By Jim Studer
When I taught a poetry unit in my English classes, I began by asking, “What is the essence of gameness?” My answer was to set a goal and then make up rules to make reaching that goal difficult. For example, the objective of soccer is to put the ball in the net. Among other rules to complicate the game, a player cannot use hands to accomplish that goal. To my way of thinking, being able to use your head only made thinking during the game harder.
Sounds, rhythm, sometimes rhyme, tone and emotions make poetry a word contraption. Poets set up obstacles making accomplishment of the scheme more challenging. For example, complex rhyme schemes such as in Poe’s The Raven or a difficult sound pattern such as Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter: ten syllables per line in groups of five, the first unaccented, the second accented. There are other complex constructions such as a sonnet. Hence, poetry is a word game made more complicated by rules set by the poet. None of this applies to free verse.
This brings me to the world of sport. In order to turn some things into a sport, we establish rules to make achievement more difficult. Instead of outright slaughtering venison for the table, using a bow and arrow makes bow hunting a sport. It is much more difficult to accomplish a kill with a simple bow and arrow. Unlike the poet wanting to exhibit skill by making the task more difficult, today’s bow hunting industry uses technology to simplify the kill. Skill and artistry are not as important today. Complex, highly engineered, compound bows and arrows streamlined in the making by computers make success today less dependent on skill and expertise. The essence of gameness is reduced.
The same can be said about fishing. The electronic gadgetry that is available today reduces the need for skill and knowledge. The use of expensive toys such as depth finders and live scope cameras that locate fish are taking the sport out of the sport. This may not be as cruel as using sticks of dynamite to blow a mess of fish to the surface, but technology moves the angler closer to that.
Major league baseball is taking the game out of the game by introducing computers. The voodoo machines enable engineers to position fielders in places that plot where the hitter is most likely to drive the ball. It is not the ingenuity of the players, coaches, and managers doing this; instead, data spit out of a machine reduces dependency on skill and artistry. It takes the gameness out of the game.