Is it time we classify video games as a legit sport?

“Go finish your homework!” or “Go outside and play a real game!” were the two most common demands made of kids enjoying video games while I was growing up. I guess our elders, a generation for whom the virtual world was a strange, unexplored wilderness, were afraid all those hours spent gaming would leave us ill-equipped to deal with the real world, where problems can’t be solved at the push of a button.

While competitive gaming is a young person’s sport, our generation, the one that grew up along video games, and saw the medium grow with us, still forms a huge chunk of the gamer population.

Today, I just want to shout out a big “SCREW YOU” to the adults who pulled me away from my precious video games when I was a teenager because gaming turned out to be a real gravy train. In 2018, problems can be and are solved at the push of a button. Finding friends or love, ordering food, booking a cab, professional networking; all of these and so many other activities have moved online. And the much-maligned video games, once touted as something that would distract us from real success, are now an avenue to more money than most of the millennials can hope to make working in start-ups across the nation.

While competitive gaming is a young person’s sport, our generation, the one that grew up along video games, and saw the medium grow with us, still forms a huge chunk of the gamer population. I’m not the only person yawning at work on a Monday morning because my Sunday night gaming spree went on a little too late. Studies from the Pew Research Centre, found that in America, 53% of the video game-playing population were actually 18 and over. These studies also found that older gamers were more likely to play more frequently. So even though I’ll never be as good as the kids tearing it up for millions of dollars at The International, I can take refuge in the fact that I’ll always have more experience.

It’s time the stigma surrounding adult gamers died out. I’m not a bespectacled, socially awkward, 12-year-old taking up space in my friend’s living room anymore, but a productive adult who has a job and pays rent. Just like my granddad liked to come home from work and play a nice solo game of Solitaire, and my uncles who would get together for gully cricket every Sunday, I turn to video games because they’re comforting, familiar, and entertaining. It’s time to admit it to the world – I’m an adult and I love video games as much as I did when my friend’s mom was unplugging our PlayStation. There’s a popular saying that goes, “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” While gaming wasn’t an option back then, maybe it’s time to consider a change of professional scenery.

This article has been previously published on Arré.