My favourite mental and social pursuit is coming home after a hard day and hanging out online with friends around the world.

I am tired of ill-informed comments about gaming from R. Lee (The Examiner, July 31). Lee describes competitive gaming as sitting for hours, looking at a TV screen while twiddling your thumbs.

His comments could not be further from the truth. Lee writes it is outrageous to call gaming a sport. Yet, gaming requires heightened coordination, problem-solving, teamwork, resilience, critical thinking and much more. It is extremely competitive.

In order to participate competitively you need to be highly skilled.

Whether or not it can be classed as a sport is debatable. It does not technically involve physical activity. However, other sports do exist that do not have significant physical components. Billiards, darts and even car-racing are classed as sports.

They are games of skill defined by an outcome not related to physical ability.

Lee contends that prize money is used to lure more gamers. The same applies to any/all competitive sports with prize money, for example tennis or golf.

In the technology-driven 21st century, with a growing audience of younger people, we not only need to be better informed about video games, but also appreciative of the skill many such games require.

WHAT this couple saw regarding seeing a black panther does not surprise me as my daughter and l still talk about what we saw to this day.

In 1998, my ex-wife, three daughters and l were travelling along an unsealed road after going to a farm situated around the Wynyard area. It was very close to dusk, when what only can be described as a black panther streaked across in front of the car.

The length of this thing would have been the width of the car and as described like the people in the article.

This was not by no means a feral cat what we had seen. My ex-wife said "what the hell". It was the first time l had ever heard my eldest daughter (now 30) swear which to this day we still have a laugh. The other two daughters were asleep.

I stopped the car and this panther-like creature sleeked into bushes along the unsealed road. I got out of the car with a camera in the hope to get some sort of image of this thing and l can remember my ex-wife was screaming for me to get back into the car. At the time l was going to report this sighting to police but thought they would think l was an idiot.

Jeff Robinson, Launceston.

POOR old Barnaby Joyce is crying poverty on his base salary of $211,000 a year (even more with fringe benefits).

Well should we pass the hat around to help him out? What Mr Joyce should do is open his eyes and see how many are really doing it tough. Take, for example, our farmers who work long hours for little reward, due to market downturn and unseasonal weather.

I'm sure those farmers who have some bulls in the top paddock would make a donation to Barnaby Joyce's charity hat, (and I can back it in), it won't be money.

Robert Lee, Summerhill.

IT SEEMS likely that many good people in the North may not yet realise how the proposed Gorge Hotel in Launceston would change the character of the city.

It is worth pausing to appreciate how the mouth of our famous Cataract Gorge is framed on either side by two wooded hills - West Launceston and Trevallyn, each with traditional houses among its trees and gardens, and that these, along with heritage height buildings, and notably the spire of the nearby Church of the Apostles, form a backdrop integral to this city's aesthetics and value as a destination.

It is worth weighing up the vaunted benefits of this imposition against its damage to the soul of the city. Successful tourist cities in Europe would not allow their built heritage to be dwarfed or their famous vistas marred in this manner.

We need to look for and consider alternatives which, although not "shovel ready", could bring more economic rewards to more people in the longer term without this damage. Unfortunately, the proposal has been waved through by our council and so naturally an appeal is underway and I recommend that people find out about the plans and the appeal.

I would not like to think of agreeable and preoccupied citizens bitterly regretting this if its out of place size and style were to materialise.

A D Alexander, Launceston.

MY WIFE and I regularly walk around the Seaport and the track around the new Riverbend Park.

We have been watching the construction process with interest and have seen how well everything is coming together and are convinced it will be a great area for families to spend time together.

What concerns me is the addition of a large black container in the park emblazoned in the colours of the University of Tasmania rowing club. As I didn't see a development application for the siting of this structure in a public space, I am wondering is this a permanent structure because it already has water connected to it. The big question is who in the Launceston City Council gave permission for this eyesore to be placed where it is? Already we have have seen rowing shells sticking out over the walkway and impeding people walking on the walkway. Is this going to be a regular occurrence? I know there are two other rowing sheds in the same area but they are both on the riverside of the walkway and don't interfere with the park or the walkway.

Peter Wilson, Newstead.