A History of Competitive Gaming

Lu Zhouxiang

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000588590
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Modern History
• Index: History

Competitive gaming, or esports – referring to competitive tournaments of video games among both casual gamers and professional players – began in the early 1970s with small competitions like the one held at Stanford University in October 1972, where some 20 researchers and students attended. By 2022, the estimated revenue of the global esports industry is in excess of $947 million, with over 200 million viewers worldwide. Regardless of views held about competitive gaming, esports have become a modern economic and cultural phenomenon.

This book studies the full history of competitive gaming from the 1970s to the 2010s against the background of the arrival of the electronic and computer age. It investigates how competitive gaming has grown into a new form of entertainment, a sport-like competition, a lucrative business and a unique cultural sensation. It also explores the role of competitive gaming in the development of the video game industry, making a distinctive contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the history of video games.

A History of Competitive Gaming will appeal to all those interested in the business and culture of gaming, as well as those studying modern technological culture.

1 Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003095859-1

In May 2015, Dictionary.com added a new term, ‘esports’, to its database. This was reported by major video gaming websites such as IGN and GameSpot as a milestone, indicating that competitive gaming was receiving mainstream attention and gaining recognition in the wider cultural spectrum.¹ According to Dictionary.com, esports refers to ‘competitive tournaments of video games, especially among professional gamers’.² Like traditional sports, competitive gaming requires skill, strategy, tactics, concentration, communication, coordination, teamwork and intensive training. However, for most of the general public, who primarily see sport and athleticism as overt demonstrations of physical activity, esports merely means video games, which should not be considered real sports like basketball, football and gymnastics.

A 2015 research report produced by gaming market research company Newzoo and global sports market analytics firm Repucom challenges this view. Using traditional sports as a point of reference, the report offers some insights into the global esports industry. It points out that worldwide esports market revenue totalled $194 million in 2014 and the number of esports enthusiasts reached 89 million, with another 117 million people watching esports competitions occasionally.³ In an updated report published in 2021, Newzoo estimated that the global esports industry had generated $947.1 million in revenue in 2020, with esports enthusiasts and occasional viewers at 220.5 million and 215.4 million, respectively. This means competitive gaming is already a popular spectator event with a fan base comparable to that of mid-tier traditional sports such as table tennis, baseball, rugby and golf.⁴

In recent years, due to overwhelming popularity of competitive gaming, it has become an important academic topic and an increasing number of book chapters, journal articles and monographs have emerged. Reitman et al. review esports literature published between 2002 and 2018 and point out that esports research ‘has developed from nonexistent into a field of study spread across seven academic disciplines’ – business, sports science, cognitive science, informatics, law, media studies and sociology.⁵

These publications can be divided into four categories: the definition of esports; the esports industry and community; the business aspects of esports; and legal and regulatory issues.

The first discusses the relationship between esports and real sport. Some scholars believe that esports should not be considered real sports. For example, Parry argues that, in contrast to Olympic sports that can be defined as institutionalised, rule-governed contests of human physical skill, esports are inadequately ‘human’, lack direct physicality, fail to employ decisive whole-body control and skills, cannot contribute to the development of the whole human, and lack stable and persisting institutions characteristic of sports governance. They therefore should not be recognised as sports.⁶ Jenny et al. point out that although esports ‘include play and competition, are organised by rules, require skill and have a broad following’;⁷ they lack physicality and institutionalisation, both defining characteristics of real sport.

Kane and Spradley, on the other hand, believe that esports should be considered sports, because multiple links can be observed between physical exertion and video games, and one must learn skills and techniques to become a professional gamer.⁸ They point out that ‘playing video games as a hobby has evolved into competitions and tournaments with cash prizes’.⁹ Llorens supports this view. She asserts that esports requires skill, precision, concentration, body control, fast movements, endurance and team strategy, have wide following and a certain institutional framework, and therefore should be recognised as a sport.¹⁰

Wagner believes that ‘the activities we will accept as sport disciplines will change as our value system changes, for example due to technological progress’.¹¹ He advocates this idea: ‘Esports is an area of sport activities in which people develop and train mental or physical abilities in the use of information and communication technologies’.¹² Pargman and Svensson compare esports with cross-country skiing and observe that classical sports often originated in work-related practices, while esports originates in playful leisure activities. Sportification processes make no difference between work and play, and sports functions as a link between them. They believe that esports will sooner or later become regarded as a legitimate sport, even an Olympic sport.¹³

Some scholars take a neutral stance. For example, Thiel and John argue: ‘In the public discourse, esport has already established itself as a specific form of a sportive competition, even though the debate about whether esport can be defined as a sport in the narrower sense or not is far from resolved'.¹⁴ Jonasson and Thiborg apply Guttmann's definitions of sport and the characteristics of modern sport to esports, and assert that esports may meet Guttmann's criteria and be defined as a sport in the near future. They point out: ‘Sports are often regarded as a virtue, whereas computer gaming is looked upon as a vice … the conception of esport as an unhealthy activity still works against esport in the struggle to become accepted in hegemonic sport’.¹⁵

Ekdahl and Ravn approach the issue from a philosophical perspective and examine how the unique forms of virtual involvement in esports both overlap with and differentiate themselves from traditional embodied experience in sport.¹⁶ Having conducted a comparative study on the institutionalisation of traditional sports and esports, Summerley asserts that longevity is a concern for esports due to various technological and commercial dependencies, and that it would be useful to examine esports institutions alongside sports with similar scale and comparable historical context.¹⁷

The second category of research examines the esports industry and community from social and cultural perspectives. Jin's pioneering work, Korea's Online Gaming Empire, is one of the most important publications of this kind. It comprehensively examines the formation and development of South Korea's online gaming and esports industry in social, cultural, policy and economic contexts and discusses the life and work of professional gamers, the role of esports fans and spectators, and the rise of esports as a youth culture phenomenon and a mode of socialising.¹⁸

Taylor's monograph, Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming, is the next groundbreaking work. It offers detailed analysis of international esports events and explains the role of fans, players, teams, referees, spectators, leagues, investors and sponsors in shaping the esports world. Taylor also connects esports to broader issues, including ‘our notions of play, work and sport; the nature of spectatorship; the influence of money on sports’,¹⁹ and highlights ‘the ongoing struggle over the gendered construction of play through the lens of male-dominated pro-gaming’.²⁰

Jin and Taylor's works are complemented by Szablewicz's monograph, Mapping Digital Game Culture in China, which offers in-depth analysis of the formation of digital game culture and esports community in China, the world's largest esports market. The author uses video games as a lens for looking at youth culture, the politics of everyday life and the shifting technological landscape of contemporary China.²¹

A good number of journal articles focus on the experience of esports participants.²² For example, Parshakov et al. measure the effect of culture, language and skill diversity on esports team performance and suggest that different kinds of diversity have different integration and communication costs.²³ Cullen examines how South Korean Overwatch player Kim ‘Geguri’ Se-yeon has been shaped into a feminist gaming icon, explaining ‘why women in esports may avoid feminism in favour of a post-feminist sensibility’.²⁴ Choi et al. also study female Overwatch players and reveal how ‘surveillance mechanisms designed into professional gaming troubled misogynistic narratives regarding the role of women in esport’.²⁵ Cottrell et al. see esports as an arena for mental skills training and challenges, highlighting the benefits of consultation in esports and making suggestions for sport psychology practitioners.²⁶ Pedraza-Ramirez et al. explore the empirical evidence addressing the psychological characteristics of gamers’ cognitive performance and define the theoretical foundations of the psychological aspects of performance, integrating esports in the field of sport psychology.²⁷

Some studies focus on esports spectators and consumers. For instance, Wood et al. explore digital leisure consumer behaviours and experiences in the context of social media and esports.²⁸ Xue et al. investigate the politics of inclusion and exclusion imbedded in esports gamers’ stories on the social media platform Reddit and explain how these stories are used to ‘mark boundaries in rhythm with, or in opposition to, the commercial, cultural and identity politics which gamers perceive are infiltrating the online gaming field’.²⁹ Taylor investigates techniques for capturing and capitalising on the work of watching play in esports events, and highlights the formative role of spectators.³⁰ Qian et al. investigate the motives of esports online spectators and explain how the integration of interactive and immersive experiences affects their behaviour.³¹

The third category of published work concentrates on the business aspects of competitive gaming. For example, Borowy and Jin examine competitive gaming as a marketised event and experiential commodity and point out that the early 1980s was a transitional era that bridg...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Early Years
• 3 The Golden Age
• 4 From PvC to PvP
• 5 The Esports Age
• 6 Obstacles and Challenges
• Appendix
• Index