1. Goldsmiths, University of London
Department of Media and Communications
MC71138A
August 2012
A Cultural Analysis of Massively Multi-
User Online Gaming as a Form of Sport
Submitted by Chwen-Yuh Lin (St.-ID: 33226106) in partial requirement for the
Degree of MA in the Program in Digital Media: Technology and Cultural
Form, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2012.
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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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 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
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5. 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 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
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6. 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 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
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7. 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, 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 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
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8. 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 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
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9. 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:
(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
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10. 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 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
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11. 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 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
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12. undertaking.
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:
(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
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13. 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 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
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14. 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 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.
14

15. 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’ (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
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16. players find enjoyment in gaming. For oftentimes 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—
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
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17. 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 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
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18. 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:
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
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19. 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 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
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20. 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 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 just like how sports fans have their
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21. 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
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
21

22. 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 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
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23. 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 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,
23

24. 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.
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
24

25. useful method of obtaining quantifiable data concerning how players view the games
and how they think of the 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 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
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26. 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 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
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27. 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 to not to make gameplay dull
or monotonous.
27

28. (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.
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
28

29. 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 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,
‘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
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30. 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, 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
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31. 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 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
31

32. 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 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
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33. tournaments hosted by Blizzard Entertainment and other enterprises to compete for
cash prizes some of which totals up to a 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 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
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34. 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. 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
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35. 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 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
35

36. 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 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’.
36

37. This battle 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 would practice time and again to ensure the
maximum chances of winning each ball game.
37

38. (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-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
38

39. 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.
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
39

40. 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
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
40

41. 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)
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