I have always wondered about the professionalization of gaming, and Taylor’s book definitely helped to sort out some of the threads. Like Edbo, I remember watching the twitch thing and just was amazed at how SO many people were watching it and commentating. I honestly did not understand how it was entertaining to watch. I…
Monthly Archives: April 2015
Playing for Keeps, Muscle Memory, and Public Gaming Spaces
by Alan Kloosterhof •
I really enjoyed Taylor’s book. A lot of her discussion on the growth of e-sports reminds me of some of the growing pains experienced by baseball in the late nineteenth century, especially some of the difficulties that come with such a decentralized format of sport. For all of the regimentation that comes with bureaucratic leagues,…
Designing Competition
by Patrick Anderson •
Taylor’s book provided a useful and in-depth look at the emergence and evolution of e-sports. Her discussion of the culture likely helped a lot of people (or at least some people) begin to recognize the potential, or at least the significance, of e-sports. It was interesting reading about the divide between higher and lower skilled…
Sets
by Oliver •
Back before I came out to MSU I used to do game testing. The work was all done through a third party company, so I had the opportunity to play a number of different types of games from different developers and publishers. Often these games would be in a very unfinished state, lacking final animations…
Fragmented Games
by Oliver •
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…
Staising the Rakes
by Edbo •
I think that Taylor touches on a lot of very important issues of computer gaming in this book. The issue that I gravitate towards the most is the further development of gaming as a franchised sport. In the Gaming as Industry chapter Taylor cooly debates whether or not computer gaming will become a “well oiled…
Taylor Response
by Skye •
I thought the reading was interesting. At first I thought I was not going to understand a word because my knowledge of e-sports is nil. I did find it interesting how similar e-sports is to what people call real sports, like football and basketball. The athleticism, the practice, the scrutiny, the ego, etc. I really…