LEAGUE OF LEGENDS, AN E-SPORT MOVEMENT
Marketing class. I wrote this as a TRIBE analysis for college.
Also important, I like videogames, I REALLY like technology, but I do not consider myself a gamer.
1970´s, let´s picture a normal neighborhood; quiet roads, quiet houses and a bunch of kids playing in the park, some of them biking, others playing baseball while some just eating dirt. That was life like in those years, that was entertainment, lovely to some, boring to others.
Now let’s move forward. 40, no, 47 years into the future, a time where those calm neighborhoods are scarce or no longer exist, a time when technology moves so fast that we as humans sometimes can’t even keep up, or maybe the old ones, because there’s a particular type of them completely adept to those advances, they have created a community, using technology to interact, have fun and discover new realities, speed is their element.
And we´ll refer to them as gamers.
A bit of history, the first videogame ever created for fun was Tennis for two, designed and created by William Higginbotham, a nuclear physicist. Consisting of an “Electronic tennis game with separate controllers that connected to an analog computer and used an oscilloscope for screen” according to (Brookhaven, 2017). And as a new way of entertainment, it was outstanding.
A gamer, is “A hobbyist or individual that enjoys playing various types of digital or online games. Generally, a gamer refers to any kind of gaming enthusiast, but when used in IT, the term refers to those that utilize a full range of electronic or digital games.” (techopedia, 2017). It´s important to understand that being a gamer is not just about playing sporadically, but to do it with passion, being more than just a passing fancy, a serious profession nowadays.
People might have seen them in the past as weirdos, geeks, nerds, but not anymore.
What’s the science behind a videogame? Is there a formula on creating one, a recipe for making it successful?
Well, videogames must keep users engaged, they need to demand a challenge (Complexity), simplicity, for operating the object or character through a world of dynamic content, plus an ecosystem where users can interconnect. And Relying on [Chun´s, 2000] contextual cueing; “the process of implicit learning that allows to create a more efficient search for items through the interface.”
THE GAME
League of Legends (LOL) is a fantasy multiplayer online battle arena video game, designed and published by the game developer Riot Games.
Each individual (Called summoner) takes control of a champion with unique abilities (Fighting, healing, transporting) and affiliates it to a specific team, the ultimate goal is to destroy the opposite team´s “Nexus” a sort of flag placed on each team-controlled base.
LOL operates through a freemium model, and uses in-game micro transactions with their own virtual currency, Riot Points, allowing it’s users to play for free, but pay for additional perks such as clothing’s, cosmetic stuff for editing their character and access to championships and tournaments.
It was well received at first, but it catches massive support with time, with 70 million registered players and 27 million playing each month, and powering entire trends such as e-sports, one that we will refer to later.
THE TRIBE
According to (Godin, 2008) it takes only two things in order to turn a group of people into a tribe:
- Having a shared interest: LOL players love video games and challenges, and seek naturally to connect with others like them. You start talking with another player about mods or championship and a friendship is born instantly.
- A way to communicate: The game is an ecosystem, and they connect via forums, in-game chat and via voice calls with microphones. Using the Internet.
According to (Robinson, 2017) you need 6 types of people to start a revolution:
- Activists: The founders, the ones who saw an opportunity to disrupt things for the better, change the status quo.
- Intellectuals: Mostly the founders, there’s almost always a technical founder, the one that creates what others envisioned.
- Artists: The game designers and evangelists, master storytellers, the ones who inspire.
- Insiders: The ones that now how the status quo works and can easily speak its language.
- Supportive Elites: In this case, the sponsors. The powerful corporations that backs their vision.
- Masses: The public, finding a big slice of the target market, approximately 10% is needed to spark a true revolution and making things go viral.
PROFILE
- 90% of players are male, 85% between 16 and 30 years, and 60% enrolled in or having completed some college.
- 70 million registered players from 145 countries.
- Top 10 countries are: South Korea, United States, Canada, Brazil, Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Philippines and Greece.
- 1 BILLION hours played each month (Worldwide)
WHAT THEY DO
E-SPORTS
Apart from just playing, the e-sport competences is when the fun starts, or where the tribe can be found:
- Teams of players are created and sponsored by companies such as Samsung, HTC and Nike. It´s young members are paid to play LOL and practice it over 10 hours/day in order to classify for live tournaments whose attendance sell out entire stadiums, massive tournaments with over 12,000 people attending, and 32 million tuning in through livestream. (Fortune.com, 2017)
- They communicate with one another through headsets and are very active through forums.
WHY THEY DO IT
- Knowing that being a gamer is not a fool’s errand anymore motivates them.
- Getting themselves known, being a LOL champion gives them respect, admiration and money, in terms of being sponsored by various companies and winning prizes.
- Being part of a growing community, 70 million and counting is a strong incentive.
- Keep doing what they started in their childhood.
- Playing video games as a way of disconnecting to the sometimes-harsh reality, traveling worlds of fantasy might be a relief.
- But it’s not just about the product, the game. It is about the journey (Godin, 2008) About connecting with others while playing something enjoyable, challenges between members and finding some rivals that will spark up competition.
ADDITIONAL
Companies sponsoring LOL E-sports:
- Relativity (Theatrical Marketing)
- HBO (TV shows & Content)
- ESPN (Sport television & app coverage)
- Intel (Chip Maker)
- Google (Advertising, web, smartphones)
- Others: IGN, Twitch, Gamestop, Nerdist, Youtube, Microsoft, Sony, McDonalds, Coke Zero, Nissan and Red Bull.
- Doritos is an interesting one, they hope to take advantage of the massive young community of players in order to become their snack of choice, while gaming.
FOR US TO MEDITATE
Videogames are becoming so much more, and it’s social, it’s cultural, and technological. Being a gamer isn’t being a failure anymore, there are clear causes to that trend and we could name some; Freedom of expression, technological advances (More powerful machines + design) and again, corporate sponsorship.
There’s consequences, various non-profit and educational groups criticize the videogame industry as being misogynistic, a clear example of that is the known gamergate, as seen on Twitter. Unregulated culture, alt-right political propaganda and general disorder, almost what we could expect from an ecosystem where young people do whatever they want.
But there are opportunities also, videogames are considered the future not only in entertainment (Which is very clear) but in education (Malykhina, 2014). Gamers aged 21 will have achieved 10,000 hours of gaming by living in a country with a strong gamer culture, according to a study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”: 10,000 hours of practicing something is virtuoso material. So, what are gamers becoming good at? According to the game designer and TED speaker Jane McGonigal, “If we could figure that out, we would have a virtually unprecedented human resource on our hands.” There´s just the need to include educational material, and design something challenging and useful to this planet, I mean, we could do everything.
What are Gamers becoming good at?
And talking about LOL, the hype is real, the tribe is already there and there is an interesting amount of public, designers, entrepreneurs, educators, philosophers, institutions and corporations seizing an opportunity. All of them, seeing more than just a game.
