Beach volleyball is played typically with 2's or 4's. The rules are slightly different, court size is smaller. There are no positions in 2's, there are no position faults.

Feel free to make analogies between two other similar sports, such as Competition Karate and Taekwon-Do.

I'm sorry but this still sounds like the same game to me. Why is it not called Beach 2-by-2-ball, or somethign similar, if the number of players makes it so very different? If I get a couple of my mates together and we bounce a ball over a net counting points when the ball hits the ground- how is what we're playing not (an informal game of) volleybal?

How is basketball different from indoor volleyball? They're both played indoors on a wooden floor court, both have two teams in opposition, playing simultaneously. Both have in bounds and out of bounds. Both have a ball. Both involve passing a ball. Both have scoring dictated by placement of the ball.

I mean, we can talk about things that make things similar all day, it doesn't make them the same thing. Is a hamburger a sandwich? Sometimes, the whole is greater than the parts, not everything is perfectly decomposable in life.

>> How is basketball different from indoor volleyball?

Because one is about putting the ball through a basket and the other is about bouncing it over a net?

>> Is a hamburger a sandwich?

Yes, actually.

But, a very special kind of sandwich.

Well the thing is, they aren't a big new thing! But the hype train needed it to be (and to be fair, the ecosystem has benefited greatly from the attention).

You rarely see hypetrains for old, established things :)