Raising the Stakes : E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming / T.L. Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, T. L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video games--Social aspects.

Video games.

Sports--Sociological aspects--Case studies.

Sports.

Sports--Psychological aspects.

Competition (Psychology).

Sports--Computer network resources.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (333 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Competitive video and computer game play is nothing new: the documentary King of Kong memorably portrays a Donkey Kong player's attempts to achieve the all-time highest score; the television show Starcade (1982--1984) featured competitions among arcade game players; and first-person shooter games of the 1990s became multiplayer through network play. A new development in the world of digital gaming, however, is the emergence of professional computer game play, complete with star players, team owners, tournaments, sponsorships, and spectators. In Raising the Stakes, T.L. Taylor explores the emerging scene of professional computer gaming and the accompanying efforts to make a sport out of this form of play. In the course of her explorations, Taylor travels to tournaments, including the World Cyber Games Grand Finals (which considers itself the computer gaming equivalent of the Olympics), and interviews participants from players to broadcasters. She examines pro-gaming, with its highly paid players, play-by-play broadcasts, and mass audience; discusses whether or not e-sports should even be considered sports; traces the player's path from amateur to professional (and how a hobby becomes work); and describes the importance of leagues, teams, owners, organizers, referees, sponsors, and fans in shaping the structure and culture of pro-gaming. Taylor connects professional computer gaming to broader issues: our notions of play, work, and sport; the nature of spectatorship; the influence of money on sports. And she examines the ongoing struggle over the gendered construction of play through the lens of male-dominated pro-gaming. Ultimately, the evolution of professional computer gaming illuminates the contemporary struggle to convert playful passions into serious play"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""1 Playing for Keeps ""; ""Playing against Each Other""; ""Starting in Aarhus""; ""Korean Roots""; ""Researching E-sports""; ""Structure of the Book""; ""2 Computer Games as Professional Sport""; ""Materiality and Pro Computer Gaming""; ""Rules, Negotiation, and Play""; ""Pro Tournament Rule Structures""; ""Monitoring and Managing Competition""; ""Gambling and Money Games""; ""Growing Pains?""; ""3 Professionalizing Players""; ""From Fandom to LANs and Beyond""; ""Components of Pro Play""; ""Work and Play""; ""Socialization and Professionalism""

""Athletic Identification and Expression"" ""Gender and Pro Gaming""; ""Just for (White) Boys?""; ""Becoming Pro""; ""4 Growing an Industry""; ""Managing Play""; ""Funding Play""; ""Regulating Play""; ""Globalizing the Industry""; ""5 Spectatorship and Fandom""; ""Making Room for Spectatorship and Fandom in Game Studies""; ""The Nature of E-sports Fandom""; ""The Roar, and Whisper, of the Crowd""; ""Spectatorship: The Still Unsolved Challenge""; ""Broadcast Media Challenges""; ""E-Sports as Entertainment: CGS Case Study""; ""Commentators: Making Expertise Visible""

""How Spectatorship Alters the Game and Players"" ""Circuit between Digital Games and Traditional Sports""; ""6 Conclusion""; ""Gamer Identity""; ""Mainstreaming""; ""Global Play""; ""Serious Leisure or Professional Play?""; ""Imagined Futures""; ""Assemblage, Cultural Sociology, and Computer Games""; ""Appendix: Standard Player Contract ""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

0-262-30047-8

1-280-49931-1

9786613594549

0-262-30126-1

OCLC:

782918723

Publisher Number:

9786613594549