Esports Disassociated
A Culture Shock Is In Order
I’ve been absolutely terrible about writing; especially since changing the name of my newsletter the The Liminal Effect. The reasons are many, but as you parents know…the family comes first, and if that, combined with work and self care, drains my energy before I get around to writing, then that’s the toll I have to pay! But, in the time, I’ve had plenty of thoughts. One big one is this problem of disassociation. This problem hits every part of society, and for esports, as an industry that never got to develop properly, disassociation continues to wreak havoc.
The Story
Here where I live, in the southwest corner of Virginia, up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, winters tend to be short yet full. We get a good amount of snow and some dips down to crazy cold temperatures that make you want to never leave your house. The bright side is that it only lasts for 2 months! This winter has been particularly hard. Honestly, this year has been hard. One of my daughters started kindergarten this last fall, and in something reminiscent of the Covid years where kids missed out on so much schooling, my daughter has in fact missed a full month of school this year due to the devastating hurricane back in September, and now the winter storms and cold temperatures. As a parent, I’m saddened because my daughter loves school. It’s hard to see her suffer when she can’t get out, learn, and see friends. I’m also a big proponent of lifelong learning, and if you ever work with me or on one of my teams, be prepared to have to learn! With my daughter missing so much school, I’ve thought a lot about learning in general…and how it applies to both our wider culture and esports. I’ve noticed a distinct lack of the willingness to learn. This is not just amongst school aged kids either. It’s goes all the way from top to bottom.
Employees (managers and executives included) just do the bare minimum more often than not. Sure, perks, pay, and benefits could be better, and a lot of the time, employees don’t feel empowered, but that’s a topic for another day. For now, I mean this in regards to problem solving and finding solutions or answers. Time and time again, I’ve seen blanket statements applied when discussing potential markets, “Well the AI said this” or “Nobody will ever do that”. These are often said by people who have never even had a conversation with people out there in their target markets. I’ve seen so much generalization in how people approach building startups or launching programs. I’ve seen so many new things built on the very top layer of economics with nothing beneath. People are no longer diving down deep to understand the inner-workings of their industries, markets, companies, or audiences. People are all online and constantly involved in “conversation”, but nobody is actually having a conversation. This lack of in-depth understanding, of learning, of having intentional conversation is why the AI bubble just saw it’s first hole and $1 trillion wiped out in stock value. Everyone thought AI would bring instant gratification in both their pocket books and with knowledge at our fingertips.
Instant gratification isn’t a problem with just young people; it’s a problem everywhere. This is why esports failed, and this is why investors just throw money around without doing any of their own research. There is a downward trend in people’s ability to understand, learn, and grow. Whether this is based on FOMO, a lack of motivation, or just a general change in our brain chemistry due to so much content overload, the fact remains that desire to learn is fading and our desire for instant results continues to rise. This trend has only been exacerbated by the advent of AI. (Stop it right now…just keep reading…I use AI for things myself, so this isn’t an attack on AI. However, if you stopped because of that statement, you might just be proving my point 😅).
People don’t feel the need to learn anymore because AI just gives an answer, and we don’t even question where that answer came from. As I think about my kids, and this new world they will grow up in, I’m more determined than ever to instill in them a desire to learn. The same with my colleagues and employees. I want them to problem solve. I want them to use deductive reasoning, and I want them to learn how to make an educated guess…not an assumption or a generalization.
A recent stat released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that only 67% of 8th graders are scoring basic or better on their reading assessments, and regardless of your feelings towards testing, this stat does tell us something very important. We can see a trend in education caused by the views of wider society. The argument here isn’t physical versus digital reading, but rather reading versus video content. (Alright, calm down now. I know some of you just immediately stopped reading to fume about this apparent attack on video content and how culture is going down the drain.)
Video content is great, audio content is great, and written content is great. I like all of it, and we all learn differently. This should be embraced, but we should all strive to learn from different mediums and not use it as an excuse to learn from only the one medium that we prefer. We need to be trained to use all mediums effectively in order to broaden our abilities. Most kids these days are starting to absorb information solely video content, and it’s drastically changed the way they operate. Long term planning is starting to fade away. Short term planning skills are sharp, but that’s only because the goal is instant gratification. In order to see the full picture, we need all the information, and we need to be ok putting in the effort to get that information, correctly. And it’s the ability to see the full scope that will save and propel esports to the heights it should be at by now.
Now that I’ve made this point, and you’re trying really hard not to send me tons of messages to counter every word of it, what does this have to do with esports? What about disassociation? Culture is changing, people are operating differently, and the rate of change is only going to increase, and what this means is that we are all finding our own corners of the world in which to operate. We’re learning only from our preferred method of content delivery, we’re separating into our own microcosms of social groups via decentralized networks, and we’re so dead-set on instant gratification that it’s even destroying our ability to develop lasting ideals, organizations, or relationships In one word, we are becoming disassociated.
One might even say that we’re in a…Liminal Stage…cough cough (Catch the point of the newsletter name?) So many things are up in the air, and it can cause chaos and overwhelm us unless we as a culture are prepared to navigate it. This is where intentional conversation and a willingness to learn bring us back together.
The Esports Connection
For those that have read this far, you’re giving me hope for the future! Sure it may have sounded like a rant, but it’s a realistic view of what society is going through. I may be a dreamer, but I operate on a very realistic level. I hold some lofty ideals, but I set them firmly in the reality of where we’re at. Esports, as an industry, operated purely on the level of a dreamer. It was an “If I build it, they will come” model. Unfortunately, that didn’t work.
One big reason why??
Lack of intentional conversation and connection. This was absolutely the case with audiences, but the bigger problem lies within the competitive teams and organizations themselves. I’ve already covered some of the issues behind a lack of revenue streams for esports in relation to the large audiences involved in gaming. The concept is similar, but it applies directly to the teams now and building relationships as a team and organization.
People still confuse a video game audience with and esports audience. The industry cannot survive if we don’t fix this singular issue. Sure, there are others, but this is a core value problem, and if your organization and industry don’t have the core values in place, nothing else will stand on top.
The vast majority of people that watched esports matches were fans of the video game and not the team. Sure, they may cheer for a certain team during the match, but by and large, they care about seeing the game played and not the people playing. Again, I could talk in-depth about this, but I won’t do it here! I just need you to follow the thread for a second.
People can’t develop an attachment to a sports team unless they care about the team. Zooming in…a team can’t thrive unless the players themselves care about the team. In a new industry, it’s hard for an organization to thrive if the investors, management, and coaches don’t care about the team either. They have to care about it succeeding at the personal level when the industry isn’t yet stable. Too many people dumped too much money in the hopes of getting rich quick. They didn’t, and still don’t care about the core pillars of the industry, and too many of them don’t care about the teams or players themselves. They just see a product, and while that may have it’s place, in a sport or anything team focused, the connection has to go beyond that in order for stability to take place. Once stability is there, you can bring in people that only care about product or investing. At the onset, you have to care about the relationship component when it comes to sports and esports. The players have to care about each other and the team. This builds commitment, and on top of commitment, you build competition. Because players care about their team, they will defend that team. They will develop rivalries with other teams, and they will deeply, and with intent, care about the organization and the industry. Right now, these players don’t care about any of that.
The players care about winning. They care about being the best. They care about the game. But, they don’t care about the team, the people, or the industry, and that’s a massive failure on coaches, managers, and investors. And why should they? The organizations routinely burn them out and toss them to the side. We’ve built an industry that rewards the best individual but spurns the team. It’s about the prize money and the sponsorships, not about connection. Competition only thrives when there’s connection. Again, as I’ve said before, every other sport developed this naturally over decades. They did it before money was there. Esports did not. Esports was underground until money propelled it to new heights. It skipped every single stage of development in between, and those that enjoyed the underground competitive scene wanted nothing to do with this new, shiny, version of esports. It had no soul.
You know what though? I’m excited for esports because I understand that this is changing. So many people are working to bring player connection, local connection, and audience connection into the industry. The soul of esports is being put back into its body, and from there, we can build something truly astounding. We have to build teams that create player buy-in. We need the investors and players alike to care about the health of the organization. We need them to develop rivalries with teams and care about each other. Then, and only then can you hope to bring an audience into the mix that will care about the survival of the industry and not just about the game.
I’d love to know what you think about building a culture of integrity and care within esports teams? How do you think we get players to feel committed to and cared for by a team?
Resources
Acorns - We all know esports needs help with it’s finances. If you’re an individual, there’s still hope. Take hold of your financial future by using tools like Acorns to set automated investments on every purchase you make…put that daily latte to work for you!
Reactor Gaming - Honestly, if you’re looking for the best built gaming PCs for individuals and teams, check out our friends at Reactor Gaming! They build everything with care, and if you learned nothing else from my writing, know that you have to care about what you’re doing, and these people care. I’ve just recently purchased a PC myself from them and can’t wait to try it out!
Coalition of Parents in Esports - If you’re a parent and looking to get involved in your kid’s gaming, please check out this group for resources.
Brands and Projects I Support
Fantastic Athletes Corporation (My day-job) - Building the next generation of gaming and esports performance
SERENDIPITY Esports (Changed from SERENDIPITY gaming) - Solving your esports problems at every stage of the journey from facility design to team dynamics.
Froglet Games - This team is building an incredible mobile game with a mission to build relationships through gaming. This is a great step towards battling Esports Disassociation.
USA Esports - Creating a national sanctioning body in order so we can prop up esports for everyone.
Ask me how to get in touch with any of these if you’d like more information.