Meaningful Play 2014 at Michigan State University

Session Information

Title	What Can E-Sports Tell Us About Learning?
Presenter(s)	Chris Georgen, Christian de Luna, Timothy Young, Genevieve Conley and Sean Duncan
Time	Thursday, October 16, 1:30p-2:30p
Location	Lake Superior
Format	Panel
Description	In recent years, online digital gaming has burgeoned into a space where millions of individuals around the world play together. As of late, online gaming has come to mean more than just play with the emergence of the e-Sports scene. Alongside the rise in online digital gaming, competitive gaming leagues and tournaments with lucrative prize pools sprouted around Quake and StarCraft: Brood Wars. Over the years, professional gaming has garnered serious attention due the increasing stakes and viewership. The growth in popularity of e-sports is evident in its rise as a form of public, internet-streamed competitive performance -- professional and amateur games from across the globe are streamed live via online streaming services, such as Twitch.tv (see recent work in this area, including Taylor, 2012; Witkowski, 2012; Harper, 2013; and Ferrari, 2013). Today, vibrant communities and dedicated players exist across several genres of competitive games and are backed by some of the world's largest game development companies. This panel seeks to bring together researchers and designers of e-Sports to discuss the emergence of competitive online gaming and what it can tell us about learning. We posit that by framing certain games, particularly multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs) and real-time strategy games, as e-Sports, a need arises to investigate what keeps players involved and what drives their persistence in mastering complex systems, sophisticated mechanics, and collaborative play. We question not just the play experience but also the players' experience. Studying learning and play within competitive gaming communities raises a number questions regarding the lived experiences of players, as well as the influence of a shared, competitive purpose on the learning practices within a game community (Kow, 2013). The proposed session will include four panelists: Chris Georgen (Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University) will describe perspectives on understanding systems thinking in Dota 2. Christian de Luna (Teachers College, Columbia University) will examine how teamwork emerges in League of Legends. Timothy Young (Connected Learning Alliance), will discuss how learning happens in the StarCraft community between building social organizations and participating in top level tournaments. Genevieve Conley (Researcher, Riot Games), will describe the collaborative effort between design and research to create a fun, achievable, and rewarding onboarding experience in League of Legends. Sean Duncan (Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University) will serve as panel moderator. This panel will address learning and play in e-Sports through the lens of learning researchers, game studies, and industry professionals. Each will address how the context within which a game is presented to a player can be of consequence not just in leading them to "play the game," but also in driving their persistence toward learning and commitment to the social organizations around the game. e-Sports present opportunities for further exploration of how games can be understood beyond a reductive analysis of mechanics, and toward the broader social, cultural, and economic factors that influence meaningful play and learning.

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