Kate Costello / Scroll
Beau Bateman, a freshman from Tualatin, Ore., and David Arnold, a freshman from Boise, play “Madden,” a football game, on Xbox. The two live in Alpine Chalet and say they play Xbox a lot during their spare time.

Students turn to Xbox, Nintendo for sporting alternative

Lindsay Law LAW05002@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Nearly 35 feet from the hole, Jason struggles to read the green, but positions his next shot the best he can. If he makes this shot, he’ll win the Masters.

Jason pulls back on the joystick of his PlayStation 2 controller and with all the strength this thumb can muster, thrusts the control forward.

On the television screen, a digital version of Tiger Woods connects putter to ball, which rolls slowly on target and drops into the hole for an eagle. Virtual victory has been achieved!

The winner, Jason Butikofer, a sophomore from Idaho Falls, has been playing sport games on his PS2 for a number of years.

Butikofer estimates that he spends about one to two hours a day on his PS2 playing Tiger Woods Pro Tour, Fifa Soccer, Madden Football and others.

So what makes these games enticing and engaging enough to cause scores of people, to sit at home playing Xbox, PS2 or Nintendo, using only their thumbs to throw a sixty-yard touchdown pass? Why this as opposed to going out to a football field and using the rest of their God-given extremities to do so (while getting exercise in the process).

The opportunities are out there, even more on the BYU-Idaho campus, where the students can become involved in athletic and/or intramural teams.

“Honestly, [playing Xbox] helps me relax from school work,” Butikofer said.

“It’s a big stress reliever,” said Jason’s roommate, Garth Simpson, a sophomore from Idaho Falls.

In addition to relieving the many stress, for many students time is a luxury, and getting out of the apartment for hours at a time to participate in sports may not be an option. All a student has to do is purchase the game and the option of when and where to play is theirs.

“It’s much more convenient [to play a gaming system], you can take 45 minutes of the day and play a quick round of golf,” said Butikofer.

In such games as Madden Football, you can draft a team and play multiple seasons while suffering injuries, breaking records and winning championships along the way. One can also “learn a lot about the real game itself while playing,” said Simpson.

In addition, Simpson and Butikofer agreed that the ‘real thing’ is much more fun and there are certain things that gaming can’t replace, such as the thrill of competition, the intensity of a close game and the joy of victory.

It seems both sports gaming and real-life participation have something to offer. You can tax your body through sweat on the court for the real life experience, or tax your wallet at EB Games for the gaming version. But just make sure that the next time you’re stepping up to the line, you know you’ve made the right choice between the foul line on a basketball court or the check-out line at the mall.