Abstract
The phenomenon of e-sport implies an understanding of competitive engagement in computer and video games. Although very popular and well known among adolescents, scientific research and even game studies do not yet know much about this special gaming culture. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to provide a possible theoretical framing for the phenomenon of e-sport, which might then serve as a basis for further theoretical work and empirical research on this topic. Besides a detailed introduction to the current state of electronic sport, this chapter will discuss whether the concepts of subculture and scene have any explanatory value for this new research field.
Shot the pretty boy, killed him on commodore.
Need a new game, need a new something more.
Got a new face, got a new way to score.
Got a voice like something I’ve heard before.
(The Birthday Massacre “Video Kid”)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Although some authors differentiate between the terms computer games and video games, in this chapter, they will be used synonymously.
- 2.
LAN = Local Area Network.
- 3.
Empirical evidence for the impact of online gaming on adolescents’ media usage can be found in Keilhauer (Chap. 20).
- 4.
- 5.
For an empirical study on teamwork in off-line gaming, see Dahlskog (Chap. 21).
- 6.
Some of the cited works on e-sport here have unfortunately only been published in German. Since they provide an important and fundamental basis for the understanding of e-sport, I refer to them nevertheless.
- 7.
See http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Sport. (Accessed 14 May 2010). The English Wikipedia entry on e-sport does not mention any numbers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-sport. (Accessed 14 May 2010).
- 8.
See http://pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/virtual-worlds/video-games/starcraft-training.html?play. (Accessed 14 May 2010).
- 9.
- 10.
A detailed discussion about the social aspects of clans and their meanings to the players based on empirical data can be found in the empirical work on this topic by Martin Geisler (2009), which has unfortunately only been published in German until now.
- 11.
A first systematic attempt to structure clan and player names can be found in Adamus (2006).
- 12.
The playful use of change between capitals and lower case letters, brackets, numbers, and punctuation marks in these contexts is a typical appearance in the context of e-sport and is called leetspeak.
- 13.
Although it should be mentioned that this famous league actually has been closed due to financial problems.
- 14.
For further research on the World Cyber Games, see Wimmer (Chap. 33).
- 15.
For the impact of genres on the different historical development of e-sport in Asia versus Europe and America, and the consequences for its social status and acceptance, see Wagner (2006b, 2007, 183).
- 16.
A very good example of how these claims could be fulfilled can be given by the study of Jana Rambusch et al. (2007) on gameplay in Counter-Strike with an explicit reference to its notion as a discipline of e-sport.
- 17.
E-sport provides many interesting research fields especially for educational research, for example, with regard to questions of learning processes and the development of competencies. On the theoretical basis of the model provided by Jenkins et al. (2006), Adamus (2009b) offers a first attempt to structure the possibilities of achieving media literacy by engaging in the context of electronic sport.
- 18.
Referring to this definition of youth subculture might of course lead to some further questions and points for discussion. The most problematic aspect in this context seems to be the idea of a society, which contains different social classes. However, I think that it is possible to leave this aspect behind and concentrate more on the idea of a dominant or hegemonic culture, which even in the so-called postmodern societies definitely exists, although this existence might not be apparent to the majority. Thus, subcultures can be interpreted as ways of resisting this hegemonic culture, so the theoretical approach referred to in this context does not lose any of its explanatory value.
- 19.
This opinion is often referred to as the “resistance through style/resistance through rituals” paradigm.
- 20.
I will refer to this notion of youth scenes in the following sections because it is the most detailed and common scientific definition of this phenomenon so far.
References
Bibliography
Adamus, T. (2006). Computerspiele – mods, clans und e-sportler. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.
Adamus, T. (2009a). E-Sport: Zum (vergeblichen) Versuch der Abgrenzung des traditionellen Sports von seinem elektronischen Nachwuchs. In F. Axster, J. Jäger, K. M. Sicks, & M. Stauff (Eds.), Mediensport. Inszenierungen und Grenzziehungen (pp. 229–241). München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Adamus, T. (2009b). Medienkompetenzförderung durch E-Sport-Communitys? – Theoretische Annäherungen an Potenziale und Problematiken eines jugendkulturellen Phänomens. In H. Gapski & L. Gräßer (Eds.), Medienkompetent in Communitys – Sensibilisierungs-, Beratungs- und Lernangebote (pp. 83–96). München: Kopaed.
Bartle, R. A. (1996). Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: Players who suit MUDs. http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Boudreau, K. (2005). Role theory: The line between roles as design and socialization in EverQuest. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views – Worlds in Play. Vancouver. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/06278.16338.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Clarke, J. (1979). Stil. In A. Honneth, R. Lindner, & R. Paris (Eds.), Jugendkultur als Widerstand – Milieus, Rituale, Provokationen (pp. 133–157). Frankfurt a. M: Syndikat.
Clarke, J., Hall, S., Jefferson, T., & Roberts, B. (1979). Subkulturen, Kulturen und Klassen. In A. Honneth, R. Lindner, & R. Paris (Eds.), Jugendkultur als Widerstand – Milieus, Rituale, Provokationen (pp. 39–131). Frankfurt a. M: Syndikat.
Deutscher eSport Bund – ESB. (n.d.). Definition eSport. http://esb.geetac.de/version2/de/pages/31.html. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Electronic Sports League (ESL). (2006). ESL-Umfrage 2006. http://www.turtle-entertainment.de/img/studies/68/144.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Electronic Sports League (ESL). (2007). ESL-Umfrage 2007. http://www.turtle-entertainment.de/Dateien/Studie2007.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Electronic Sports League (ESL). (2008). ESL-Umfrage 2008. Available on demand via ESL.
Electronic Sports League (ESL). (2010). Registered users in Europe. http://www.esl.eu/eu/statistics/year/#registered_users. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Geisler, M. (2009). Clans, Gilden und Gamefamilies – Soziale Prozesse in Computerspielgemeinschaften. Weinheim: Juventa.
Hepp, A. (1999). Cultural Studies und Medienanalyse – Eine Einführung. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Hitzler, R., Bucher, T., & Niederbacher, A. (2001). Leben in Szenen – Formen jugendlicher Vergemeinschaftung heute. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Hutchins, B. (2008). Signs of meta-change in second modernity: The growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games. New Media & Society, 10(6), 851–869.
Jansz, J., & Martens, L. (2005). Gaming at a LAN event: The social context of playing video games. New Media & Society, 7(3), 333–355.
Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Clinton, K., Weigel, M., & Robinson, A. J. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Jonasson, K., & Thiborg, J. (2010). Electronic sport and its impact on future sport. Sport in Society, 13(2), 287–299.
Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Rankin Macgill, A., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games and civics. http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2008/PIP_Teens_Games_and_Civics_Report_FINAL.pdf.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Lin, H., Sun, C. -T., & Tinn, H. -H. (2003). Exploring clan culture: Social enclaves and cooperation in online gaming. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/05163.31010. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Manninen, T. (2000). Interaction in networked virtual environments as communicative action: Social theory and multi-player games. In Proceedings of CRIWG 2000 Workshop. 18–20 October. Madeira, Portugal: IEEE Computer Society Press. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.25.3771&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Manninen, T. (2001). Virtual team interactions in networked multimedia Games – Case: “Counter-Strike” – Multi-player 3D action games. In Proceedings of PRESENCE 2001 Conference 21–23 May. Philadelphia: Temple University. http://www.temple.edu/ispr/prev_conferences/proceedings/2001/Manninen.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Manninen, T. (2003). Interaction forms and communicative actions in multiplayer games. Game Studies, 3(1). http://gamestudies.org/0301/manninen. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest (MPFS). (2008). JIM-Studie 2008 – Jugend, Information, (Multi)Media. Stuttgart: MPFS. http://www.mpfs.de/fileadmin/JIM-pdf08/JIM-Studie_2008.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Müller-Lietzkow, J. (2006a). Leben in medialen Welten – E-Sport als Leistungs- und Lernfeld. Medien + Erziehung, 50(4), 28–33.
Müller-Lietzkow, J. (2006b). Sport im Jahr 2050: E-Sport! Oder: Ist E-Sport Sport? Medien + Erziehung, 50(6), 102–112.
Pearce, C. (and Artemesia). (2009). Communities of play – Emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Pedersen, J. B. (2006). Are professional gamers different? – Survey on online gaming. http://game-research.com/index.php/reports/are_professional_gamers_different_survey_on_online_gaming/. Accessed 8 May 2010.
Rambusch, J., Jakobsson, P., & Pargman, D. (2007). Exploring E-sports: A case study of gameplay in counter-strike. In Situated Play – Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/07313.16293.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Reeves, S., Brown, B., & Laurier, E. (n.d.). Experts at play: Understanding and designing for expert skill. http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~barry/papers/counterstrike.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Seay, A. F., Jerome, W. J., Sang Lee, K., & Kraut, R. (2003). Project massive 1.0: organizational commitment, sociability and extraversion in massively multiplayer online games. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/05150.32256. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Siitonen, M. (2009). Conflict management and leadership communication in multiplayer communities. In Breaking new ground: Innovation in games, play, practice and theory. Proceedings of DiGRA 2009. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/09287.36215.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Smith, J. H. (2004). Playing dirty – Understanding conflicts in multiplayer games. Paper presented at the 5th annual conference of The Association of Internet Researchers, 2004, University of Sussex. http://www.itu.dk/people/smith/texts/playing_dirty.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Smith, J. H. (2005). The problem of other players: In-game cooperation as collective action. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views – Worlds in Play. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/06276.16354.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Taylor, T. L. (2003). Power gamers just want to have fun? – Instrumental play in a MMOG. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/05163.32071. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Taylor, T. L. (2006). Play between worlds – Exploring online game culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Thiborg, J. (n.d.). eSport and governing bodies – An outline for a research project and preliminary results. Paper to be presented at the conference Kultur-Natur, 16 Juni, Norrköping. http://dspace.mah.se:8080/bitstream/2043/8897/1/eSport%20and%20Governing%20Bodies.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Verhagen, H., & Johansson, M. (2009). Demystifying guilds: MMORPG-playing and norms. In Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory. Proceedings of DiGRA 2009. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/09291.50401.pdf. Accessed 30 April 2010.
Wagner, M. (2006a). On the scientific relevance of eSports. In Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Internet Computing and Conference on Computer Game Development (pp. 437–440), Las Vegas: CSREA.
Wagner, M. (2006). Virtueller Wettbewerb – Zur Entwicklung des E-Sport in Korea und Deutschland. Medien + Erziehung, 50(3), 43–46.
Wagner, M. (2007). Competing in Metagame Space – eSports as the first professionalized metagame. In F. von Borries, S. P. Walz, & M. Böttger (Eds.), Space time play: Computer games, architecture and urbanism – The next level (pp. 182–185). Basel: Birkhäuser.
Witkowsky, E. (2010). Probing the Sportiness of eSports. In J. Christophers & T. Scholz (Eds.), eSports Yearbook 2009 (pp. 53–56). Norderstedt: Books on Demand GmbH.
World Cyber Games (WCG). (2009). WCG History. http://www.wcg.com/6th/history/wcg2009/wcg2009_overview_de.asp. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Wright, T., Boria, E., & Breidenbach, P. (2002). Creative player actions in FPS online video games: Playing counter-strike. Game Studies, 2(2). http://gamestudies.org/0202/wright. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Yee, N. (n.d.a). The Daedalus Project. http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_intro.html. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Yee, N. (n.d.b). The Norrathian Scrolls. http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/home.html. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Yee, N. (2005). Motivations of play in MMORPGs. In Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views – Worlds in Play. http://www.digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/06276.26370.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Yee, N. (2009). Befriending ogres and elves: Relationship formation and the social architecture of Norrath. Games Studies, 9(1). http://gamestudies.org/0901/articles/yee. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Young-nam, S. (n.d). Peeking the two Olympics: A descriptive study of the WCG and its sponsorship. http://amrc.cuc.edu.cn/data/upload/download/PDF/07/07-14.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2010.
Gameography
Battlefield series. (since 2002). DICE Sweden, DICE Kanda (Dev.); Electronic Arts (Pub.).
Counter-Strike. (2000). Valve (Dev.); EA Games (Pub.).
EverQuest. (1999). Verant Interactive (Dev.); Sony Online Entertainment (Pub.).
FIFA series. (since 1994). EA Sports (Dev.); EA Sports (Pub.).
Lineage. (1998). NCsoft (Dev./Pub.).
Need for Speed series. (since 1994). Electronic Arts (Dev./Pub.).
Pro Evolution Soccer series. (since 2001). Konami (Dev./Pub.).
Quake series. (since 1996). id Software (Dev.); Activision (Pub.).
Starcraft. (1998). Blizzard Entertainment (Dev./Pub.).
URU – Ages beyond Myst. (2003). Cyan Worlds (Dev.); Ubisoft (Pub.).
Warcraft III – Reign of Chaos. (2002). Blizzard Entertainment (Dev./Pub.)
World of Warcraft. (2004). Blizzard Entertainment (Dev.); Vivendi (Pub.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adamus, T. (2012). Playing Computer Games as Electronic Sport: In Search of a Theoretical Framework for a New Research Field. In: Fromme, J., Unger, A. (eds) Computer Games and New Media Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2777-9_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2777-9_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2776-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2777-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)