Thursday 30 June 2011

Mathematical Technology and E-sports Culture: Learning from Korea

Electronic sports (E-sports) or competitive video gaming, is an activity or even career in which many young adults participate. At both a professional and amateur level a high amount of discipline and practice to remain competitive with others who participate in E-sports. The term E-sports has been used for over a decade, and is specifically chosen to relate the Skill Level of certain games to that required in sport. South Korea is often considered the Mecca of E-sports, with tournaments of Blizzard’s games Starcraft Brood War and II being commentated and televised nationwide, in the same way traditional sports are in the majority of countries. The Majority of mainstream E-sports belong to the real time strategy (RTS) genre, including the three earlier mentioned games. Warcraft III also being very popular RTS in Korea[8]. However early E-sports in the west were popularised by online first person shooters (FPS), particularly Doom(1993) and Quake(1996) (both developed by iD Software). However in the western world E-sports haven’t had the impact which they have had in South Korea[4].

In Starcraft and it’s sequel Starcraft II each unit has a set of mathematical attributes; for the following section I will use the marine, the staple of the Terran race in Starcraft II. The unit has an initial cost to produce, from the two resources in the game “minerals” and “vespene gas”, as well as the “supply” which the unit needs to be built. So to simply build an army a player needs to maintain and improve an economy to maintain their game. Different families of units are built from different structures, which can only produce one unit at a time. Then there are the unit attributes such as Life (the amount of damage the unit can take before dying) and armor (how resilient it is to attack). Finally there are unit upgrades, increasing the performance of all units globally paid for by the two resources previously mentioned. These statistics make each unit strong against some and weak against others. Meaning that knowing what your opponent is building means you can build an army to counter it, improving your chance of winning. Starcraft is a game of economy and large scale combat, meaning relationships between units both allied and opposing one another are important. Grouping units which work together well will be more effective than those which aren’t[10].

Competitive gaming in Korea began in Bangs, which in are in a way similar to Internet cafes, however are orientated around multi-player computer games, while also acting as a social environment to their customers. Before the mass popularisation of E-sports in Korea those who managed Bangs would sponsor local small scale tournaments of Starcraft; these seemingly insignificant competitions directly lead to the Korean E-sports industry which we see today. Despite broadband connections being readily available in Korea, playing games at a bang remain one of the favourite pastime among young Koreans. Bangs remain an important part of Competitive gaming in Korea, allowing environments which are perfectly suited for qualification events[1].

Today the Korean E-sports industry began with the “World Cyber Games” in 2001 where 400 players competed for a share of the $300,000 prize fund. Which has continued to grow to an annual prize fund of $5 million in 2006. In Korea expert players are treated as Celebrity sport-stars, being afforded sponsorships from large corporations, and adoration of fans. Young Koreans dream of being professional gamers, opposed to a football player. Games have been televised for 11 years now, and shows no sign of stopping; viewing figures in 2008 for Ongamenet were between 3 million and 4 million during prime time. [2][9]

The earliest forms of E-sports in the west began before that in Korea, with various leagues being in existence by 1997; notably the “Cyberathlete Professional League”, which treated Competitive gaming similarly to professional sports in the US. [4]

In the west the majority of those who play video games do so on a Console, such as an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3; The Xbox 360 has an install base of over 39 million [11] Where as the premier PC service Steam has 25 million accounts [12]. This has been reflected in the western competitive gaming scene. Major League Gaming (MLG) formed in 2002 centred around competitive console games such as Halo: Combat Evolved. Today MLG has a large variety of successful sponsors; including, but not limited to: “Dr Pepper” and “Sony Ericsson” (http://pro.majorleaguegaming.com/). In 2010 they added the then recently released Starcraft 2 to their line-up, due to increasing demand for a North American competitive scene.

Korean culture finds its roots in Ancient China, where as Western culture originates from Ancient Greece. The way in which these isolated ancient civilisations viewed the world has an effect on how current generations think about the present day world. Those from the west are more likely to view the world as a series of discrete objects, whereas those in East Asia would mostly consider the relationships between the objects. So for example if a football team under-performs an Englishman would likely isolate a player to blame, yet a Korean would blame the overall teams performance[13]. Which might explain why both RTS’s such as Starcraft and massively multi-player online (MMO) games are so popular in Korea, different units have different properties how weak they are to certain other units and effective against other units; MMOs require the player to take certain roles, common ones include: “Tanks”, “Healer”, “Caster” and “Melee”all of which need to work together to be successful Here however FPS have a singular “power” weapon on the map, which is advantageous to be in control of.[5].

Video games have not got the best reputation in the Western world, by a large group of the population considers the hobby either childish or geeky, whereas this isn’t an issue in Korea. Gaming, being a form of play has been associated with childhood, yet the majority of sports are games, in which adults participate. However sports have been refined to a level to which they are no longer considered childish to become accepted by the general populace[3]. The idea of video games being geeky has decreased, but the belief is still common. Unlike Korea, the standard social environment for young adults in the west would be a bar, pub or club, yet an incredible amount of the adult population play video games, in the United States 114 million adults play video games, which equates to 52% of the adult population[14]. So while video games are so popular, especially those which are played against other people, then why has competitive gaming never had a mainstream audience in the west?


Failures and successes on impact.

There have been moves to popularise E-sports in the west, with various levels of success and failure.

The Championship Gaming Series (CGS) was a spectacular failure of trying to introduce E-sports to the masses. Lasting for two seasons and one of the only televised competitive gaming leagues; the second season was only televised in Asia and Europe. CGS was popular with neither the E-sports community nor the general public, a variety of unfortunate decisions led to disappointment for both potential. The choice of games was not well informed, Counter-Strike Source was chosen above Counter-Strike 1.6, despite game-play in 1.6 being superior, reasoning that the visuals of Source would help attract a new audience. Along with this the choice of commentators was disastrous, with CGS employing “twenty-something hipster” who has no knowledge of the games which he is casting, causing anger among the E-sports community and confusion with those not familiar with the game. The Korean E-sports industry is so popular as they cover both of these problems. Those who cast the games broadcast in Korea are both knowledgeable and genuinely love the games. The games played are loved by the E-sports community, due to being an evolution of the smaller bang culture. Finally the commentators explain what is happening at a level which is both accessible, yet not dumbed down repelling the E-sports community.[6]

Recently an effort has been made to introduce similar gaming environments to bangs in the United Kingdom. The HMV owned chain Gamerbase is quite similar to a Korean Bang, while also used to promote upcoming games which will be sold by HMV (http://www.hmvgroup.com/our-brands/hmv/gamerbase.aspx). More recently Kyoto Lounge(http://www.kyotolounge.com/) a gaming bar was opened in Manchester, having a much larger success than was anticipated by the owners, combining the common social environment of a bar with the relatively foreign idea of a bang. Valve the owner of the Steam digital distribution service has a program which supports cyber-cafes allowing for popular games to be played in aforementioned venues (https://cafe.steampowered.com/).

A variety of online streamed tournaments have had limited success (MLG, ESL, TSL, etc). The shear amount of venues for sharing this media is ever increasing, through systems like Youtube, where fans can watch at their own leisure, to ustream, which allows for live tournaments to be broadcast around the world. With TSL3 reaching 60,000 viewers [15], which while low compared to Korean tournaments is four times higher than that of the highly advertised CGS, which was considered incredibly high at the time[6]. However, online streaming, unless better advertised to those outside the E-sports community will not increase the viewership to include and inspire those to join the E-sports community.

GomTV’s Global Starcraft II League (GSL), despite being based in Korea, is open to players of all nationalities[16]. Presence of western players such as Team Liquid’s Johnathan “Jinro” Walsh and Evil Genius’s Greg “IdrA” Fields among other western players has popularised the streaming option which GomTV offer to fans around the world.  Johnathan Walsh’s successes (coming 3rd in two separate tournaments) in the GSL have helped amplify the field of E-sports in the west. A high profile game, between Jinro and IdrA in January of 2011 was viewed by thousands of fans. The winner was not important as the fact that two western players met in such a late stage of the tournament [17]. Both of these players have experienced success in the west, having both won an MLG 2010 tournament[18].

The release of Starcraft II in 2010 has pushed the western E-sports industry faster than anything before. There are more prestigious leagues, more professional players, more teams and more celebrities. Starcraft II has moved professional gaming from an obscure small subculture of gaming to a much more popular subculture. However this growth could well have accelerated too fast, leading to E-sports burning out, becoming obscure once again. Player wages, prize pools have both increased, causing a problem for teams and players alike, players have to perform consistently in the many tournaments which they participate to justify their pay check, yet players cannot always perform, due to strains from the incredible amount of leagues they participate. While the sponsors for teams are there now, there is no guarantee they will be tomorrow, meaning that the budget for a team will drastically decrease, meaning that they will have to rely on merchandising and prizes won by their players[7]. Ultimately at this time it is unclear whether Starcraft II is going to assist or hinder E-sports in the future, and only time will reveal the answer to this.


My solution

Gaming in the west still has a negative view in the west. Despite being an incredibly popular hobby with both adults and children alike.  It is often considered than adults playing video games are either geeks or childish, both of which are negative views which need to be combated for E-sports to become popular. Without overcoming these stereotypes competitive gaming will never see mainstream success in the west. E-sports is often viewed as a waste, a group of geeks playing games all day long, who should grow up and get a real job. Although the Korean E-sports industry is still very young, it still shows that there is definite profit to be made for all parties involved: from players, Commentators, teams and the networks who air the games. Often competitive gaming is considered simply playing video games all day, yet the sheer amount of hour players put in to improve their performance is staggering, WeMade Fox Counter-Strike players putting in 18 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, more than professional athletes, more than any other traditional form of employment. [8]

The industry of E-sports is growing, teams are growing, which is supported by peripheral manufacturers such as Razer, Steelseries sponsoring Team Dignitas and Fnatic respectively. Peripheral manufacturers often consult professional gamers they sponsor for input into their upcoming products, including the Razer Salmosa[Haxlife]. The next natural step for western E-sports is to break into the the general public, the games are popular with the general public: Starcraft II was the second best selling PC game of 2010 and Halo Reach was the 3rd best selling game of 2010 [20].
With bangs facilitating the initial growth of E-sports in Korea to what it is today an equivalent is needed. The earlier mentioned Gamerbase is very much a step in the right direction the distribution of facilities is not great enough to facilitate the growth. The idea of a franchised group allowing for local tournaments up-scaling to the national level gives a natural framework for an E-sports league, quite similar to the system in Korea. Increasing the facilities for people to play together locally will greatly help, both in increasing the level of play and introducing new players to the game. Such environments would foster learning for players of all levels and friendly rivalries to form between players; which would be a great advantage for the western scene.

National television broadcasting of competitive gaming hasn’t worked in the west. So it is unlikely to be attempted again in the near future. But is it needed at the current point for western E-sports?  In the long term I believe that an audience of the size that TV offers will be necessary, but with services such as Netflix dominating the streaming market, accounting for 29.7% of all downstream traffic in the US [20] it is unclear whether TV will continue to exist as it does now. online streaming is the current best option for the current version of E-sports. Both live streaming of tournament and on demand replays. The current system MLG and GSL offer is a step in the right direction offering a higher quality live stream and exclusive on demand replays for a small fee. However there are a few problems with the current system. Providing only live streams of video is not convenient for viewers in different time zones, for example an American tournament would run late into the night for European viewers and a Korean tournament would take part early in the morning commute for Europeans. To make this more convenient I suggest free re-streams which are supported by advertising revenue for other time zones, allowing for fans all around the world to enjoy the whole tournament at a time suited to them. An additional problem is localisation of advertising, more money will be made from advertisers if the advertisers know that more of the viewers will be potential customers of their products. Additionally advertising in the games themselves will help keep players more aware of current and upcoming E-sports leagues as well as results of recent tournaments. Which could also help to introduce those who play the game to E-sports.

My final suggestion is the investigation of partnerships with manufacturers of digital media receivers such as Apple and Roku and console manufacturers such as Microsoft offering the possibility to distribute E-sports media to their customers. This would increase the potential audience and allow for the preferred environment of the living room to be utilised as is common with sports fans, allowing socialisation between friends. With all of these devices offering Netflix it would be a great step forward in potential audience and advertising revenue for various tournaments.

Overall providing as many of these options will help push the community and popularity of E-sports in the west to expand into the mainstream. It will help foster the community to a healthier level, by allowing players to meet local players, compete with them as well as learning from them. Increasing advertising revenue will help increase the prize funds, attracting more players from around the world, increasing diversity. Increasing the diversity will help improve the different styles of play, keeping the games fresh for players and spectators alike. While advertising in specific games will help keep fans up to date with the latest E-sports news. Increasing the amount of devices that spectators can watch competitions on would not only increase the amount of social viewers but also provide an extra venue for advertising revenue. Finally if the west gets to the position where it is possible to televise E-sports, one thing is certainly clear, if they make any of the mistakes which CGS made then they will surely fail. These mistakes must not be made again, they would effectively send E-sports back to the stone age again. If none of these happen then there is a risk that E-sports will continue as it is and risk once again fading into obscurity.]

[1]Jun-Sok Huhh Culture and Business of PC Bangs in Korea Games and Culture January 2008 vol. 3 no. 1 26-37 http://gac.sagepub.com/content/3/1/26.short
[2]Dal Yong Jin Age of New Media Empires A Critical Interpretation of the Korean Online Game Industry Games and Culture      January 2008 vol. 3 no. 1 38-58 http://gac.sagepub.com/content/3/1/38.short
[3]Unknown author eSport and Governing Bodies Kultur-Natur, Norrköping conference 16 juni http://dspace.mah.se:8080/bitstream/handle/2043/10746/esport.pdf?sequence=1
[4]Michael G. Wagner On the Scientific Relevance of eSports International Conference on Internet Computing and Conference on Computer Game Development, Las Vegas, NV, June 26-29, 2006, CSREA Press, pp.437-440. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.84.82&rep=rep1&type=pdf
[5]Nicolas Ducheneaut and Robert J. Moore Gaining more than experience points:
Learning social behavior in multiplayer computer games Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 2(2), pp. 89-100 2006 http://www2.parc.com/csl/members/nicolas/documents/ITSE.pdf
[6]Marc Onofrio StarCraft II in Western e-sports Is the Korean model needed? January 06, 2011 http://www.fnatic.com/feature/8362/StarCraft-II-in-Western-e-sports-Is-the-Korean-model-needed.html
[7]Cameron Carson Did Starcraft 2 force eSports to grow too quickly? March 20, 2011 http://www.fnatic.com/feature/8593/Did-Starcraft-2-force-eSports-to-grow-too-quickly.html
[8]Razer staff  The Hacks Life 23 Jun 2010 http://www.razerzone.com/past-campaigns/haxlife
[9]Bruce Wallace Gamer is royalty in S. Korea March 21, 2007 http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/21/world/fg-gamers21
[10]Blizzard staff Units Marine http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/unit/marine
[11]Microsoft staff Delivering Entertainment Across New Screens, Scenes and Interfaces Jan. 6, 2010 http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/jan10/01-06CESKeynote.mspx
[12]Ellie Gibson Number of Steam accounts hits 25m 1/02/2010 http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/number-of-steam-accounts-hits-25m
[13] Richard Nisbett The Geography of Thought : How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why March 3, 2003
[14]MarketResearch.com The Adult Video Gamer Market in the U.S.: Tapping into the New Diversity of Video-Game Players January 1, 2009 http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=2042474&xs=r
[15]Jeffrey Rossi TSL3 Grand Finals Results and Recap May 16, 2011 http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/33285-TSL3_Grand_Finals_Results_and_Recap
[16]Brian Leahy GomTV Launches Global StarCraft 2 League; $500,000 in Prizes for 2010 and Plans for 2011 Aug 09, 2010 http://www.shacknews.com/article/65052/gomtv-launches-global-starcraft-2
[17]Patrick Howell O'Neill Monster Movie: Jinro vs. Idra Jan 18, 2011 http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/31885-Monster_Movie_Jinro_vs_Idra
[18] http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/mlg-d-c-full-starcraft-2-results-2 http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/mlg-dallas-starcraft-2-national-championship-full-results-2
[19]Kyle Orland NPD Results, December 2010: Industry Down 9% For December, 5% For Year January 13, 2011 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32445/NPD_Results_December_2010_Industry_Down_9_For_December_5_For_Year.php
[20]IB Times Staff Reporter Netflix dominates US net traffic, grabs 30 pct of total bandwidth May 19, 2011http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/148398/20110519/netflix-sandrive-at-t-internet.htm

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