A League of Their Own
William Lee wakes up every morning and heads to work, the downstairs living space in his incredibly spacious home in Malibu Hills. William Lee, also known as “Scarra,” is a professional video player, or Cyber Athlete. Lee strolls to his high-powered computer, provided to him by a generous sponsor, and begins to play League of Legends. League of Legends an online multiplayer game that currently has thirty-six million online players. William Lee earns six figures a year as do his four roommates/teammates because they are currently viewed by the gaming community as one of the world’s best League of Legends teams. Team Dignitas. Video games are no longer a fad or a phase, they are now a competitive and lucrative team sport.
Video games have become much more than a fantastical escape or a time-wasting, brain-draining, drab; they have become an incredibly enjoyable and profitable profession, suited for the best and brightest gamers, who are regarded as equal to their physical sport-playing counterparts. E-sports is the rising phenomenon of tournament-style competitive video game playing. The massive percent increase in video game popularity as well as E-sports have paved a smooth road for unlikely athletes, aptly named, Cyber Athletes. These Cyber Athletes have been around since the late 80s and early 90s, when video game arcade contests began to occur more frequently. The immense rise in Cyber Athletes is because of the new and addictive multiplayer games that allow individuals to interact with temporary teammates and overcome intellectually challenging obstacles. The controversy surrounding calling E-sports a sport is met with intense arguments from all spectrums: gamers and non-gamers will both argue for or ag...
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Rudyard Kipling wrote Kim during a very important historical period in India, while it was under British rule. In Kim, Kipling writes about the colonialism, the racism, and prejudices that were common place during that time period. Kipling incorporated cultural influences into each of his characters. This helped to establish the characters behaviors in particular and discernible ways. The four main players of the Great Game were: Colonel Creighton, Lurgan Sahib, Mahbub Ali, and Hurree Babu. They each are distinct characters who used their different personalities throughout the Great Game. Kipling not only explores the cultural and ethnical attributes that each player has in the Great Game, but he also exemplifies the societal and personal influence that could not be solely identified by the color of their skin.
Recently, research withing digital media learning and literacy literatures has shifted toward analyzing the productive practices in online communities "around" popular videogames (e.g., Steinkuehler and Author, 2008; Author and Gee, 2008; Author, in press; Squire and Giovanetto, 2008; Gee and Hayes, in press). However, the rhetoric of these studies has often focused on the positive, productive, and empowering perspectives of some fans/players in the "affinity spaces" (Gee, 2004) around games. In this paper, I argue for the importance of understanding learning and literacy within online communities around games by addressing the tension between the goals of media producers and fans' goals using tools within these communities. This tension is key, I argue, to understanding the potential of these spaces as valuable learning/literacy domains, as well as the making of meaning within online fan communities.
Ethical behavior is one of the most important aspects in every day life. People who use ethical behavior usually gain the trust and confidence among their peers. In sports management for example, when a manager of a team uses an ethical judgment or has set rules on ethical behavior they usually sets up their team to have the same judgment. The media thrives off of athletes who do not make ethical decisions such as Tom Brady and the Deflate Gate. Morally deflating footballs to have an advantage when throwing a ball was seen as being unethical as it essentially affected the way Brady handled and threw the ball. The media took this decision that was made by Brady and ran with it as it made front-page headlines all summer. Brady is a great player
In 2012, software and hardware sales in the video games industry raked up more than over $65 billion dollars in revenue in comparison to just $10 billion dollars seven years prior. These statistics indicate that the gaming industry is not only one of the largest and fastest growing businesses in the world, but showcase that it is also outperforming other similarly popular mediums of entertainment such as film, books, and music in terms of revenue and annual growth. In the short fifty years that video games have been around, they’ve quickly become an integral part of the lives of many and are only continuing to increasing in popularity. I’m sure that everyone can attest to knowing at least one or two people who engage in regular video game playing activity. However, despite being a common leisurely activity and hobby for many in today’s society, there is still a shocking level of stigma surrounding the medium. There are various stereotypes in place which attribute to the stigma - from the gaming community mainly consisting of young adolescent boys to gamers being socially inept individuals; these ideas and the way video games are unfairly scrutinized and misrepresented in the media (by those who
As we evolve into a more advanced species, so does our technology, and along with our overly advanced technology, comes video games. They’ve have certainly come a long way since they were first introduced to the main stream audience and have been slowly creeping its way into many daily lives, making them a lot more entertaining and less dull. Video games’ one and only purpose is to entertain. However, it is indeed true that everything is fun and games until somebody gets hurt, and that is exactly what has happened over the years in video games. With the help of our technology, being more developed than ever, video games have also become increasingly sophisticated and overall more close to reality than
Throughout the course of history, individuals have enjoyed playing sports. Whether it would be throwing a football, sprinting around the track, or kicking a soccer ball; sports have been a popular activity worldwide. The determination and expertise needed to play sports at the highest level has made it a challenging yet enjoyable activity. However in the recent years, sports have slowly drifted off from it’s traditional roots of physical prowess and into competitions of mental proficiencies. With the exponential growth of technology worldwide, it is not uncommon for the average household to have a computer, PS4, Xbox One, or even a Nintendo 3DS. In fact, the introduction of new technological entertainment has served as a gateway for the new generation of athlete culture; video games. As a result of the growth of video games, Esports (short for ‘Electronic Sports’) is slowly being integrated into athlete culture worldwide through its spectacular foundations, overwhelming popularity, vast prize pools, and recognition by official authorities.
The ball comes speeding over the net and slams down onto the face of the court landing just beyond the base line, the line running along the back of the court. I had called her winning point... "out." As I turned towards her, I could see the anger building in her eyes. We walked towards each other, and with only the net separating us, she began to confront me. She argued that, as she saw it, the ball was obviously in and that we should replay the point. I wanted this game as much as she did and we were both standing strong. I finally decided that there was no use in fighting. We had to resolve this argument between ourselves because there were no line judges to decide for us. We decided to replay the point and she won. I tried to convince myself that there would be times when a call would be questionable and that I should try not to point fingers. I still went home discouraged that night because I knew that the call I had made was fair.
What are the social and cultural costs and benefits of an individual (male or female) entering a non-traditional sport for their gender/sex (e.g. women enter body building, power lifting, boxing; men enter synchronized swimming or field hockey)?
Sports provide an amazing outlet for people of all ages. It has been proven that sports help focus and concentration as well as improving ones physical state. It is a beneficial pastime that all should be allowed to enjoy. Up until that age of 12-13 both genders are invited and welcomed to play sports. After this point something changes, it is not really talked about but pressure is effectively applied and society somehow manages to push people into very gender orientated and gender specific sports. The question is, what happens when someone doesn't succumb to the pressure and actively participates in what it referred to as a non-traditional role in a particular sport? This idea applies to both sexes, not just females. We are talking about how society reacts when women compete in body building competitions and when men become figure skaters. I believe that the root of our problem lies within the biases of our society.
Let’s start this with a disclaimer, I am NOT a gamer. However, this does not mean that I have never played videogames before; it just means that I am not competitive. I unknowingly acquired a bunch of League of Legends gamers as friends this past semester and it seemed only natural to test out this gaming lifestyle of theirs. I thought it would be like playing Jackbox or Quelf; a fun game to play with friends but I was wrong. First off, League of Legends is freaking huge.
The lights, sounds, the visuals many things come into our minds when we think of video games. It has been seen as a detrimental part of society and as a form of art. In current times some of the biggest events are from video games. Today’s youth in society cannot almost not be spoken of without video games being mentioned at one point. As a form of media that touches our society from young and old, it has a lot of controversy surrounding certain aspects of it.
Video games can give players experience and knowledge, but they can also, at the same time, drain energy from a player by taking away vital sleep the night before a game . Video games can be a great source of basic athletic skills, improving hand eye coordination and visual search skills. Young athletes, who have been playing and practicing with sports video games have a greater understanding than older sports stars did when they first began playing a sport, but video games cannot create an athlete. Video games help athletes become better at their sport, but the video games cannot help a person become an athlete. "A better analogy for virtual training [sports video games] could be weight lifting: It’s an activity that won’t turn you into a professional athlete, but if you are one, it will make you better at your sport" (Suellentrop 20). Sports video games impact sports performance positively, but a balance must be found between video games and real life practicing, as video games can cause harm just as much as improvement for and athletes sports performance
Bell, Chris. "Video Games: The Sport of the Future?" The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 26 June 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Videos games are no longer played solely for fun, but also turning into a new way to make money. There is a new, up and coming world that many people are not aware of, and that is the world of competitive gaming.
There are several negative stereotypes associated with video games and those who play them; some of these may often hold true. However, there are plenty of learning opportunities in video games. While the direct purpose of some games is to educate or train, other games that do not directly have this purpose can still become a learning experience for the player. As Ntiedo Etuk, president of the educational video game company Tabula Digital said, “The traditional view of video games has been that they are distractions from the task of learning” (Electronic Education Report 1). Video games are an effective tool for learning and retaining skills both inside and outside the classroom environment. The basic cycle of game play--the introduction to the game, game play, collaboration, improvement of these between each round, and evaluation at the end of the game (Klievink and Janssen 159)--are nearly parallel to the traditional classroom learning cycle of reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, taking a quiz, studying, focusing on items missed on the quiz, and taking a test or exam. Within this cycle, there are many opportunities to develop and perfect both educational, life, and occupational skills.