Seo,Y. (2016). Professionalized consumption and identity transformations in the field of eSports. School of Marketing and International Business, Victoria University of Wellington. (Alexander)

From Digital Culture & Society

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Article Review: Seo, Yuri. 2016. Professionalized consumption and identity transformations in the field of eSports School of Marketing and International Business, Victoria University of Wellington

This article explores professionalized consumption in the form of “eSports” and discusses a qualitative analysis regarding the nature of eSports as a genre of sport, as well as the sociological concepts inherent within the participation of eSports as a subculture. Seo looks to uncover the social implications of eSports on its players as well as its vast audience. The introductions of the article identifies eSports as a crossing of the boundary between work and leisure as well as between online and offline environments. Seo argues that eSports is therefore an example of professionalized consumption due to its blending of work and play as well as due to the culture surrounding it. Seo further argues that, due to these aspects, eSports can be a catalyst for identity transformations within people who become deeply involved with the eSports culture. The methodology of the article outlines that, in order to conduct research, Seo attended several eSports events and made observations regarding their environments. After this, Seo conducted interviews with several eSports players, asking them qualitative questions regarding their feelings about eSports and the impact that participating in them has had on their lives. Seo’s findings make note of the prevalence of specialized language amongst eSports communities, an aspect which lends to its uniqueness as a subculture, the use of which allows people to represent themselves as a part of eSports. The research further yields that eSports players take their games as very serious competition in which they are expected to try their very hardest in order to showcase their skills as players, this is important to them because the progress they make in improving their skills at particular games represents personal growth and proof of their hard work. Seo builds on this concept of personal growth by explaining the goals of eSports players as an example of the monomythic “hero’s journey” in which players leave their own social world in order to learn, gain respect, and ultimately return to their past social realm with the ability to travel back and forth to the realm of eSports whenever they please while retaining all of their personal growth and fame. Seo also notes that many eSports players are young and must either give up their commitment to eSports or find a way to make time for it in their daily schedule once they start working full-time jobs or raise families, this usually results in players becoming much more casual members of the subculture. This article develops very informative points regarding eSports as a subculture and the effects it has on its members and can serve as a starting point for other researchers to build off of. There has been a severe lack of scholarly research regarding the topic of eSports, this is likely due to the fact that eSports is still very young and many scholars have yet to take it seriously; however, Seo’s research offers insight into the social implications of the field although being limited to only a small number of eSports events.