Raising the Stakes was an interesting read, taking on a historical tone more than a modern exploration of esports for me. The structure and culture of the scene seems to have not changed all that much from its inception to where it is today. It has become more structured since it started, but the style of play and competition, as well as the behavior of the players and spectators, seems to have remains static.

The issue that this book brought up in my mind is one that I have also discussed with friends while at events. The book starts out talking about older games like Quake, Doom and Warcraft 3 that were all, at various points, played competitively but have since fallen by the wayside. There are more games than I can count that have been played and subsequently abandoned. On top of this constant turnover, the individual games themselves are changing. Between the introduction of Starcraft 2 onto the scene and its major update via the expansion Hear of the Swarm, the game changed and evolved drastically, with units being added or removed, as well as abilities adjusted, added or subtracted.

This evolution of the game outside of title upgrades changed how the game was played, with a meta game that rapidly fluctuated to accommodate both the new changes and to react to strategies invented by other players. One tournament I went to had the current state of balance heavily favoring Terran players at the expense of the Zerg, with Zerg players loosing almost every match up. The prevailing wisdom was that Zerg was underpowered at this point, only to then have a Zerg player win the finals. The strategies used by players were evolving and becoming obsolete in the span of a weekend, both in response to the changes made by the developers and the player meta game.

There is, as far as I know, no real analog in “normal” sports. While the meta of, lets say, football might change over time, as well as subtle rule changes, the individual games never undergo such drastic shifts. On top of that, unlike many games on the market, there is no asymmetrical to sports, which adds an additional layer of complexity to esports.

Above all else, sports don’t go in and out of style like esports do. There is no yearly iteration of soccer like there is in Call of Duty, a mainstay of the esports scene. Badminton is not played one year, only to be replaced wholesale with curling. This is a problem for players and spectators alike, making it difficult for either to gain any long term traction. I personally have almost entirely bowed out of competitive games, both as a player and as a spectator. My personal favorite games have been removed from the main circuit and while they can still be found, unlike older titles, the scene is smaller and more fragmented, making attendance to events less engaging.

This mutability of gaming, both within the individual games and through the exchange of titles, is hurting esports as a whole. The issues is, there is no obvious solution. Esports and computer gaming as a whole are build on the pursuit of the next, best thing. To try to stop that would never work. If tournament organizers tried to stay shackled to a singed title they would loose viewership rapidly. The graphical stagnation alone would be enough to kill this. As for a solution to the problem, I really don’t know. I have discussed this a number of other friends who go to tournaments and we cannot come up with a good solution.

The only thing I can think of is that games need to mature and the technology that powers them needs to stabilize before esports can grow. Games like League of Legends, where the game is constantly evolving and the point is to iterate upon the game instead of developing a sequel, seems to be one good answer. The game itself might evolve, but players are not jumping titles and are instead all remaining on the same playing field and rule set. Regardless, esports is growing and this book helped emphasize how far the culture has come, while also underscoring how far it has to go to reach the same level that modern professional sports have reached.