GDC Next - The Evolution of e-Sports as a Sport, Entertainment and International Pastime

The Evolution of e-Sports as a Sport, Entertainment and International Pastime
By Marcus Graham (djWheat), Dustin Beck (Riot Games), Kevin Lin (Twitch), Jason Ng (Garena Premiere League), Jack Etienne (Cloud 9)
Thursday



MG: There has been a 60% e-sports growth rate in the last 3 years.  How has e-Sports evolved for you in the last 12 months?
DB: People can put their careers into this profession.  There is a new stability and regularity present.
KL: We had to build tools for pros and casual people view streams on Twitch.  You wouldn't see growth if devs didn't support teams.
JN: Imaging the worst internet you've ever experienced.  Times that by at least 2.  That is what it is like in many places in South East Asia.  GPL has had to put infrastructure in to give more internet to players.  Already, users are running out of bandwidth just to play League of Legends, not to mention streaming!
JE: Visibility now gives the freedom of teams to select who gets to sponsor a team.  1.5 years ago, League of Legends would have to be explained to possible financial persons; not so anymore!

MG: How does Twitch fit into the ecosystem?
KL: Twitch is a 1-stop shop for distributing and viewing great content.  We want to make this a true international pastime.  People are starting to view Twitch as much as regular TV.
MG: How about gaming teams?
JE: The personality of players determines the avenue the team will represent.
MG: Now where do tournaments fit today?
JN: Prepare to spend a lot of money when starting a league.  In South East Asia, you have to even pay teams at the start.  There's also a shortage of shoutcast talent.  Finally, getting gamers to understand that this is a job for competitors is hard.
MG: Publishers?
DB: We wanted to create a symbolic league to the game.  The game was designed as a sport; LoL is a success where there are paths of aspiration to higher tiers of competition (the League of Legends ranked system).

MG: What's missing from e-sports?  What can we do to support growth?
KL: Sponsors!  It also relies on audience participation with the groups financing competition.  Does the audience ever affect the outcome of games?  This is a future game dev question.
JE: Not a lot of educational material to get newbs up to speed is out there.  They have to figure out what-the-heck is going on quickly by themselves.
DB: There's no central location to get an overall rundown of what has happened in a game.  Espn.com and SportsTV are good examples of what is out there for non-digital games.



Audience Q and A:

What are the demographics of players and viewers?
DB: The age is concentrated in the 18-28 range, with 80-85% being male viewers and 70% being college educated.
KL: 18-35, with most being male.  The percentages by continent vary, but none are above 35% of the total viewership on Twitch.  Otherwise, we are, by nature, reaching a technically savvy audience.

Have you thought of reaching out on the educational level for instructing potential players earlier?
KL: We've given college scholarships for players.
MG: (To the panel.) Do you feel this is something we don't need to rush into?
DB: Video games are still stigmatized in the public eye.
JE: The reflexes needed for competing in e-sports are around the 17-22 year-old range.  You may need to postpone educational plans if you are going to be playing.
JN: Vietnam is super hostile to games in general, so getting into school is difficult.  (Vietnam had banned all video games, lifting the ban only just a few years ago.)

How will console and mobile be as major as PC gaming?
JN: Access to consoles is harder in some Asian countries.  Gamers aren't necessarily picky of their platform, so long as they can get their entertainment.
KL: If it was just a question of access, mobile should be huge; it isn't, at least not yet.  How do you make it fun to watch?
MG: There's a natural segregation on consoles.  It's a a huge problem keeping consoles from reaching PCs.



What is your opinion on including fighting games?  What do you think of athletic players playing e-sports?
DB: I don't get why there is a clash.  There's a lot of room for other games in e-sports.  As for the second question, I have a lot of respect for them.

MG: How long until e-sports players have a huge following as traditional sports?
JE: We are pretty close.  It continues to grow!
DB: Our players can interact while playing and streaming already!
KL: It has to be an authentic passion to play that brings people to the game.
JN: When a team won EPA, they were as big as any icon in Asia.

How did you come to define League of Legends as a sport?  What are the advantages/disadvantages of making a competitive game?
DB: Sport and competition are the foundation of the team (at Riot Games).
JN: A competitive game makes more sense since you can't make content fast enough!  Don't sell power, so players can then become the content.

How would e-sports on TV affect the scene?
KL: We want to be unrestricted with our contact.  Can e-sports make the TV transition?  Yes.  Does it need dev and design thoughts?  100%.  How do you monetize on a television?
JN: TV is low definition.  Fighting for a shared screen is another problem (other people in a home wanting to watch TV).
DB: Regional preference.  It's already easy to go online.  Again, a lot of fighting over the airwaves would result.

How can we get younger players in earlier?
JE: We already can!  There's a place for a huge age range in games.
JN: People will get better faster.
KL: We are breaking down the stigma now!

What I Learned - 18

Not on this list, but should be: programming on the back of envelopes is very satisfying.  Thought you should know.

What I Learned - 11/17 to 11/23

1. Holy awesome game list of the last generation, Batman!
1. Kirk Hamilton; The Games that Defined the Last Generation
2. 
2. There is a lot of controversy over how a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) compares on a company totem pole to a regular Software Dev.
1. Intensive research into the SDET position.
3. The Ninety-Ninety Rule in software development is hilarious (and shockingly accurate).
1. Wikipedia; Ninety-ninety rule
4. Attention Scope will allow people to have multiple ideas in their head, but once about 13 are 
1. Nils Phil; GDC China 2013 - The Psychology of Freemium
2. Checkout this attention scope test.
5. Higher incentives can lead to poorer performance.
1. Dan Pink; Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation
6. The 10,000 hr rule to learn something is false, applying only to being highly competitive in a narrowly focused field doing only a certain few actions.
1. Josh Kaufman; The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything
7. 20 hours of focused practice will allow a person to acquire a skill.
1. Josh Kaufman; The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything
8. There are 4 steps to rapidly acquire a skill.
1. Deconstruct the skill - decide exactly what is supposed to be done.
2. Learn enough to self-correct - don't let books or other media to allow for procrastination.
3. Remove practice barriers - internet, TV, games, etc.  Willpower!
4. Practice for at least 20 hours - 
1. Josh Kaufman; The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything
2. 

GDC Next - Luck and Skill in Games

Luck and Skill in Games
By Skaff Elias (Three Donkeys)
Thursday

Why should we care?  There "should" be a bit of luck in every game.

Let's define some types of luck:

• Overt Randomness - This is very easy to have, and is often noticed by the player right away.
• Game Theory, physical limitations, and complexity can hide other forms of luck.

Are there games with no luck?  Some would say Chess, but even that game of skill still has randomness.

• Luck hinges on the game and the player.

Another game of "pure skill" that still has elements of luck:

• Compute the digit of pi in 30 seconds! (There is randomness in how many digits are computed.)

Now consider this game:

• Compute the xth digit of pi.  (This is skill based.)

Now let's define skill:

• It is the ability to do something well when compared to something else having a similar ability.
• How do we measure this?  Well, a max win percentage, a percentage of wins compared to another tier of ability, or Elo are all good measurements.
• Higher numbers are better for determining if a game is skill based!

New game, Rando Chess:

• Roll a die at the end of a regular Chess game.  On a 1, the loser of that game actually is the winner.
• In this example, the amount of luck goes up, but the skill required remains the same.

From Rando Chess, and similar games like it, players may reject the addition of luck as it moderates their reward (5 wins and a loss with luck vs. 6 wins based on skill).

Why we need luck:

In a situation with no luck, it is only a measurement being taken.  ("Who's taller?")

In other situations, some people love unexpected outcomes (i.e. slots).

The best case dealing with a player and an element of luck in a game of skill: they blame defeat on luck, but success on skill.

• This only works for new players.  Once "deep knowledge" is gained, delusions of wins/loses disappear.

The number of people that can play goes up when a game has elements of luck.  Now, some of those elements may only be accessed by high/low levels of skill (i.e. accessing a bonus level).

In conclusion, know your audience.  What is the key value proposition (what should the player get from the game)?  How is the game going to gain revenue?  Does the revenue model require replays?  Does PR/Marketing match the skill/luck interaction in-game?

---

Checkout the last post, On Demand Compute Power for Games!

What I Learned - 17

Late again, but full of valuable info!

What I Learned - 11/10 to 11/16

1. In the game industry, age is huge; the older you are, the easier it is for managers to think that an employee can't pull the epidemic "crunch" (41+ hrs/wk) of the industry.
1. Trusted associate not willing to reveal either their name or age.
2. Again, don't disclose your age!  Anywhere!  Ever!
1. Jon Jones; LinkedIn for People Who Hate LinkedIn
3. Link your published, written, industry-relevant material on LinkedIn.  It shows you take time to contribute insight into what you like.
1. Jon Jones; LinkedIn for People Who Hate LinkedIn
4. Personal LinkedIn updates can be disabled! Settings -> Profile -> Turn on/off
1. Jon Jones; LinkedIn for People Who Hate LinkedIn
5. Visualizing an encounter where all parties actually come away happy is a great gauge for confronting another; if you can't see it, then a meeting shouldn't happen.
1. Kathy Caprino; 5 Critical Steps to Fearless Confrontation
6. Goals can be "S.M.A.R.T." (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely).
1. Kathy Caprino; 5 Critical Steps to Fearless Confrontation
7. I am not good at League of Legends.  I must work on getting better.
1. Personal admission after seeing a 1:1 win-loss ratio
2. 
8. Mike Capps, a head of Epic Games, once said that the company would not accept employees willing to work less than 60 hours in a week.
1. Ian Williams; 'You Can Sleep Here All Night': Video Games and Labor
9. The word "passion" is very cliche in the game industry while also being used to excuse some poor labor practices on the part of game companies.
1. Ian Williams; 'You Can Sleep Here All Night': Video Games and Labor
10. Degrees concerned with game creation, especially those from for-profit universities, are worth nothing.
1. Ian Williams; 'You Can Sleep Here All Night': Video Games and Labor
11. Playing (and enjoying) games affects the brain.  The changes there could possibly act as therapy to a number of brain disorders.
1. Melanie Pinola; Study Shows Playing Video Games Really Can Make Your Brain Bigger
2. 
12. There are a number of quick, efficient security steps to protecting an online, social presence.
1. Jess Fee; You Aren't Using These 10 Simple Security Settings
13. Websites are best if layered in a broad fashion, not a deep one.
1. Jon Jones; Your Portfolio Repels Jobs
14. Luck is a defining factor for the success of an Indie title in such an oversaturated game market.
1. Jeff Vogel; Marketing, Dumb Luck, and the Popping of the Indie Bubble
15. "If your game can't succeed based on word-of-mouth marketing, unless you get real lucky, you need to adjust your budget, your quality, or both."
1. Jeff Vogel; Marketing, Dumb Luck, and the Popping of the Indie Bubble
16. The IGDA has a "fiduciary" policy for its board members, therefore causing things such as "pointing out bad studios to work for" is replaced by "highlight[ing] some good studios to work for".
1. Darius Kazemi; Some Thoughts on the IGDA (Or: Why I Quit)
2. Fiduciary - Involving trust in a relationship between a trustee and beneficiary.
17. The IGDA tends to waste the energy of more niave members when that energy should be spent on organizing labor in the game industry.
1. Darius Kazemi; Some Thoughts on the IGDA (Or: Why I Quit)
2. 
18. There have been bad feelings in and out of IGDA for years.
1. Adam; Leaving the IDGA(2) - What Happened?

GDC Next - On Demand Compute Power For Games

On Demand Compute Power for Games
By John Bruno (Microsoft)
Tuesday



What could you do with near unlimited Cloud computing?
Bigger worlds, huge multiplayer, etc?

There are some challenges with that:
Server costs can be prohibitive and client resources are finite.

So why would you Cloud compute?
It would enhance the game experience and monetization opportunities.  Creating differentiation with the Cloud drives a new kind of engagement.

Here are some scenarios that are present on platforms:  Shared online worlds, dedicated servers, compute task offloading, games as a service (tune/balance, dynamic game modes, etc.).
ex: Titanfall has dedicated servers, cloud-based AI, and more goodies.



XBLC Services focuses on packaging, discovery, and management.  Using the Cloud, predictive pooling determines load needs of any system.  Therefore, you keep play busy, not delivering "server busy" messages.

Some audience questions:

Q: Will I experience clock drift?
A: The worst case scenario would be a little bit, if at all.

Q: Is there enough bandwidth to support this system?
A: Oh yes!

Q: Can the host OS or other neighbors steal my games or financial information?
A: Nope!

Contact bruno@xbox.com for any additional inquiries.

Personal note on the presentation: Don't put words at the bottom of a slide.  Heads sitting in an audience get in the way!

---

Checkout another GDC Next article: Luck and Skill in Games.

What I Learned - 16 ( Way Late )

OK - this is really late.  However, this update shows-off a plethora of new content (soon to be followed by all I learned at GDC Next).  Read, enjoy, learn something new!

What I Learned - 10/27 to 11/9

1. Saying that something is "released" instead of "finished" is a great way to counter any issues that arise post a game's launch.
1. Bungie Podcast 10/25/13
2. The order of receiving benefits / let-downs is very important.  Examples: a good thing followed by a "less" good thing will decrease happiness; a very bad thing followed by a not-as-bad thing will increase happiness.
1. NPR story about Halloween and happiness after receiving candy
3. Just because something has mechanics, points, levels, challenges, etc. doesn't mean that a game is present.
1. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
4. A person playing a finite game, where some quantifiable measurement is present, will take more risks than a player in an infinite game, where they wish to keep going.
1. ex: Tetris players going for a high score vs. those wanting to last the longest.
2. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
5. Tokens (finite points) displayed ingame will generate very different playstyles than if a timer (infinite points) is shown.
1. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
6. "A point is only rewarding when it is a token of a currency that the player values."
1. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
7. All editable settings in Windows 7, 8, and maybe more are available if this code is entered as the name of a folder: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
1. NOTE: I have not tried this!
2. Imgur
3. 
8. "Necessity is a poor motivator", therefore, to force a player out of their way for something because they 'have too' is a lacking design.
1. Nils Pihl; What is Play?  Decoding the Game Ep. 2
9. Giving instrumental (something valued because it leads to something else that holds value; ex: money) compensation for work (done because it is necessary) can lead to worse results than doing something otherwise voluntarily.
1. Nils Pihl; What is Play?  Decoding the Game Ep. 2
10. Intrinsic motivators (unnecessary things done because they are valuable in their doing / experiencing) come in three types: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.
1. Nils Pihl; What is Play?  Decoding the Game Ep. 2
11. Approximately 188 games arrive in the iOS app market every day, compared to the 254 total games released in 5 years for the Sega Saturn.
1. Seth Sivak; State of the Industry: Four Frightening Facts
2.  
12. The top 20 best-selling games of 2012 weren't new IPs :(
1. Seth Sivak; State of the Industry: Four Frightening Facts
13. Just because hardware will run at a higher-than-average setting, doesn't mean it should.
1. Dave Baggett; My Hardest Bug Ever
14. Use sound cues to remove UI visuals.
1. Michel Henein; 6 Ways 3D Audio Can Expand Gaming Experiences