The Effects of Staying at Home in the Esports Industry
These past few months have been tumultuous in the physical world, to say the least. The virtual world, however, is gaining greater strength. Isolation has forced people to search for leisure and entertainment. People are going to be looking at screens more than ever. It’s time to take a greater appreciation for what can help us: esports, which is people watching people play video games and build off that through gamified experiences.
As someone who ventured into building live events in the esports and gaming industries, there’s more to the madness in March, April, and the next coming months than meets the eye. Stadiums are closed down. Events, both traditional and non-traditional, are being postponed or canceled. Sports agents are aiming their athletes to stream themselves on Twitch, go live on Instagram, and thrive on engagement apps such as TikTok and Cameo. Suspended traditional sports leagues are looking for ways to engage with their audience. Where do we go from here if there’s nothing to check on ESPN’s sports highlights navigation bar?
Traditional league front offices, team owners, and athletes are pitching in to provide relief amid these times through donations and continued pay for stadium workers. Relief funds are posted to ensure that people who work day and night can pay for their necessities. At this point, this is a call for survival and to appreciate what we have. Our world keeps turning, yet our sports and entertainment are what makes the world turn without us having to think it does, an escapism that converges both athletic beauty, imagination, and play.
Don’t fret. The virtual world is spinning faster, and it isn’t going away either. As our world starts to feel like Stephen Spielberg’s dystopian Ready Player One, esports are replacing how we consume entertainment. Traditional sports leagues are looking at esports to fulfill the current void of sports, and they should rightly look at that option in an optimistic way. NBA, NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula 1 have taken note of their stars, placing them in virtual competitions because sports and esports simulate similar sensations of people watching people play. For brands looking to enter the space or current sponsors who are enjoying the visual engagements, fans thrive on content that stems from the personality, no matter what the content may be about.
How does esports converge with what’s going on? Well, a famed video game designer shares that video games are the great equalizer, and this statement is proving itself, especially when the grass fields can’t get trampled on by kids kicking and screaming or courts marked with their sneakers. Video games are in a virtual world, unfazed by the physical world, because we designed the conditions to be ideal for anyone to play and win. Yes, practice may push people further than other players, but anyone can be a player. People watching people play translates eloquently to esports because people enjoy watching competition. Competition is play. Play is entertainment. Even the World Health Organization recommends gaming as part of the #PlayApartTogether movement.
With play in mind, embrace esports as another form of entertainment because that is what it is, and anyone can play. Many need this escapist feeling because people are losing their jobs and are having to change their behavior. All of us are experiencing this. Here is the bright side: in esports, there will be someone there to make you feel happy, sad, angry, excited, and thrilled about what will be next. Anyone can showcase the skills, whether through streaming, through being the next pro player no one has heard of (yet), or through simply conquering the fear of talking in front of a camera. Tie in a story or message to what you do and why you do it, and people will listen.
While esports have that feeling of being on the same-level playing field, they represent a place where you can branch out and start another chapter of being, belonging, and believing. Esports have this mentality of “seeing is believing,” which takes you far enough to where your audience will tune in the next time. Avoid having to think about the current job (if, at all), and instead, think about the personal brand you can continue building on, similar to what these traditional leagues and their athletes are doing. They are staying connected, and that already makes you feel important. You can even build your own charity stream, donate to a cause, and save lives. Esports is connecting, and by connecting, you feel like you belong, impacting lives as you do it.
Esports make you believe in yourself. That is the bright side.
As much as it looks like you’re pressing buttons in esports, you’re choosing to level up your character both physically and virtually. Building your virtual character makes you feel accomplished, even if it has nothing to do with your human character. Now, it does. Game on.
Josh Gabay works at an esports start-up and is a graduate of Duke University, where he founded collegiate esports organization Duke Gaming. Gabay shares stories through esports podcast Game Jox and continues to look for ways to educate on esports and gaming beyond writing.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
