Is Esports For The Privileged?

Discussing basic barriers of entry into esports.

“An aerial shot of some Dreamhackers” [Source]

Moore’s Law famously states that every two years, development will double the capacity of circuits, thus meaning that our world’s getting more and more technologically advanced, quicker and quicker. That means the rest of the world has to keep up with these advancements — and esports is no exception.

Esports has exploded over the last few years, boasting larger tournaments, prize pools, stakes, and skill every year. With more capable Internet, computers, streaming, and gaming engines comes more capacity for more competitive gaming.

Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that some people who can’t keep up with this rush to the top will be left in the dust. But what factors play into that? It’s absolutely not one thing alone, which is why I want to take a surface-level look at what sorts of barriers lead to difficulties for those who can’t properly access the esports scene.

Please note, for most of this discussion, I try to stay largely centric to American politics of economics and work that may contribute to why esports, as a hobby and career, isn’t as accessible to people, as that’s where I live and where I’m most aware of issues. However, while I suppose these reasons can also be carried over into questions of why America is so absent in the grander scheme of esports, that’s not the explicit intent.

Price

The base price for a PC is pretty low, but one that plays video games well enough? That PLUS peripherals can be a pretty high price.

While I personally was looking around at the potential of a new PC some months ago, I saw an article stating a PC that would have run Dota 2 — a pretty low-end game that can run, as some say, “on a potato” — costs $340 for a manageable quality. That doesn’t include, of course peripherals: a mouse and keyboard run about $25 each; a decent headset starts at $30, and a reasonable one can sit at about $90–110; and a monitor’s price is all over the place, from $50, with no real average but many of them, from a quick Google search, sitting in the mid- to high-$100’s.

If we’re going to round up our computer’s price point to $400, plus peripherals, that can run a player over $600. Console gaming hits a similar price point once controllers are included (exclusive of the TV), and this is before games and/or “points” to buy access to essential game content (such as characters in games such as League of Legends of Heroes of the Storm, or “booster packs” and “modes” in Hearthstone).

One odd consideration that many don’t take into discussing PC capacity, though, is whether or not they have the tools they’d need to exist not just as a gamer, but as a recognized player, and that often involves streaming. The PC would have to run not only the game itself, but also activate the camera and likely some form of external streaming software as well — and often, the chat, in its own browser, takes up solid CPU depending on the browser used.

Broadband

Even with all things considered, it’s not just a high-end PC that matters. Probably one of the more important aspects of many popular games is the Internet connection that they require. In many countries, this isn’t as much of an issue — but America, for instance, is one of the least-consistently-connected countries in the world, especially when compared to other countries.

To wave my flag a bit as an advocate for Internet access, surprisingly, over five percent of the American population lacks broadband Internet access. Even still, many more people choose not to subscribe because of its outrageous cost, relatively and absurdly high for a developed country. Plus, American Internet Service Providers are absolutely infamous for not delivering anything close to their proposed “up to” speeds, even though the country boasts the highest number of ISPs for its population.

Essentially, between the cost of reliable broadband Internet and not having a guarantee of reliable Internet, it may not matter if your PC could single-handedly handle all the activity of The Pentagon or Valve’s Store server. If your ping is constantly 250ms, you might as well be reading off your clicks and buttons to someone on the phone.

Games without that aspect seem to find their way into a different set of neighborhoods; for instance, fighting games — especially Smash Bros. — tend to find their way into localities, as well as rhythm games where arcades are willing to host them. Of course, that creates a different sort of climate which is necessary to understand and essential to entry into esports.

Culture

The fact of the matter is, calling esports universal, East, or West does a lot of injustice for every locality and community between the major gaming countries that still don’t or won’t embrace intense interest in videogames, forget esports.

Every community has its own degree of gatekeeping, some easier to push through than others. In online games, you need both the technical skill of your game plus the networking skills (and perhaps personality) to penetrate the scene. In some local offline communities, the intimidation caused by skilled players alone can put off some potential amateurs, as offline interaction is much different than doing such online.

Plus, if a community doesn’t already have such members, gamers who aren’t guys or of the majority race, background, or similar status of the group may have a difficult time with the unique socialization. This issue can seep into online communities subtly as well as offline — though the South Americans and Russians have put up with their fair share of North American/European abuse throughout games.

In the home, too, some girl gamers in the past have been marginalized by their own family, with the men of the family restricting games to the boys only, if not explicitly, then implicitly by not considering such an option through the intense power of marketing. I have heard stories from older women of consoles being locked away so only their brothers could touch the games — perhaps a cultural question of whether girls should be doing “idle activities.” Therefore, a lot of girls come into adulthood willing but not able — financially, equipment-wise, by lacking knowledge, or just emotionally, from years of denial — to dive further into the esports scene.

That same reason of restriction, though, may be why others don’t see esports as a viable pursuit, period. Of course, this argument has been tried over and over, and so I won’t get into the details.

One takeaway from that discussion, though, would be how local cultures outside of the gaming communities themselves may not respect the dedication of these gamers — and that’s where a final question of privilege comes into play.

Time

The parts of competitive gaming that aren’t quite as visible are just as important as those that are. The dedication that goes into learning a game is one of the key aspects of a good gamer, but that also means that one needs time to invest to begin with in order to reach that point.

Time is a resource that not everyone can afford. Perhaps in an economy before I was born, when the nine-to-five was more standard, evenings could have been spent practicing, gaming leagues arranged like bowling leagues and poker nights with some consistency. But now, the economy and social lives of gamers all over the world vary, impacting their availability.

It needs to be understood that “free time,” in the twenty-first century, is a construct of sorts founded on a mess of socio-economic factors. The easiest factor to pin is financial stability, which allows for time that isn’t explicitly dedicated to earning money in a reliable manner. Seven and a half years after the Great Recession’s peak moment, those that have, since then, “become adults” are relatively hard-pressed to find the time for anything but a career, and increasingly, millennials are stuck without a reliable job.

And even considering a career, we’re in a pretty post-Fordist structure of careers. That is, careers increasingly expect either side of the contract to be more flexible in their time and schedule, if one even acquires a career. Of course, that works out better for some than others; tech-sector jobs that push for more free time have employees that have a different mindset than marketing agencies. That means we’re working with a mixed bag of opportunity for potential esports fans.

There are also plenty of other factors that push into free time — relationships, mental and physical health, cleaning up your living space, commute time, and even just being social can cut down on one’s ability to dedicate themselves to esports.

This is especially considering not just the actual concept of time that potential esports players need, but how that time is often spent — through streaming. Streams aren’t typically short; they require a few hours to garner enough viewers, unless the person’s already popular enough that a five-second stream rings some alarms. If someone doesn’t have that capacity to reach out and network and advertise themselves to get attention (and, as I mentioned, that falls under the questions of Internet capacity and PC capability as well), then it may hard for them to be seen at all, regardless of how good they are.

Furthermore, not all socio-economic climates are suited for such dedication. America has an infamously small professional player base for non-FPS games. Many professional gamers rise when they’re at the “American college age” of about 17–22, but they often lack the institutional support to continue going, both academically and within the frame of the country. Unlike traditional sports, esports lacks the funding and administrative support that many traditional athletes have, which keep them going through their college years. On the other hand, passing over college is a risk as well, as living costs in America are high, and esports players literally cannot afford to continue living in America unless they’re actually winning money through their game and celebrity status — if either is achieved.

When there’s a will…

Of course, there’s always a way for those that fall outside these communities to find their way in.

In many areas, such as specific parts of South America and Southeast Asia, Internet cafes are more common for players to try to kick up their skills, especially in regions in which not everyone is expected to actually own a reliable PC and subscribe to ISPs. They still face some lashback, though; for instance, when Peruvian schools go on holidays, North American players who have children in Internet cafes their games are often likely to take note and call them out on it.

There is also the trope of the underdog, such as Dota 2’s Sumail, a Pakistani player who sold his bike to be able to afford a computer so he could spend more time training in the game. (It paid off, as his team won $6 million at TI6 in August 2016.)

I personally have faith in funding esports as an alternative recreational hobby, as it’s relatively more accessible to communities, once the proper equipment and environments are put into place. I’m also a major advocate for official collegiate support of esports. It’s not just a growing hobby, but an industry that students of all backgrounds should be able to access — not just those with a disproportionate amount of free time and equipment. Like physical activities or the arts, when handled correctly, it can be an engaging hobby with benefits.

Essentially, these questions of accessibility need to be asked if we wish to expand the esports market for not just players, but also for those who wish to understand the game and engage as spectators and fans. As it stands, the industry is only capable of supporting those who can access it, and while that minimum level of entry is lowered all the time, it’s impossible to eliminate it altogether. The solutions aren’t clear, but the key aspects of the issue are.