eSports Mastery Research I

This will be the first in a series of short blog entries relating to my research on eSports, the goal being the dissection of the genre and eventually to come up with a set tools and tips on how to make a successful eSport.

One of the multiple values the Game Developers Conference hosted each year has, is that of education for the industry. During the conference, many presentations are given in a variety of topics defined by the GDC, one of these is the Business and Marketing track (GDConf.com, 2017). One it’s aspects is the intersection of game design and business, of which one subject of research I find interesting is the growing segment of eSports and its business opportunities. To prepare a background for my research I have seen a video from the GDC Vault, reviewing the history of eSports and their influence on player culture and values (Cannon, 2017).

From that point, my next step was analyzing Seo ‘s (2013) study on the value co-creation network model for experiential economies applied to the eSports business, and Lee & Schoenstedt’s (2011) paper on eSports and traditional sports consumption motives. In the second paper one conclusion is that there are similarities between the two kinds of sports, and thus the marketing techniques used in traditional sports could be applied to eSports (Lee & Schoenstedt, 2011). Seo (2013) concludes that, since both industries (eSports and traditional sports) are experiential economies, they are both covered by his model and it could be possible to use it to predict tendencies in the industry.

It is my intention to pursue this research into eSports and try to establish further relations between the actors in the industry of eSports (Game developing companies, Publishers, Sponsors, Players, Consumers) (Seo, 2013), traditional sports, and game design techniques and methods for eSports (Lee, et al, 2011). A corollary from this research would be the involvement of mobile gaming in this experiential economy.

References

Call for Submissions (2017). In Game Developers Conference. Retrieved May 8, 2017, Retrieved from http://www.gdconf.com/conference/c4p/#section5

Cannon, T. (2017, March 3). eSports Day: Arcade to eSports: How Your Competitive Game Influences Player Culture and Values [Video File]. Retrieved from http://gdcvault.com/play/1024333/eSports-Day-Arcade-to-eSports

Lee, D., & Schoenstedt, L. J. (2011). Comparison of eSports and traditional sports consumption motives. ICHPER-SD Journal of Research, 6(2), 39-44.

Seo, Y. (2013). Electronic sports: A new marketing landscape of the experience economy. Journal of Marketing Management, 29(13-14), 1542-1560.