An Ecosystem Framework for the Meta in Esport Games

This paper examines the evolving landscape of modern digital games, emphasizing their nature as live services that continually evolve and adapt. In addition to engaging with the core gameplay, players and other stakeholders actively participate in various game-related experiences, such as tournaments and streaming. This interplay forms a vibrant and intricate ecosystem, facilitating the construction and dissemination of knowledge about the game. Such knowledge flow, accompanied by resulting behavioral changes, gives rise to the concept of a video game meta. Within the competitive gaming context, the meta represents the strategic and tactical knowledge that goes beyond the fundamental mechanics of the game, enabling players to gain a competitive advantage. We present a review of the state-of-the-art of knowledge for game metas and propose a novel model for the meta knowledge structure and propagation that accounts for this ecosystem, based on a review of the academic literature and practical examples. By exploring the dynamics of knowledge exchange and its influence on gameplay, the review presented here sheds light on the intricate relationship between game evolution, player engagement, and the associated emergence of game meta

Exploring player experience and social networks in MOBA Games: The case of League of Legends

A pesar de la popularidad de los juegos de arena de combate multijugador en línea (MOBA en inglés) como League of Legends (LoL), tanto la experiencia de jugador (PE) que proporciona este género relativamente reciente como las redes sociales que se generan a su alrededor siguen, en gran medida, inexplorados. Con el incremento del tiempo que los jugadores dedican a este tipo de juegos competitivos en línea, los impactos positivos y negativos de hacerlo cobran relevancia; es, por lo tanto, importante entender cómo se estructura dicha experiencia para abordar de forma sistemática los mecanismos que desencadenan respuestas de los jugadores. El presente trabajo empieza obteniendo y caracterizando una muestra de jugadores de League of Legends y sigue con el uso de las variables resultantes y de la estructura de las relaciones sociales como entradas para explorar su relación con la experiencia de los jugadores. Al fin y al cabo, la PE es básica para involucrar al jugador y, por lo tanto, es clave para el éxito de cualquier juego digital. Los resultados muestran, entre otros, cómo los jugadores de League of Legends perciben el juego como “justo” para su nivel de competencia en cualquier rango, mientras que su afinidad respecto a los compañeros se ve afectada por la estructura social. La empatía y los sentimientos negativos, no obstante, no parecen verse afectados por la composición del equipo. Entender la experiencia del jugador en League of Legends puede no tan sólo ser útil para mejorar el propio LoL o los juegos de tipo MOBA, sino también para desarrollar juegos más inmersivos a la vez que se mejora su calidad. A medida que los juegos competitivos online se convierten rápidamente en una de las mayores actividades colectivas humanas a nivel global, la investigación sobre la experiencia del jugador adquiere también una importancia crucial

Work, play, and precariousness: An overview of the labour ecosystem of esports

Professionalised competitive digital gaming or ‘esports’ has grown to a point where millions of dollars are being awarded in competitions watched globally by tens of millions of viewers. Previous analyses of the phenomenon have examined the role(s) of labour in esports performed by various actors – players, tournament organisers, sponsors, game developers – but these have yet to be unified into a ‘big picture’ of esports labour, especially when considering the relationships between the labour performed by different esports actors. In this paper we therefore present a comprehensive overview of the labour that different actors within the emerging Esports ecosystem perform, and how they intersect and influence each other in order to contribute to the existence of this highly contemporary phenomenon. In doing so we show that the rapid growth of Esports has created new labour processes and forms of work, transformed existing ones, yielded new career options, and tremendous profits to be made by a range of involved actors. Esports’ emerging position as a major global industry both within gaming and within contemporary media more broadly demands close attention to its work, its workers, and who is winning and losing in this dynamic media space

Analysis of Data Gathered from League of Legends and the Riot Games API

Understanding the impact of game balance changes on character performance is important for game designers and players. For this study, we analyzed the effect of patches on champion win rates, pick rates, and ban rates from League of Legends, a popular online game created by Riot Games. This was achieved by categorizing patches by change type. These changes were correlated to game statistics sampled by pulling statistics from 128 champions and roughly 465,000 games from the Riot Games API. In order to be more conveniently accessible to the developers and playerbase, this information is displayed publically on a WPI hosted website on a per character basis

Replayability of Video Games

Our project was carried out in an attempt to better understand replayability and to help develop a structured approach to game design with it in mind. Forming a basis from the game studies field, we carried out a survey, an interview and performed market research to determine opinions and reactions to replayability that can be grounded with sales information. We found that aspects such as difficulty, completion, social aspects, randomization and The Experience contributed to replayability and should be strongly considered within this approach. We also concluded that the while replayability is important; it is not the sole factor that should drive our structured approach. Other factors such as marketing and playability also strongly affect the sales of a video game

Competition, Corporatization and Culture: A Contrast of Person-to-Person and Online Video Gaming Communities In America

My Senior Project is an exploration of contemporary competitive Video Gaming culture in the United States. Through a comparison of Person-to-Person gaming communities and Online gaming communities, I aim to elucidate the social nuances in these gaming communities and how they have created such vastly contrasting cultures

Reconsidering esport: Economics and executive ownership

This article starts with a literary review of the conceptual frames through which esport has been labeled academically. It shows how the concept of “electronic” has been taken as the core term for labelling esport, often accompanied by a strong emphasis on “professionalism.” The literary review is followed by the submission of an alternative conceptual frame based on the economic notion of executive ownership, which provides a theoretical grounding for esport as a cultural phenomenon. In accordance with the above, the article concludes with a reframed look at the history of esport and suggests commercial analog gaming (especially Magic: The Gathering) as its point of origin. Esports, economics, games, theory, history, politics</p

Designing for Disengagement: Challenges and Opportunities for Game Design to Support Children's Exit From Play

Games research and industry have developed a solid understanding of how to design engaging, playful experiences that draws players in for hours and causes them to lose their sense of time. While these designs can provide enjoyable experiences, many individuals -- especially children -- may find it challenging to regulate their playing time, and often they struggle to turn off the game. In turn, this affords external regulation of children's playing behavior by limiting playing time or encouraging alternative activities, which frequently leads to conflicts between parents and the children. Here, we see an opportunity for game design to address player disengagement through design, facilitating a timely and autonomous exit from play. Hence, while most research and practitioners design for maximizing player engagement, we argue for a perspective shift towards disengagement as a design tool that allows for unobtrusive and smooth exits from the game. We advocate that interweaving disengagement into the game design could reduce friction within families, allowing children to finish game sessions more easily, facilitate a sense of autonomy, and support an overall healthier relationship with games. In this position paper, we outline a research agenda that examines how game design can address player disengagement, what challenges exist in the specific context of games for children, and how such approaches can be reconciled with the experiential, artistic, and commercial goals of games

Eine sportökonomische Analyse von E-Sport mit Blick auf Marktstruktur und Competitive Balance

In den vergangenen Jahrzehnten ist der Markt rund um E-Sport schnell gewachsen. Durch Turniere mit immer höheren Zuschauer- und Umsatzzahlen hat der E-Sport in vielen verschiedenen Interessensgebieten den klassischen Sport bereits überholt. Dennoch gibt es kaum sportökonomische Literatur, die den E-Sports untersucht. Um diese Lücke zu schließen, wird zunächst untersucht, ob eine ausreichende Vergleichbarkeit zwischen E-Sport und klassischen Sportarten besteht. Dazu wird geprüft, ob sich Marktstrukturen des klassischen Sports auch im E-Sport finden lassen. Ein besonderes Augenmerk wird dabei auf die Struktur mehrseitiger Märkte gelegt. Diese Marktstruktur findet sich sowohl im klassischen Sport als auch im E-Sport. Charakteristisch für den E-Sport ist, dass die gespielten Titel im Besitz von Unternehmen sind. Dies steht im Gegensatz zu den Sportarten des klassischen Sports. Unternehmen im E-Sports Ökosystem sind in der Lage, mit verschiedenen Strategien, wie z.B. Integrationsstrategien, ihre Position auf dem Markt zu stärken. Typischerweise lassen sich zwei Stufen der vertikalen Integration zwischen Spieleentwickler, Spieleverleger und Turnierveranstalter ausmachen. Abhängig von den Integrationsstufen haben die Unternehmen einen größeren Einfluss auf den Verlauf des Turniers. Deshalb wird im nächsten Schritt geprüft, inwieweit der sportliche Wettkampf der Turniere durch den wirtschaftlichen Wettbewerb der beteiligten Unternehmen beeinflusst wird. Die Competitive Balance der Turniere dient dabei als Indikator. Durch den Vergleich von zwei Turnieren mit verschiedenen Integrationsstufen der involvierten Unternehmen lässt sich der Einfluss der eingesetzten Strategien erkennen. In Strukturen, in denen mehrere getrennte Unternehmen einen Einfluss auf ein Turnier haben, wird die Competitive Balance erhöht.In the past decades, the esports market has grown rapidly. Due to tournaments with ever increasing spectators and revenue figures, esports has already overtaken ordinary sports in many different fields of interest. Nevertheless, there is hardly any literature on sports economics that examines the esports market. To close this gap, it is first examined whether a sufficient comparability between esports and sports exists at all. For this purpose, it is determined whether market structures of ordinary sports can also be found in esports. A special attention is paid to the structures of multisided markets. This market structure is found in ordinary sports as well as esports. Characteristic for esports is that the titles played are owned by companies. This contrasts with those in ordinary sports. Companies in the esports ecosystem are able to use different strategies, such as integration strategies, to strengthen their position on the market. Typically, two stages of vertical integration between game developer, game publisher and tournament organizer can be identified. Depending on the stages of integration, the companies have an increased influence on the course of the tournament. Therefore, the next step is to test to what extent the sporting competition of the tournaments is influenced by economic competition of the involved companies. The competitive balance of the tournaments serves as an indicator. Comparing two tournaments with different market structures, the influence of the strategies used can be identified. In structures where more separate companies have an influence on a tournament, the competitive balance is increased