group. I already knew about half the people in real life so the rest of the group soon knew that I actually am a female WoW player. I started to come week to week and would listen to the conversations on Vent (voice chat program) there was generally quite a bit of sports talk, as many members would watch the games as we raided on Sunday evenings.
On my first or second week as a part of this group, we were clearing our way to the Maiden of Virtue and the bulk of the group was talking about sports to which I replied at some point:
“Robotics is a sport, yes?”
Then, Tyr (who had almost no idea who I was at that point) responded something to the effect of, “Yanow, I think I’m liking you more and more.”
Now, a year later that makeshift raiding alliance has become a single, formal Guild. And some of those same people I met then I now consider close friends, even if we’ve never met in person.
