State of Play- Level Two

In my previous blog which can be found here I decided to write about my personal experience on the Korean documentary State of Play. For this first blog I used Ellis, Adams and Bochners concept of autoethnography to help me understand and record my own personal experiences. Lets refresh our memory on what autoethnography means. Ellis, Adams and Bochner defined it as “an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience in order to understand cultural experience”. In this case it was all about writing about my experience with State of Play and the Asian culture that surround the game.

To understand autoethnography first you must explore different sources and data and emerse yourself into a new and different culture. Sometimes that means emerging yourself into a new and different culture.

Now back to State of Play, which is a documentary about professional gamers in Korea competing in the eSports industry. Through this second blog I will talk about a couple of points that I have made in my previous blog. I have done some research into some of the particular thoughts and epiphanies that I had whilst observing and analysing the documentary.

One of my thoughts that I had were the health factors that come with the gaming industry. Professional gamers spend roughly around 10-12 hours a day training extensively to build and maintain fast hand- eye coordination and a fast reaction time. In fact upon doing further research into this particular area one of the top players Lee Young- ho had fallen victim to one of the many health factors. According to BBC News he had to have surgery on his arm as the strain of his vigorous training schedule had injured his muscles and deformed them. I also learned that the company he is in paid all of his medical expenses.Although this was a big deal in terms of health factors Lee Young-ho didn’t seemed to upset about it stating that having a scar on his arm is ‘like having a badge of honour’.

My other point that I had made in my previous blog was the gender imbalance. While I was watching this documentary I couldn’t help but notice the lack of girl gamers being shown. While girls didn’t actually play Star Craft they were emotionally invested with the game through backing up their favourite players. As I did further research on this thought I found out that Korean girls acted more as groupies and fans rather than gamers.

While I was researching this point I did however come across a different game also played in Korea that had a girl player. A game called Overwatch is also played by professional players the same way Star Craft is played. According to Tech Times a 17-year-old Korean girl Zarya, was accused of cheating in the game Overwatch as they couldn’t believe that a girl could ever play better than professional male players. She was so good that two professional gamers quit due to the shame and embarrassment they felt being beaten by a 17 year old Korean girl.

Through doing thorough research into professional gaming I now understand that there are different perspectives in the gaming industry. I always thought that the health risks would be minor and that girls didn’t play much professional gaming due to the lack of interests. However due to the new perspective I now realise that the health risks are much more serious, so serious in fact professional gamers at times need surgeries. I have also found that professional gamers can fall victim to embarrassment and shame if girls dominated the game.

Autoethnography and State of Play

As I was sitting in my seminar many things were running through my head like “what the heck is autoethnography, and is it seriously a word?”

Well it turns out it’s an actual word. Ellis, Adams and Bochner (2011, p.1) best describes it as

 “an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience in order to understand cultural experience”.

So autoethnography is your own personal experience to something to put it simply. Throughout the following weeks I will use autoethnography to document and critically analyse my personal experience with different Asian media and their culture.

In this weeks seminar, we watched a Korean documentary called State of Play. This 2013 documentary is all about the competitive world of professional gamers. They undergo training and pressure in hopes to pursue their dream of making it into the world of digital gamers. If you haven’t seen the documentary here is the trailer:

I was shocked to discover that serious professional gaming exists and throughout the documentary I became more and more curious as to what life of a gamer is like. For me gaming is a fun way to kill time and distress but for people in Seoul, South Korea it is their life and world. Gaming is the one priority in their life so much so that they don’t have time for girlfriends or to lounge around with friends and enjoy other hobbies, gaming is literally all they do morning and night.

This documentary was interesting to watch because it exposed me to something new and something that I had never heard about. At first I was surprised that these gamers require extensive training of 10-12 hours a day. I had wondered what effects these training routines would have on their body, would they have low vitamin D from staying inside most of the time?, would they get arthritis in their fingers and neck?- who knows! Staring at a screen for 12 hours a day or more would also have a huge impact on your eyes!

As the documentary continued on I began to realise that professional gaming is very similar to all forms of professional sport. They both require extensive training routines, uniforms, perseverance and dedication. The live television broadcasts, commentators, stadiums, sponsorship deal and even match fixing are also similarities that professional gaming and professional sports have in common.

Another part of the documentary that I found interesting was the gender imbalance of professional gaming. I found myself asking where are all the professional GIRL gamers? While females are not participating in the gaming aspect, they are however involved emotionally through investing in a favourite player. A large group of girls would cry every time their favourite player wins or looses and would wait for them after the game to take pictures and give gifts.

Throughout watching this documentary I felt that I couldn’t relate to the physical gaming aspect of it but I however felt a relation to their culture and upbringing through being Asian myself.

 

Hello, nice to meet ya!

 

Hello Everyone! My name is Sarah and surprise, surprise I am studying a  Bachelor of Communications and Media. I am in my third year of Uni and majoring in Marketing and Advertising and International Studies.

This is my first blog this session, which means trying to get back into the blogging routine (better late than never right!)

I have chosen to do Digital Asia because I did a DIGC subject last year and really enjoyed it and found it interesting. I also decided to do Digital Asia partly because I am half Asian and I am curious to see different parts of the Asian culture that I might not have been aware of before.