Abstract
This study examined how collegiate esports players conceptualized their own competitive gameplay as situated between work and play. Using interviews guided by Stebbins’ (2007) serious leisure perspective, 16 collegiate esports players described how belonging to a collegiate esports team has shaped their identity, and how they experienced gaming within the structured environment of a collegiate esports team and club. Stebbins’ description of skill and knowledge development was supported, and the findings are in accord with Stebbins’ conceptualization of “personal rewards,” such as self-expression, self-image, and self-actualization.
Highlights
Videogames played at colleges by students are not a new thing (Dyer-Witheford & de Peuter, 2009)
Participants were selected based on their membership in a North American competitive esports team at one of two institutions: a small private university known for its esports scholarship program (Site 1) and a large research university known for its successful, competitive student gaming club (Site 2)
Nine were on esports scholarships at Site 1, and seven were members of an esports student club at Site 2
Summary
Videogames played at colleges by students are not a new thing (Dyer-Witheford & de Peuter, 2009). Opportunities to take a more serious orientation towards playing videogames competitively happen in a more structured environment involving student clubs and scholarship-based esports programs. The connection between traditional athletic conferences and collegiate esports have become an important avenue for gaming developer Riot Games (Riot), for instance, to build relationships with universities as part of their mission to establish esports as a college varsity sport. With opportunities to earn scholarships and occupy varsity slots on collegiate esports teams, students belonging to university clubs or varsity teams have started to take playing videogames in college seriously. This paper examines the perspective of college students who were players in either a student-based esports club or in a collegiate esports scholarship team. The study employed the serious leisure framework (Stebbins, 1982) as committed leisure to examine how players transformed their dedication towards competitively playing videogames in college
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