Abhuman: 2012-12-02

I was going to write about Diablo 3 and how it's ruined what once was one of the best aRPG franchises, but then I thought there's already enough rant of the Internet so I decided to write about esports instead.

1. Introduction

Competitiveness lies within human nature and has manifested itself in different forms since the beginnings of human culture. The strive for rivalry has resulted in the creation of sports and traditional games, which allowed people to best each other by displaying skill and pushing their own limits. Since the invention of computers it was only a matter of time before they would be used for entertainment and eventually for competitive play. What then started as a bunch of nerds trying to beat each other’s score at Pong, with time has turned into a global activity, with thousands of players, hundreds of thousands of spectators and millions of pounds in prizes and revenue.

In the following report I am going to look at the evolution of esports and its increasing popularity in the recent years. I will also look at the main titles which have contributed to the success of competitive gaming. Finally I will try to draw some conclusions regarding game design that could be used for multiplayer games which aspire to become an esports title or would like to improve their competitive aspect.

2. The Origins

The roots of competitive gaming can be traced as far as the early 1950's when first electronic versions of Chess and Tic-Tac-Toe were created in university labs. The programs were meant for research and to demonstrate the capabilities of the new machines. It wasn't until 1958 when the first multiplayer game was created for the purpose of pure amusement. One of the physicist at a nuclear research facility in New York, made Tennis for Two, which has become a local tourist attraction.

The first real competitive game, listed at number one at 1up's list of the most important video games ever made, was Spacewar, created at MIT in 1962. It was a multiplayer space shooter featuring realistic physics and two spaceships shooting each other, controlled by simple joysticks. It was also the first deathmatch experience that came into existence.

Spacewar (1962)

Spacewar has quickly spread into other labs and universities where the first gaming competitions were organised between students, researchers and the likes. It has become so popular that some companies have banned it, because of its negative influence on productivity. It was also the first game that was used to create an arcade machine which people could use in exchange for coins.

In 1972 Atari released Pong and the video games industry was born. The game was a table tennis simulation using two lines as paddles and a square ball. In no time it has reached mainstream popularity and has become a great commercial success. In 1975 a console version of Pong was released and as Atari's competitors emerged, the industry began to grow, resulting in titles like Breakout, Space Invaders and Pac-Man.

3. The 90’s and PC gaming

In 1978 Apple II, the first personal computer, was released and brought games development capabilities to anyone with a bit of programming knowledge. During the 80's most of the game genres that we know today have been invented, but it wasn't until the early 90's and the widespread of the Internet when the revolution has began.

In 1993 id Software released Doom, the first online 3D first-person shooter. With revolutionary game engine, smooth controls, unprecedented graphics, tons of violence and an option to compete in a multiplayer deathmatch Doom is what has truly turned a PC into a gaming platform. It has also introduced some new features which have influenced the whole industry: replays and modding.

Doom (1993)

Doom players were able to record and share their games with others to display their strategy and skill. The replay system gave birth to what is now known as "frag movies" in the FPS games. Modding facilities provided the players with some of the same tools which were used by developers to create their own content.

First online communities were formed around Doom and gathered both competitive players and modders which shared their content and knowledge. In 1995 the first big competitive tournament with money prize was held at Microsoft HQ in Redmont.

Following Doom's success in 1996 id Software released Quake which improved on all the features of its predecessor and is one of the most important esports titles. In particular Quake's improved game mechanics and increased speed have resulted in a game that is easy to learn but difficult to master. Competitive players were training for hours working on map strategies, aiming and using the game physics to their advantage (e.g. a famous "rocket jump"). A liberal licensing of the quake engine and improved modding tools have also resulted in new ground-breaking titles such as Half-life and Counter Strike.

Q1DM4 - a legendary multiplayer map from Quake

One feature introduced by Quake which is also worth mentioning is GameSpy, the first online servers browser and a software for preventing cheating - an essential feature for any competitive game. Quake release also saw the rise of first organised competitive gaming teams.

4. Counter-strike and spectators esport

While id Software's work has laid foundations for the modern esports it was Valve's game, Counter-Strike, which has really revolutionised the scene. Released in 1999 the game had everything an esport title needs: high skill ceiling, strategic depth, spectator facilities, replays, flexible modding tools and spectacular graphics.

Counter-Strike features two teams: terrorists and counter-terrorists trying to complete an objective or eliminate each other. The players can chose one of the eight characters to play and can purchase and customise their weapons. The game emphasizes team-work and strategy over pure aiming accuracy, which makes it both difficult to play and interesting to watch. The game is meant, from start to finish, to be a competitive multiplayer experience without a single player element. Counter-Strike also introduced advanced spectator facilities which allows commentators to observe the game from any point on the map or from players eyes.

Counter-Strike - headshot (1999)

Apart from competitive players Counter-Strike has also gathered a huge audience. In the early 2000's the first professional gaming leagues began to emerge and the prize money in tournaments began to rise. The original Counter-Strike, now at version 1.6, is still played competitively after 13 years from its release, despite countless remakes which followed it.

5. Starcraft

On March 21st, 1998 Blizzard Entertainment released Starcraft, a revolutionary real-time strategy which was about to change the face of the esports and became one of the bestselling PC games in the history. The game features three different races: Protoss, Terran and Zerg, each with unique units and abilities. At the same time the races are balanced in such a way that no race has an advantage over the others.

The player is given control of multiple production facilities and up to 200 units, where each one can be given individual orders at any given time. The demanding mechanics, fast-paced gameplay and strategic depth of Starcraft contribute to its extremely steep learning curve.

Soon after release a big tournament scene has developed in South Korea, where the game has been widely available in Internet Cafes chain PC Bang. The game has became so popular that some TV stations decided to broadcast some of the major competitive events. As the audience has grown Starcraft was eventually given its own dedicated television channels.

The training regime of the Koreans, consisting of full-time focused game practice and peer-reviews of the games and strategies has resulted in the absolute world domination of Korean players. In 2000 Korean e-Sports Organisation (KeSPA) was founded after the approval of Korean's Ministry of Culture. For the first time in the history esports have been made an official, national sporting event. Soon after the biggest proffesional esports league - OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) has been created.

OSL Starleague Finals in Seoul, Korea (2011)

Starcraft players became national celebrities with fans, groupies, and regular salaries (independent of the prizes they win), usually much higher then the average wage. Probably the best known of them is Lim Yo Hwan, also known as Boxer, whose strategic genius has allowed him to revolutionise the way the game was played, and who became somewhat popular in the gaming community outside Korea.

Till today Starcraft is the fourth most popular sport in South Korea.

6. Modern esports

The recent years have witnessed a great increase in esports popularity worldwide. Following a long awaited release of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty a lot of professional gaming teams have made a switch from games like Brood War and Warcraft III. Even though the game did not introduce much of a novelty compared to its predecessor it has brought Starcraft franchise to the modern era with high quality graphics, improved controls and revamped Battle.net platform. New "triple-A" title has also attracted a lot of new players which caused the community to grow.

Soon after release Starcraft 2 was added by Major League Gaming (MLG) to its Pro Circuit and by Electronic Sport League to its Intel Extreme Masters event, both with nearly $100000 in prize pool. In August 2010 Korean GOM TV announced the Global Starcraft 2 League (GSL). Few months later North American Starcraft League was born. In the beginning oh 2012 KeSPA has officialy made the transition from Starcraft to Starcraft 2 which is now featured in the OSL. On 5th of September 2012 a Starcraft 2 tournament, Dreamhack, was for the first time transmitted on national television outside South Korea, at Swedish channels SVT2 and SVT24. The overall prize money for Starcraft 2 in the last year totals to $2.5M USD.

Starcraft 2 WCS finals venue in Stockholm, Sweden (2012)

At the same time other esports titles are becoming increasingly popular, like a free to play League of Legends MOBA with 15 million players and record-breaking number of viewers online. Game creator, Riot Games, have recently announced a prize pool of $5M USD for the upcoming season.

There is also a growing community of people who do not play competitive games, but still watch the tournaments for their entertainment value. In the past season of MLG an online streams have gathered over 241000 viewers from 175 countries during a single event.

7. Game design considerations

Based on what has been said so far let’s now have a look at some game design choices which contribute to game’s success as an esport.

Skill ceiling

A game that can be easily mastered by anyone and doesn’t provide a challenge can never aspire to become truly competitive. An esport title needs a steep learning curve and an uncapped skill potential to allow players to push their limits and achieve what cannot be done by casual gamers.

Balance

An esports game needs a perfect balance where only the player’s skill and no other factors decide about the outcome. It should also ensure that any single strategy in the game, a
character class, a weapon or unit ability is equally viable, given the circumstances, so not a single one is preferred over all the others. This helps to promote variety which brings us to the next point.

Spectating potential

Esports need spectators and a competitive game has to provide a show which is entertaining to watch. This involves a non-trivial gameplay, attractive visuals, variety of play-styles and additional facilities, like observer-mode and replay functionality. A huge part of esports success is also owed to the commentators whose job is to translate what is happening in the game and in players’ minds to a casual viewer.

Ranking system

Every successful esport employs some kind of ladder rating which measure players’ performance over time. Various statistics in the game like kill-to-death ratio, win-loss ratio, aiming accuracy or actions per minute allow measuring players’ skill and tracking their progress.

Hack prevention

An often overlooked point which has caused some otherwise promising titles to fail. An example can be Crysis Wars, which despite many innovative and interesting ideas has lost all popularity due to servers being plagued by hackers. There is no place for cheating in a competitive game.

Modding

It seems like most of successful titles allow players to create some form of their own content. From quake, through Starcraft and Warcraft III, this has often resulted in new game modes being created, like a famous Defence of the Ancients map, which has spawned a lot of successful games on their own. This also allows game to evolve and players to fix balance issues without having to rely on the developer.

Community features

Any modern competitive game should provide support for its community with facilities like chat channels, clan support, forums and friends. The community is what helps the game grow and times of gaming as a lonely activity are now long gone.

Money

Not exactly a design issue, but it is probably not possible to create a successful esports title in one’s basement. It is also what differentiates professional players from video game addicts. A company working on a competitive game requires an outstanding business model to attract sponsors and acquire cash needed for tournaments and publicity.

8. Conclusion

Due to size constrains this overview was necessarily brief. It didn’t cover many esports related topics and many important titles have not been mentioned, like Street Fighter, Command & Conquer or Warcraft.

A huge role in the success of the esports has also been played by gamers displaying extraordinary skills and dedication. It is thanks to people like Lim “Boxer” Yo-Hwan, Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel and Lee “Flash” Young-Ho which changed competitive games perception from a kid’s entertainment into a professional career. This process is far from finished although the recent years have witnessed an unprecedented growth of competitive gaming. After all what is really a difference between someone throwing a ball for a living and someone professionally playing a video game?