dr mark r johnson · videogames as a whole are replete with “unpredictable” game mechanics •...
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Understanding the origins of video game gamblingDr Mark R Johnson
Killam Memorial Postdoctoral FellowDepartment of Political ScienceUniversity of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
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INTRODUCTION• I research the intersections between games (play?) and money.
• Esports/professional/competitive gaming• Live streaming and Twitch.tv• Fantasy sports betting• Loot boxes, microtransactions, gamification, gamblification, etc etc etc
• Although gambling/video games have combined in quite striking ways in recent years… this comes with a long history, which helps explain their recent success
• (Which I will now attempt to cover in the following nine minutes)
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ARCADE BETTING• In the earliest days of video game arcades,
players would wager money on the outcomes of multiplayer games
• Or, even simpler, the winning player stayed on the game, whilst the loser had to give up their place, so one “bet on oneself” and one’s skill at the game
• Wagering money in/on video games is thus just as old as the medium itself
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UNPREDICTABILITY MECHANICS• Videogames as a whole are replete with
“unpredictable” game mechanics
• Many games generate their spaces of play randomly, or via semi-predictable rules
• One’s effectiveness is also often pseudo-random, with skill and luck intersecting in one’s play
• Gamers are therefore used to navigating unpredictability in the pursuit of victory
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GAME VERSIONS OF GAMBLING• Video games are also replete with digital
versions of casino gambling games
• There is no monetary wager in these games, but the mechanics are reproduced
• Over the last few decades these have become increasingly common, normalising gambling games for video game players
• Minigames and the discourse of triviality
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NON-MONETARY WAGERING• All games actively encourage us to wager
• Not money, but time, effort, and social status are wagered when we play
• These are often overlooked when we consider any form of “wagering”, but these are also put at stake in all kinds of games
• Video game players are thus used to their play having real-world consequences
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AND NOW, IN THE PRESENT DAY…
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ESPORTS GAMBLING• In a broad sense, two forms: “internal”
and “external”
• Internal: betting on/with in-game items, similar to many other game mechanics and games which normalise gambling
• External: betting on competition results, similar to betting in arcades and, indeed, on betting on “oneself” in play
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CONTEMPORARY GAMBLING SPECTATORSHIP• Many esports gamblers broadcast their
gambling live online through the Twitch.tv live streaming service
• Broadcasts opportunities for profit/victory, vicarious thrill of viewing
• The spectatorship of the arcades, the normalisation of gambling, the role of wagering in video games…
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THE PAST, THE FUTURE
• As I have (rapidly) shown here, gambling and video gaming have a long interwoven history
• This newly corporatized gambling on/in/with video games thus seems acceptable, capitalising on the grassroots nature of much “older” video game gambling
• Esports etc represent a newfound formalization / legitimation of gambling on video games
• By understanding the roots of the cultural acceptance on video game gambling, we can understand more about its present success in Esports, loot boxes, and beyond
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THANKS FOR LISTENING!
Twitter: @mrj_gamesEmail: [email protected]: http://bit.ly/mrj_papers Journal: Critical Gambling Studies (forthcoming)