In today’s eSports environment there is a complex network between video game developers, streaming technology companies, social networks, content creators, and spectators. This rich environment offers new opportunities to collect information. This can be data about game performance, social interactions, the amount of content created, and quality. This post aims to discuss the relationship between event organizers, game studios, players, and spectators. We’ll also get into how different experiences seek to increase engagement, data collection, and ultimately knowledge about different consumers. This will allow brands to tailor their strategy accordingly. We’ll compare different elements of the current state of eSports events, using Twitch, YouTube gaming, and Facebook gaming. We will look into how those organizers and studios, players and spectators interact at ESL and tournament events. Particularly events that are venue-based. Some people prefer venue-based events, which are like any gaming event but with the added interaction of different elements in the physical space. We conducted research and tests on different games like Halo, EA Sports Games, and First Person Shooters (FPS; like Rainbow Six) looking at how organizations carried out these tournaments. We also look at the kind of feedback they received from spectators and pro-players. Here’s what we discovered. Our Findings A lot has evolved since the initial LAN party days. E-sports has formalized practices, and the market potential extends as far as we can see. Something that caught my attention from the very early stages of eSports was the way that remote or venue-based events create a unique opportunity for different tribes. According to numbers provided by NewZoo, there’s a tremendous opportunity to create a unique environment. A chance to interact as never before. The Events to Consider On one side we have Twitch as the standard solution, which provides some level of interactivity in addition to the chat. It’s the platform used by default, both in streaming and eSports. There’s also YouTube Gaming. Leveraging YouTube’s brand and technology, Google has set itself on a path to present solutions in this vertical. And last but not least, we have Facebook Gaming. A few (years? months?) ago they secured a deal with ESL, but didn’t have the best start broadcasting live events on the platform. Now, when all of these are combined, you get a venue-based event with the digital and physical altogether. As we can see, these platforms aim to create a compelling experience for the spectator focusing mostly on content distribution. After that is solidified, then user interactions and interactivity come into the mix. Analyzing the Elements of eSports If you were to take a picture of the architecture at an eSports event (venue based with streaming), it might look something like this. At least this is our perspective of the current landscape. Assuming the Event is the core that brought everyone together, then we have the GAME, created by the studio. The game has mechanics and properties related to the genre. Since we’re talking eSports games, they tend to be very balanced and pretty well designed. We can say the ProMeta of the game is used during these competitions (as well as scrim practices). On top of this we have the players (pro/content creators), who […]
The post Hidden analytics of eSports appeared first on Globant Blog.