If you haven’t realised it already, many science fiction sports from movies and other forms of media have become popular and, in turn, have been made into real sporting events. Turning fictional sports into real-life sporting activities is a matter of great interest to those in their respective fandoms.
Harry Potter’s Quidditch:
One of the most popular fiction sports, known as Quidditch from the Harry Potter franchise, is now being practised as a real sport. Unfortunately, certain details of the game cannot be included, such as witches, wizards, flying broomsticks, and a golden-ball with the ability to fly, but improvisations have been made to call the new game Muggle Quidditch. Muggle Quidditch, the term “muggle” referring to normal humans, involves the use of dodgeballs to replace “quaffles”, hula hoops on sticks for goals, a player dressed in gold who acts as the “snitch”, and every player is straddled to a broomstick – unfortunately, without the gift of flight.
Star Wars’ Beat Saber:
Another popular science fiction sport is Beat Saber, which is presumed to be lightly based on Star Wars. This is a Virtual Reality game, in which you exercise. The Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise says that “Beat Saber’s primary exercise comes from the fast upper body movement needed to slice musical blocks, along with moderate side-to-side leaning, and occasional squats to avoid obstacles”. A player moves the lightsaber to the rhythm of the beat during a game, giving the player an interesting and innovative way to workout.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu:
The Call of Cthulhu, which is a horror fiction role-playing game, is based on H.P Lovecraft’s short story with the same name. According to HPLovecraft.com, this game is initially based off of a short story Lovecraft wrote in 1926. Not only has it been turned into a popular video game, but it has also become a real-life fantasy tabletop role-playing game, similar to Dungeons and Dragons. Although it does not include aspects of physical activity, like other reality games and sports sometimes do, it definitely keeps the mind active and is a fun and interactive way to celebrate your favourite authors.
However, there are many sci-fi and futuristic games that will probably never come into reality – for example, Hunger Games, which would be a terrifying real-life sport. A sporting game that includes murder and killing for entertainment would probably not land too well. Another example of a fiction sport that would not stand well in the 21st century, is Flamingo Croquet from Alice in Wonderland. The possibility of using real flamingos is definitely not viable, however the likelihood of the sport’s rendition using flamingo-like croquet balls does exist.
Overall, the impact of sci-fi movies on sport is great, and the fact that may fandoms have taken it upon themselves to recreate certain sports is fun and unique – however, some sports should remain what they are, fictitious.
