The playing experiences of esport participants: An analysis of treatment discrimination and hostility in esport environments

The eSport industry has seen rapid growth over the previous decade with additional opportunities for participants to compete in competitive and casual environments. As such, the sport industry has taken notice of this increase in popularity and exposure for eSport. A recent call to arms by sport management scholars suggests that the field of sport management needs to broaden research endeavors to include analyses of eSport and eSport spaces. To that end, this investigation serves as one of the first that investigates the playing experiences of eSport participants with a particular focus on the presence of discrimination and hostility in playing environments for men and women competitors. Previous events within the eSport industry, such as the now infamous harassment of female gamers known as Gamergate, suggests that female eSport players may experience discrimination and hostility at higher rates than their male counterparts. Guided by the frameworks of hegemonic masculinity and treatment discrimination, this investigation gauged the experiences of men and women eSport participants with discrimination and hostility in eSport playing environments. Results indicated that female eSport participants reported experiencing instances of treatment discrimination more frequently than their male counterparts, while male participants reported experiencing hostility more frequently. Results aim to assist the eSport industry as well as sport management scholars in guiding new policy to create inclusive spaces for eSport enthusiasts and career hopefuls

Exploring virtual rewards in real life

Leading companies in the wearables market have introduced different virtual reward systems to their products and services to increase user engagement and enhance playfulness. While existing studies report mixed views on the effectiveness of virtual rewards offered by activity trackers, we still have a limited understanding of people's lived experiences with virtual reward systems. A four-month diary-based autoethnography reflecting on the use of three popular activity trackers (i.e.,Fitbit, Apple Watch, and Google Fit) and their associated virtual reward systems, plus an online survey with 113 current users of the same activity trackers were conducted. Results provide rich insights into how users interact with virtual rewards in real-life, and how these impact people's engagement in physical exercise. A set of considerations to design user-centric virtual reward systems that provide more meaningful experiences to activity-tracker users are derived.Peer reviewe