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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
An essential guide for marketers and execs wishing to integrate their brands with modern games and esports In Get in the Game: How to Level Up Your Business with Gaming, Esports, and Emerging Technologies, decorated gaming and social media research and marketing executive Jonathan Stringfield delivers a roadmap to understanding and navigating marketing and business integrations into the gaming ecosystem: who plays games (and why), how modern games are created and oriented around the world of esports, and where brands can get involved with modern games. This book explains the breadth and depth of the gaming audience, describing the rapidly changing demographics of modern games and the various motivations gamers have for playing games. It also unpacks the history of gaming and how it has impacted the creative processes and output from the industry. Finally, it offers a practical guide for brands wishing to integrate themselves into new gaming environments, with an emphasis on maximizing success for marketers, developers, content creators, and fans. Get in the Game provides: * A thorough introduction to why marketers and executives must pay closer attention to gaming, as well as existing roadblocks to understanding the gaming industry * Comprehensive explorations of the psychology and motivations of gaming, and implications towards messaging and brand safety. * Practical discussions of gaming as a competitive platform or streaming viewing experience. * In-depth examinations of gaming ad placements, deep marketing integrations between companies and games, and future directions for the industry and how it relates to the emergence of the metaverse. Perfect for marketing strategists, brand managers, and Chief Marketing Officers, Get in the Game will also earn a place in the libraries of executives seeking to connect with the misunderstood yet largest segment in consumer entertainment.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface: The Revolution of 1972
Character Sheet: Approach and Intended Audience of This Book
Mini‐Map: How This Book Is Structured
Part I: Playing the Game: Understanding Video Games as Media
Chapter 1: Introduction
Why Gaming Matters, Why Now … and Why This Book?
Notes
Chapter 2: Tricks Your TV Can Do
The Big Computer Era (~1962–1971)
Coin‐Drops and Consoles Era (~1972–1984)
The Console and Culture Wars (~1985–1993)
The PC and Mobile Era (~1990–2005)
The Casual Revolution (~2006–Now)
What's New Is Old: Conclusions
Notes
Chapter 3: Why Do We Game?
Is a Gamer by Any Other Name Not a Gamer?
Loops for Loot: Understanding Gaming Motivations
Closing the Loop: Conclusions
Notes
Chapter 4: Underworld
Shoot 'Em Up and Beat 'Em Up: Violence and Gaming
Just One More Round: Addiction and Gaming
Git Gud: Toxicity and Representation in Gaming
Clearing the Dungeon: Conclusions
Notes
Chapter 5: Getting in the Game (without Changing It)
Virtual Billboards in Virtual Worlds: Advertising
This Game Brought to You by … : IP Partnerships and Sponsorship
Branding Play: Gamevertising/Advergaming and Playables
Setting the Difficulty Level: Conclusions
Notes
Part II: Watching the Game: Esports, Streaming, and Games as a Viewing Experience
Chapter 6: Multiplayer
Watching Games, Together
Defining Esports: Are They More E or More Sport?
Ready? Fight: Challenges and Considerations
Shaping the Meta: Conclusions and Implications
Notes
Chapter 7: Good Luck Having Fun
The Novelty Era of Esports (~1972–1996)
The Online of Esports (~1997–2008)
The Networked Era of Esports (2009–2015)
The New Professionalized Era (aka the Content Era) of Esports (2016–Now)
Overtime: Conclusions and Implications
Notes
Chapter 8: Work to Play and Play to Work
Smash That Subscribe Button: Streamer Types and Motivations
Watch This Space: Conclusions and Implications
Notes
Chapter 9: Unbalanced
Play Breaks: Esports and Streaming Advertising
Play of the Game: Esports Sponsorships
Streaming Influencer and Content Marketing
Thanks for Stopping By: Conclusions and Implications
Notes
Part III: Storytelling in Virtual Worlds: Future Directions and Conclusions
Chapter 10: Life in the Screen
Windows to New Worlds: Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality
A Game for Every Screen: Cloud and 5G
Unblocking Value: Blockchain and NFT
Ready Player You: Conclusions and Implications
Notes
Chapter 11: Conclusion
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Broad Categories of Opportunities in Gaming
Chapter 9
Table 9.1 A Summary of Opportunities in Esports
Guide
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface: The Revolution of 1972
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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JONATHAN STRINGFIELD
GET IN THE GAME
HOW TO LEVEL UP YOUR BUSINESS WITH GAMING, ESPORTS, AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Copyright © 2022 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 646‐8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:
ISBN 9781119855361 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781119855385 (ePDF)
ISBN 9781119855378 (ePub)
COVER ART & DESIGN: PAUL McCARTHY
This book is dedicated to my mom, Lee Stringfield, who encouraged my love of gaming and writing throughout my life. I think she would be proud of the result.
Preface: The Revolution of 1972
The year 1972 not only irrevocably changed the consumer entertainment ecosystem, but also set into motion events that continue to fundamentally alter the ways in which humans interrelate via media. More specifically, two distinct but related phenomena were occurring in the world.
First, the Magnavox Odyssey was released, which is widely considered to be the first home gaming console. The home console shifted the center of gravity for video games from the arcade to the home. Though the transition period would be tumultuous, including a crash that nearly capsized the entire industry less than a decade away, interactive entertainment had found a home in living rooms across the globe by merit of being an accessory to existing home technology (it connected to a standard television set) rather than requiring a separate (and expensive) monitor. In one sense, 1972 is the year that video games shifted from being occasion‐ and geographic‐bounded entertainment to personal, accessible, and scaled—attributes that would paint the success of the industry for decades to come.
Second, beyond the living room and within the venerated halls of Stanford University, the first digital gaming competition was being held. A tournament around the early‐computer gaming favorite Spacewar! was being held at the artificial intelligence lab, complete with multiple competitors and a valuable prize (a yearlong subscription to Rolling Stone). In a similar parallel to home consoles, this was the beginning of a tumultuous history, inclusive of a near‐existential industry crash all its own. Thus, in another sense, 1972 is also the year in which the now‐global phenomenon of esports was born.
As far as technological and cultural revolutions go (and I'll argue that we'll be addressing a bit of both), 1972 is a pivotal year. The commonality between these events was that interactive entertainment had come to roost (albeit in different legacies reflected in modern times). It also represents a rare opportunity where the occasionally confusing and not always well‐documented history of gaming and esports intersect in a meaningful way within a single year. Here we find one of our first major problems when discussing gaming—the industry is multifaceted, expansive, manifest in a number of forms, and carries a long history that speaks to the powerful intersection of technology and creativity.
And yet, to the uninitiated or unaware, you'd never know that was the case. For too long, gaming has been considered a monolithic entity that amounts to little more than the frivolous pastime of children. Fast‐forward to today, and the reality is that gaming represents a global, multibillion‐dollar ecosystem within which about one in every three humans on the planet is a participant, and is positioned to shape the contours of our relationship with technology for years to come. Despite the scale and influence of this sector, it has become abundantly clear that there is a significant knowledge gap between business decision makers and an industry that, in fairness, has a reputation for being extremely cloistered. Unfortunately, this gap is quickly transitioning from a curiosity to a strategic blind spot for businesses across nearly every industry as the influence of gaming and gaming‐related concepts begin to shape technologies as fundamental as the internet.
Character Sheet: Approach and Intended Audience of This Book
For business decision makers and marketers, those who know that gaming is important but haven't yet figured out their point of view, an understanding of the gaming ecosystem and knowing how to integrate with it beyond the superficial is set to become one of the most important tool kits in modern business. While there are many ways a person or organization can enter the expansive gaming ecosystem, understanding and aligning on the right strategic fit, including the proper historical background and a deep understanding of consumer psychology and need states around these media, will define the most successful integrations. In addition, having a perspective on common business concerns related to brand safety and toxicity within the gaming community, including the genesis of these (occasionally overblown) concerns from societal and cultural orientations towards gaming, will balance fact from fiction in evaluating potential opportunities.
Parents seeking to understand what is likely occupying the majority of their children's leisure time may also find value in learning more about the history, landscape, and benefits of gaming in a broader context. Although interest in gaming is not a demarcation between adults and children (given that fans of gaming are not predominately children), there are indeed some generational divides. Despite differences in how one might be exposed to gaming or why one might wish to learn more from a personal or professional standpoint, the most hyperbolic claim I'll make is that nearly everyone stands to gain something from a deeper understanding of gaming as the proliferation of this ecosystem is inevitable. It is massive, big‐budget entertainment that lives on an increasing array of devices. It is shaping or creating new economies.
However, gaming is expansive and occasionally confusing—to date, even baseline education (or pitches) for the industry have had limited impact because of how much ground needed to be covered to properly discuss the industry. Most senior officers at businesses have a baseline familiarity (and have very likely used) with a social network or have viewed a television show, but fewer may have kept up with gaming. This book is being written as an important step to creating foundational knowledge upon which better conversations within the industry can be based and better alliances between the gaming sector and interested partners can be formed. It's esoteric at first glance, but not impossible to navigate in a way that clarifies the rather immense industry that has grown behind the scenes of larger cultural attention. More generally, the consumer intention–centric view that will be a central theme throughout this work can serve as a useful rubric for evaluating virtually any new media.
Mini‐Map: How This Book Is Structured
This book is divided into roughly three parts to consider different means of ingress into the gaming ecosystem: First, through experiences where consumers are directly playing video games, second to occasions and media where consumers are watching video games being played. Lastly, we will close by considering future directions for the industry and aligned businesses utilizing the potential emergence of the metaverse as an organizing principle. Each section provides an overview of the history of the platforms, the unique need states that a consumer is satisfying within each mode of entertainment, and addresses throughout substantive topics related to the needs and orientations of three major stakeholders: businesses looking to integrate, game or content developers, and game fans.
I use the term “fan” instead of the more common parlance of “gamer” for a number of reasons. The most obvious is that some of the potential integrations into gaming may have little to do with someone playing a game per se—the intended consumer is watching an esports match or game streamer, etc. On the other hand (and the topic will be addressed more substantively later on), the term “gamer” is incredibly problematic for marketers and business executives to rely on. Even within gaming communities it's a loaded (and, occasionally, negative) term, but above and beyond that it assumes a kind of identity valuation from either the game players themselves or the marketers that want to reach them. Identity is a complicated topic, symbols and labels even more so, and much is to be lost in relying on “shorthand” language of this type when engaging with a community that prizes authenticity (though we will qualify certain groups of “traditional” game players on occasion, where useful to enunciate a small but significant subset of the larger gaming audience).
The use of the word “fan” also refocuses the discussion on semifamiliar ground. Marketers have generally acknowledged the power of fandom. People “geek out” about a whole host of media, inclusive of mainstays like TV shows or movies. However, the departure here is that we are taking fandom to a new level—fandom that is deeply participatory, shaped by the fans, and highly affective in a way that can only be accomplished when the protagonist is perhaps not a scripted figment of a professional writer's imagination but rather reflects the values and decision of the media consumer. In other words, a world where the fan is the hero of the story, or capable of taking on the same abilities and persona of their favorite athlete. We are through the fourth wall and on the stage.
The emphasis on histories and assessing different vantage points within the industry is a result of the complexities surrounding game development or creating viewership experiences from games. Video games and video game experiences come in a variety of different formats, with varying degrees of focus on things like the story, mechanics (what is the actual game to be played?), and visual world‐building. The single biggest place where brands fail in gaming is overriding any of the core game elements or intended output of a given content producer. Even now as content creators are finding a voice in larger marketing or business decisions, it's important to remember that the intent of the creators is important—particularly when it shapes an experience that encompasses the entirety of a consumer's attention.
As such, one must understand the intent of the gameplay or viewing experience to be successful. An area of focus for this book is to provide the foundational knowledge on games, esports, and related vectors through which a brand or business may wish to integrate. This relies on an understanding of the historical precedent of these industries, along with the motivations fans have towards engagement. In doing so, we'll have a platform for contextualizing key facts about the history of gaming that are less known to those outside the industry or not invested in it. Given that gaming is often at the forefront of technological innovation with consumers, there is much to be learned here, even above and beyond a desire to find a strategic point of entry into the gaming ecosystem.
Finally, the usage of the term “ecosystem” throughout is to clarify that gaming and esports are not monolithic entities, nor are there simply a singular touch point, app, or piece of hardware to consider. Gaming experiences can happen on virtually every screen. They're in the living room and on the subway. There are social portals, communities, content streams, and organized competitive leagues across a truly global audience. While seemingly daunting at first, each subsequent chapter will address a substantive aspect of this ecosystem to yield a more holistic understanding:
Chapter 1
summarizes the current state of gaming and discusses the aim of this book in that context. It examines the different industries and forms involved in gaming, covers key data points about its prevalence, and identifies some of the reasons why broader industry knowledge around gaming has been underdeveloped.
Chapter 2
opens with a history of the rise of gaming, emphasizing the design and monetary aspects that have pushed gaming to ubiquity and in doing so have created the most flexible canvas for integrations with the gaming ecosystem, based upon the simple fact that gaming will be increasingly reliant on these revenue sources to remain sustainable. We'll review this history through a lens that emphasizes cultural, technological, and generational factors that have created the industry that we see today.
In
Chapter 3
we'll look to the psychology and motivations behind why people play video games. Much of the appeal of integrations in this space is in reference to the unique way in which video games capture attention; understanding the “why” of this attention is therefore essential. We'll also begin to tackle the concept of what a “gamer” is and how identity is often tightly wrapped up in play due to the participatory nature of gaming media.
In
Chapter 4
we'll address concerns around gaming related to brand safety. More specifically, we'll review the facts and fictions around thorny topics such as violence, addiction, and toxicity in gaming cultures using relevant scientific literature and broader discussions around cultural acceptances of new media.
Chapter 5
is the first of two chapters directly related to opportunities for integration, in this case focused on business and marketing integrations within or adjacent to game environments, to engage consumers playing games. Leveraging the background from preceding chapters, we'll evaluate the best mechanisms for integration pending the needs of the business.
Chapter 6
introduces gaming as a viewing experience, beginning with an introduction to the world of esports. The business of esports and game viewing via streaming have a number of parallels to traditional competitive entertainment; nevertheless, esports still exhibit a number of important differentiators related to changing tastes in video consumption.
Chapter 7
addresses the history of esports, if only to dispel the notion that esports are an “overnight” fad. The chapter also highlights the important social, technological, and cultural movements that created the global phenomenon as we understand it today.
Chapter 8
opens up the discussion of viewing to streaming more generally; here we will dive into the typologies of streaming content, their numerous interactions with both the esports and generalized gaming ecosystems, and the unique pressures that arise from the overlap of “work” and “play.”
Chapter 9
concludes our discussion on opportunities present in viewing game content, by outlining opportunities for integration in esports and generalized gaming streaming. As with the previous chapter on integration opportunities within gaming, we'll leverage the background provided by preceding chapters to outline strategies most primed for success.
Chapter 10
adopts a future‐looking view on forthcoming opportunities in gaming and esports. Potentially influential technologies and trends, broadly related to the emergence of the metaverse, will be outlined as a guide towards what decision makers should keep their eyes on after they have established a solid foundation in gaming more generally from the preceding chapters.
Chapter 11
is our concluding chapter, where we'll summarize the most important trends outlined throughout as a means to orient toward broader ramifications that gaming and game viewing entail for the future of communicating with consumers, if not technology more generally.
It's this approach, I believe, that is the best path to understanding the large, occasionally complicated, but undoubtedly valuable world of gaming—both as a means to understand and leverage current opportunities, but also to provide a strategic foundation for the future forms that gaming and gaming‐related opportunities will take.
A few final caveats before we begin in earnest: First, any worthwhile work addressing new or changing media recognizes that you're essentially chasing a moving target. Technology changes and preferences are fickle—what was a popular game or platform today very well may not be tomorrow. As a result, we will not be focusing on the minute details, formats, or avenues for integration so much as discussing overarching strategies with nods toward tactical themes or examples where useful.
Second, although at the time of this writing I hold an executive position at a very large gaming publisher, this book contains no specialized knowledge, nor is it intended as a long marketing proposition for any given game organization. For practical (and contractual) purposes, that isn't the point—even in my official capacity I'm quick to point out that my job isn't to extol the virtues of any one publisher. The non‐gaming industry isn't completely ready for that—we're still wrapping our head around gaming more generally, and this book is written out of recognition of that problem and to contribute to a (to date) nascent body of work that can up‐level understandings of gaming more generally, and the necessary precursors for businesses and marketers to be successful in these important worlds. I approach this work as an academic social scientist whose research has often focused on how individuals integrate new technologies in their lives, a business and technology executive who works with brands to understand new technologies, and an expert in the domain of gaming more generally (from both personal and professional practice—as you might suspect, I'm a lifelong gaming fan).
Finally, just by writing this book I'm risking the scorn of the community that I'm helping others understand. For those of you with some degree of familiarity with this space—that is, my fellow enthusiasts, who are often endlessly and ruthlessly cynical—a book like this (a business book, no less!) augurs a dark future of freemium shovelwear, lousy game experiences, and corporate interests overriding the wholly unique blend of technological innovation, creativity, and story telling that makes gaming special. The easy take is that this book, and my intentions, are yet another strike to the heart of something you hold dear.
I want you to understand that this shift is already happening. Where the eyeballs and engagement are, so goes the money. It's only a matter of time; this can be a positive or negative influence, and this book is designed to provide the necessary framework for these influences to be positive. On a personal note, gaming has framed a lot of my life, and I want it to thrive and be healthy and influential to others. In this light, I don't want to sneak outside interests in through the back door. I'd prefer to usher them in the front door, but only after taking their shoes off first. So, to my fellow fans—I wrote this book because I love gaming. Passion drove this book, passion drives the gaming community, and authenticity always wins.
To my colleagues in the business word who are not yet fans (and may never be), I wrote this book because I believe that business leaders who respect this passion and speak with authenticity can be a positive influence in this space, and they can reach consumers in one of the most affective and transformative platforms in existence. I believe that we are approaching a time when the skills and foundational understanding of gaming will not be optional, but essential—not simply for near‐term opportunities but also for the future of media that will be manifested via practices and technologies that gaming pioneered.
Part IPlaying the Game: Understanding Video Games as Media
Chapter 1Introduction: The Gaming Moment
Outnumbered and depleted of resources, I slam my shield into a ghostly guardsman of Shadowfang Keep, hoping to knock him off the rhythm of blows that have been raining down on my head.
“I need some help.”
An arrow whizzes by to my right, though it lands not against the group of foes I'm currently facing but squarely into a second patrol of guardsmen who had not yet reached our location. An error, and potentially a costly one. Alerted to our presence, the guards run to join the fray and add to the already insurmountable odds in front of our stalwart group of five heroes, aiming to free the keep from its foul master, Archmage Arugal.
“We need a lot of help,” I say, soliciting any ideas from the team to turn around a seemingly hopeless situation.
“I got it, Dad.”
A surge of light fills the air as a healing spell cast by our team priest mends our wounds. Reinvigorated, the remainder of our front line presses the attack, systematically striking down the undead guardsmen.
“Nice job, Heals, sorry about the extra pull,” our companion Hunter and originator of the stray arrow whispers to the rest of the party. “This is a great group, much better coordination than most randos.”
“Thanks,” I write back, “probably because most of us are all in the same room.”
Our team was indeed not mostly comprised of “randos” (a random assortment of players)—I filled the team role of “Tank” (protector of the group), supported by my wife as “DPS” (damage‐dealer) and teenage son as “Heals” (keeping the rest of the team healthy and alive). We arranged a collection of laptops and PCs together in our suburban home, seeking adventure and daring with wild abandon of our virtual safety in the expansive World of Warcraft as an escape from the very real dangers outside our home during the height of the COVID‐19 pandemic.
While the settings of this particular adventure were catalyzed by the rather extreme circumstances of a global pandemic, the more basic phenomenon at play here is not new to our family nor to many families like us around the world—parents who are increasingly using gaming as a means to connect with their children. And perhaps more important, games feature prominently in the everyday entertainment of individuals of varying ages, backgrounds, and needs across the world.
The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic is reflected not only in the body of this work (as the historical moment within which it was written), but also stands as a particularly meaningful moment in media and culture when gaming was thrust into the spotlight of popular attention. The last few years have become one of the most important moments for the reception and understanding of gaming within popular culture. Make no mistake, gaming had been steadily on the rise for years and decades before, but with the reassembly of meaning of our everyday lives comes the reassessment of the ways in which we consume media. Put another way, the influence of COVID‐19 on gaming was less a catalyst and more a lens through which a broader group of consumers and decision makers across the world saw the impact of gaming on everyday lives. The household scenario described above has been played out in innumerable homes across the world.
Dads, moms, millennials, Gen Z, financial advisors, lawyers, and others from all walks of life are among the billions of consumers logging innumerable hours across a multitude of purpose‐built and generalized consumer devices across one of the largest and rapidly growing media ecosystems in the world—video gaming. Often misunderstood, seldom discussed beyond the semicloistered businesses that support it and fandom that fuels it, recent circumstances have shined the spotlight on video gaming, not just as a participatory media, but as a professionalized pursuit (esports).
When focusing on the professional side of gaming, I found it instructive to travel across the world from my home in metro New York to Tokyo for another example. Portions of this book were written during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Any Olympics has a heavy impact on popular culture, but these particular games are noteworthy in a book about gaming for a number of reasons—first, Tokyo is the mecca of video gaming, and its influence on the games was portrayed throughout the games: From Japanese, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dressed as Super Mario for the countdown to Tokyo's Summer Games, to upwards of 19 video game scores, ranging from Final Fantasy to Sonic the Hedgehog, being played during the parade of nations (yes, really).
Second, the most apparent abnormality in the 2020 Olympiad was the fact that some of the most hallowed and long‐standing traditions in sports were left without an audience. Sport as we know it had faced innumerable disruptions over the previous year (including the fact that the “2020” Summer Games were held in 2021). In fact, seasons for many sports were canceled because they require physical contact. In other cases, competitions were held in empty arenas.
Throughout this time of disruption, one type of competitive entertainment could still be played at the highest levels—esports. While the artifacts and conduct of esports couldn't fully escape the impact of COVID‐19 (even games played virtually require massive amounts of technological coordination to ensure that the virtual playing field remains fair), here too emerged a moment where the superpowers of gaming and esports became profoundly clear—both are media that don't require physical contact for socialization or competition.
As one looked upon the empty stands in Tokyo, fundamental questions around the role of audiences and professional competition were posed, especially how the future and definition of sport are changing with the ebbs and flows of technology and culture. Indeed, the International Olympic Committee has been debating the inclusion of esports as a medaled event for a number of years, and we may see this come to fruition as soon at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Prior to the traditional Olympic Games, Tokyo hosted the Virtual Olympic Series, a stepping‐stone where virtual representations of physical sports (motorsport, cycling, baseball, etc.) were played by an emerging subset of professional competitors.
I don’t highlight these examples to overplay the importance of the events of 2020 and 2021 on video games and esports. While the circumstances of those years facilitated an increase in the number of individuals looking for new means of entertainment (creating the occasional new passion or re‐investigation of a previous hobby), it did not change the trajectory of these industries so much as give them a boost. What changed was the extent to which the discussion of these forms of media shifted from the periphery to the center of culture. More simply, seemingly everyone came to terms with the fact that gaming was a “thing,” and it was having a moment—a moment that has seemingly evolved into a movement.
Late in 2021 the business and technology world became enamored with possibilities of a new, decentralized version of the internet colloquially referred to as Web 3.0. The circumstances of the global pandemic, paired with ongoing interest around the possibilities afforded by blockchain technology, provided fertile ground for concepts such as the metaverse (a persistent, embodied, virtual world that users would traverse as means of accessing this new internet) to take hold. As we will learn, video games have a long history of impacting the ways in which we contextualize new technologies and means of interaction. The isolation imposed by a global pandemic shaped our collective thinking around the possibilities provided by virtual worlds, and virtual worlds have a history dating back almost 50 years in video gaming. Understanding video games has quickly evolved from just a savvy business practice to an essential skill set for maintaining relevancy in the future technology landscape.
These moments and movements speak to broad shifts in consumer behaviors, and from the get‐go it's important to clarify that the purpose of this book is not to construct hyperbolic promises around flashes in the pan or buzzy media phenomena that will fade almost as quickly as they came to rise. When we speak about the gaming industry as it exists today we must understand that we are talking about nothing less than a fundamental reorientation around the intersection of technology, culture, fandom, and business. This “gaming moment” very likely brought you to the pages of this book (and in no small way, as we'll discuss, necessitated the creation of this book), and while I promise not to become too deeply academic, what you'll come to understand is that gaming is not just a “new” frontier for savvy marketers and business decision makers. It's a map of how consumers participate in not just the creation of media, but also in the consumption and integration of these multifaceted relationships between consumers, fans, and media. Our understanding of these developments will be greatly enriched and go far beyond a superficial roadmap of tactics.
Understanding the job in front of us, and returning to Shadowfang Keep for a moment, we were soon off to our next adventure. For those of you wishing to join us in spirit—to understand what will be one of the most essential and fundamental forms of consumer entertainment over the next few decades—allow me to lend you my shield.
Why Gaming Matters, Why Now … and Why This Book?
If all of this sounds like a different world from what you're accustomed to … well, you're not wrong. But, it's more about different worlds—ones that aren't relegated to the stereotypical basement or archaic arcades. They are sprawling touch points with narratives on par or better than what one can experience on the silver screen, and they're expanding at astonishing rates. Despite this, attention to gaming for industry outsiders remains remarkably low. The divide between where an increasingly diverse base of consumers are spending their time, and where marketers and business decision makers are spending their efforts, are as lopsided today as they were in the early days of social media relative to TV/print advertising.
The precedent is worthwhile to note. The emergence of social media and other user‐generated content that typified Web 2.0 required a dramatic realignment among marketers and business decision makers. Legacy web practices such as static banner ads or marketing practices like TV commercials were challenged by digital platforms where businesses were expected to be in dialogue with their consumers, rather than merely directing messages at them. We now stand at the beginning stages of another fundamental shift in the relationships between businesses and consumers in the form of Web 3.0, which hinges in part on traversing virtual worlds, and yet knowledge among businesses on how to orient themselves and integrate within these worlds (and how consumers think about or immerse themselves in them) is only nascent. Gaming has become top of mind for business decision makers because the audience of gaming fans amounts to billions, but it's less well recognized that virtual worlds have been the domain of gaming and gaming fans since nearly the advent of video games, and as such are among the best avenues for orienting business decision makers to this potential future internet.1
And yet, video gaming has, both as a consumer pursuit and a business, operated somewhat under the radar of popular culture, and therefore occasionally outside the consideration space of those most entrusted with keeping abreast of popular culture or the means to relate to consumers. The reception to gaming is dramatically different from that at the emergence of social media. Doors at media agencies are not quite opening as readily, and objections to strategies in the space are consistent and incorrect: Gaming is niche (it's not), just for kids (it isn't), or only fit for directly gaming‐related partnerships (already well disproven). Specifically, the gaming industry is expected to generate $175 billion in revenue in 2021,2 compared to the peak box office draw in 2019 of almost $40 billion3 or $21.6 billion4 in 2020 for the recorded music industry. Multiple sources estimate the total population of video game players to be in excess of 3 billion people (or at least 40 percent of the global population), including 227 million in the United States alone, where the average age of the player is 31 years, 45 percent identify as female, and 74 percent of households have at least one person who plays video games.5
Despite the scale and footprint of the industry, the opportunity within gaming as it stands now is not well known or established in central business practices, even though many decision makers seek to chase the “next big thing,” whether it be the metaverse or concepts related to digital ownership. Yet they don't have the foundational knowledge that gaming readily provides.
Reconciling the rise of video gaming amounts to reorienting around fundamental shifts in the consumer media landscape. Millennials are increasingly becoming household heads and have tastes and preferences for media content and formats that are profoundly different from those of the generations that preceded them. Entire generations of consumers have been playing games their entire lives. They are sharing this passion with their children. They view gaming as interchangeable with watching TV or a movie after work. The attention and passion are there … but major brands and partnering companies are not. At least, not yet.
So, to answer the questions we began with are: Why gaming? Why now? Why this book?
Why Gaming?
It is an inevitability in the burgeoning entertainment ecosystem. It is mainstream, blockbuster‐level entertainment. Gaming represents the end game of several powerful phenomena in the larger media world, ranging from the impact of participatory media to establishing spatial presence in media. We'll spend time unpacking occasionally esoteric phenomena in media studies and psychology in order to convey the larger point that the rise of gaming portends more fundamental shifts in the relationship between consumers and media, and therefore the means and practices through which a marketer or business decision maker should relay a message. Gaming matters because it's not simply an app or new platform; it's a way of relating to media in a more general sense, and it's a way of relating to media that is becoming increasingly influential in a wider array of contexts, inclusive of those seminal to whatever form Web 3.0 may take.
Why Now?
Certainly one can point to the acceleration of gaming conversations around the global pandemic or enthusiasm around the metaverse, but realistically the business world has already been long overdue for a reckoning with gaming. We are quickly approaching a tipping point where mastery of concepts around gaming are no longer merely “nice to have” but have become an essential tool for virtually any business. It's not too late to get in front of this shift, but time is running scarce.
