So, I'm at High School in Scotland and was given an essay to do for Higher English. More specifically, a persuasive discursive essay. We were all told to leave out the cliched abortion, euthanasia and religious topics and look for something topical, different and preferably something we are interested in.
I'm not just interested in Starcraft. I fucking love it.
So, I wondered what exactly I can argue in my essay. I decided to go for the title "The Golden Age of eSports", and the aim will be to persuade the reader that eSports can/will be successful/mainstream/accepted here in the UK, as it has not really achieved that so far.
My plan so far is to define what I mean by eSports and give a little bit of background on gaming and competitiveness in general (from the first arcades through to the release of Doom in 1993).
First main paragraph I will talk about Counterstrike/Quake/Doom and the appearance of FPS games to the UK, and the first splash in tournaments and taking the game seriously, followed by the subsequent dying down. This is to show that I'm not just talking out of the blue here: there have been attempts before, and it is possible to cultivate interest here in Britain. I might also mention the stigma towards gaming in general and how that is going away with more and more casual gamers playing CoD, TF2, Elder Scrolls etc.
2) Korea. The complete success of Brood War, the culture surrounding it, how Lim Yo Han is a celebrity, the Air Force Ace team, the training houses, the money for top players etc. I will also look at viewing figures and use the example of Jaedong vs Flash using the runway/planes as an entrance to the stage. This will introduce RTS games to the reader, and give a lead up to the part about SC2, while making it clear that BW only ever achieved a very niche following here in the UK.
3) Warcraft 3 and the failure of this RTS to become mainstream in Britain or really make a big impact in Europe in general. It had some great players, but in never achieved renown. However, I'm going to talk about how this will provide the basis for RTS games becoming popular in the UK/Europe, and talk a bit about SK gaming and MYM. This is the paragraph I'm not convinced is good enough to make the cut, but I would ideally have 4 main body paragraphs and it is relevant to a degree.
4) Starcraft 2. From GSL to MLG to Dreamhack, talk a bit about DeMuslim, about Prize pools, about viewer statistics. I'll mention the IPL Qualifiers in Britain to show that there is support for it. I might also talk about Reddit supporting MKP to go to MLG, because it gets across that there are a ton of people world wide who want to see SC2 succeed and are willing to pay to get really good games.
Conclusion will just wrap it all up, nothing special here.
So, what do you think? It's not a very funny blog, and there aren't many pictures so sorry about that. It's more a work in progress and thinking out loud for my essay. Any ideas, criticism and/or feedback will be welcome, and if I feel the essay's good enough I'll post it here on TL.
On December 03 2011 21:18 Itsmedudeman wrote: You should talk about why and how starcraft 1 became successful in Korea, and compare to how things are shaping up in the UK.
Should I talk about the skill it takes, and maybe reference the Scientific American article about skill? I was also thinking about talking about the Forbes article on "Nerd-chills" and MLG Orlando.
I suppose I could talk about the clutch moments, about the difference in style between each player, about how it is similar to traditional sports in various ways etc.
You could, but you need to make it relevant to your main point. You can fawn over how skilled these guys are, and why it's exciting, but you have to tie it into what makes something attractive to the masses and not just a few subset of people. I just think it's more important to draw some conclusions through evidence rather than trying to convince the reader that starcraft 2 is a good game.
On December 03 2011 21:34 Itsmedudeman wrote: You could, but you need to make it relevant to your main point. You can fawn over how skilled these guys are, and why it's exciting, but you have to tie it into what makes something attractive to the masses and not just a few subset of people. I just think it's more important to draw some conclusions through evidence rather than trying to convince the reader that starcraft 2 is a good game.
Agreed. I don't want it to come across as a rant about Starcraft. I'm trying to use statistics or other evidence to back up my main points, rather than just spouting what I think is right. The intention is to persuade the reader that it is plausible for it to become mainstream, rather than just making it look good.
For me, the Golden Age of eSports was the big boom in Korea. It isn't about what you think is right. There are plenty of statistics to back it up; you just have to know where to look in the archives.
The Korean infrastructure and the release of BW was the biggest.
Another big one is EVO.
If you want to talk about what's happening currently I would focus on GSL, MLG, Dreamhack in the same breath followed by Barcraft.
You want stats. There are stats for all of those.
WCIII helped bridge the gap between the Korean and Western world with players liek ToD, Grubby and Moon going at it, but I wouldn't pay much attention to it. You want impact; I would go with the ones I mentioned.
Then again, you could write separate essays with the three I just mentioned because they are fairly long. -.-
On December 04 2011 00:50 StarStruck wrote: For me, the Golden Age of eSports was the big boom in Korea. It isn't about what you think is right. There are plenty of statistics to back it up; you just have to know where to look in the archives.
The Korean infrastructure and the release of BW was the biggest.
Another big one is EVO.
If you want to talk about what's happening currently I would focus on GSL, MLG, Dreamhack in the same breath followed by Barcraft.
You want stats. There are stats for all of those.
WCIII helped bridge the gap between the Korean and Western world with players liek ToD, Grubby and Moon going at it, but I wouldn't pay much attention to it. You want impact; I would go with the ones I mentioned.
Then again, you could write separate essays with the three I just mentioned because they are fairly long. -.-
Because I live in the UK, I'm trying to persuade the reader that eSports can/will be very popular in the UK, which it isn't currently. The title is pretty easy to change, and I've got a few other ideas if the current one doesn't work out.
At the moment I'm relying on Google to look up statistics: is there any corner of TLPD or Liquipedia that has lots of stats for this kind of thing?
And yeah, there is just so much to write about Starcraft and eSports in general ^_^
EDIT: Sorry, in which Korean Starleague did they get the two finallists to step down from aeroplanes for the entrance?
Ah, I see. Makes sense. That's a little bit trickier. I would focus on the here and now then: how SC2 has brought several communities together and how Barcraft continues to grow in the U.K. and elsewhere. I would only write a small prelude to how e-Sports developed in Korea.
You are thinking about the Korean Air OSL 2010 Final between Effort and Flash.
The complete success of Brood War, the culture surrounding it, how Lim Yo Han is a celebrity, the Air Force Ace team, the training houses, the money for top players etc.
First things first, I suggest you spell Lim Yo Hwan correctly -.-. With that out of the way, here's my list of suggestions:
- If you can't fully explore a subject, don't write about it at all, i.e. the paragraph #3 seems highly excessive with all the failure mentioned in the "history" in your first paragraph already.
- Your audience isn't familiar with how the industry works, so don't forget to make some connection in the intro via an analogy to something else. While you're talking about money for pros in Korea, talk about how this IS a legitimate industry and how it survives. (ex. eSports would never die when 700k people tune in to watch a man play some video games. Although, there seems to be too many things you can write in this paragraph so don't get carried away =P.
- You might want a big, well known sources to add some flavor to your essay. I suggest using the NationalGeographic Documentary on WCG2005 as a reference. Even if you pull out just one line of quotation, it's enough.
- The ending is what most people will remember after reading it, so end with something emotional, such as .
The complete success of Brood War, the culture surrounding it, how Lim Yo Han is a celebrity, the Air Force Ace team, the training houses, the money for top players etc.
First things first, I suggest you spell Lim Yo Hwan correctly -.-. With that out of the way, here's my list of suggestions:
Hahahaha, I do actually know how to spell it, it was just a typo ^_^ Thanks though
On December 04 2011 02:20 HereBeDragons wrote: - If you can't fully explore a subject, don't write about it at all, i.e. the paragraph #3 seems highly excessive with all the failure mentioned in the "history" in your first paragraph already.
I've actually decided to leave the WC3 paragraph because it just doesn't fit in well enough. While it was relevant to China, the UK didn't really feel any impact from it.
On December 04 2011 02:20 HereBeDragons wrote: - Your audience isn't familiar with how the industry works, so don't forget to make some connection in the intro via an analogy to something else. While you're talking about money for pros in Korea, talk about how this IS a legitimate industry and how it survives. (ex. eSports would never die when 700k people tune in to watch a man play some video games. Although, there seems to be too many things you can write in this paragraph so don't get carried away =P.
I've actually had to tighten the paragraph on the wonders of BW quite a bit. I only briefly reference how amazingly accepted it is and the various surreal influences it has in Korean advertising etc, because I don't want to rant about Korea.
Throughout the essay, I've had to take pains to make sure I don't rant, and also that I make it accessible/understandable to those not aware of eSports. I'm avoiding using words like "RTS" or "FPS" just because they will be meaningless and/or clog up the essay with abbreviations, so I just use layman's terms like "strategy game" or "shooting game". They don't mean precisely the same thing, but for the purpose of this essay that doesn't really matter.
On December 04 2011 02:20 HereBeDragons wrote: - You might want a big, well known sources to add some flavor to your essay. I suggest using the NationalGeographic Documentary on WCG2005 as a reference. Even if you pull out just one line of quotation, it's enough.
Thanks! I'll look it up for a quote.
On December 04 2011 02:20 HereBeDragons wrote: The ending is what most people will remember after reading it, so end with something emotional, such as http://youtu.be/VchuKnJONSk?t=2m36s.
Unfortunately, I can't include pictures, audio or video in the essay: it will be printed out or copied by hand and then put in a folio to be sent away and graded =/
EPT
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AX3uW6mZXEI/TCQMMDWHeKI/AAAAAAAAAAM/PClMckq1sqQ/s1600/StarCraft_II_Plane_1.jpg)
