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A Look at Blizzard

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A Look at Blizzard Supporting eSports: A look at Blizzard Bachelor Thesis Robbert Troost 10261788 Supervisor: André Nusselder Page 1 of 29 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. Page 2 of 29 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 Page 3 of 29 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
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