| Ever since the first video game was created in the in the 1950 s,people have been using it as a channel to compete against each other.The gratification players get from beating a game or winning against another player is an addictive feeling.The emergence of arcades and home entertainment systems made it easier for people to measure their skills in an offline environment.Every video game is by definition competitive.Even if one cannot play against another player directly,it is still possible to determine who is better by comparing the score,time and progress achieved within the game.Amateur tournaments organized by gaming enthusiasts existed throughout the 1970 s and 1980 s.However,it wasn't until the 1990 s that we saw another huge milestone for e Sport and that was the emergence of the internet.As the internet became more common and more utilized,players have found a way to compete against other skilled opponents regardless of their geographical location.Instead of being the best player at your home or at your local arcade,you can now become the best in the world.In the late 1990 s,it was no longer uncommon to see professional competitive gaming tournaments and leagues.As opposed to previous gaming events,these ones were organized and regulated by dedicated entities and were held at a much larger scale.The new phenomenon has been dubbed e Sports.In some cases,such as South Korea,competitive gaming became so important to the society that the government itself took notice and established the Korea eSports Association,also known as Ke SPA.This means that ever since the creation of Ke SPA in 2000,all competitive gaming in the country was done under the supervision and support of the government.Although organizations like Kes PA are rare,the growth of e Sports was universal.Over the years,this rapid rise of competitive gaming backed by technological advancements and the passion of its community is starting to challenge the current definition of sports.Today,people who go to the United States of America to play video games professionally receive the same type of visa as athletes who go to the country to play professional basketball or football.Furthermore,famous sports clubs,such as PSG or Schalke 04,are also joining in by signing new players and forming their own teams.Moreover,companies like Red Bull or Coca-Cola are also joining this new form of entertainment as sponsors.It is now reported that the current global audience for e Sport is over 400 million people and that the revenue generated by this new emerging industry will reach 1.5 billion USD by 2020.This is why e Sport can no longer be ignored and should be discussed.Despite its grown,the number of studies done on e Sport and video games,in general,are still lacking.For businesses,and especially marketers,e Sports represents an important new channel for reaching customers.The viewership is high and the passion is strong.Understanding why people consumer e Sports allows for the creation of better marketing strategies.In 2001,professors Galen T.Trail and Jeffrey D.James created the Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption,also known as the MSSC,to better understand what motivates sports fans to invest their time and money into their passion.The factors of motivation within the MSSC are the following: Vicarious achievement,Acquisition of Knowledge,Aesthetics,Drama/Eustress,Escape,Physical attractiveness of the athletes,Physical Skills of the participants,Social Interaction,Enjoyment of Aggression and Novelty.Years later,it was proven that the fans of different sports have different motivations.Just like sports,video games also do not all fall into the same category.Not every video game is represented in e Sports and ones that are,are not represented equally.This led to the first assumption of this research,which is that a significant difference exists between different kinds of video game genres represented in e Sports in terms of motivation for consumption.The MSSC was applied to e Sports in previous academic research by other people for different purposes.One was to identify the correlation between e Sport consumption motivation and the frequency of watching.The other was to identify the differences in motivation between different e Sport demographics.The first assumption expands on all previous research by to identify the major differences in e Sport consumption motivation factors across e Sport gaming genres.The five genres discussed in this paper are FPS,RTS,MOBA,Fighting,and Card games.With the lack of video game genre studies and the overall consensus on video game categorization,the five prior mentioned genres were determined by analyzing the viewership and prize pool of the most popular e Sport titles as well as the information provided by respected competitive gaming agencies like Newzoo.The second part of this paper revolves around e Sport monetization.Whether it's the purchasing of tournament tickets,merchandise or in-game items,there are many ways that competitive gaming can either directly or indirectly influence the spending of a player and fan.Different video game genres have difference revenue streams.Some genres may be easier to monetize,while others struggle to do the same even when the size of their following is comparable.This led to two other assumptions.One assumption theorizes that the spending habits between genres are not the same,another assumption is that spending could be increased by appealing to each motivational factor within the MSSC.While the findings from the first part of research are more important to marketers,the second part is equally important to video game developers and publishers.Apart from an extensive literature review,a survey was conducted to collect the primary data used for this paper.A questionnaire containing 35 questions was distributed through online and offline channels to collect responses.The online channels used were forums,emails,social networks and the website reddit.com.The offline channel used was the campus ground of the SJTU.The data was later all exported into excel and analyzed via SPSS tools.The two main tools sued to this research were the one-way ANOVA analysis,the correlation analysis,and the reliability analysis.The following conclusions were formed based on the outcome of the survey.In regards to the first assumptions,no significant statistical difference was found between genres in terms of motivation.However,the results have yielded many numerical differences which could be analyzed.In accordance with the lack of significant differences,it was found out that the highest scoring and lowest scoring motivation factors were identical across all genres.These were the Physical Skills of the participants and the Physical attractiveness of the athletes,respectively.Other noteworthy numerical differences include the relatively lower score for the Acquisition of Knowledge and Social Interaction for the RTS genres,which could be attributed to the ways RTS games are controlled and the overall decline of its competitive scene.Furthermore,Card games and FPS both had relatively lower scores for Drama/Eustress,possibly due to the lack of comeback opportunities within this genre of games.In terms of spending,it was found out that there is indeed a significant difference between e Sport genres in terms of spending habits.Overall,it was found out that 57% of all respondents did not spend any money on e Sport at all on a monthly basis.Those who do,spend anything between 1 USD to over 40 USD per month.Video game genres with above average spending habits were FPS,MOBA,and Card games.The reason why these three genres were able to achieve higher monetization could be attributed to in-game purchasing.The popularity of e Sports indirectly increases in-game purchasing by further strengthening the passion fans have for their favorite games.Furthermore,it can also directly increase in-game purchasing by making it necessary to obtain ingame items with real money in order to stay relevant to the dynamic competitive scene.The two genres,RTS and Fighting,are below average in terms of spending.This could be because the in-game purchasing options for games falling under these two genres are either much less prevalent or in some cases completely absent.Furthermore,it was also found that almost all motivation factors were statistically correlated with spending.The only exception is the Physical Attractiveness of Players.Unlike e Sport spectating frequency,no factor was found out to be negatively associated with spending.Therefore,it can be said that more e Sport fans could be converted and monetized by appealing to almost every consumption motivation factor.It is believed that competitive gaming has yet to hit its peak and the future growth potential of it is enormous.As e Sports continues to rise,more research should be done in this area.Suggestions for future studies include analyzing the success of the most well-received e Sport titles through the use of case studies.Moreover,this research could be redone by grouping games in e Sport differently.In the future,video game genre studies could lead to much clearer categorization.Another thing which could be done on this topic is to gather more respondents and analyze the data on a much larger scale.Completive gaming is highly dynamic and academic research should always adapt to the newest changes in the scene. |
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