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eSports Yearbook 2017/18
Abstract and Figures
The sixth edition of the eSports yearbook focuses on the recent developments in the scene. Especially with the ongoing professionalization, there is an increase in academic research observable. The topics range from governance and institutionalization of the eSports industry to the continuing professionalization of companies involved in the industry. Still, sponsoring stays crucial for the survivability of businesses in eSports. Furthermore, critical issues such as nationalism and censorship will be discussed. The book highlights the development of eSports from being a niche phenomenon towards becoming a central part of modern society.
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The purpose of this article is to add to the conceptual discussion on eSport, analyze the role of eSport within sport management, and suggest avenues for future eSport research. The authors suggest that debates surround the degree to which eSport represents formal sport, and disagreements likely stem from conceptualizations of sport and context. Irrespective of one's notion of eSport as formal sport, the authors suggest the topic has a place in sport management scholarship and discourse. Such a position is consistent with the broad view of sport adopted by Sport Management Review, the perspective that eSport represents a form of sportification, and the association among eSport and various outcomes, including physical and psychological health, social well-being, sport consumption outcomes, and diversity and inclusion. Finally, the authors conclude that eSport scholarship can advance through the study of its governance, marketing, and management as well as by theorizing about eSport. © 2017 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand.
Many online collaborative games, e-sports in particular, heavily rely on teamwork. However, players can act in an antisocial way during the match, creating dissent into the match. This kind of behavior is referred to as toxic. We aim to discover the influence brought by toxic behavior in a popular e-sport, League of Legends, through the study of communication patterns of players during the match. We discovered that different communication patterns exist, and that they are directly related to player performance and level of toxic behavior. We also propose metrics to analyze players' performance and the toxic contamination level, which measures the negative impacts of the toxic behavior. Our analysis contributes to shed light on how players behave in an online game, and opens ways to provide a better ambience on the online video game community.
An avid gamer and sharp media critic explains meritocracy's negative contribution to video game culture-and what can be done about it Video games have brought entertainment, education, and innovation to millions, but gaming also has its dark sides. From the deep-bred misogyny epitomized by GamerGate to the endemic malice of abusive player communities, gamer culture has had serious real-world repercussions, ranging from death threats to sexist industry practices and racist condemnations. In The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games, new media critic and longtime gamer Christopher A. Paul explains how video games' focus on meritocracy empowers this negative culture. Paul first shows why meritocracy is integral to video-game design, narratives, and values. Games typically valorize skill and technique, and common video-game practices (such as leveling) build meritocratic thinking into the most basic premises. Video games are often assumed to have an even playing field, but they facilitate skill transfer from game to game, allowing certain players a built-in advantage. The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games identifies deep-seated challenges in the culture of video games-but all is not lost. As Paul argues, similarly meritocratic institutions like professional sports and higher education have found powerful remedies to alleviate their own toxic cultures, including active recruiting and strategies that promote values such as contingency, luck, and serendipity. These can be brought to the gamer universe, Paul contends, ultimately fostering a more diverse, accepting, and self-reflective culture that is not only good for gamers but good for video games as well. © 2018 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
The paper examines the development of competitive gaming in China in the past three decades. In the early years, gaming enthusiasts in China organized competitions on a voluntary basis. From the late 1990s, profit-driven gaming companies began to organize and sponsor video game competitions across the country. The past 15 years have seen the commercialization and professionalization of competitive gaming, and the development of the new concept of ‘e-sports’. E-sports draw participants and audiences from China’s rapidly expanding online gaming community. While gaming companies, live-streaming services, and online gaming platforms are making millions of dollars in profits, the booming e-sports culture has facilitated the growth of the online gaming market and contributed to the formation of a vast cohort of online gaming addicts in China. Parents, educationists, and doctors have expressed growing concern over the social and health costs of the e-sports industry. Academia, media, and the general public are becoming more cautious about the development of the e-sports industry, which mostly targets a vulnerable group made up of the country’s children, teens, and young adults.
EVE Online is a socially complex, science-fiction-themed universe simulation and massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) first released in 2003. Notorious for its colossal battles and ruthless player culture, it has hundreds of thousands of players today. In this fascinating book, scholars, players, and EVE’s developer (CCP Games) examine the intricate world of EVEOnline--providing authentic accounts of lived experience within a game with more than a decade of history and millions of "real" dollars behind it. Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business features contributions from outstanding EVE Online players, such as The Mittani, an infamous member of the game’s community, as well as academics from around the globe. They cover a wide range of subjects: the game’s technicalities and its difficulty; its projection of humanity’s future in space; the configuration of its unique, single-server game world; the global nature of warfare in its "nullsec" territory (and how EVE players have formed a global concept of time); stereotypes of Russian players; espionage play; in-game memorials to Vile Rat (aka U.S. State Department official Sean Smith, murdered in the 2012 Benghazi attack); its gendered playing experience; and CCP Games’ relationship with players; and its history and legacy. Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business is a must for EVE Online players interested in a broad perspective on their all-consuming game. It is also accessible to scholars, game designers seeking to understand and replicate the successful aspects unique to EVE Online, and even those who have never played this notoriously complex game. Contributors: William Sims Bainbridge, National Science Foundation; Chribba (Christopher Enberg); Jedrzej Czarnota; Kjartan Pierre Emilsson; Dan Erdman; Rebecca Fraimow; Martin R. Gibbs, U of Melbourne; Catherine Goodfellow; Kathryn Gronsbell; Keith Harrison; Kristin MacDonough; Mantou (Zhang Yuzhou); Oskar Milik; The Mittani (Alexander Gianturco); Joji Mori; Richard Page; Christopher Paul, Seattle U; Erica Titkemeyer, U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Nick Webber, Birmingham City U. © 2016 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.