{"id":1423,"date":"2009-04-14T09:58:51","date_gmt":"2009-04-14T14:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2017-06-20T09:59:51","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T14:59:51","slug":"gamers-vs-jocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2009\/04\/14\/gamers-vs-jocks\/","title":{"rendered":"Gamers vs. Jocks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
--photo illustration by Mary Edwards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every day, a number of Sinclair Community College students gather in Building 8 to play video games, mainly Super Smash Bros. Brawl and more recently, Street Fighter 4.<\/p>\n

While these students socialize and compete, there are other competitors walking around the Sinclair campus. Some of them are a part of the Men\u2019s Baseball team.<\/p>\n

As David Murat, a 20-year-old English major, battles with his peers in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Taylor Messinger, a catcher for the Pride, is practicing on his hitting, throwing, and agility.<\/p>\n

They share a common goal in improving themselves in their respective fields.<\/p>\n

The \u201cGamers\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019ve been playing video games since] the first Donkey Kong came out,\u201d Murat said. Besides his love of \u201cgaming\u201d Murat said he also plays bass and writes stories that he hopes to get published one day. Murat plays Super Smash Bros. Brawl with a host of different people, some of whom he doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually made a lot more friends,\u201d said Murat, about the time he spends in Building 8. His friend and rival Ethan Vawter, an architecture major, has been playing in Building 8 since he started at Sinclair in the fall. Vawter is considered the best player at Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Building 8, according to Murat. By his own account, Vawter said video games, specifically Super Metroid, helped him learn as a young kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cVideo games taught me how to read,\u201d said Vawter, who has been playing video games since the tender age of 4. \u201cIt\u2019s good to get your brain working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quentin Ross, a Visual Communications major, said he remembers playing video games since he was 2. Ross considers himself a pro-gamer and has participated in tournaments in Indiana, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Ross, who is a big fan of fighting games, plays Street Fighter 4 in Building 8. Ross said he and his friends usually play a few hours a day. Instead of using the standard controller for the Playstation 3,the game system they play Street Fighter 4 on, he uses a controller that largely resembles those used to play games at the arcade. Ross considers \u201cgaming\u201d as his sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like our pro basketball,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n

The \u201cJocks\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve Dintaman, who is in his second year of coaching Sinclair\u2019s Baseball team, is a fan of video games.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove \u2018em,\u201d Dintaman said. \u201cWe probably play them too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recently purchased the Nintendo Wii and though he respects the gamers and their craft, he doesn\u2019t consider \u201cgaming\u201d to be a sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never consider them athletes,\u201d Dintaman said. Messinger, a Liberal Arts major, has been playing baseball for 15 years. He said gamers put in the same kind of work ethic as an athlete.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Gamers] put in the same dedication,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hard work aside, Messinger said that being a gamer isn\u2019t similar to playing baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes more skill to be a baseball player,\u201d Messinger said. He said a normal day for him during baseball season begins at 6 a.m. Throughout the day he spends his time weight lifting, going to class, studying and practicing.<\/p>\n

The lines blur<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sean Ashley, who\u2019s a Sinclair grad currently at Wright State University, plays Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Building 8 when he\u2019s able to. Ashley played wide receiver and safety for West Carrollton\u2019s football squad and considers gaming to provide a similar amount of intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets serious,\u201d Ashley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every day, a number of Sinclair Community College students gather in Building 8 to play video games, mainly Super Smash Bros. Brawl and more recently, Street Fighter 4. While these students socialize and compete, there are other competitors walking around the Sinclair campus. Some of them are a part of the Men\u2019s Baseball team. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[55,1959,326,1383,325,327,324,323],"class_list":["post-1423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-baseball","tag-kamari-stevens","tag-social-groups","tag-sports","tag-street-fighter","tag-subcultures","tag-super-smash-bros-brawl","tag-video-games"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-mX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1460,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/1460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}