Dominican Scholar Senior Theses Student Scholarship 5-2019 From Spacewar! to Twitch.tv: The Influence of Competition in Video Games and the Rise of eSports Robert Boyle Dominican University of California https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2019.HIST.ST.04 Survey: Let us know how this paper benefits you. Recommended Citation Boyle, Robert, "From Spacewar! to Twitch.tv: The Influence of Competition in ideoV Games and the Rise of eSports" (2019). Senior Theses. 122. https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2019.HIST.ST.04 This Senior Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Dominican Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Dominican Scholar. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Boyle i From Spacewar! to Twitch.tv: The Influence of Competition in Video Games and the Rise of eSports A senior thesis submitted to the History Faculty of Dominican University of California in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Bachelor of Arts in History By Robert Boyle San Rafael, California April, 2019 Boyle i Abstract Since their inception in the 1950s, video games have come a long way; with that advancement came more popularity, a growing demand, and an evolving culture. The first person shooter (FPS) video game genre and the competitive scene that was born out of it is an ideal case study to analyze this change over time. To understand how video games became so popular, one must examine their history: specifically, their development, impacts the games have had on society, and economic trajectories.