Almost everyone defending eSports in this thread seems to be focusing on the people who are giving no reasonable argument. I feel that I at least offered reasonable reason not to consider them sports: not because I think they aren't "worthy" or any ridiculous reason like that, but because it would create an unnecessary ambiguity.
Hey, here's a similar idea, why don't we take all games involving a ball and call them all "Ball". They all share the common denominator of being played competitively and involving a ball, so that makes them the same, right? There's a reason why we call them Football and basketball and baseball. It allows us to make a distinction between different things.
The simple truth is that, to me, it seems like those proposing such a name-merge are in some way embarrassed by the term "eSports" when in fact it's just a name, like the way email is different to mail, ecommerce is different to commerce, and electronics are different to... err, nevermind. The simple fact that they have been given the moniker eSports implies that they are already considered sports at least on a general level. Why is it so important that that "e" that is a valid identifier be removed?
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