I disagree with saying you can't get a true competitive experience from it. A few years back when Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 were popular, I was playing in lobbies with and against a lot of the "best" players in the game. I mean those that have a ton of kills while still maintaining a kill/death ratio and win/loss ratio above 2.00. The games were heated, and victory often came down to the very end of each match. So while they weren't real, the competition was still very much there. As for the rest of your post, that scene is something I didn't give consideration to in my first post, and as I am not involved in my scene there is no argument that can be posed against what you have said. That said, thank for you providing that perspective, it gives me a much fuller picture of the article.