HOW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY CREATE

EXPLOSIVE GROWTH OF ESPORTS?

A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON THE INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL MEDIA IN

GAMIFICATION AND YOUTH’S SATISFACTION IN MALAYSIAN ESPORTS INDUSTRY

MOHAMED SHAFIQ MOHAMED AYUB

DR. DZAA IMMA ABDUL LATIFF

shafiquitmrembau@gmail.com

+60197745464

Faculty of Communication and Media Studies

UiTM Negeri Sembilan

THINGS YOU

DIDN’T KNOW

ABOUT THE

ESPORTS

INDUSTRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cic

L53J0Kg

OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION01

WHAT IS

ESPORTS?02

METHODOLOGY03

CONCLUSION04

INTRODUCTION

Playing video games has become one of the most popular

recreational activities, not just among children and adolescents, but

also among adults too (Entertainment Software Association 2017).

Video games have changed throughout the past five decades, and

have developed from early standalone games such as Space

Marines (1962) and Pong (1972) into collaborative and competitive

games played via massively multiplayer online environments, where

millions of players can play simultaneously against the games’ non-

player enemies or against other players.

More recently, video game playing has become professionalized and

for a small minority of players has become a career option in the

world of competitive gaming (Faust et al. 2013; Griffiths 2017). This

new professional type of video gaming activity has been termed

Esports (electronic sports). Esports is a new area in the gaming

culture, and is starting to become one of the most essential and

popular part of video game communities, especially among

adolescents and emerging adults.

The Video Game Market by Region in

2016: Asian growth

58% of the global growth of 2016 will come from the

growth of the Asia and Pacific region. In addition, it is

estimated that in 2018 the sum of the online video

game market in China, Japan and South Korea will

double that of the rest of the world as a whole.

1.4 BILLION POTENTIAL AUDIENCE

Research Objectives

To identify the type of

communication

technology in the

development of

Esports industry

To identify the most

effective type of

communication

technology used in

the development of

Esports industry

To identify type of

Malaysian youth’s

satisfaction towards

Esports industry

To determine the relationship

between influence of

communication technology in

gamification development and

Malaysian youth’s satisfaction

towards Esports industry.

WHAT IS

ESPORTS ?

WHY IS IT A BIG DEAL ?

What is Esports ?

Esports, short for “electronic sports,” transforms online gaming

into a spectator sport. The experience is similar to watching a

professional sporting event, except that instead of watching a

physical event, spectators watch video gamers compete against

each other in a virtual environment. If it’s hard to imagine why

anyone would watch somebody else playing a video game, just

think about how enjoyable it is to watch Lebron James or Steph

Curry play basketball. Just as traditional sports fans enjoy

watching top athletes perform at the top of their craft, the same

is true of those who watch top video gamers compete.

Which Esports Games Are

Most Popular?

Though the actual rankings of the most popular Esports games change

slightly month-to-month, the ten most watched games on dominant

streaming site Twitch remain consistent. As of right now, League of

Legends remains the most-watched ESport in the world. It’s also worth

noting, for those less familiar with Esports, that the most popular games

are not traditional sports-related video games such as Madden or FIFA.

Rather, the popular Esports genres include multiplayer online battle arenas

(where a player controlling a single character in a team that must destroy

the opposing team’s main building), real-time strategy (where a player

builds an army to gain dominance over a map), or first-person shooter

games (where players take part in a firefight across a map).

RESULTS

ESPORTS 101

Gamification technology is an emerging IT

innovation that greatly affects consumer

behaviour and consumer perception of products.

The aim of this study is to examine how the

Esports phenomenon can be used as

a marketing communication tool and how its

usage affects the reception of individual

components of a marketing message

36

Digitalization of communications is an increasing phenomenon,

reflected in the way of planning and executing marketing

communication (Mazurek, 2011a). Efficient utilization of mass

communications requires not only a very good knowledge of social

phenomena and market processes but also familiarity with the

instruments and technologies of information communication.

Both communication theoreticians and practitioners agree that the

key condition for mass communications to be effective is

integration of all the means thereof. All the undertaken

communication activities need to be consistent in terms of their

content and coordinated in time and space. Companies utilising

the methods and tools of modern mass communications are able

to interact quickly with consumers (Hajduk, 2016).

37

The drivers of these videos: franchises

WHY SHOULD WE PAY ATTENTION TO

ESPORTS ?

Gaming provides a gateway for media

practitioners to reach consumers in

new ways (Van Kerrebroeck,

Brengman, & Willems, 2017a).

A company that takes advantage of

communication technology can benefit

from major improvements in their

marketing communication as well as in

the level of their customers’ knowledge

of the products on offer (Huang,

Backman, K.F., Backman, S.J., &

Chang, 2015; Van Kerrebroeck et al.,

2017a).

Consumers gain value from game

technology, which enhances their

lives, and so businesses and

advertisers need to reach them by

these means in order to identify

new opportunities of providing

consumers with even more value

(Jung, Dieck, Lee, & Chung,

2016

Hence this research project is aims

to study the perspective of

communication technology that

influence esports industries and

youth’s satisfaction

“My message to Mass

Communication is this:

get into ESports today

because it will be more

expensive tomorrow.

Meet the new medium: Broadcast Explode

the growth into ESports

The truly global fandom of ESports has been fueled by the

tech engine behind ESports: its digital platforms. The likes of

Twitch, YouTube and Mobcrush drive fan excitement by

providing the vital component of ESports – live engagement.

Digital is the portal to players’ online chatter and building

community. It’s also a learning tool. With it, players can hone

their own skills by watching the fine-tuned abilities of pro

gamers. Whether they’re playing or just watching, these are

people connected by a passion for ESports, wherever they

are.

TWITCH

Twitch is now one of the main ESports platforms for live-streaming

video content. Founded in 2011, the platform today boasts 100

billion minutes of ESports content consumed every month,

according to Swanson. The number one source of video

consumption today, YouTube, has billions of hours of ESports and

gaming content viewed per month. ESports games are heavily

featured in YouTube’s Top Ten All-Time Video Games: League of

Legends, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, and FIFA.

Esports is a booming global industry where skilled video gamers play

competitively. In the same way that traditional sports have competitions in

baseball, basketball, and football, Esports encompasses competitions across a

variety of video games. Contrary to common perception, Esports is not simply a

phenomenon occurring in the basements of unemployed twenty somethings; the

industry is real, growing globally, and investable.

In fact, over 380 million people watch Esports worldwide both online and in

person. More people watched the 2016 world finals of popular Esports game

League of Legends (43 million viewers) than the NBA Finals Game 7 that year (31

million viewers). With its fragmented landscape and digital platform, the Esports

sector holds promise for a multitude of monetization opportunities.

Gamification is a relatively new medium that offers new opportunities

for content communication. The qualities of virtual reality make it able

to manipulate the sense of time and space, to be interactive, and

make the user ‘control’ their experience. According to Biocca (1992b),

there are many research implications of gaming on communications,

including studies on: the diffusion of game technology,

communication design and cognition or interpersonal communication

and cooperative work.

All this offers an incredible opportunity to establish a dynamic

relationship between the audience and the medium where

interactivity and responsivity play a crucial part (Mazurek, 2011b). An

ideal situation is one that involves the creation of a high-quality

interface – based on platforms connecting devices, or rather whole

realities – so that the user does not see the difference between their

own and the interactive world (Barnes, 2016).

“All major U.S. media conglomerates

will have digital esports media

rights,” and that esports will grow

into a market bigger than that of

traditional professional sports in

2021.”

“I believe esports will rival the biggest

traditional sports leagues in terms of

future opportunities, and between

advertising, ticket sales, licensing,

sponsorships and merchandising, there

are tremendous growth areas for this

nascent industry” –Steve Borenstein,

Chairman of Activision Blizzard’s

Esports Division and Former CEO of

ESPN and NFL Network

METHODOLOGY

METHODOLOGY

The present study aimed to collate and review all the

empirical studies concerning Esport from a psychological

perspective published between 2000 and 2017. Given that

competitive gaming only started to occur after videogames

could be played online and against other people, the year

2000 was chosen as a start date for the search because the

playing of videogames competitively did not exist prior to

this date. The data collection included all studies published

between January 2000 to July 2017.

The literature search comprised the following databases:

Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, and Web of

Knowledge. The following keywords were used in the

respective search engines: ‘esport video gam*’;

‘professional gam*’; ‘pro gam*’; ‘competitive video gam*’;

‘esport competitive video gam*’; ‘sport video gam*’ and

‘professional video gam*’.

A total of 30 papers were found as a result of

the systematic search. However, based on the

inclusion criteria (i.e., an empirical study

containing new primary data and published in a

peer reviewed journal in the English language),

a total of 22 papers were excluded because

they were either non-empirical (n = 14), were

published in conference proceedings or student

theses (n = 8), or were not specifically focused

on esport (n = 3). This left a total of eight

empirical studies that met the inclusion

requirements (see Table 1).

MANY FACTORS DETERMINE PACE OF GROWTH

MERCURY

10

%15

%

20%

MERCURY

MAR

S

VENU

S

Despite being red, Mars

is a cold place, not hot

Mercury is the closest

planet to the Sun

Venus has a beautiful

name, but it’s too hot

55

OTHER MEDIA PLATFORMS

FACEBOOK

YOUTUBE

STEAM

VR

CULTURE, SOCIAL

PRESSURE

AR

RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSION

The research, focused on the perception of mass

communication materials, brings some insights into

how to conduct such activities in the era of modern

technologies. It has also confirmed that Game

technology can significantly facilitate presentation of

certain market offers in education sector. The method

applied in the research may become a common

practice in this type of business industry in the future

The positive role of industry in the context of mass

communication may result in an increase in companies’

willingness to invest more in popularizing their offers through

various forms of cooperation with gaming software developers.

Technological industry have laid the grounds for a completely

new field of communication and content delivery and an

innovative approach to them can make the flow of information

between different market entities much easier.

Media practitioners can benefit from this research as

well because it clearly shows that traditional paper

advertising is the weakest channel of communicating an

offer in comparison to more advanced methods (such

as video or VR presentations), which proves the great

importance of communication virtualization.

Managers should pay more attention to the process of selection of

technologies that are to be used in communicating marketing messages. As

indicated in the research the use of modern technologies such as video and

game streaming has a very positive impact on the perception of marketing

message and translates into a much better reception of the message among

potential customers, which means that these technologies can significantly

support marketing strategies and sales – especially of equipment and

solutions based precisely on such modern technologies.

Further research should focus on conducting similar experiments for

various types of product categories, the relationships between the

reception of technology, the message, and the offer, and the

purchase decisions along with the managerial implications of

gaming usage in mass communication strategies and tactics.