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My proposal for my thesis topic is due on Friday, and after derping around on various topics over winter break, I've decided that for the next 10 or so months, I'm going to dedicate a terrifyingly large chunk of my free time to the "Theoretical Creation of a eSports Association in the U.S.".
Yes, I'm incredibly unknown in this amazing community.
Yes, there's not much research at all on eSports and/or KeSPA or other models.
And Day[9] hasn't replied to my email yet.
But... this community is so awesome, and I want to do my part to help it thrive. So I'm boosting eSports awareness in my high school in the deep south of the U.S. by as many percentage points as I can. When I'm not attempting to pass my classes and still get some StarCraft 2 in, I'll be studying the appeal of cheesing or why Counter-Strike is still so popular after so many years.
I've only been digging into the academic side of eSports for a month or two, but honestly? It's the most fun I've had all year. (Except for having to look up five hundred million statistics terms for a study I found  )
I had no idea that the UKPCGC tried to have gaming recognized as an official sport by the English Sports Council in 1999, or that books have been written about the duo that created Doom and how that one game has been transforming eSports culture since 1993, or that by official definitions, gaming truly IS a sport, regardless of bias, or that a study of Counter-Strike players and what they do during games and tournaments was a perfectly normal thing for researchers in Sweden to do...the list goes on and on.
Anyway, the point of this was to share a couple things that I've learned and to encourage you members of the community that haven't looked into the academic, scientific and psychological sides of eSports and the gaming community to do so. It's well worth your while, and it can help you change other people's opinions on the reputability of eSports if you live in an area where video games are still scorned upon like me.
Thank you TL for being such a great community and I hope eSports continues to thrive into 2012 and beyond :3
Also, I've seen threads about this recently, but what's your take on a governing eSports body? Similar to KeSPA? Completely different? Shouldn't exist at all?
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Ohhh that's going to be an interesting, but very challenging thesis. Just the sheer amount of research (and "credible" level research, not some flashy website information) will burden your life x_x;; You're going to have to formulate your own set of definitions and criteria for a lot of things, because it's still a relatively new field.
I think you should largely model it after KeSPA, after all it's probably one of the most established eSports associations in the world. Might give you a good excuse to visit Korea for a little trip too, haha. Instead of being emotional about KeSPA's past and on-going failures, you should try to be objective about them (but you can't forget the Blizzard vs. KeSPA IP rights drama).
Good luck, and update us often!
Oh yeah and you should personally contact BoxeR because he is one of the "fathers" that formed the eSports scene (and movements that lead to KeSPA, to some degree). Legit excuse to personally interview the emperor... can't pass it up!
*edit: 5/5, good luck!
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How are you planning to defend the criticism that eSports do not promote good physical health? The only benefits I can think of is it trains you to have faster reflexes and better mental focus, but at the cost of RSI, neck/shoulder pains, worsening eye-sight, etc. just to name a few, which makes it less appealing compared to other physical sports.
Furthermore, there is an added layer of complexity for the spectators of eSports, people who don't know the games well will have trouble appreciating what's going on as whatever is happening on the screen isn't as intuitive compared to people hitting a ball around. Isn't this a huge roadblock for it's popularity among different age groups? Watching CS without having played the game isn't all that interesting, it will just seem like a bunch of people shooting each other and whoever has the fastest reflexes wins.
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Ah yeah, legitimate excuses to contact some of my favourite people! I knew there was some upside to making 2012 a nightmare! xD I plan on doing a lot of business research and hopefully contacting some people in the industry as well as from the progamer perspective, assuming they have time to deal with a high school student's curiosity.
And some of what I've been reading lately says that a lot of the progamers have to stay fit - for mental health, not just physical health. There's also been some studies lately that video games, especially FPSes that have a more dark environment or have an emphasis on shadows and tricks of light, actually help improve eyesight, especially night vision. Also, there's less chance of someone getting a major physical injury such as tearing an ACL or breaking your neck and having permanent damage. There's also a lot of people who watch StarCraft and have never played it, but just enjoy the scene and the action. Idk about CounterStrike - I haven't played it personally, but I do enjoy watching it some, though bhopping is more attractive (especially playthroughs of badges).
And yeah, I'll keep you guys updated! The real work starts in March/April through the summer, so I might end up posting some papers or such for reviewing here haha
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I think there are too many ways for people to criticize eSports as not being a real sport. Instead of drawing parallels between them, you might want to put more focus on the business franchise aspect of it by doing a deep dive on KeSPA, although getting reliable data might be a problem.
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EPT
