Goldsmiths, University of LondonDepartment of Media and CommunicationsMC71138A August 2012

A Cultural Analysis of Massively Multi-User Online Gaming as a

Form of Sport

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Submitted by Chwen-Yuh Lin (St.-ID: 33226106) in partial requirement for theDegree of MA in the Program in Digital Media: Technology and CulturalForm, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2012.

Abstract

This paper considers the popularity and cultural significance of Massively Multi-User

Online Games as a form of sports. As Massively Multi-User Online Games continue

to be one of the most popular forms of digital gaming, discussions of how this genre

of gaming is being recognized a sport has sparred noteworthy discussions. Drawing

qualitative analysis of two of the most popular MMOs in World of Warcraft and Star

Wars: The Old Republic, this study argues that these games has proved particularly

popular due to its player perceptions and in game qualities which links to the sporting

activities allowing for these games to be drawn on as a resource in conversations and

cultural discourse. In particular, this dissertation speaks to the certain aspects of

gaming, such as player control; social formations within the player communities in

these games that are like those of some of the sporting communities. It also

demonstrates how the perception of gaming changes under players’ context of play.

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Table of Contents

Introduction...................................................................................................... 4

1. Literature review.......................................................................................... 13

2. Theoretical Background/ Methodology........................................................ 20

3. Game Analysis.............................................................................................. 27

3.1. ........................................................................................................... 27

3.2. ........................................................................................................... 36

4. Discussions and Conclusion......................................................................... 42

References........................................................................................................ 44

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Introduction

Digital gaming has frequently been considered with the lack of

social interaction, giving the notion that gamers ‘retreat into… [a]

fantasy world’ (Miller 1993: 2) and away from their ‘actual’ lives.

Gaming has also been accredited to creating ‘mouse potatoes’

(Kline et al 2003, quoted in Rutter and Bryce 2006: 157) that sit

glued to their computer screens instead of taking part in more

sociable activities such as doing sports. However, each day, millions

of users log on their accounts to take part in the events of online

digital constructs known as MMOs- Massively-Multiplayer Online

games. Whether is it to collect the proper gears, revise tactical

plans in arranging and coordinating a twenty-five-person dragon-

killing raid or even to have a cross-server, cross-nation competition

for first kills in the hope of gaining glory for the guild (online society

for persistent users). This form or achievement as a show of

sportsmanship could very well be noted as drawing its parallel in the

sense of athletes of different nations competing on a shared stage

in the hopes of bringing honour to the countries they represent. The

increasing popularity of these environments makes it crucial to

understand the ways in which we use, interact and live in the

seemingly sporting aspects of these digital constructs. By analyzing

MMOs as a form of sport, this research hopes to investigate the

perspective that gaming could be just as sociable as sports and

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culturally important to the millions of users that willingly spent time

on it.

Since its advent in the 1980’s, the medium of online games

has received a widespread global exposure yet its academic

reception has been comparatively overlooked before the year 2000.

As a young discipline, existing research on the theoretical issues of

gaming tends to focus on the positive or negative effects of playing

video games. For example an extensive line of research has focused

on demonstrating that playing violent video games increases real-

life violent behavioural possibilities in the form of delinquency (See

Anderson & Dill 2000, Bryce 2006). Another line of gaming studies

focuses on the debate of whether games could have potential

pedagogical purposes in the investigations of the possibility in

enhancing sensorimotor skills (see Fery and Ponserre 2001). Yet

another aspect of study carries on the argument of ludology versus

narratology (see Dovey and Kennedy 2006, Juul 1998, and Nielsen

et al. 2008). Ludlogy stems from the Latin word ‘ludus’ meaning

game, noted by Gonzalo Frasca in 1999, he offers the explanation

that ludologists reject the concept of games as serving a form of a

narrative and through this refusal cautions the world to look further

for the specific qualities and properties of the different games

themselves to devise new a form of theoretic for the purpose of

independent analysis (see Frasca 1999).Additionally, in terms of

examining the constructs of the virtual worlds created in the digital

gaming environments there has been many studies conducted in

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Virtual Reality (VR) research laboratories around the world on topics

of the theoretical implications of interactions at a social level in

Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) (see Normad. Et al.: 1999).

While the three lines of research mentioned above focuses

predominantly on single-player games, MMOs are now on the

forefront of a new generation of computer games that takes

advantage of the accessibility of innovations such as the advent of

high-speed internet connections as well as newer, lower cost, and

faster computer processors all in which attributes to the dynamic

shift of paradigm in the field of computer gaming. MMOs allows a

prevalent setting where millions of users immerse themselves

willingly in a graphical virtual environment and conduct actions in a

team-like sporting manner through their avatars (the

representations of the players physicality in a digital space) on a

daily basis. The opportunity to study what drives players to engage

in such actions in a virtual environment with thousands of other

people cannot be ignored, which is the basis rationale for this study.

By definition, MMOs are capable of accommodating of at least

one thousand convergent players (Blizzard 2012). As opposed to a

stand-alone game and local area network games, which are more

simplistic in terms of player accommodation and only have the

capability of allowing up to no more than 20 people. These games

are typically set in an area that could easily be traversed in a matter

of minutes with the player’s in game avatars. On the other hand,

MMOs take their settings in a persistent world that stands

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independent of its users; to the player the world only exists when

the user engages in activities in the game itself and the it carries on

its existence before and after the user logs on and off. More

importantly, events that occur in the world happen regardless of

user intervention. The necessity to allow for the large number of

users to engage in activities of the game, the worlds in MMOs varies

in themes and is also vast in relativity.

To those that do not subscribe to the engagements of this

form of online gaming, MMOs could otherwise be interpreted simply

as an online chat room through which a player-controlled avatar

communicates via methods of using typed chat as well as pre-

templated expressions and gestures to accomplish a host of

interactive tasks set in a visually pleasing environment. Within these

tasks are the chances of exploration of ancient ruins, oceans,

mountain ranges, and witness volcanic eruptions in graphically

enriched real-time 3D animations. Depending of the settings of the

particular games players could be allowed to travel anywhere along

the axis of the time-space continuum. Players also partake in

numerous activities that increase in difficulty in the world by using a

combination of mouse and keyboard input commands that rewards

according to the level of play. The actions that a players do revolves

around character advancement and directly translates into skills

and items that are advantageous in the mechanics of the virtual

world, all of which could be in the forms of social status, avatar

achievements, equipment quality or even fishing skills. For instance,

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in EverQuest, players are free to indulge in treasure hunting or

underground trading or even become a combat veteran while

commanding their own platoon of mercenaries (Sony Online

Entertainment 2012).

Most forms of character advancement in MMOs require player

cooperation or interdependency on other users, often in a mutually

beneficial way. In EverQuest (Sony Online Entertainment 2012), the

approach of how each player chooses to advance in their profession

and skill set is totally free, each player is able to choose three

crafting skills to supplement his or her character’s in game needs,

this mode of offering pathways also plays part in ensuring the

success of players of all intensities. Since there are more skills for

choice than the choices allowed, out of necessity players are made

to sell and trade then resources they gather for the purposes of

excelling in their skills. In almost all of the levelling up instances,

players need the complementary support of each other as they face

the creatures and enemies that increase in difficulty yet in turn hold

larger rewards.

In contrast to some earlier popular MMOs that focus mainly on

either player versus player or otherwise player versus environment

advancements, the more recent successful MMOs have qualities

that encompass both forms of engagements. Consequentially, the

more in-game achievements players strive to accomplish, the more

meaningful the game becomes to the individual player at more of a

personal level as the games my not only be the player’s form of

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leisure, but also something else altogether. Thus we arrive with the

notion of ‘serious games’.

The umbrella term ‘serious games’ was coined by the

American academic Clark Abt in 1968 (see Abt 1968), today it refers

to the wide array of video games that have been produced to serve

proposes that are other than pure entertainment. As one of the

most controversial and contested issues of this discourse has been

the definition of the so-called ‘serious games’ (Nielsen et al. 2008:

205). Just as the word ‘game’ suggests video games’ primary

function is to entertain, but as we investigate further into the profit-

making juggernaut that is the gaming industry we may come to

realize that other uses have sparred from the advent of such serious

games.

Serious games come in many forms and may be in the field of

educational games, or advertisement games, political games,

medical games and so on (See Michael and Chen 2006). As we can

imagine, serious games span across a wide spectrum and the

games that are of topic may not be intended to be “serious” but its

inception but rather ‘any video game can be perceived as a serious

game depending on its actual use and the player’s perception of the

game experience’ (Nielson et al. 2008: 205).

I find this notion noteworthy in several ways: firstly, it

acknowledges that specific games are capable of having a change in

usage in the minds of the actual users rather than simply having

only one key characteristic; secondly, because of their interest in

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the ‘realistic usages of the serious games’ (See Coventry

University’s Serious Games Institute). Although it seems evident

that the approach to investigating the qualities of gaming be

overshadowed by the way players view the game in respect to its

attractiveness and the sense of accomplishment in engaging it.

Instead of asking the general question of ‘Why people find MMOs

worthwhile?’ which comes to mind with the presupposition that

MMOs are something quantifiable in its value. This leads to some

researchers into being more concerned with what players get out of

their playing time. Instead, I would like to cross-reference the

attributes of MMOs with that from the field of sports and hopefully

demonstrate to a limited extent that MMOs is comparable to that of

a sociable sport.

Along with the concepts of serious gaming, I would also like to

include the comparisons of cultural analysis of sport and gaming

into this study for I believe that games could be approached as a many-

dimensional object of study. If we were to take a few steps back and approach the

concept of gaming as a medium that offers to users (passively or actively) something

more than pure entertainment we will be confronted by the fact that the full range of

significance of games as objects are exhibited with more clarity only through

activities of players partaking in the gaming experience. It is through engaging the

sport-like qualities of gaming along with the seemingly endless number of uses of

gaming that a player’s perception of a culture is formed.

Frans Mäyrä (2008) points out that to begin with the analysis of gaming, one

must first understand the ‘two elementary senses or ‘layers’ in the concept of game:

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(1) core, or game as gameplay, and (2) shell, or game as representation and sign

system (Mäyrä 2008: 17). Often when a game is addressed in discussion it is

misleading because of the failure to address the specific dimensions at play. So we

must pursue with the notion that the core layer is actions the players can do while

playing the game. The shell would be all that the players deem worthwhile and all of

which makes the interactions as well as all the semiotic richness contained within the

game (Mäyrä 2008).

There is no superseding importance between the core and the shell, which

means there both are key components of what a game provides for its users. But they

should be perceived as different kinds of key components. It is at the core level of

gameplay that one can find the transferable qualities of the game itself: the rules of

engagement. For example, if we were ever to find ourselves without a deck of poker

cards at hand but what is available is a pile of blank index cards, we could make use

of these cards and still carry on with a game of Black Jack. So in the narrow sense,

games are indeed defined by its rules. Nevertheless, the actual materials of the

manufacturing of the game pieces would play a role on the effect of the experience of

playing, in the sense of digital games, the entanglement of qualities of play lies in the

matters of software and hardware and even the wetware: the players’ attitude and

competences.

What makes this study a worthwhile endeavour? Through

careful analysis of some the qualities of selected MMOs I hope to

investigate whether if MMOs has what it takes to be adorned as a

sport to its plethora of users. With this model of understanding

hopefully we could gap the division between how gamers perceive

their involvement with online gaming and familiarize ourselves with

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online gaming with a more personal aspect that is a sport. It may

also help to explain how and why MMOs are one of the biggest

stories in the booming gaming industry.

To be able to give myself enough space for an in-depth

analysis, I will set my focus on two specific games in this

dissertation, along with limited examples of other games which will

hopefully be sufficient in comparing and contrasting the possible

sport-like qualities within the games while determining whether if

these qualities would be sufficient to be perceived as comparable to

that of a team-based sport on a cultural level. Although there are

MMOs that are in the genre of the sport games such as Need for

Speed: World (Electronic Arts Inc. 2012), which is a MMO in the

genre of sports racing. I would like to target my studies on two of

the most popular MMOs to date and hope to demonstrate the

benefits of my proposed approach and exemplify how it can be done

in practice through detailed analysis of my chosen games.

The organization of this dissertation will be as follows: chapter

one provide the review of literature for my selected topic in which I

start off my offering a glimpse of what I perceive as vital

components of culture, through which I discuss the possibilities of

serious gaming as well as the ways in which player input effects how

players view gaming and vice versa. Chapter two will focus on the

rationale and reasoning behind my chosen methodology in

conducting this study while chapter three will consist of a two part

in depth analysis of two MMOs that I have played extensively. The

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first game that I have chosen is the massively popular World of

Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment 2004), a MMO based in the high-

fantasy land of Azeroth where players have the role of choosing

either to be a member of the Alliance or the Horde in order to battle

the opposing faction for the greater glory of each. While this

summary hints the ongoing friction between the divisions, the way

in which the gaming aspect is conducted is very interesting.

Through a number of cut-scenes and in-game cinematics players

can fully immerse themselves in the narratives of the story while

having a chance to interact with fellow gamers as partners or

competitors. The second game I want to analyse will be Star Wars:

The Old Republic (BioWare 2012). Star Wars: The Old Republic is a

recently released MMO based exclusively on the storyline of the Star

Wars (Lucas 1977) enterprise. In it, a player one could decide either

to become a champion of the Empire or the defender of the

Republic and battle for what they believe is right. This game heavily

remediate the worlds created in the Star Wars franchise, which

through the different commands and in game settings allow players

from the culture of the Star Wars fandom experience the wars

fought in the movies and take part in the storyline of the movies

from through their computer screens and in their carefully selected

avatars. And finally, chapter four will be a summation of my findings

in as well as the discussions of the implications of the outcomes of

research for the propose self-examination of this undertaking.

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This research will not be able to examine all the aspects MMO

gaming, nor will it be sufficient to prove whether gaming could in

turn be recognized as a sport. It should rather be viewed as

demonstrating its purpose as one example of how a cultural analysis

of gaming could be done. I hope this dissertation would serve with

the purpose as a contributing piece to the study of gaming in

general and hopefully provide an addition to the studies in the

discourse of seeing digital games as a form of sports.

1. Review of Literature

As mentioned above this study is mainly influenced by two

academic traditions cultural studies in gaming and serious games; if

we were to peer into the spectrum of gaming through the looking

glass of a cultural standpoint whilst acknowledging it as a form of

sub-culture, we must begin with the examination of some of the

current culture theories and how the discourses are taking shape.

As Raymond Williams mentioned: ‘[c]ulture is one of the two or

three most complicated words in the English language’ (Williams

1983: 87); with its initial association with the word ‘husbandry’ and

the meaning of ‘tending of crops and animals, the word “culture”

has diverged in meaning, one that Williams offers the following

concepts of:

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(i) the independent and abstract noun which describes a

general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic

development, from C18 [the 18th century]; (ii) the independent

noun, whether used generally of specifically, which indicates a

particular way of life, whether of a people, a period, a group, or

humanity in general… But we have also to recognize (iii) the

independent and abstract noun which describes the works and

practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity. This

seems often now the most widespread use: culture is music,

literature, painting and sculpture, theatre and film. (Williams

1983: 90)

To cite readings from a more recent account, the notion of

culture has widened to describe the generation of symbolic meaning

as well as material production along with the processes of

development (See Crawford and Rutter 2006). In the respect of

digital gaming, not only are the developments of hardware and

software a vital portion the late 20th to early 21st century industrial

culture, through the in-game actions of characters such as Lara

Croft from the Tomb Raider (Core Design 1996) gaming franchise,

via this translated iconography she captures our understandings as

either a ‘Feminist Icon or a ‘Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo’ (Kennedy

2002).

In the effort to comprehend our own societies through the

production and the consumption of cultural products, scholars in the

field of culture studies that have built up on the studies of Raymond

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Williams have thus produced works that have explored the

relationship between production, text, and audience for media

including television (see Hall 1980, Hall et al. 1978, and Morley

1980). Such an approach opens up the opportunity for readers to

investigate the different understandings and they way messages are

encoded or resisted within the texts and how they play out the

members of specific societies within and without it. This approach

allows for the investigation of the various ways in which culture is

not just something that is an fragment of our imagination for us to

passively immerse, but rather as something which we learn, create,

and carry out within our networks of social interconnections, which

includes families, friends, colleagues, schools, and leisure practices

and hobbies (Crawford and Rutter 2006).

Within this concept of acknowledgement of games as a form

of culture, I draw much inspiration from Stuart Hall’s paper

Encoding/decoding (Hall 1980). In it, he contends that cultural products

may be provided (or encoded) with inherent values, and beliefs for

the audience to perceive. However, the ways in which the audience

‘decodes’ the messages in the texts is something that is more than

merely a translation into a feeling, but a process subject to each

individual’s interpretations and cultural background. Hall (1980) also

believes that although some audiences may willingly accept the

values provided in the texts, others might negotiate with it by

accepting only parts of the whole value or even reject them all at

once. This study is vital in the sense that it recognizes the fact that

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media audiences are not the passive consumers of information or

products but rather are actively engaging in the interpretation or re-

interpretation of these forms of media.

In regards to seeing the importance of the role of the active

audience model in the relation to digital game players, Kline et al.

(2003) offers examples of how gamers will re-direct their intake of

knowledge or change the games accordingly to the degree they

prefer. This means that digital games offer to the players a degree

of choice to adapt the games to his or her preference. This could be

done via the options that are in-built to the gaming menu, or could

otherwise be done by the aid of external methods such as hacking

or the use of illegitimate programs. Nevertheless, Kline et al. advise

that the audience should not be overly exaggerated, for the

audience is still a significant portion of the games industry as

primary consumers. And it is this group of consumers that in turn

plays the part that determines the culture. This interaction between

the game and the gamer provides the foundations of the concept of

how games shape the cultures that the users build around it.

Pierre Bourdieu (1984) uses the concept of ‘habitus’ (Bourdieu

1984: 170) to examine how command and understanding of certain

forms of culture is used by social groups for the expression of the

group’s good taste and the generation of self-belonging within that

certain group. To give explanation to the term, Bourdieu states: ‘the

habitus is both the generative principle of objectively classifiable

judgments and the system of classification […] of these practices’

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(Bourdieu 1984: 170). I think Bourdieu’s work could also be utilized

to explore the social distinctions and codes of authenticity within

gaming. Such an example could be how MMO gamers use their

understandings of the in game actions and cultures to differentiate

from the non-players just as an athlete separate himself from the

‘amateurs’. Bourdieu, as an ex-rugby player, he uses games and

sports as a metaphor for social practice for the argument that

playing a sport was not merely the matter of understanding the

rules the actions bound to these rules, but having the larger context

of the team, and the game itself.

Following up on the notions of the habitius, I draw my

attention to Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s Flow: The Psychology of

Optimal Experience has often been referenced to shed light on the

joy players find in video games. The term “flow” describes the state

of satisfaction one experiences when performing an activity that he

or she enjoys very much, this activity could vary with the specific

interests of the performer whether it be playing an musical

instrument to kicking a football (in our case here it would mean

engaging in MMO gaming). If the action itself is one that the

performer enjoys, it becomes an ‘optimal experience’

(Csikszentmihaly 1990: 72). According to Csikszentmihaly, flow

usually refers to the activities that are outside of our daily routines,

and will typically entail a certain sense of playfulness.

Argued by Csikszentmihaly, the theory of flow could help to

explain why players find enjoyment in gaming. For oftentimes

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games adapt to the expertise of the player and it is this inherent

match between ability and goal of which the actions of gaming

concurs with. In other words, as Csikszentmihaly suggests that in

order to turn an activity into a flow experience, the first step is to

make it into a game. And if the person could establish his or her

goals and rewards and lets himself be fully absorbed in the quest of

the goal it could mean the beginning of flow.

Another notable scholar who has written much about the

simulated identity and interactions in game worlds is Sherry Turkle.

In Turkle’s work Life on the Screen she includes a large amount of

empirical information in the forms of accounts told by participants in

multi user dungeons (MUDs) as well as role-playing games of

various genres. She uses MUDs as spaces where users could create

and play out a different culture with alternate identities. She asserts

that, ultimately, there is no unified self in this form of gaming.

Reality is simply seen through another window, a window that we

see as the computer screen, this reality is also the one that players

see and experiences online that garners the real-life implications

and consequences. Seen as a positive trait from the works or Turkle,

I believe her works on MUDs plays a relevant part to all social

gameworlds where players create an fictional identity, and is

certainly a influencing factor to the study of gaming one of which

carries on the discussions of how gamers have their sense of self

profoundly influenced by the games they play.

Serious Games—

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Since the inception of the term Serious Games in 1968, the

term has spread its wings to cover many aspects of the gaming

industry and culture. But the breadth of what constitutes a serious

game entails that various research topics and approaches converge

at this juncture of a topic. Examples from an earlier date includes

the work of Patricia Greenfield (1984) in her book Mind and Media

she discusses how computer games influence individuals’

development; Geoffrey and Elizabeth Loftus (1983) co-authored the

book Mind at Play, which deals with the learning gains at a cognitive

level from various forms of video games. More recent studies

include the work of socio-cultural theorist Kurt Squire (2004) on the

implications of using mainstream entertainment games in actual

classrooms.

As we can infer from the works of the above mentioned

authors, serious games have a tendency of being related to

teaching aids in classroom environments and prompts us to ask the

following question: What exactly are serious games? From my

readings I come to the understanding that this terminology is

oftentimes misused inconsistently. In order to seek a solution to this

ambiguous situation I look to Clark Aldrich (2009) to offer a better

insight on the necessary connotations of the term serious game.

Clark Aldrich (2009) sees virtual worlds, games, and

simulations as points along a continuum. All of which are highly

interactive virtual environments (HIVEs) in nature, dealing with their

own priorities and purposes. At a glance, these three environments

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may look similar as they are all could be set and accessed by users

in 3D worlds with 3D avatars but Aldrich points out there are a few

fundamental differences:

1: Simulations for the purpose of education use rigorously

structured scenarios with a highly refined set of rules, challenges,

and strategies that are carefully designed to develop specific

competencies that can be directly transferred into the real world.

2: Games fall under the category of fun engaging activities typically

used solely for entertainment purposes, but they may also allow

people to gain exposure to a particular set of tools, motions, or

ideas, sometimes games may even provide knowledge of a certain

background. All of the games are played in a synthetic (or virtual)

world are structured by specific rules, feedback mechanisms, and

requisite tools to support them – although these are not as defined

as in simulations.

3: Virtual worlds are multiplayer (and often massively multiplayer)

3D persistent social environments, but without the focus on a

particular goal, such as advancing to the next level or successfully

navigating the scenario. (Aldrich 2009)

It is under this impression of seeing the seriousness in games I

look to investigate the possibilities in offering a discussion on MMOs

with a sports point of view. At the closing points of this chapter I

draw on the teachings of Bolter and Grusin in their concept of

remediation. In their book Remediation: Understanding new media

they write:

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No medium today, and certainly no single media event,

seems to do its cultural work in isolation from other media,

any more than it works in isolation from other social and

economic forces. (Bolter and Grusin 1999: 15)

To second the thoughts mentioned by Bolter and Grusin I would

further want to say that I believe all aspects of video games must be

seen in connection to its surroundings and the underlying context in

which it resides. To name an example: virtual gameplay is linked

directly to the real world and is claimed to have a persistent

influence to cultural behavioural rules in societies. All of these

aspects influence the process of game perception to players and

non-players alike. The term remediation should not be understood

as a process or re-forging and repackaging of media content but

seen to be a giver of new possibilities in offering media in novel

forms and fashions to the world.

In summation of this section I want to briefly re-capture the

main aspects I adopt from the thinkers mentioned above for my

theoretical framework: - A defined boundary of audience and media

in games cannot be a one-way traffic. – Culture is not shaped by

only the providers as well as the narratives in the games but

garnered together by both the game and the users. – The sense of

joy in carrying out the action of game engagement is not situated in

the position of only gaming, but all that the players find enjoyable. –

The determination of what is culture and what the games do to

shape it is not just an abstract, theoretical issue, but one that is

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entangled in the material and the virtual world, in which player

perception plays its part as a consequential element.

2. Theoretical Background/ Methodology

As mentioned in the previous chapters, we can see that under

the concept of serious gaming, gaming could indeed be interpreted

as a multi-facet medium of media. In the case that Fine (1983)

studied how the sense of ‘fun’ fantasy role playing games generates

its own set of rules and sub-cultures, Yee (2006) address how mass

appeal is generated in MMOs. I think both lines of discourse are

equally important and tie in with each other to offer insight to the

study of analyzing MMOs as a sport.

As Mäyrä (2008) mentions, gaming as two levels: the core and the shell, in the

case that contemporary theories set their focuses on the shell of gaming in the

narrative and cultural sense (see Frasca 1999) it is worthy to note that the core of

gaming is also where discussions on gaming culture is situated as well. Nevertheless,

to be able to understand how gaming is related to sports on a cultural level, it is

imperative to analyse it at the core where gameplay is the main object. Since the

aspect of this discussion is still relatively scarce and far apart, I will follow up the

discussions of the core of gameplay with the inspection lens that is tinted with the

colouration of sport.

If we want to be able to talk about MMO gaming under the context of sport, I

believe that I would need to first offer to readers of this paper the concepts of sport

that I wish to adopt in drawing my comparisons. In regards to the concept of

sport I believe that there needs to be two sets of considerations: the

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interior and the exterior (See Jarvie and Maguire 1994). Just as

digital games may mean different things to different people, sports

too, have the same characteristics. According to Jaryrie and Maguire

(1994) there are several key features in sport that identifies its

function to the participants of it. They believe that sport is a ‘social

institution that transmits values to participants’ (Jaryie and Maguire

1994: 9).

Indecently, this notion correlates with our discussions of MMOs

at the same level. Another feature which I take great interest in is

the point that they raise on how sport could be seen as a ‘cultural

subsystem of society’ (Jaryie and Maguire 1994: 9) which in this

form of player culture, fair play upon the actions under the mutually

accepted rules are praised and valued. Still another notion of sport,

which resonates, with the constraints of MMO gaming is the matter

that sport practices intermeshes members into a society to form a

culture. It is with these basic points where I begin my discussion in

attempting to draw the boarders of MMO gaming and that of sports.

Although it is not in my position to claim that the concepts on sports

I mentioned in this text covers all the ideas that have been brought

up under the academic discipline, but I still would like to use my

paper to forge a bridge these concepts and link them with current

gaming studies and hope that it would be understandable to the

readers of this article.

To offer a glimpse on how the notion of video gaming is a

shared experience that carries with the sense of player culture is

24

just like how sports fans have their cultures and backgrounds, I draw

on the studies by the influential and wide ranging study of Amanda

Lenhart’s 2008 Pew Internet/MacArthur Report on teens, Video

games and Civics in the US. In her study, she surveys over 1,000

teens whom she believes are the best indicators of the future trend

to come in the field of video gaming in saying that 94 per cent of

teenage girls and 99 percent of teenage boys play video games in

the United States. And across both sexes, 74 percent played with

people they have face-to-face contact with. Furthermore, Lenhart

points out that the sense of being able to engage in discussions and

partaking in a shared community serves as the topic and the

underlying reasoning in the wide acceptance on gaming.

Putting my thoughts together in this dissertation with the idea

of seeing MMO gaming as a form of sport has been a progressively

built on a process of game study. I must also reiterate the fact that

without this due process of forming this dissertation I could not have

formulated the ideas as clearly as I wanted it to be. Throughout the

process of this study I had to redefine and rethink my own thought

and perceptions of how gaming and sport would fit together as one

of same thing.

Before we move onto the next chapter, I want to further

present my stance on how I view gaming as a sport. For this I would

like to present my point of view through examples of which I have

come across in my upbringing. The goal to achieve in the playing of

a video game, depending on the specific genre, would be that the

25

player strives to either finish the game by solving puzzles, finishing

all the quests, or to push their scores higher to obtain a sense of

self-satisfaction. When a player picks up a game of Pong for the first

time he or she could easily make the assumption that the game

clearly resembles the game of ping-pong. Where the dot is passed

back and forth the screen to simulate the actual sporting game of

ping-pong on a digital display screen, provided that the player has

knowledge of the sport of ping-pong as the dot gets passed for

longer and the rallies get harder and harder he or she would most

likely experience the anxieties of match point after match point as

he or she strives to claim that elusive match point.

Just as athletes have to abide to the rules of engagement on

the playing field, gamers within their games also are confined by

the codes written by the programmers of the games. The player of a

video game may not agree to all the settings in a certain game, but

just like all sports, so long as the rules have no issues of biasness to

certain parties, it is fair game to all. Nevertheless in the case of how

players engage in MMO gaming, the ways in which each player’s

culture and background are shaped would most certainly determine

the views and how the player perceive it.

In the likeness of sports, researchers who have studied

videogames have argued that certain qualities present in the

medium of videogames are valuable opportunities for learning (Gee

2003). For instance, Gee argues that videogames can, under the

correct circumstances, create an embodied empathy for complex

26

systems, therefore permitting for deeper understanding of

simulations (Gee 2005). Games can also be action-and-goal-oriented

preparations for, and simulations of, embodied experience. In this

way, they would allow for meaning about what is being experienced

to be situated (Gee 2005). It is precisely from this notion I take my

opinion that games are (in certain aspects) very much alike sports.

This I believe is a relatively unexplored question and I think that

reasons for this might be because to acquire knowledge in gaming

would take up long periods of time and also games are not

necessarily all easy to play, or easy to master. (Gee 2003). In

addition, Bransford et al. (2000) mentions the case that if the ordeal

one has to go through to achieve a deep understanding of a domain

or subject matter is difficult, and then it should be fair for us to

assume that learning about games can be somewhat of a challenge.

Even to gamers who are accustomed to playing a variety of games

it might hard for them to fully master a certain game completely. If

we want to gain more insight into how to have a different angle of

how we approach video games are forms of sport from a cultural

standpoint we have to look to the games themselves and try to ask

better questions about what and how they actually are. To make a

fundamental correlation between MMO gaming and sports Gruneau

(1983) says:

The answer is an historical one, and requires that we situate

our study of play, games and sports in the context of

understanding the historical struggle over the control of

27

rules and the resources in social life and the ways in which

this struggle relates to structured limits and possibilities.

(Gruneau 1983: 51)

What he is trying to make point of here is the fact that we as academics who are

trying to see another point in the notion of gaming should not be fixed to the

constraints of the social value or the outcomes that playing games brings. But to look

at gaming with the same sense of contrast so to allow us see the similarities rather

than the differences. The presentation of games may be the works of engineers who

want to sell the games to a wider public; but how games attract and turn players into

persistent players requires something else more than the graphics and the narratives of

the games themselves. And formulating a method as well as conducting a sound

discussion upon our findings in which to address this “pull” is then an non-dismissible

part of this study.

Eric Zimmerman notes that: 'A game is a voluntary interactive

activity, in which one or more players follow rules that constrain

their behaviour, enacting an artificial conflict that ends in a

quantifiable outcome' (2004: 160). This may be correct if we are

discussing games that fit the ancient Olympic motto of "Faster, Higher,

Stronger" such as the game of Tetris where players only strive to stay in the games

longer to obtain the highest personal best score. But in the case of games where there

is not a finite ending, Zimmerman’s notion could be challenged. One such game is the

popular game Creatures. Created by CyberLife Technology Limited (1997), it started

out as a cyber pet that players could interact with on their desktops. But as the

program made its advancements players could then via their pet explore the world it

lives in and encounter unexpected scenarios and outcomes.

28

Once our focus on what the individual aspects of qualities of

what makes a sport out of a game from cultural standpoint is set,

we need to now determine how to investigate it with the best

possible method. In the case of my dissertation I believe that a

qualitative analysis would best suit my aim to conduct discussions

upon my chosen topic because I do not think that I have the tools

for an adequate quantitative analysis yet. Nor do I have the skills to

analyze the source codes of a given game. For reasons being the

source code is the underlying operations program that a

programmer writes in order for a program such as a game to work.

And manufacturers do not allow access of the source code to the

public.

Nevertheless I still wish to acknowledge the possibilities of

other methods from the fields of textual analysis, narrative studies,

or semiotics from a virtual possessions point of view. The difference

in methodology does not mean that we cannot take heed of their

tools and cross-examine their findings in connection to other

ongoing works to the benefit of obtaining a greater knowledge in the

field of game studies. I think it draws down to the simple factor of

choice. I believe that to fully develop my thoughts and provide a

fuller description of my selected topic this form of qualitative

analysis is in deed necessary.

As I do have the knowledge of the notion that a quantitative

method would be a useful method of obtaining quantifiable data

concerning how players view the games and how they think of the

29

games whether it may be purely as a form of entertainment or

something else all together, yet in the interest of my dissertation,

questionnaires are not the best possible method to tackle the

multitude of similarities and difference which I am trying to form

correlations with. Thus I believe it is in this dissertation’s best

interest to use an in-depth qualitative analysis to address the games

and how they are played. This form of analysis will be that of a

narrative of my experience of playing the games, coupled with

deliberations upon this as both an insider and an outsider to achieve

the optimal accuracy of analysis.

To move onto the next chapter I propose the following

questions as lead for the following analysis:

- What parts of the games do the players influence?

- In which ways are they influenced?

- How are the games set up for us to make the connections with

sports?

- Through the process of playing the games, within the cultural

context and player conventions, how does a player obtain the sense

of actually being in a sporting event?

3. Game Analysis

3.1. World of Warcraft

Initially after loading the game, the player is faced with a

multitude of choices that makes up the character creation stage of

the game. The very first choice would be whether the player would

30

want the choice of choosing a Player-Versus-Player (PVP) or a

Player-Versus-Environment (PVE) server. PVP servers are simply a

pre-determined environment that allows that players from the two

opposing factions of the game to engage each other in combat

freely at any time during the game. Whereas in PVE servers, play to

player combat will only be allowed under the condition that both

parties have knowledge of the forthcoming engagements. Right

after the choosing of servers, players move onto the next stage of

character creation which is choosing the factions of which the player

wants to fight for, just like how athletes choose teams, here we

have two teams to choose from, one is the Alliance and the other is

the Horde. Right after choosing the factions, players will need to

move on to choose the race of which the avatar belongs to and what

he or she will play as the class (profession). I liken this as the most

important decision of the player because the class of the avatar is a

choice that cannot be changed once the game begins for the

character. And whichever class the players chooses will determine

the set of skills and abilities he or she will be allowed to use for the

rest of the time in the game of World of Warcraft. Shortly after the

player finalises the gender and features of the avatar and decided

on the name, the game starts with a brief cut-scene depicting back-

story of the players’ chosen race and the cut-scene also explains

where and how and where the player would begin his or her journey.

Depending on the race of the avatar that the player chooses, he or

she would start the game in the respective “beginner village” where

31

the game will officially start for that given avatar. Beginning from

the end of the cinematic cut-scene moment, the player is then free

to move around the map of the so called “beginner village” where

the player can get to know the basics of the controls using the

keyboard to run, jump, sit, and other basic commands in conjunction

of the mouse. The mouse offers the player the ability of being able

to select targets to which players could determine which level of

engagement he or she wants such commands could be: attack, talk,

use as well as it allows for the player to change the direction of

which the angle of camera is set, this motion is much like the

turning of our heads. As this part of the game is intended for the

gamer to get accustomed to the controls and the leveling up

methods, there are leads to obtaining and completing quests in

order to be given experience points that will be the currency which

each avatar needs to move up a level. It is by design that as the

player moves his avatar around the map he or she will eventually

encounter non-player characters (NPCs) that will offer to players

quests of which the player will need to complete. The forms of the

quests offered by the Non-Player characters (NPCs) come in four

categories: finding objects or other NPCs to talk to, killing a certain

number of in game creatures (mobs), exploring a certain part of the

map, or to use/return items that are in a player’s backpack to

another character. As the player levels up within the game, the

levels of the mobs in the given map that the player is situated in

also differs thus offering the player the right level of difficulty so as

32

to not to make gameplay dull or monotonous.

(Figure 1: Screen shot of the process of character creation in World

of Warcraft, screen shot taken from:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/world-of-warcraft-wrath-of-the-lich-

king/screenshots/gameShotId,338179/)

As the first part of the game, here what I would like to call the

levelling up stage, this is the part where the player needs little to no

user-to-user interaction. In the beginning stage, the message that

the game hints to the players’ is that the main priority is just to

reach the maximum level permitted by the designers of the game

and through the process get to fully understand the skills and

abilities that each avatar could use.

33

To draw comparisons with sports, this early stage is similar to

the initial self-aptitude exam. Prior to becoming fully committed to

the class of which he or she chooses, players could switch and open

up different avatars to try and test all the classes out to find the one

to commit to. While players who are new to the game might have

seen or read advertisements on how the game is played out and

how the game offers its players a chance to explore the unseen

lands from the lavishly decorated virtual world of Azeroth. In our

case here most players would come into WoW with a pretty certain

idea of what he or she intends on playing once the player gets into

the higher stages of gameplay, whether it be in the forms of tank,

healer or damage-dealers (DDers) of which are like the different

positions that one can assume in a game of football. This initial

evaluation stage sets up players to find out what their place of the

game that they want to partake in and to allow their avatar to grow

into the roles they assume for the benefit of the teamwork play to

come.

No matter how much time the player devotes on playing

through the first stage of the game, he or she will eventually reach

the ‘level cap’ of the game whereby the game no longer has the

particular goal of levelling up and it is at this point beyond which the

avatar will no longer increase in level nor their viral statistics. By the

time the player reaches this second stage of the game, the player

will have had ample time and occasions to harness all the given

abilities of each class of avatars to start on the high-level dungeon

34

runs. Simply put, a dungeon in a MMO is a map that players can

only reach after passing through a series of requirements. Such

requirements could be in forms of the avatar reaching a certain

level requirement, equipment grade, or having to be in a team with

at least two team members. Typically, the dungeons in WoW are

filled with monsters four to five times amount of health compared to

the monsters that roam freely on the open maps and every dungeon

will have numerous Bosses of which they possess the loot that all

players that venture into the given dungeon strive for. With the

quadrupled health means that theses monsters are almost

impossible for a lone player to slay. But what drive players back to

these dungeons is the possibilities of gaining treasure (or loot) that

are also of a higher calibre as well as obtaining reputation points.

Reputation points are what players need to gain to be able to enter

some dungeons or are needed for the ability of buying better

equipment.

It would seem that from the moment the avatar reaches the

level cap, the player shifts his or her focus from being goal oriented

gameplay towards a process oriented game play in that once at the

highest achievable character level, the size of the WoW community

comes into part. With this I mean that the game has made itself

friendly and accessible to the ‘play-for-fun’ players as well as the

hardcore players. At this point of the game, players are free to fully

show their full personalities and behaviour at which they feel

comfortable with. Instead of taking a video game too seriously,

35

‘play-for-fun’ users get to do whatever that they want, and in return,

the game allows for the detailed combination of pop cultural

references, elaborate visuals, and clear notions of what each

players’ in-game options are. One example would be that players

could solely dedicate their time into obtaining a number of virtual

mounts to traverse the different maps for his or her emotional

reasons.

Moreover, by the time a player fully grasps the basic handlings

of playing and advancing while having more time to interact and

chat with other player their through their character avatars in WoW

they could soon catch glimpse of the differences within the different

classes of avatars. And with this knowledge of how each class is

capable of providing a different skill set to the team, players would

need to conjure up different methods of game plan to tackle the

harder bosses in the more difficult dungeons. Players would for

instance come to the realization that a priest is not a character that

excels in dealing physical damage and is oftentimes used as

healers; a warrior on the other hand, with its ability of wielding a

shield and wearing plate-mail best serve as the damage-absorbing

tank of a party; the class of hunter is capable of taming wild animals

as combat pets with specific party-aiding abilities and deals ranged

physical damage as one of the most powerful damage dealers of the

game, and so on. This notion of being able to mix different classes

of characters to provide more complex sets of permutations directly

results to the final stage of the game. In this final stage of the game,

36

players could gather raid parties of ten or twenty-five adventurers

with the sole purpose of fighting and clearing their way into the

most challenging dungeons in search of the legendary loot that will

not only grant players stature among his peers but also push the

avatars’ skills up to a higher level.

The processes in which these skilled adventurers pass through

these raids require the most coordinated strategies and finely tuned

skills of each player. All of which demands for the highly

sophisticated sets of player behaviour that creates a social

environment that resembles an well balanced and coordinated

American football team. In order for this team work to run raids

smoothly one needs have the leaders with excellent interpersonal

skills for player managements as well as each player needs to show

their compliance of inter-player reliance.

As players gradually reach the level cap of the game and start

seeking out ways to engage in the higher level raids they will come

to the realization the importance of inter-player reliance. As the best

way to allow progress and pleasure to combine in WoW players will

need to form alliances with other players and construct guilds.

Guilds in the game are what I would describe as structures of

hierarchy, making up of a pyramid of powers descending from the

apex leader (guild master) through officers and members down to

the applicants who do not belong to any guild and are willing to join

just for the possibility of belonging to a part of a community. A guild

could hold as many as up to five hundred or more players and each

37

guild would have its distinct goals and objectives of the game.

Oftentimes, real-life friends would create guilds with more of a

casual tone just to help themselves tackle a few more challenging

raids. On the other hand, more serious players might form guilds

that are strict and with runs with an operational schedule like a

militarily operation, with timetables, guild rules, some may even

require in-game monetary patronages from members.

At the juncture of the process of gaming, players could be

placed in different discourses. Reasons being that players are

playing at different levels of intensity add up to the difference in

perceptions of the game. What WoW means as a game to a certain

player could be understood through the way it is played. Though it

is not yet clearly defined, I will try to show some more of the

differences throughout the process of playing.

For instance, as a player with his fellow guild members engage

in a ‘raid run’, he or she would need to gather up twenty-four other

players in a careful way that all of them have compatible abilities

and could all contribute to the wellbeing of the team. All of the

players must then agree to follow a pre-designated leader who is in

charge of passing out orders and must meet online at a pre-

arranged time and place. By using microphones and headsets, all of

the players have to keep in vocal communication to be able to reply

and contact other players without having to resort to typing in the

chat channels. As these raids may sometimes take up to ten hours

to complete, there would be breaks and saved progress for

38

continuations so as to divide the ‘raid run’ up as a few days’ work.

Here is where players who are interested in achieving a higher

status or better equipment deems participating in a structure as a

guild as ever so important.

By the time players have gathered all the weapons and

equipments that the current ‘patch’ of the game is situated. The

gameplay would become stagnant to the specific avatar. There will

be some more daily quests to do whereby players could earn in-

game cash for buying and selling resources. But for the most serious

players gameplay by this point would become somewhat of a

display activity in being able to show-off his or her well-earned loot

as well as re-running the raid instances in ‘farming’ sessions to allow

other members of the guilds to obtaining equipments of the same

calibre.

Another finding in my analysis of WoW comes from the recent

progress that the makers of WoW are currently engaging in. Using

the player versus player arenas for tournament matches in its

conventions, players are encouraged to practice in their own servers

to match the avatar requirements through their own winnings in

equipment and avatar advancements for the chance of becoming

listed on the global player rankings. Just like the professional

sporting associations, as players reach the amounts of points

required to enter, they would then be invited to play in the

tournaments hosted by Blizzard Entertainment and other

enterprises to compete for cash prizes some of which totals up to a

39

staggering amount of $200,000 (see:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/pvp/ ).

For those players who excel in the PVP and are willing to

participate in such tournaments they would first need to form of

WoW could join as teams of two, three, or five players (depending

on the formatting of the specific tournament) and compete in a

battle to the death under the same rules and environment. These

games would then be broadcasted over the Internet via sponsoring

web-based enterprises such as Twitch.TV (see: http://zh-

tw.twitch.tv/ ) so that intent viewers could watch live just like

professional sporting events we are accustomed to watching. This

form of Internet based live-casts are hence dubbed the name

Electronic-Sorts (E-sports). And as this form of broadcasts grows, it

spars up a lineage of web-game casters and analysts to join in the

game to form an even bigger growing gaming community.

So what did this analysis allow us to see? From the analysis we

have learnt that through participating in the community-rich side of

the guild attending and raid running aspect of WoW, players must

keep to and understand the parts they play in a team. All guilds

have a distinct goal, just like the myriad of different sports clubs.

The player is not always in control of whether he or she will be able

to attend a raid, but like all bench-players on a team, being well

prepared at all times would increase the chances of success when

the opportunity arises.

Seen from the perch of the serious gaming aspect, the tactical

40

gaming aspect of the game might not resound as much of a sport as

the management qualities one takes part in. Without a doubt the

game has another side that appeals to the more bloodthirsty

gamers, which engage in player versus player combat. And if

players go through this path, aided by the community and proper

sponsorships, they may one day become professional gamers of

which fellow gamers would look up to.

Both the PVP and PVE aspects of the game require the same

components as any team based sport: vocal contact, teamwork,

strategy, stamina, sharp reflexes and focus. To make sense of the

correlations between these forms of gaming and sports we have to

follow its cultural implications just have to see it as an action for

which there is a set goal. Not to be over deterministic about what

the physical outcomes of carrying out such for of training would do

to the players’ bodies but how this form of sports affects the player

communities’ mindsets.

3.2. Star Wars: The Old Republic

Jut as the name suggests, Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR)

is a MMO that belongs to the Star Wars (Lucas 1977) movie

franchise’s fictional universe. The back-story of the game sets itself

at 3,500 years prior to the events in the Star War films. From the

onset of the game the player starts by pledging his or her alliance to

the Sith Empire of the Galactic Republic whereby doing so the

player choose the faction of the avatar of which they will be playing.

41

As hinted in the Star Wars movie, the eternal struggle of good

versus evil is at the very core of the gameplay of SWTOR. Once the

player has selected which faction to join in the aim of battling the

opposing faction, he or she will not be able to switch sides as some

of the species of avatars are unique to each faction.

Class selection in SWTOR is not definitive in the sense that

although players have a general choice of which forms of abilities to

use (whether it be in the forms of ranged, melee, or healing)

characters could supplement their primary skills with secondary

abilities thus having to rely on peer support less as compared to the

distinct class specifications of World of Warcraft. The rationale

behind this setup is for a more player-friendly gaming environment.

Character advancement in SWTOR comes in three modes: mission

completion, exploration of worlds, and slaying enemies. In order to

complete heroic mission player are expected to form squads for

cooperation in completing the different mission objectives. As the

players level up their avatars, now skills are unlocked and could be

obtained from NPC trainers who are stationed thought out the

galaxy.

SWTOR relies heavily on engaging in the narratives of the Star

Wars lore in the sense that players’ decisions to act upon any given

mission would alter the outcomes of the storylines permanently. In

the intention providing extra context to the Star Wars universe, all

the characters seen in SWTOR features an enhanced voice dialog

system in that players could hear every conversation between their

42

avatars and NPCs.

It is worthy to note that SWTOR implements a companion

system of NPC sidekicks for players’ avatars. Payers of SWTOR are

encourage to choose their own NPC companions and in doing do

develop their own personal relationship and storyline with the

chosen NPC companion who will help players get past some of the

most challenging scenarios of the game. Like the Star Wars movie,

SWTOR pays emphasis on the exploration and the governance of

alien planets. Players are free to explore the plethora of planets with

their unique star ship. As producers of the game try to bring the

players into the movies, flying in spaceships is one the top

attributes of the game.

Since SWTOR is a game that is based on a world that a wide

audience has already been familiarized with, the classes and

species that the players can choose from have almost already been

pre-determined. In game choices of classes are free in the sense

that all the species of avatars a player can choose is compatible

with every class offered by the game is that players could

essentially ‘buy’ the rights to have abilities added onto their avatar

with the in-game currency provided as players advance their

avatars. This is achievable by a player’s character earning enough

experience points, in doing so he or she could then choose to get an

advancement of classes which opens up the storyline as well as

provide players skills and missions to continue questing.

In the most familiar way, the playing the game seems

43

sometimes like being in a golf match. As the player plays through

the game as the main subject of the game and the aid of

companion’s part is played out by the NPC companion, help and

advice and even expectations are prompted by the NPCs of SWTOR.

Though it is I who draw on this likeness between golf and gaming,

this likeness may be just specific to me as other players might have

their own interpretations of their gaming experience. The role that

the NPC companion of the game plays to me will always be at a

personal level. For the relationship between the payer and the

companions have to be earned and maintained, failure to do so

could spell disaster to the character advancements in that the NPC

might not offer their support or give non-productive advice that will

result in the player wandering the cosmos aimlessly looking for the

clues to completing their next mission. Thus it is of the utmost

importance that players keep engaging in constant dialogue with

the ‘caddie’ of the avatar.

Guilds are also a presence in SWTOR as well. As players begin

to venture out to other planets they would run into missions that

require help from other players. Although these missions are not as

difficult as the twenty-five person raids in World of Warcraft,

nevertheless parties of up to five players could be formed for killing

monsters that would otherwise be impossible to be slain single-

handedly. As the storyline progresses, players would also get a

chance to engage in team-based combat with the opposing faction

in what I would describe as a game of ‘capture the flag’. This battle

44

requires players enter a arena with pre-made or random teams at

which both teams strives to defeat the other according to whichever

of the three maps they select.

Of the three currently implemented PVP maps in SWTOR, I find

the game of ‘Huttball’ most interesting. It is one of the unique PVP

maps only available in SWTOR. The why in which one engages in the

game is that each team tries to pick up the ball that spawns in he

middle of the map a do their best to transport it to the scoring zone.

Only one player is allowed to carry the ball at any given time but the

ball can be passed from player to player should the carrier come

under attack from the opposition. As for the team without the ball,

their main objective is to kill the opposing team with the aim of

bringing to ball to their opposing score-zone. Each match of the

game is timed at fifteen minutes, by the end of which the team with

the most points wins. The key to winning in the game of Hutball is

teamwork. Working alongside the teammate with the ball and

ensuring the carrier in having a safe passage will result in fast

points.

Huttball clearly remediates the game of rugby in the sense that

there is a clearly defined stage of opposition and defence. And just

like any amateur rugby squad, once a player gets accustomed to

playing with the same group of players and find themselves

befitting in the class composition in the team, players would then

come together to join and create a guild. Such PVP guilds would

then have a set of rules and game plans of which guild members

45

would practice time and again to ensure the maximum chances of

winning each ball game.

(Figure 2: Scene from the game Huttball, Screen shot taken from:

http://www.gamefluke.com/video/star-wars-the-old-rebublic-huttball-

warzone/)

All forms of media have distinct ways of presenting stories (See

Lister et al. 2009), therefore as a form of interactive media; video

games use an interactive approach. Star Wars: The Old Republic

demonstrates the way gameplay and narrative works

simultaneously without either one overpowering the other. As an

extended part of an already well-known franchise, SWTOR carries

with it the cultural influences of the Star Wars fan-base in that

players yearn for the sense of suspension of disbelief in the hope of

being immersed in the worlds created by the movies. By adding the

essence of sport provides a further weave in this net of the never-

46

ending battle of the light and the Dark Side. To the players of

SWTOR, the feeling of achievement will not be stemmed from

becoming victorious but rather from the process of which each

individual battle winnings accumulated in the forms of ‘Valour

points’. Valour points are the currency for which players can

exchange for upgrades in the equipment that has two uses; one

being these equipment offer better protection and enhances the

abilities of the avatars, the other in being the trophy of the players’

devotion to the game. In terms of sporting culture the latter point

could be seen as trophies that are won by athletes who excel at

their particular field of play. This idolisation could very well be

revered in many forms of MMO gaming especially so in the game of

SWTOR.

As this game seems without an end stage, SWTOR relies on the

narrative of the background story heavily to captivate its numerous

users; its heavy use of remediation of movies, sports, and flight

simulations completes this notion seamlessly. Just like any other

good competitive sport, SWTOR has all the qualities except that

players would not have to leave the comforts of their living rooms

furthermore adding on the possibility of interpreting gaming of this

form as a form of sport.

47

4. Discussions and Conclusion

Throughout the course of my research for this dissertation, I have tried to

demonstrate how a new approach of discerning the sports in MMO gaming from a

cultural perspective could be carried out. And at this point I stop to question myself:

How successful was I in doing so? What are the implications of this method in being

better or more beneficial over other methods? As I understand that my research is

merely a part of a much bigger picture in the study of game cultures, I most certainly

cannot have the answers to these questions. But I still need to leave with a segment of

self-criticism for there may be ones who might follow up on this method of study.

Coming back to the research question that this dissertation set out to answer, to

what extent have I been able to test my research proposal? My analysis of the two

MMOs has shown some interesting likenesses between gaming and sports in the sense

that gaming could either be produced to have sport like qualities for players to engage

in as it is for the case of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Or that depending upon how

players react to the difficulties found in the game of World of Warcraft, players would

then themselves create sub-cultural formations in guilds to make the possibility of

prolonged team play possible. Additionally, gaming companies has been striving to

make gaming into a form of sports under the title of Electronic-sports (E-sports). This

serves as implication that with the increase in number of viewers watching live-

coverage of gaming could help gain exposure as a mainstream form of entertainment.

After re-reading the findings and the methodologies I have made in order to

conduct this study. I come to the acknowledgement that limitations of this study come

two main forms. Firstly, I have come to realize that the cultural form of analysis of

either sports or video gaming has limitations in the broadness of scope. By this I mean

that I could not have covered all the aspects of how different players view sports and

48

the yielded results still remain vague. Just as how the way to approach video gaming

is different to each player, and the sense of meaning from the participation of video

gaming as well as sports is an should be a ongoing process, and to sum up this process

within a single study will offer results that are otherwise biased or partial. In addition,

genre selection of the games conducted in my qualitative analysis may have interfered

with the outcome of the findings. Perhaps further research could be carried out on

different genres of video gaming and have the same study repeated at different

locations with players that are not of the same origin or cultural background in the test

of public acceptance of watching gaming as a form of televised or broadcasted sport.

Other games should include games of the Real-time strategy (RTS) or the commonly

referred-to name of the ‘War Games’ genre. Still another possible topic is to conduct

a wide survey of how the onset of the topic of E-gaming brought changes in the

gaming and recreational sporting habits of youths who engage in both activities.

Perhaps such future researches on the subject of gaming could future uncover how

gaming shifts our understanding of sports in a way that is previously unperceived.

In conclusion, the research I have done upon the subject of exploring the

possibility of perceiving massively multi-player online games a form of sports in a

cultural context gives implications of it being in an ongoing process. As we do not

have sufficient information as to how far this process has to go for gaming to gain the

status as for instance, the Major League Baseball (see: www.MLB.com ) nor are we

to comment on whether it will ever reach the identical stature. But as we are certain

here, players and the gaming industry are both working in conjunction to inch ever

closer to this goal and I believe this work should provide a useful piece to the

discourse of this subject. (Word Count: 12,350)

49

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