Supporting eSports:

A look at Blizzard

Bachelor Thesis Robbert Troost 10261788

Supervisor: André Nusselder

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Abstract Through the recent technological developments that have been made, Technology has embedded itself in most areas in our daily life. Now, the phenomenon of spectator sports has expanded from physical games to video games. Known as eSports, these days certain games attract enough attention from competitive players and fans that they can organize tournaments and competitions with prize pools similar to most mainstream sports. This paper takes a look at Blizzard, a game developer that has had and still has a major role in the eSport industry. StarCraft, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm are the Blizzard games that focus heavily on their eSports communities. Through research, we identify the role that Blizzard has had in forming the respective competitive scenes. Both in the stage of game development, and in the support of competitive play, Blizzard shows clear philosophies that they live by. Their focus on a clear and clean experience for both players and spectators, along with the fact that their games provide more than enough space for skilled players to distinguish themselves while never resulting in unsurprising matches, means that Blizzard games are easily picked up by players and spectators. Their role in the organization and regulation of tournaments results in a competitive landscape that is neither too empty nor too crowded, with enough official support to drive it forward.

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Table of Contents Abstract ...... 2 Introduction ...... 4 Background ...... 5 ESports ...... 5 Blizzard ...... 6 Blizzcon ...... 6 Games ...... 6 StarCraft ...... 6 Hearthstone ...... 7 Heroes of the Storm ...... 7 Literature review ...... 8 ESports as a Sport...... 8 Spectatorship ...... 9 Information asymmetry ...... 9 Viewer interaction ...... 9 Game development ...... 10 Competitive support ...... 11 Research ...... 11 StarCraft ...... 11 Sub question 1 ...... 11 Sub question 2 ...... 14 Hearthstone ...... 15 Sub question 1 ...... 15 Sub question 2 ...... 18 Heroes of the Storm ...... 19 Sub question 1 ...... 19 Sub question 2 ...... 22 Discussion ...... 24 Conclusion ...... 26 Future work ...... 27 References ...... 28

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Introduction The rise of technology has had numerous consequences. Access to information and to each other has never been easier. Robots are starting to fulfill tasks previously done by human employees, and every year more money gets put into the field of technology and innovation. Users of technology are no longer the geeky stereotypical men; technology has been successfully integrated into our day-by-day life. The internet has replaced dictionaries and encyclopedia as our primary source of information, and the development of smartphones has enabled a round-the-clock access to this information. The ever increasing processing power of computers has led to greater possibilities, and one field that gladly makes use of that is Entertainment. Movies are being enhanced with computer-generated imagery (CGI), music is no longer dependent on the sound that musical instruments make, and the games that we play with our friends and family have, for the most part, moved to computer systems. In the early days of video games it was mostly introverted young males that played and paid for this form of entertainment. These days, with the help of casual platforms like the Wii by Nintendo and mobile devices in general, gaming is an activity shared by every age group and gender. This increase in popularity of video games has made the gaming industry the biggest entertainment market (ERA, 2015).

Just like books, games can be categorized into different genres like sports, puzzle, adventure and action. Games can also be divided into single player games and multiplayer games. These multiplayer games can be either cooperative, playing with each other to conquer the challenges set by the game, or competitive, playing against another player to decide who is better at a certain objective. Because of the nature of humans, and the fact that we are inherently competitive (Gill et al., 1988), competitive multiplayer games are some of the most popular ones out there. Not only to play, but also to watch. In the same way that we watch sports to experience the highest level of play, people also watch gamers play games to see what a good player can make happen within the game’s environment. And just like with physical sports, with enough popularity for a certain game and enough support from the developer, tournaments and competitions are formed to discover who the best players are and to facilitate the want from players to watch high level play. The term for this new industry is eSports (electronic Sports). ESports can be considered as a higher state of popularity for competitive games that increase time and money investment into the game and increase loyalty of consumers. The most popular games at this point are eSports, with for example League of Legends growing from 12 million unique players per day in 20121 to 27 million unique players per day in 20142 in just two years through the popularity of its eSport. Another popular eSport is Dota2, having seen a 1200% increase in player base and a 688% increase in the prize money of its characteristic world championship The International in just two years from 2012 to 2014, with this year’s prize money already confirmed to be over 14 million dollar and rising3. This paper considers the role of the game developer in creating a competitive scene around their games and making it a popular eSport. The developer that will be researched is Blizzard, picked for having a role in the eSports scene since the beginning. Also important is the fact that they have a good composition of highly popular classic, new and upcoming eSports that will show the development of the eSports scene as well as their own growing experience in supporting these eSports.

1 http://www.destructoid.com/league-of-legends-has-32-million-monthly-active-players-236618.phtml 2 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/league-of-legends-now-boasts-27-million-daily-players/1100-6417374/ 3 http://dota2.prizetrac.kr/international2015 Page 4 of 29

This leads to the research question that this paper aims to answer:

 What efforts does Blizzard go through to align their games with the interests of eSports fans?

Which will be answered by looking into the internal structure of the games as well as the external support that Blizzard gives to its eSports, by answering the following sub questions:

 What strategies does Blizzard follow in order to create a spectator-friendly game environment?  What does Blizzard do to support and build the competitive scene (players and viewers) surrounding their games? Background Because of the novelty of this subject, a good basis must be defined in this paper to compensate for lack of commonplace understanding of this subject. ESports When talking about eSports, one who knows little of video games will only recognize the ‘Sports’ part of the word. A natural consequence would therefore be that eSports would be defined as being electronical versions of existing sports like football and tennis. While sports games like FIFA (football), Top Spin (tennis) and F1 (Formula 1 racing) do exist and the genre of sports games is a very popular genre of games, these games are not by default eSports. Instead of looking at individual sports, it is better to compare eSports to the aspects that all physical sports have in common: competition, tournaments, prize money, athletes. Therefore, while the abovementioned games can turn into eSports, they are not the definition of eSports. As a matter of fact, the sports genre is not as heavily included in the collection of eSports as their popularity over the world might suggest. It is important to realize that instead of eSports being electronical version of existing sports, eSports is the practice of forming spectator sports around electronical instead of physical games. Historically, game genres like real-time strategy (StarCraft), shooters (Counter-Strike) and fighting games (Street Fighter) have been more popular to eSports fans. The first game to create awareness for the possibility of the rise of eSports was StarCraft by Blizzard, an RTS game that will be one of the games this paper will focus on.

Wagner (2006) found that there was no generally accepted definition yet for ‘eSports’, and used the definition of ‘Sports’ as a basis to form his own definition of eSports:

‘“ESports” is an area of sport activities in which people develop and train mental or physical abilities in the use of information and communication technologies. ‘

Recently (May, 2015), the term eSports was added to leading online dictionary Dictionary.com with the following definition:

‘Competitive tournaments of video games, especially among professional gamers.’

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It is clear that the integration of eSports into the public domain is still at an early stage. Blizzard Blizzard Entertainment is an American game developer and publisher, being most notably known for its MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft. With over 100 million unique players, World of Warcraft is the biggest source of the popularity of Blizzard games. With this popularity comes great interest in everything that Blizzard develops. Blizzcon Because gaming is mostly done at home, and gamers mostly communicate through the internet, the video games industry makes a big effort to also bring people together in real life through the use of conventions. Companies organize these conventions to get in touch with their fans, and to enable the fans to meet each other. They are also the optimal location for sharing new information of their (upcoming) games, and for having people a first look and feel of the games to come to get some excitement started. Blizzard is no different, and has its own convention: Blizzcon. Organized every year, Blizzcon is the place for Blizzard to give back to the community and celebrate the success of their games. They also regularly discuss upcoming games. For the last past years, Blizzcon has also been the place where the finals of the World Championships of their most popular eSports were held. StarCraft 2, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and now Heroes of the Storm each have their own dedicated World Championship, the most important tournament for the respective games. Games The three games that will be the basis for the analysis of Blizzard's eSports approach are each from a different (competitive) genre, and have been released at different times in the development of the eSports industry. These three games were picked because of the core role that eSports has in their respective communities. While World of Warcraft is also sometimes practiced on a competitive level, it is not a defining enough aspect to warrant its inspection in this paper. StarCraft The original StarCraft and its most defining expansion Brood War were released in 1998, being successes in the US and especially Korea. In 2010 a sequel was released which further increased the player base. The StarCraft games are all single player Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games that emulate wars between three alien races: Terrans, Zerg and Protoss. In each game, the player picks one of the races and builds up a base and military force strong enough to defeat his opponent who aims to do the same. Individual forces are controlled and made to either harvest resources needed to grow their base, or used to fight in battles and destroy enemy settlements. Because of the amount of control asked from the player, StarCraft and StarCraft 2 require quick clicking and typing skills from their players to achieve optimal progression through matches. This metric is identified as actions per minute (APM), and the highest level of competition requires players to be able to reach more than 400 APM. This demand of motoric skill has meant that professional StarCraft players are generally very young and the decline of skill starts as early as at the age of 24 (Thompson et al., 2014).

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All StarCraft games and their expansions follow the principle of ‘pay once, play free forever’, they are purchased once in their entirety and do not involve transactions that alter each installment. Hearthstone Announced in 2013, and officially released in 2014, Hearthstone is Blizzard’s entry into the Collectible Card Game (CCG) genre. Players compile decks of available cards in the game, and use these decks to play single player matches versus opponents. These cards have attributes somewhat comparable to those of chess pieces, but are played from the hand onto the board on turns in the game. It is a game of math and strategy, requiring players to estimate what cards the opponents will be playing and how to deal with those with their own. There are three different classes of cards: minions, spells and weapons. Each have their own unique impact on the game; minions have a damage and health value that persist on the playing field until defeated, spells are one time use that provide an instant effect that immediately ends, and weapons can be used to transform the player into a temporary minion able to not only play cards but also impact the game in the way that a minion card would do. The game ends when one of the players gets the opponent's health to below zero by damaging it with either minions, spells or weapons. Hearthstone was a surprise hit in the gaming and eSports scene, quickly becoming one of the top 5 most popular games on Twitch. Only out for little over a year, the game already boosts high competitive player counts and impressive amounts of prize money (e-Sports Earnings, 2015). Because the game requires negligible amounts of interaction with the keyboard or mouse, and is also available on mobile devices, this game has seen immense growth because of its casual nature. Hearthstone is supported by the free-to-play business model (Alha et al., 2014). Not all cards are available to the player at the start, but can be unlocked by opening in-game card packs. These packs can either be bought with real money, or with in-game money that is earned while playing the game. Purely cosmetic items can also be bought with real money, which do not impact the gameplay but only alter certain parts of the imagery. It is not uncommon for players to call Hearthstone a pay-to-win game (Alha et al., 2014), meaning that people buying cards with real money have an advantage over those who only earn money through playing the game for free. While it is true that a player who puts real money into the game can have access to all cards far more quickly, Hearthstone is not pay-to- win because every players has the ability to (eventually) unlock all cards. There is no content in the game that has an impact on the gameplay but is only available through using real money. Heroes of the Storm The two most popular eSports are Dota2 and League of legends, both games of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre. Blizzard’s newly released game that wants to compete for the eSports MOBA market is Heroes of the Storm. The MOBA genre was actually created by players in the StarCraft community, when they modified the gameplay of StarCraft to create a game mode with a more active involvement of the player as a character in the game. This modified game version eventually lead to the creation of League of Legends and Dota2. Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard’s entry into the new game genre that they had a hand in creating. In Heroes of the Storm, players form teams of 5 players to battle other teams. Each player takes control of a Hero with distinct attributes and abilities, creating a new playstyle for every of the over 30 available heroes. Players then get send to a battlefield to complete objectives,

Page 7 of 29 level up and fight battles. A team wins by destroying the opponent’s structures. Heroes have damage dealing capacities and health pools that affect how these heroes impact the game. For Heroes the Storm, Blizzard follows the free-to-play business model (Alha et al., 2014). Most heroes are locked from play at the start, but can be unlocked either by playing regularly or by paying with real money. Cosmetic rewards, including items that change the appearance of heroes, are available through purchase with real money. This business model is very familiar to MOBA fans, because both League of Legends and Dota2 has been using it to great success. While the MOBA genre has the toughest scene to create a new eSport in, Blizzard’s focus on team play over technical skills and the popularity of their other games is expected to allow them to compete with before mentioned games for attention of the viewer. Literature review ESports as a Sport While the impacts of increasing presence of technology in our society are getting more attention, the subject of eSports as a research focus is still fairly new. A big part of the research done on the subject has been based on answering the question if eSports can be considered a sport. The general public, which consists of traditional sports fans, has shown multiple times to deny and even be offended by the notion that eSports is just another form of sports. A famous ESPN broadcaster even went as far as announcing that he would retire from his job if eSports were to be included in the network’s regular broadcasting schedule. He did so after ESPN2 broadcasted a competition of the new eSport Heroes of the Storm by Blizzard. This event also sprouted yet again a discussion on the relation between sports and eSports on Twitter, showing a clear divide between eSports fans and people uninterested or unaware of the eSports scene. Defining eSports seems to be a popular subject for scientists who feel the need to imbed eSports into an established definition (Wagner, 2006; Jonasson, K., & Thiborg, J., 2010). While competitive video games are equal to traditional physical games in terms of being organized environments in which players contest for labels of competence, the big difference is considered the physical aspect that all traditional sports have in common and that can arguably be seen as non-existent in eSports. Figure 1 shows a proposed gradation of definitions of play related activities, leaving a space for eSports to preside in in the form of being intellectual contests (Guttman, 1978).

Figure 1: gradation of play related activities

Fans of eSports and professionals within the industry however do not feel the desire to be recognized as sportsmen, being fully content with the label of competitive or professional gaming. The competitive fighting game scene even famously rejects the notion of being an eSport (Graham, 2011).

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Spectatorship Information asymmetry Another popular aspect of eSport is its unique approach to spectatorship. Making use of and being completely reliant on digital environments (Hutchins, 2008), eSports allow for a more flexible use of the information at hand. Football players and spectators for example have access to about the same level of information: position of players within the field, position of ball within the field, current score and time. The nature of video games allows for a different approach. There is the possibility of greater information asymmetry, between players internally but also between players and spectators externally. When playing a match against another player, or against another team, you will have access to different information on the state of the game than your opponent(s). Each player will have to work with their point of view of the action, and often all information on the opponent is hidden until actively searched for. This is comparable to broadcasts of poker, where players only know their own cards and the cards on the table, but people spectating have access to knowledge of the cards of all players. Generally, popular eSports develop special game modes to allow spectating of matches. These modes compile all information and show it to the spectator, giving them access to more information than each player individually. Cheung & Huang (2011) show the effects of this information asymmetry in StarCraft, identifying 3 different kinds of information asymmetry. The first kind is the situation where a player has access to information that the spectator has not. Examples include game tactics and professional knowledge of the game. The second kind is the opposite, wherein spectators have access to information that some or all of the players do not. For example, spectators might be aware of important locations that are obstructed from view for the players. The third identified kind of information symmetry explains situations in which neither the player nor the spectator have access to all information. This can happen in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) having a role in computer games, or in situations where the outcome is dependent on ‘luck’. Cheung & Huang (2011) concluded that all forms of information asymmetry are ‘a fundamental source of entertainment in video games’. Viewer interaction Furthermore, the use of the internet as the medium for broadcasting, through channels like Twitch and YouTube, has a big impact on the level of involvement that spectators can have. Twitch has played a big role in making video gaming content, including eSports, easily accessible to everyone (van Ditmarsch, 2013). Television is at a disadvantage, having recently taking to developing ‘second screen’ technologies (Cruickshank et al. 2007) to bring the interactive aspect to television viewers that has always been an inherent part of the experience of using the internet. Twitch has a unique chatroom for every livestream and YouTube has its comments section under every video. Here spectators can discuss the content they are watching or have just watched. Even if you are not a fan of those specific communication channels, a collection of fan sites is available for every game at a click of the button. The direct availability of a way to share your thoughts enables people to communicate over the internet even if they are at that moment alone in real life. Traditional sports have recently started making use of sites like Twitter and Facebook to get this kind of interaction with their viewers, but it is not as integral

Page 9 of 29 to the traditional sports experience as it is to the eSports experience. In this sense, the threshold for interacting with people in the eSports community is extremely low. Game development While only well-developed competitive games can survive under the critical evaluations that eSports bring, not all well-developed competitive games are as suitable to be eSports. In a GDC (Game Developers Conference) talk, Dustin Browder of Blizzard talked about how the desire to turn their new game StarCraft 2 into an eSport was used as a guideline for development of that game (Browder, 2011). He mentions four major game design themes that are important to developing an eSport: being clear or clean (Crawford, 2003), being simple versus being complex (Schell, 2014; Salen & Zimmerman, 2004), requiring skill (Schell, 2014; Koster, 2013) and allowing for uncertainty or chance (Schell, 2014). Being clear means that the use of a virtual world must not hinder the interaction with the world. Because video games are limited by design, and cannot emulate the real world completely, it is important for eSports to be clear enough for players and spectators what these limits are and what elements in the virtual world represent. Any additions to a game that increase hindrance in the interaction with and understanding of the virtual world will reduce the clarity of that game, and have a negative impact on the eSports experience. Being simple means the experience for both players and spectators must be as fluid as possible, removing causes of confusion and irritation from the game. In his book The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses (2014), Jason Schell identifies two kinds of complexity: innate complexity and emergent complexity. Innate complexity is the result of complex and cluttered game design, increasing the complexity of the interaction with the game. This form is often regarded as bad design. Emergent complexity, however, is the result of complexity that emerges from simple and smart game design. This is the form of complexity/simplicity that is sought after by Blizzard. Games that have this attribute are easy to interact with, but allow for complex strategies and a higher skill ceiling. Games like Chess and Checkers have large amounts of emergent complexity. The easier it is to perform on the highest level, and to spectate matches, the better the eSports experience will be. While some games have more complex gameplay than others, this design theme focuses on how simple it is for the user to work with this complexity. Requiring skill is a core element of all competitive environments. If a game is completely luck based, there is no reason to invest large amounts of time in it. If a game requires skill, then that creates the kinds of differences in skill that drive competitiveness (Lee & Schoenstedt, 2011). And the higher the skill ceiling, the harder it is to maintain at the top of your play allowing for a more exciting and volatile competitive scene. On the other hand, if the better player wins 100% of the time then there is less of a reason to watch matches and get excited because competitions will bring no surprises. This explains Browder’s fourth point: allowing for uncertainty. Even though being better than your opponent should give you a bigger chance of winning, there should always be a way for a lesser player to beat a better player. Because otherwise there is no distinct difference between watching players compete and watching AI compete. How this uncertainty is introduced and obtained is dependent on the genre of the game. Some researchers consider this element under the label of every game is unique (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004). These four concepts will be used to judge the development and design decisions made with StarCraft, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm.

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Competitive support Because traditional sports aren’t owned by any party, they require special institutions (NFL, FIFA, etc.) to be set up to regulate and organize their sports. This is different for eSports, where the video games at the center of these eSports are created and owned by their developers. This means that developers like Riot (League of Legends), Valve (Dota2, Counter-Strike) and Blizzard (StarCraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm) have full ownership of their games. How they use this control to guide their respective eSports ecosystems, however, can be completely different. James Lampkin (2015), Senior Manager at ESL 4 , identifies three levels of control that developers exhibit on their eSports ecosystems. Riot is an example of running a closed ecosystem, where the developer takes control of all aspects of their eSport with no room for involvement by external parties. Riot acts as sole tournament organizer, but also hires all competitive players in their leagues as employees. A second form is that of the managed ecosystem. In general, the overall structure of their competitive landscape is defined by the developer, but with (most of) the responsibility on other parties to organize events within that landscape. It will be shown that Blizzard takes this approach. Finally, open ecosystems are found where the developer enforces no power on the competitive landscape, letting independent parties organize events all year round without communication or cooperation with the developer. Research StarCraft Sub question 1: What strategies does Blizzard follow in order to create a spectator-friendly game environment? The StarCraft series is by far the most popular strategy series in eSports. StarCraft: Brood War (BW) is the expansion for the original StarCraft. Crucial to its success was Battle.net, the system that Blizzard developed to simplify online matchmaking in their multiplayer games. This focus on multiplayer was the basis for the success of StarCraft as a competitive game. Design decisions The real-time strategy genre is arguably the most complex of the genres that will be looked at in this paper. In Heroes of the Storm each player mostly controls only one character, but in StarCraft players are expected to control hundreds of units. It is important that, regardless of this complexity, the player and spectator experience is clear and simple. StarCraft is required to be clear, because it consists of a large amount of variable gameplay elements. With its three unique races, over 40 unique buildable structures, and with close to 50 unique units, the player and spectator must be able to differentiate each of these. Blizzard placed a lot of focus in development on the appearance of all these objects. Because of the top-down perspective that both players and spectators have in StarCraft, not a lot of object detail will be noticeable. General shape and color were, therefore, the most important aspects available to artists. Colors were the primary element used to differentiate races, and general shape was used to distinguish the units and structures within each race. An easy link to make for everyone is that size equals strength, that the bigger something is the more

4 World's largest eSports company and event organizer, www.esl.eu Page 11 of 29 dangerous it is as well. But they also had to keep the theme of clarity. An example of this is seen below. In Figure 2 on the left size, a Zerg unit called the Ultralisk is shown. The Ultralisk is the most powerful ground unit available to the Zerg race, and is therefore very big. But there is a limit on the size of the Ultralisk, because it must not interfere with the theme of clarity. As shown on the right side of Figure 2, its size means that it blocks a number of other units from view.

Figure 2: Ultralisk, a unit in StarCraft 2, shown from two angles

Because this potential to block relevant information results in unclear situations, the size of this unit was sized down to what it is now as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: end result of Ultralisk in StarCraft 2

This is an example of what decisions Blizzard makes to keep StarCraft clear, but just as important is to focus on the theme of being simple. As mentioned above, the StarCraft games inhibit great numbers of unique buildings and units. Keeping the amount of unique objects to a minimum, however, is key to maintaining simplicity. The ideal amount of units is low enough to not cause unnecessary confusion to the viewers. It also means that there must not be units that are too similar. Because in his case, similarity indicates redundancy and decreases simplicity.

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But the ideal amount of units must also be high enough to allow for a wide range of playstyles and tactics. This balance is what StarCraft has done right, and what has kept other popular games in the genre from attracting an eSports scene. The conclusion can be made that StarCraft has emergent complexity, but minimal innate complexity. Simplicity also has a hand in the theme of requiring skill. Units can be judged by very simple attributes: toughness, movement speed, range of attack and rate of fire. These stats show the value in individual units, and can be used to compare units with each other. But through this very basic information, huge depth is created in the game. Players need to be aware of the stats of their units, and of the opponents, and figure out their plan based on that. Players are capable of adjusting the individual stats through upgrades, but must be able to judge what upgrades are the optimal choice for their specific situation. Even though a unit only has these four attributes, it creates an exponentially growing number of relations between units in the game. This is one of the aspects of StarCraft where skill is introduced. To be able to gain an advantage over your opponent, you need to be aware of all these relations that can exist in your current game, and pick upgrades that will let your units gain an advantage over your opponent’s. This requires a lot of experience, and a lot of practice, but creates a difference in skill between players. Another element that requires skill is the control that players exhibit on their armies. Newer players generally control their units on a larger scale, grouping units together and then controlling these groups as one big unit. Professional players, however, are very skilled in micromanagement (Young & Hawes, 2014): the act of controlling on as low of a scale as possible. These players will move individual units to optimal locations, and will order around each unit individually. This requires more intensive interaction with the game, which results in the concept of APM. Skilled players are able to fulfill a higher amount of actions in a shorter amount of time; positioning individual units and targeting enemies with each unit, gives players the possibility to outperform players who do not take the effort to control their own units separately but only as groups. This micromanagement is also a source of uncertainty. Because players are not perfect, they will not be able to perfectly control each of their unit in every battle and in every match. This means that the outcome of a battle or a match will not be certain until after it has finished, resulting in tension for both players and spectators. Uncertainty is further introduced into the game because of the viability of different playstyles. Just like in Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, your choice of race, structures and units will place you in a rock-paper-scissors environment where the success of your strategy heavily depends on the (unknown) strategy of your opponent. This information asymmetry creates uncertainty for the players, and the fact that spectators are unaware of the strategies of the players creates uncertainty for them as well. Spectator mode StarCraft: Brood War did not have a spectator mode built in. Tournaments had to rely on replays, or had to alternate between the feeds of the players to show the spectators an overview of the action. Because of this, spectators did not have access to as much information as they wished. Modifications and plugins were slowly developed by the community to make the spectating experience easier. StarCraft 2 greatly improved in this aspect, offering an in-game spectator mode that tournaments could make use of, as well as improved replay functionality. With its seven distinct overlays in the spectator mode, tournament hosts are able to give focused information on

Page 13 of 29 several aspects of the game through just the click of a button. This development enriched the spectator experience and increased professionalism in the StarCraft eSports scene. Sub question 2: What does Blizzard do to support and build the competitive scene (players and viewers) surrounding their games?

Rise of modern eSports When the original StarCraft was released, the possibility of creating an eSport was not on anyone’s mind. But in Korea, StarCraft: Brood War acquired high amounts of popularity. By 2002, competitive play was organized and sponsored by large Korean companies such as Samsung. This introduced one of the first modern eSports scenes, and has not been matched since. Without involvement of Blizzard, the Korean StarCraft scene started organizing tournaments and professional leagues. Besides their development of the game, Blizzard cannot claim that they had a role in the growth that the eSport enjoyed. With the release of StarCraft 2 approaching, this eventually lead to a conflict where Blizzard wanted to have more control on their eSport but the Korean eSports companies wanted to stay as independent as they had been before. In the end, all relevant parties game to an agreement. The agreement meant that Korean companies now pay a licensing fee to Blizzard to be allowed to organize and broadcast StarCraft matches, and Blizzard does not claim ownership over the eSports business that has grown around the StarCraft franchise. StarCraft 2 Blizzard developed StarCraft 2 with the intention of creating a new eSport (Browder, 2011). Relying on the popularity of StarCraft: Brood War, StarCraft 2 offered the same competitive involvement along with a more focused eSport experience to succeed Brood War. Slowly, professional BW players and organizations migrated to StarCraft 2. Now officially supporting their eSport, Blizzard created a healthier worldwide eSport scene with more tournaments and higher prize pools (e-Sports Earnings, 2015). These days, almost no professional leagues are organized for BW and only some cash prize tournaments still exist. Instead, all professional leagues have moved to StarCraft 2. Blizzard’s involvement also created the existence of a world championship for SC2, something that had never existed for BW. The StarCraft 2 World Championship Series added even more professionalism to the scene, and helped grow popularity outside of Korea.

Blizzcon World Championship setup Started in 2012, Blizzard has been hosting the yearly StarCraft 2 World Championship Series. Divided by region, players are able to compete and win special tournaments to qualify for the World Championship Series. Players have been grouped by different regions over the years, with this year having only two ‘regions’: Korea and the rest of the world. This shows just how separate the Korean competitive scene is from the rest of the world. Initially hosted in Asia, the World Championship Finals are nowadays held during Blizzcon along with the World Championships of all other Blizzard eSports. The concept of having an official World Championship is very important, because it creates a climax for the competitive season, and a goal to build up to. Because Blizzard organizes the World Championship, the most important set of tournaments in the year, they are able to set new standards for production value and viewer experience. Standards that can inspire third party organizers to improve the quality of their tournaments as well.

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Korean dominance One major consequence of Blizzard’s initial lack of support of StarCraft is that StarCraft eSports has been significantly more popular and better supported in Korea than in the rest of the world. The scene still heavily notices this, with the Korean leagues and tournaments being superior to western alternatives, and with Korean players heavily outclassing western players. This lack of uniform growth has meant that the western scene has stayed relatively small, and that professional western players have often moved to other eSports in which such a big difference between regions does not exist. Had Blizzard been more active in growing the eSport scene, they could have helped create a balanced competitive scene, which had been healthier for the scene as a whole. Hearthstone Sub question 1: What strategies does Blizzard follow in order to create a spectator-friendly game environment? As stated on page 10, four themes can be used to guide the development of games suited for the eSports industry: being clear, being simple, requiring skill and allowing for uncertainty. The Hearthstone development team however initially did not set out to create a game targeted towards the eSports crowd. But because of their focus on the above themes, Hearthstone became popular and a clear eSport from its first reveal, proving the importance of these themes. Design decisions Development of Hearthstone focused heavily on the themes of being clear and being simple. As a CCG, Hearthstone can depend on the existence and solid presence of physical card games in our society to create understanding of the workings of the game. Players take turns playing, and at the start of every turn (and on special occasions) cards are drawn from a player’s pile. These cards have a back side and a front side, with the backside being equal for all cards in the game to not give away information, and with the front side consisting of any information that clarifies the impact and role of the card in the game. These cards are hidden from the opponent until played from the hand onto the playing field, and start having an impact on the game at that point. Only the playing field is relevant to the game and so no effort has to be wasted on explaining the setup of playing the game. These are all examples of gameplay elements that Blizzard did not have to focus on explaining, because they are inherent to physical card games. What they did have to do, was make the link between the digital simulation of a card game and the physical card game strong enough to be able to rely on all these preconceived concepts. They had to make the digital feel physical. Because the Blizzard development team succeeded in creating a believable simulation of a physical card game in a digital medium, it was possible for the game to remain clear. Hearthstone is a clear game because spectators and players need to exert minimal effort to understand what is shown and possible in the digital environment. Because Hearthstone as a card game is significantly more complex than the average physical card game like Solitaire and FreeCell, there is the challenge in development to stay true to the being simple theme. Unlike the classic pack of cards, Hearthstone cards contains an ever changing amount of unique cards that do not, for the most part, follow a simple design. Each of the over 600 cards is unique and therefore requires a description to inform the player of the card’s impact on the game when played. These descriptions are places on the front side of the card along with an illustration. Because the game needs to be simple, these descriptions need to be simple and so Blizzard puts a lot of work into consideration of the phrasing that is used

Page 15 of 29 to precisely state what the card does. The illustration is quite possibly the most important aspect of any card. It creates an anchor to relate the card text to, so that after some time people will know what card it is and what it does just by looking at the illustration. This makes spectating and playing more fluid because recognition of a card is close to instant because of the illustration, and almost no time is wasted on reading the card text. An important part of all card games is the drawing mechanic. Players have their cards shuffled into a randomized order, meaning they have no way of knowing in what order they will end up drawing their specific cards. This creates an aspect of luck, where players can draw their cards in a more desirable order than their opponent and win solely because of that. And if the game’s winner solely depends on luck, then Hearthstone does not fit the requirement for an eSport of requiring skill. Hearthstone fixes this problem in several ways. The first way is through the introduction of several classes (e.g. Mage, Warrior and Rogue) that the player can play as. Each class has access to a collection of unique class-specific cards, along with a special Hero power that acts like a repeatedly-playable card. Because of these differentiating available resources, different classes are better suited for different playstyles. These play styles enable a sort of rock-paper-scissors game environment in which the class you pick impacts what other classes you will have an advantage over and which ones will have an advantage over you. Playing the game is no longer dictated by the draw, but also by the choice of class that you play. Supporting the possibility to make use of different playstyles, is the existing limit on the size of your card pile or deck. With a limit of only 30 cards, in a game with over 600 available cards, the player is able to compile a combination of cards that decreases the impact that luck has on the odds of winning. This element of the game greatly increase the role that skill has. The best players are the ones that can create decks that enable consistent games, while bad players will be identified by having decks where luck of the draw has the greatest impact. Deckbuilding is what differentiates the professionals from the amateurs, and is one of the reasons why fans watch Hearthstone as an eSport. Because of the information asymmetry between opponents, a player needs to be able to correctly judge the deck and play style of his opponent. This requires a lot of knowledge of the game, and research into their opponent. It starts with needing to identify the play style that the opponent is following, followed by identifying what cards have the highest probability of fitting that play style. Players need to consider the chances that the other player (currently) has access to the effects that certain cards will have, and they need to adjust their own tactics accordingly. This takes both a lot of math (in calculating probabilities and risks), and knowledge of the current competitive environment. On top of this, the players must be able to correctly apply this knowledge in the game. In practice Hearthstone games on the competitive level are impacted by the skill and research difference between the opponents, more so than by luck of the draw. Because of these aspects of Hearthstone, skill is the difference between a well performing player and a badly performing player. But through the core drawing mechanic, there is still the theme of allowing for uncertainty. If you draw your cards in a far from ideal order, while your opponent has a close to perfect play every turn, then you will lose. No matter the difference in skill or in preparation, it is always possible for a player to lose to the uncertainty of the draw. Another element that creates uncertainty is the use of Random Number Generation (RNG) in some situations. For example, there is a card that steals a random card from the opponent’s side of the battlefield. If the RNG is good then you will steal one of the better cards, but if the RNG is bad then you will be left with a worse card and you will have wasted your turn. Another example is a card that deals damage equal to any number between three and six. The RNG

Page 16 of 29 in this card can be the difference between dealing enough damage to defeat your opponent, or not dealing enough damage and giving your opponent another turn to win against you. The existence of RNG-based cards like these enables uncertainty, and thus increases the appeal of Hearthstone as a spectator sport. Spectator mode For the first months of Hearthstone’s existence, it did not have a special spectator mode built in. This required online tournaments to receive a feed from both the players of a game so that spectators had access to the hands of cards of both players. While a decent solution, it regularly resulted in issues when player’s feeds froze or were not able to broadcast their screen. So the spectator mode was highly requested by competitive players and tournament organizers. Blizzard responded by developing a spectator mode for the game after a few months of official release after realizing the eSports potential. The spectator mode allows you to spectate the matches that your friends are currently playing. If both the players in a match are your friend then you can spectate them both simultaneously and get access to both hands of cards. As a spectator, you also have the ability to hover over cards to inspect their card text and art, as well as hover over the deck piles on the right so see the amount of cards that players has left. Tournament organizers can make use of this functionality to highlight specific cards to spectators, and to show how far the current game has progressed. This system is now used in close to all professional matches, but is not considered perfect. Blizzard made the choice of focusing on the theme of being simple, by emulating reality and showing the opponent’s cards upside down. This is however not ideal for Hearthstone as a spectator sport, because it requires extra effort to rotate the cards in your mind to be able to recognize them. Because of this, tournament broadcasters still need to perform some video editing to rotate these cards and show them the right side up.

Figure 4: the spectator mode in Hearthstone

Frequent updates It can happen in Hearthstone that a certain card or combination is so strong, that it creates a playstyle that is far better than any other playstyle. When this happens, it breaks the rock- paper-scissor environment. Every player who wants to have a chance at winning, starts playing

Page 17 of 29 the same deck and so the variety of playstyles decreases. To counter this, and to keep the game attractive to players and spectators, Blizzard semi-regularly changes cards that are already in the game when they consider them too strong. Because of this constant effort to maintain the balance of the game and the rock-paper-scissor environment, Blizzard can reinforce both the allowing for uncertainty theme and the requiring skill theme. Blizzard also releases new cards on a semi-regular basis. These cards create different interactions in the game and might make new strategies and playstyles viable. This infusion of regular new content is important, because it creates a chance for the best players to show their expertise and surprise their opponents. Another CCG, Magic: The Gathering, has used the same strategy to stay popular for over twenty years. They cite this source of change as the most important reason for Magic’s success (Rosewater, 2014). Sub question 2: What does Blizzard do to support and build the competitive scene (players and viewers) surrounding their games?

First possibility of eSports Unlike StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone was not developed to be an eSport from the start. Though the design of the game allows for a clear spectator experience, the amount of viewers it attracted was a big surprise. Blizzard first showed an official involvement in the eSports scene in the form of a small invitational tournament. But it took six months after they announced the game and two months after they opened the game to a selection of players in the form of a closed beta test (Bethke, 2003). It took them another six months to announce the Hearthstone World Championship, their first official competition with prize money and in a way their sign of support for the eSports scene. Community tournament support As with their other eSports, Blizzard uses the managed ecosystem for their competitive season. Blizzard leaves any party free to organize events involving Hearthstone, but require these parties to meet certain guidelines and possibly apply for a license from Blizzard (Battle.net, 2013). The bigger the prize value of the event, the bigger the influence that Blizzard exhibits on the organization. Because bigger prize pools attract better and more popular players, these tournaments have a bigger influence on the quality of the eSports scene. They might be picked by Blizzard as tournaments that provide points to the winners, points that impact the chance of the player qualifying for the World Championship. Since Hearthstone players do not automatically have access to all cards on their personal accounts, Blizzard has been known to supply tournament organizers with special Hearthstone accounts that have all cards unlocked. This way players can create the most optimal decks, without being limited by their own investment in the game. Because of this, newer players do not have as much trouble breaking into the competitive scene.

Blizzard’s initial hands-off approach to Hearthstone tournaments did not negatively impact the health of the eSports scene. Because of the absence of mechanical skill, and the focus of Blizzard on being simple and being clear, Hearthstone has seen above average involvement of players in the competitive scene resulting in a relatively high number of organized tournaments in its short period of release (e-Sports Earnings, 2015). Blizzcon World Championship setup The Hearthstone World Championship is the pinnacle of the competitive season for Hearthstone.

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Hosted by Blizzard, and played out at Blizzcon, broadcasts of this tournament can count on a lot of attention. The best performing players inside of the game’s ranking system, as well as winners of select licensed Hearthstone tournaments, earn points based on their performance. At the end of the qualification process, the players with the highest number of points are able to proceed to the next phase and play in offline regional qualifier events. This way all the region (Europe, Americas, Korea/Taiwan and China) send their best players to Blizzcon. In the end, these final 16 players are left to compete for the World Championship title and a big cash prize. Heroes of the Storm Sub question 1: What strategies does Blizzard follow in order to create a spectator-friendly game environment? Heroes of the Storm has been destined to be an eSport, simply because its original concept was the basis for two of the now most popular eSports: League of Legends and Dota2. Developed by different developers, League of Legends and Dota2 fully released several years before Heroes of the Storm by Blizzard even started playtesting. But the desire to make Heroes of the Storm a competitor in the MOBA genre fueled decision making in the development. Using the four themes of being clear, being simple, requiring skill and allowing for uncertainty, these development and design choices can be analyzed. Design decisions Heroes of the Storm matches take place in special themed battlegrounds, which need to seem as natural and close to reality as possible to allow the game to be clear. Obstructions in moveable area are simulated by walls and trees and the danger and damage that characters within the battleground represent are made clear through their size and appearance. Because of this, any person first looking at the game will recognize and evaluate the basic elements of the game. A battleground map is also shown, with information of players’ locations that are not currently on the screen and information on current objectives. This map is designed to be clear and simple, being more a valuable addition than distraction for spectators and players.

Figure 5: view of what a player sees on his screen at every moment in the game

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Because Heroes of the storm sets out to emulate a more complex series of events than Hearthstone, more effort has to be put in the theme of being simple. Players have access to a big variation of actions; including movement actions, battle actions and interface actions. These actions must all be clear options for players and spectators, without taking away too much attention from the overall experience of the game. Blizzard has put a lot of effort into designing user interface elements that are equally clear and simple, taking several iterations to come to the final result. Movement is done by clicking on the area you want to go to with your mouse. This approach has benefits over using the direction keys to move because it enables the game to calculate how to move to a certain location taking into account the precise details of the game environment. If the player had to precisely maneuver his character, it could happen that a difference in game environment perception versus game environment actuality would create confusion and frustration. The decision to use so-called pathfinding (Botea et al., 2013) is an effort to enforce the theme of being clear. Movement is generally done in walking speed, but can be altered in several different ways. All different heroes have access to a special mount (horse/flying carpet/etc.) that enables them to move faster. Spectators will be able to identify these mounts and will naturally assume that these mounts will allow for faster movement, just as it would in real life. Battle actions are done through the use of keys or clicking on UI elements on the screen. What actions each Hero has access to, is shown through the use of icons. Similar to Hearthstone, these icons offer a hint of the workings of these actions and allow people familiar with the icons to understand their impact without the need to read tooltips. Actions not (currently) available are marked with countdown timers, or a lock symbol, to allow for quick observation of all the possible actions for both the players and spectators. In Heroes of the Storm, players get gradually stronger with access to handpicked abilities or attributes (like higher health or better damage dealing). Picking the right abilities and attributes for the current situation in a match, is one of the aspects that requires skill. If your team is forced into a more defensive role, then players need to pick defensive options. But if your team is on the offense and need just a little more damage to win the game then players should pick the options that deal more damage or give them more attacks. Heroes of the Storm gives access to the choices of your team and your opponent’s, as well as other metrics on the game, through the use of an overlay screen that can be shown or hidden with the click of a button. This design is both clear because it’s an external element of the game that shows external information, and simple because it is easily navigable and offers direct information in a fluid way.

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Figure 6: game stats screen, including statistics on individual players as well as team information

In its core, Heroes of the Storm is about battling enemies with your own Hero. To maximize damage dealing while minimizing damage receiving requires a lot of skill. Players are able to train the amount of precise control they have over their Hero, to create an advantage over other players who aren’t as fast and smart with their coordination. And because this is a team- based game, the best teams are the ones with the best teamwork just like in physical team sports. For the spectator, it is interesting to watch Heroes of the Storm because of the difference these professional teams have in skill compared to the spectator and the consequences that might have (Raney, 2006). While not as much a core factor as in Hearthstone, uncertainty still remains a sought after theme for Heroes of the Storm. Information asymmetry is achieved through use of fog-of-war (Hagelbäck & Johansson, 2008), where information of the battleground is hidden until characters make an effort to discover this information (by walking to the location, or using certain scouting abilities). Because of this, a team is not always fully aware of what the opponent’s team is doing, which creates uncertainty on what they have to do. A number of Heroes in the game also have the possibility of turning almost completely invisible, surprising their enemies in battle and gaining an advantage through that form of uncertainty. Spectators get access to all this information, that the players might not, which increases the appeal to watch Heroes of the Storm by use of anticipation of what might happen next. Uncertainty is also accomplished through the availability of more than one distinct battleground. Because in a competitive match, a team is not able to at all times control what battleground they will be playing on, teams need to be familiar and skilled with all available battlegrounds. But in the end, some teams will be more compatible with some battlegrounds while other teams will prefer other battlegrounds. This uncertainty in the battlefield that will be used to play on, creates another source of uncertainty for every competitive match. Finally, since every match makes use of a maximum of 10 different heroes but the total available amount is over 35, there exists an uncertainty for the players and spectators in what heroes will be played. Professional matches incorporate a pick-and-ban phase wherein players Page 21 of 29 take turns banning Heroes that neither team can play and then picking Heroes that they will play until their teams are full. This variation in Heroes played keeps the game exciting and also enables Blizzard to release new Heroes to keep people interested in playing and watching the game. Spectator mode/3rd party extension support From the initial stage of playtesting, Heroes of the Storm has had access to a spectator mode. In this mode up to two players, usually commentators, have access to the game that is being played and the information that is available to either team. The spectator mode shows the most important game metrics, like team strength, Hero revival countdowns and progress indicators (number of kills, amount of building permanently destroyed) along with a full view of the battleground map with the locations of all players. Spectators are able to quickly navigate the map and therefore pay attention to action that happens at any location on the battleground.

While sufficient at this point, the spectator mode is not very comprehensive yet. The community has resorted to changing game files and change the default spectator user interface to support bringing up more features like ability countdowns and automatic following of players. There is an option in the game to change the spectator files, which might hint at the release of more different spectator UI’s by Blizzard. Replays The ability of Heroes of the Storm to save replays of matches played, is a clear sign that Blizzard supports the growth of the eSports appeal of the game. Replays are recorded to the computer and can be easily navigated through. Replays are very important to the professional teams to learn from their failures (or successes), in the same way that physical sports like football use replays to analyze game situations and evaluate their performance. Frequent updates Although Heroes of the Storm has only recently officially released, already Blizzard has announced plans to keep on adding content to the game. Through the addition of new Heroes and new battlegrounds, Blizzard aims to reinforce the require skill and allow for uncertainty themes. More variation in the game will heighten the skill ceiling and will increase uncertainty throughout the eSports scene, keeping spectators interested in the game. Sub question 2: What does Blizzard do to support and build the competitive scene (players and viewers) surrounding their games? Heroes of the Storm was only recently officially released, but has seen playtesting for over a year already. During this time, and especially towards the end of it, Blizzard has been pushing the possibility of eSports in a variety of ways. Staggered Release During the technical Alpha and closed Beta phases of release (Bethke, 2003), only a limited amount of people had access to playing the game. This hindered the opportunity to grow an eSports interest from the start of the game’s lifecycle. To counter this, and increase the amount of gameplay that was available for fans, Blizzard decided to release gameplay videos focusing on competitive matches. Some of these matches were commentated by known eSports commentators/casters from other games, like Day95 of StarCraft fame, who exposed the game to their fan bases, to show the potential of Heroes of the Storm being a spectator sport.

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Releasing these example broadcasts also showed the intent from Blizzard to regard Heroes of the Storm as an eSport. This was important because it built trust and certainty that the Heroes of the Storm scene was worth investing in, and that it would be supported by Blizzard itself. This was also important both to create a fan base and get parties in the eSports industry interested in Heroes of the Storm. Other videos were shared without commentary, but were released with the idea to enable other people to add commentary. The reason for this is twofold. For one, these videos enabled eSports casters to get experience in casting Heroes of the Storm and help increase the quality of future Heroes of the Storm broadcasts. Even though these people were not able to play the game, through the use of these videos they could channel any previous casting experience they had and fine-tune it for the spectator experience of Heroes of the Storm. It also enabled the Heroes of the Storm community to grow because content creators, like YouTubers and journalists, would provide exposure of the game by talking about these provided videos. And it created leading figures in the budding community, people that created a sense of familiarity in a still volatile scene. Heroes of the Dorm Towards the end of the closed beta period, Blizzard announced a collegiate eSports event for Heroes of the Storm. Named Heroes of the Dorm, this event provided an opportunity for American and Canadian students to form a team and compete for a chance to win computer equipment and more. It was also announced that the winning team would receive money from Blizzard to pay for their tuition and (partially) pay back student loans. Because the game was still in closed beta, teams could get access through the game by signing up for this tournament. Over 850 teams of 5 students signed up from universities all over the USA and Canada, creating a vast competitive scene and eSports interest even before the game was officially launched. This tournament created a foundation of players and fans in the best target audience: students. Research shows that people aged 18-29 are more likely to play games than older age groups, and play more often than most other age groups (PewResearchCenter, 2008). Heroes of the Dorm was the first big offline event dedicated to Heroes of the Storm and proved the potential of being an eSport, filling the approximate 5000 seats in the Los Angeles venue. Broadcasting on television While the bulk of the eSports viewer base resides on the internet, Blizzard still takes steps to find other ways of exposure for Heroes of the Storm. In particular, Blizzard struck a deal with ESPN to broadcast the finals of the before mentioned Heroes of the Dorm event live on television. By doing so, Blizzard aimed to reach a different crowd of people than those found on live streaming sites like Twitch. Increasing the exposure of competitive Heroes of the Storm gameplay gets more people interested in eSports and in Heroes of the Storm. As odd as it may seem, Blizzard could not hope to achieve the same amount of viewers on ESPN as it would have achieved on Twitch. Because Twitch is the go-to place for spectating eSports, and because ESPN2 is an American channel only, a lot of fans were unaware of ways to watch the finals when the broadcasts on Twitch were cut off. But what it did do, was show fans of other spectator sports the existence and scale at which eSports are now supported. While a lot of ESPN watchers were outraged by the broadcast (stating that video games can’t be considered sports), a lot of other people mentioned that they were hooked to the broadcast

Page 23 of 29 even without knowing what was going on6. In this sense, both Blizzard and ESPN considered this experiment a success. Community tournament support Blizzard exhibits some control on tournament organizers, but gives them plenty of space to work with. Unlike Riot, which enforces the closed ecosystem for League of Legends mentioned in Competitive Support on page 10, Blizzard enforces the managed ecosystem. Tournament organizers need to follow certain rules set out by Blizzard (Battle.net, 2013), but can expect support in return. Small tournaments, with low prize value, do not need explicit permission from Blizzard to be organized. Bigger tournaments, with rewards above $10,000, require applying for a license. If these applications succeed, these tournaments can count on official promotion by Blizzard and may be used in the qualification process for the Heroes of the Storm World Championship. This managed ecosystem makes it possible for the eSports scene to grow organically, increasing the amount of tournaments along with the demand for them. By using this approach, Blizzard has a hand in the development of the competitive scene without being overburdened by the amount of work that that will take. A downside, however, is that the quality of the competitive scene depends on the control they exhibit in the application process. If tournaments that are allowed to host Heroes of the Storm end up negatively affecting the scene then Blizzard is held partially responsible. Blizzcon World Championship setup The highlight of the year in terms of eSports for Heroes of the Storm is the World Championship that is played during Blizzard’s own convention: Blizzcon. In this World Championship, the best teams from the regions Europe, Taiwan, Korea, China and America will fight for the world championship title and cash prizes. To qualify for this event, teams are required to participate in open tournaments and become one of the representatives of their region in the Heroes of the Storm World Championship. Because Blizzard aims to build worldwide interest in Heroes of the Storm, the World Championship qualification structure means that countries from all over the world are guaranteed to be represented in the final rounds. There are some complaints that this will lower the overall quality of the teams in the finals, but this approach is mostly applauded because it enables the eSports scene to grow worldwide and not be limited to only a small portion of the world. Discussion This paper had the purpose of finding out how companies can impact the possibility and popularity of their games as eSports. By looking at Blizzard, a company with a strong position in the eSports industry, the wish was to find out what steps they take to promote their games as eSports. Blizzard was chosen because of its unique placement in the industry, having three successful eSports based in very different game genres. By looking for similarities in the support of the different genres, general points of attention have been identified that can benefit other game developers. Blizzard shows a clear focus on four distinct design themes that they think are required to be successful as an eSport: being clear, being simple, requiring skill and allowing for uncertainty. For each of the three games discussed, clear examples of these four themes were found with positive impacts on the spectator experience.

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The being clear and being simple themes in particular have meant that both Heroes of the Storm and especially Hearthstone are very easy to understand and get involved in. It is the author’s opinion that these themes made Hearthstone so popular on video content sites like Twitch, and that these themes will also make Heroes of the Storm more accessible to a wider range of people than its competitors. StarCraft, not having the benefit of being originally designed around these concepts, has benefited greatly from the absence of competitors with a stronger focus on these themes. But the StarCraft series combines all four themes in a way that results in them being the only popular RTS eSport at this point. Unlike other comparable games in the genre that so often follow the idea of ‘more is better’, StarCraft succeeded due to Blizzard’s dedication to minimizing game content while maximizing depth. Blizzard proved that there was a big fan base out there for RTS games, and perhaps by looking at Blizzard’s philosophies other developers will eventually replicate StarCraft’s success.

As with physical sports, the theme of requiring skill was shown to be important for eSports as well. While video games in general can be less dictated by skill due to the role that the game’s software has in shaping the experience, Blizzard shows that it is important for eSports to be dictated by primarily skill. Giving the chance for professional gamers to showcase their skill is the biggest reason for spectators to watch these gamers play (Shaw, 2014). Either to be amazed by the possibilities that these eSports athletes create, or to learn from the practices of gamers that have proven to be more proficient in the game that you also enjoy playing. And while the requiring of skill is what gets people to watch eSports broadcasts of good games, it’s the theme of allowing for uncertainty that keeps them watching. The excitement of watching your favorite players play is only enforced by the tension that you feel in relation to their chance of winning. It is exciting to watch the two best teams compete against each other because you are uncertain who will win. If this aspect of uncertainty would not be there, you would have no other reason to watch apart from the ones mentioned above. People would already know who would win, leaving no real reasons for you to watch the matches live (either online or at offline events). Hearthstone in this sense is different from the other discussed games, since the core of the game is so heavily based in uncertainty through the drawing mechanic. Because the role of uncertainty is the largest in this game, Blizzard has put more effort into the theme of requiring skill. The result is that Hearthstone allows for more surprises than other games, but is not dictated by luck. The element of uncertainty makes Hearthstone an exciting eSport to watch, while its impact on the game is limited to not trivialize the role that skill has in the game.

At the moment of writing this paper, Blizzard is nearing a closed beta for its upcoming shooter: Overwatch. Estimated to fully launch in 2016, the eSports industry is already excited for the possibilities of another eSport-compatible game by Blizzard. If Blizzard repeats the same decision making that has been outlined for their other games, Overwatch is expected to be another major player in the eSports scene.

History has also shown the importance of supporting and enhancing the spectator experience through software utilities. StarCraft 2, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm all have dedicated spectator modes that tournament organizers can use to provide the highest quality spectator experience for their viewers. But compared to other companies, Blizzard has not put as much effort into their spectator modes. For instance, League of Legends (van Ditmarsch, 2013) and

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Dota2 have integrated systems in their game that enable people to have an active role in the way that they spectate current professional games whereas Blizzard fans are usually dependent on what the game commentators want to focus on. Or in the case of Heroes of the Storm, dependent on the involvement of other parties that make use of the game’s (limited) possibility to alter the spectator mode’s base functionality. The developers Valve and Riot focus more on their role in forming the spectator experience, where Blizzard follows its managed ecosystem approach by being more hands-off and letting third party companies shape the spectator experience. This managed ecosystem, that has been explained, has several other consequences. As described, Blizzard organizes a World Championship Series for each of its eSports. These tournaments are the only ones organized by Blizzard. Having only one tournament every year is not enough to fulfill the needs of fans, and the rest of the year must be filled with other competitive occasions. Riot is the example of a company that takes control of events all year long without a need or desire to work with third parties. This means that they allocate more money in their budget, and more of their employees, to supporting their eSport. For Riot, eSport is a core marketing investment, whereas Blizzard is supporting whatever scene has organically grown.

The strategy that a company takes in this is primarily based on the perceived identity of its business. Riot is capable of acting as the absolute governing body for its eSport, because it only develops and supports their one game: League of Legends. Other companies like Blizzard or Valve are first and foremost game developers with a focus on more than just the games that happen to attract an eSports crowd. Even then, Blizzard takes a slightly more active role than Valve does in Dota2 or Counter-Strike because Valve is also identified by Steam, its hallmark digital game distribution software. Were Blizzard, or even Valve, to move towards the example of Riot, they would have to start picking favorites among their games and renounce any games that were not viable for the eSports industry. Clearly, this would anger a lot of their fans and as such is not likely to happen. In this context it is clear why Riot works towards a closed environment, Blizzard follows the managed ecosystem approach, and Valve is completely fine with keeping their ecosystems very open. Conclusion With the research question focused on investigating the role that Blizzard has and can have in the success of their games as eSports, the conclusion was made that a company has two distinct roles to play: 1. supporting the spectator experience during the game’s design and development, and 2. taking a role in shaping the competitive scene of their eSport. The results of this paper show a variety of ways that Blizzard uses to integrate and enhance four design elements into their games. Regardless of the genre of the game, these four themes can guide the development of games that are designed to work well as eSports. These four elements were isolated because they help shape the spectator experience in meaningful ways. It was also shown that Blizzard takes an approach to controlling the competitive landscape of their eSports that is in the middle of absolute and non-existent: the managed ecosystem. Through the managed ecosystem that Blizzard consistently sets up for its eSports, they have a very big impact on the identity of the competitive scene but a very small involvement on the lower scale of regular tournament organization.

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Future work The eSports industry has only recently started gaining some well-deserved attention. Its foundation in video gaming culture, along with its unique possibilities in the spectator experience, is full of potential new insights. Because at the moment of writing, the MOBA genre is the dominant source of eSports, it is interesting to discover why exactly this type of game lends itself to be spectated. A possible equivalent may be found and analyzed in the world of physical sports, perhaps the concept of ‘ball sports’ (football, basketball, baseball, etc.) be far more popular than other sports like athletics.

It is the hope of the author that in the coming years the eSports industry will enjoy increasing interest from demographic groups that have not traditionally embraced video games. If this happens, research will hopefully be executed to discover how the presence of videogames in our society evolved from a niche to possibly the core entertainment industry.

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