“You Must Construct Additional Pylons”: Building a Better Framework for Esports Governance

The popularity of “esports,” also known as “electronic sports” or competitive video gaming, has exploded in recent years and captured the attention of cord-cutting millennials—often to the detriment of sports such as basketball, football, baseball, and hockey. In the United States, the commercial dominance of such traditional sports stems from decades of regulatory support. Consequently, while esports regulation is likely to emulate many aspects of traditional sports governance, the esports industry is fraught with challenges that inhibit sophisticated ownership and capital investment. Domestic regulation is complicated by underlying intellectual property ownership and ancillary considerations such as fluctuations in a video game’s popularity. Since analogous reform is nigh impossible, nascent governance organizations have been created to support the professionalization of esports as a new entertainment form. As esports consumption continues to grow, enterprising stakeholders are presented with the unique opportunity to create regulatory bodies that will shape the esports industry. This Note analyzes how the professional sports industry and foreign esports markets have addressed governance challenges that arise from differences between traditional sports and competitive video gaming. It concludes by exploring two potential pathways for domestic esports governance. View PD

Esports’ Feasibility as an Entertainment Media: A Study

This research is conducted to find and determine the perks the public can get by engaging in Esports, the adverse effects that can affect Esports and making suggestions on how to improve the Esports scene. This study will be based on interaction in Esports, viewership in Esports, toxicity and aggressive behavior in Esports, as well as in-game purchases in Esports. The results of the data analysis showed that interaction in Esports, viewership in Esports, and in-game purchases in Esports have a positive effect on Esports’ feasibility as an entertainment media. On the other hand, no significant effect was found on toxicity and aggressive behavior in Esports to the feasibility of Esports as an entertainment media.Keywords: Esports; In-game purchases; Media consumption; Online gaming; Toxicity; Video game

Esports and the Media

This book takes a multidisciplinary approach to the question of esports and their role in society. A diverse group of authors tackle the impact of esports and the ways in which it has grown within the entertainment industry around the world. Chapters offer a coherent response to the following questions: What role do esports play in the entertainment industry? What communication skills can be learned through esports? What do the media gain from broadcasting esports? What is the relationship between social networks and esports? What are the main marketing strategies used in esports? What effect does communicative globalization have on the development of esports? What is the relationship between merchandising and esports? What do communication experts think about esports? Offering clear insights into this rapidly developing area, this volume will be of great interest to scholars, students, and anyone working in game studies, new media, leisure, sport studies, communication studies, transmedia literacy, and digital culture

Risk Issues in Esports Events: A Proposal for a Research Framework

Online gaming or esports has become extremely popular nowadays. As esports popularity increases, the trend of esports events has also been increasing around the world and all major esports stakeholders such as players, organizers, sponsors, teams and broadcasters are taking this opportunity to step up and shine. People participated and watched esports as a form of entertainment until it is now one of the most popular sports in the world. Players are now fighting to be professional players while event organizers take the opportunity to organize more esports events. However, with no specific policy or guideline regarding esports, many issues and risks could arise especially among the major esports stakeholders. Without proper planning on risk management, not only players but all major stakeholders in esports events could be at great risk. To address the gap, this research will explore major esports event stakeholders and identify risks associated with esports events from the stakeholders’ perspective. The proposed research will first need to explore the esports stakeholders in its preliminary stage and continue with addressing the risks and issues for all major stakeholders at the secondary stage. Methodically, this exploratory research will apply focus study interviews and case studies as its main method of investigation. The framework can later help all esports events stakeholders enhance their planning process through a proper risk management plan. It will also benefit the government in the development of policy regarding esports events

Exploring socialization processes for leisure-based esports: a qualitative study.

This study analyzed the perspectives of leisure-based esports participants from a Facebook group dedicated to a popular fighting game as esports. This study used a grounded theoretical approach, and several orienting theories/concepts (Serious Leisure, Recreation Specialization, social worlds, and the performance ethic) were used to study socialization into – and through – leisure-based esports participation. Based on ten interviews conducted from September through October 2020, this study found that if individuals were introduced to esports from the performance ethic, they tended to be socialized into social themes associated with the activity and vice versa. Through esports, participants were taught thoughts, actions, and feelings applicable to, both the social world(s) of esports and their outside lives. Participants displayed the hallmarks of serious leisure, as well as stages of increased specialization in esports. This study suggests opportunities for future studies to explore leisure-based esports, meanings of participation for participants, and linkages to professional esports

Spartan Daily, November 14, 2017

Volume 149, Issue 35https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartan_daily_2017/1076/thumbnail.jp