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Abstract

Team Fortress 2 has created and sustained a grassroots esport almost completely independent from any support from the developers of the game. This ethnographic study aims to provide an insight of potential consequences of being a grassroot esport for over a decade from the perspective of a participant from within the competitive community. The first issue as the discrepancy in skill expectation between high-tier casual players and low-tier competitive players. The second is the mutation of rules independent from a central higher authority, such as a developer. The third was the isolation of a separate method of play from the rest of the game leading to restricting certain tactics and weapons. The fourth was the tendency of the community to remain stagnant based on historical social norms and remaining comfortable with how the current competitive scene plays. The final issue was the interactions, or lack thereof, of the developers and previous attempts to integrate the esport back into the core game. Suggestions as to what Developers may want to consider for their own titles based on their selected method of managing their esport scene were made based on these five consequences. Developers should consider how they communicate with their competitive communities, managing their rules and regulations, and preventing isolation of the esport from the core game should they decide to allow the community to create its own grassroots esport or if they decide to support it from the start.

Course: Computer Games Technology - BSc (Hons) - C1671

Date Deposited: 2019-11-18

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13415.html