Have any of you made video and computer games your only sports?

[ForeverRoyalKC]

I'm seriously thinking about walking away from real sports. I'm so sick of all of the distractions and additions that has overloaded sports today. Politics, betting, "rigging", referees, etc. I'm within an eyelash of making OOTP and some older Madden my only sources of sports. Period.

[kq76]

I've switched to pretty much only watching highlights and it... helps? Sponsorblock cuts out a lot of the ads so that helps with the gambling. There's still the bad reffing and the OKC flopping in highlights, but at least there's not so much of it.

I don't think you can get past the rigging though if you're sure it's there. I guess you just accept that sports are like WWE, or otherwise scripted tv series, and you just move on one way or the other.

There are definitely periods, like recently, where I spend more of my time playing OOTP than watching sports though.

[DamPenguin]

I much prefer my computer simulations... no bad referees, no flopping, no corruption, etc... I will listen to the game while I'm on my computer but if I watch I only get angry and don't enjoy the real game.

[Cobra Mgr]

If my team is playing, I will pay stricter attention. But if I don't have a rooting interest in the players, I will mostly have the game on for background noise now. The greed, gambling, officiating, fan behavior and owners more concerned w/having the most profit instead of the most wins has turned me off.

[Westheim]

No. I watch hundreds of baseball games a year with glee, as well as every competitive session of Formula 1, all points-paying NASCAR Cup races, and all DTM races (German-centered touring car championship that's well past its prime, but BMW won today, tee-hee!).

Soccerball I mostly consume through the live ticker and highlights. I just don't particularly enjoy having another five subscriptions for it, and my team's still never gonna be on any of them.

I watched (almost) all the games from the 2024 Euro, though...!

However - and this one is relevant to the thread - I am boycotting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Reasons include FIFA being rotten to the very core, the corruption, price gouging, and the ridiculous bloating of the tournament to 48 nations, and at the same time filling it with uncompetitive African and Asian teams, while there's at least ten European countries and the rest of South America that could and would absolutely wipe the floor with Curacao, DR Congo, or Uzbekistan.

I'll gladly return for the Euro 2028, but 'til then, so long.

[CONN CHRIS]

I still watch/subject myself to 125 + Tigers games a year. I continue to watch the Cowboys each season well after the point where I rage-quit on the year.

It's always a struggle to determine if this is joy or masochism.

[low]

I watch all Brewers games, all Packers games, all F1 races, and all Grand Sumo tournaments. Thankfully, because of the packages I have I am not subjected to commercials for two of those sports, unless it's in-game crap.

Outside of my favorite teams, I don't watch a single second. And I gave up on both basketball and soccer a long time ago because those sports have zero integrity.

[Sweed]

I still watch my teams in the NFL (and have redzone running unless my team's full game is on), MLB, Premier League, College basketball and football. I rarely watch other games unless it's playoffs, though I probably have most Sunday/Monday Night NFL games on in the background while I play my favorite computer sports game.

What I have found in baseball is if there is a strike/lockout or even talk of either
coming up... I don't care. I play OOTP and never miss the real games.