Trabalho Apresentado No GP Games, XVIII Encontro Dos Grupos De Pesquisas Em Comunicação, Evento Componente Do 41º Congresso Brasileiro De Ciências Da Comunicação

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Trabalho Apresentado No GP Games, XVIII Encontro Dos Grupos De Pesquisas Em Comunicação, Evento Componente Do 41º Congresso Brasileiro De Ciências Da Comunicação Intercom – Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação 41º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação – Joinville - SC – 2 a 8/09/2018 Macros, Fountain Hooks e Overpass Boosts: as trapaças nos e-sports.1 Gabriela Birnfeld Kurtz2 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS. RESUMO O presente artigo tem como objetivo investigar as trapaças em jogos digitais no ambiente específico dos campeonatos de e-sports. Buscamos estabelecer relações entre as estratégias da mesma natureza em jogos digitais em geral e a quebra de regras descritivas e prescritivas presentes nos games. Para embasar a discussão, delimitamos o que são os e-sports. Em seguida, definimos jogos digitais e conceituamos as regras neste contexto. Escolhemos casos de trapaças em e-sports em diversos jogos para realizar uma discussão acerca destas estratégias. Encontramos particularidades nesta prática, como a escassez de evidências de hacking nestes eventos e das diferentes interpretações do que é trapaça e o que se encontra dentro das regras do jogo em casos de exploração de bugs e brechas nos jogos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: comunicação; jogos digitais; games; e-sports; trapaças. Introdução Há quem pense que 10 mil pessoas reunidas em um estádio no Brasil estariam lá para assistir a alguma partida de futebol. No entanto, no dia 2 de setembro de 2017, todas estas pessoas estavam reunidas no Mineirinho em Belo Horizonte para ver a etapa final do CBLoL, campeonato brasileiro do jogo digital League of Legends3. Em 2016, o campeonato internacional de Dota 2 pagou mais aos vencedores do que a Libertadores, atingindo a maior premiação da história dos e-sports: foram 6,5 milhões de dólares. Em reais, isto equivaleria na época a 22 milhões, 4 milhões a mais do que o vencedor do campeonato de futebol supracitado4. As receitas globais do segmento irão alcançar 906 milhões de dólares, um crescimento de 38.2% em relação ao ano anterior (NEWZOO, 2018). Estes são apenas alguns dados que demonstram não apenas o crescimento e a presença dos e-sports como um mercado lucrativo, mas também apontam para o fato de 1 Trabalho apresentado no GP Games, XVIII Encontro dos Grupos de Pesquisas em Comunicação, evento componente do 41º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação. 2 Doutoranda em Comunicação e Informação na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Mestra em Comunicação Social pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. Professora no curso de Publicidade e Propaganda da PUCRS. E-mail: [email protected] 3 Ver: <http://www.espn.com.br/noticia/724070_com-mineirinho-lotado-team-one-despacha-pain-e-e-a-campea-do- cblol-2017> Acesso em 4 de jul 2018. 4 Ver: <https://oglobo.globo.com/sociedade/tecnologia/campeonato-de-videogame-paga-mais-para-equipe- vencedora-que-libertadores-17086169> Acesso em 4 de jul 2018. 1 Intercom – Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação 41º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação – Joinville - SC – 2 a 8/09/2018 eles não serem mais um nicho. Com uma previsão de audiência de 380 milhões de pessoas acompanhando estes esportes digitais até o final deste ano (NEWZOO, 2018), os e-sports caminham para a massificação. Assim como nos esportes tradicionais, a vontade de vencer ou de tirar vantagem sobre os adversários, existe. O uso de dopping já foi verificado e, por conta disso, é prática obrigatória nos campeonatos de e-sports a realização de exames toxicológicos5. A manipulação de resultados por meio de apostas, outra prática corriqueira em esportes, também faz parte deste mundo. Por conta de um escândalo envolvendo um atleta russo em um evento de Dota 2 em 2013, que ganhou 322 dólares apostando contra seu próprio time, quando ocorre esse tipo de prática no âmbito dos esportes eletrônicos, ela é chamada de “322”6. Estratégias como estas são comuns tanto aos e-sports quanto aos esportes tradicionais. No entanto, por conta das características específicas dos jogos digitais, há uma gama inteira de trapaças que se aproveita das regras escritas no código dos softwares, de suas brechas e oportunidades. Um jogador de FIFA 18 não pode enganar o juiz para “cavar” um pênalti, mas pode se aproveitar de glitches, como sair de uma partida que está perdendo para não ter sua derrota computada e, assim, manter sua posição no ranking7. Por serem trapaças muito particulares dos esportes eletrônicos, elas trazem novidade em relação a esportes tradicionais. Em um mercado onde há muito dinheiro e pessoas envolvidas, entender estes atos se faz crucial para os estudos dos games, mais especificamente nos esportes eletrônicos. Os Game Studies se debruçam há um tempo sobre a temática das trapaças em jogos (e.g. SALEN E ZIMMERMAN, 2004; FOO E KOIVISTO, 2004; YAN E RANDELL, 2005; WEBB E SOH, 2007; CONSALVO, 2007; MORTENSEN, 2010; BLACKBURN et. al., 2014). Há também uma literatura crescente sobre os e-sports, que consolida estes estudos (e.g. TAYLOR, 2012; WITKOWSKI, 2012; WINNAN, 2016; HILVOORDE, 2016; LI, 2017; BROCK, 2017). No entanto, não encontramos literatura que trate direta e especificamente da relação entre as trapaças, a quebra nas regras dos jogos e campeonatos de e-sports, apenas escassas discussões que tangenciam o tema 5 Ver: <https://revistagalileu.globo.com/Revista/noticia/2016/04/jogadores-de-e-sports-passam-por-testes-antidoping- antes-de-competicoes.html> Acesso em 04 jul 2018. 6 Ver: <https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/23/match-fixing-comes-to-the-world-of-e-sports/> Acesso em 04 jul 2018. 7 Ver: < https://adrenaline.uol.com.br/2017/12/06/53364/alguns-dos-jogadores-mais-famosos-de-fifa-18-sao- acusados-de-trapacear-no-fut-champions/> Acesso em 04 jul 2018. 2 Intercom – Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação 41º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação – Joinville - SC – 2 a 8/09/2018 (TAYLOR, 2012, JARRET, 2015; FELCZAK, 2015). Desta maneira, apesar de ser um assunto recorrente, há uma oportunidade de explorar o tema sob um prisma diferente. O presente artigo tem como objetivo investigar as trapaças realizadas em campeonatos de e-sports buscando identificar os tipos de estratégias utilizadas pelos jogadores e como elas se relacionam com as regras descritivas e prescritivas presentes nos jogos digitais. Para isso, realizaremos uma breve contextualização do que são os esportes eletrônicos e como se configura o cenário atual. Após, traremos as definições de regras descritivas e prescritivas e como elas se relacionam com as trapaças realizadas em jogos em geral. Para a discussão, traremos vídeos e notícias que descrevem as estratégias ilegais utilizadas pelos jogadores profissionais em campeonatos de jogos diversos, buscando exemplificar e tipificar tais atos quando ocorrem especificamente em cenários competitivos. Definindo e-sports De acordo com a Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB, 2018), o e-sport é vídeo game competitivo. Não é sinônimo para a atividade de jogar games, e não se refere a influenciadores que fazem streams no Twitch ou jogam em um ambiente casual multiplayer. Apesar de não ser uma referência teórica e sim mercadológica, a IAB consegue sumarizar o que é e-sport de maneira relativamente satisfatória. É a partir desta definição, que expandiremos o conceito. Taylor (2012) aponta para o fato de os esportes eletrônicos por vezes fazerem com que esqueçamos da materialidade dos equipamentos necessários para jogar e também do esforço físico concreto que existe para realizar esta atividade. Fato que também é apontado por Witkowski (2012) em seu estudo sobre e- sports e Counter-Strike. A pesquisadora defende que, apesar de discretos, os movimentos de respiração, postura e estabilidade, bem como o esforço mental realizado durante estas partidas, conferem a “esportividade” à modalidade. Ou seja, para além da interface, há um esforço físico envolvido na prática, que por suas características menos perceptíveis, por vezes fazem com que tenham menos importância. Ainda em defesa do fato de e-sports serem esportes, Li (2016) provoca: quão diferentes são estes jogos de uma partida de xadrez e da NASCAR? Muitas críticas relacionadas aos games podem ser atribuídas ao medo do novo e ao fato de outros esportes tradicionais estarem presentas há séculos. Também, as companhias que controlam os campeonatos ainda são muito novas e emergentes, o que dificulta na consolidação da 3 Intercom – Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação 41º Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação – Joinville - SC – 2 a 8/09/2018 atividade para a mídia em geral. No entanto, é possível ver mudanças na indústria do entretenimento, como, por exemplo, o fato de a ESPN (veículo midiático poderoso no âmbito dos esportes) ter lançado uma seção específica para e-sports em seu site em 2016 (LI, 2016). Outro ponto importante observado por Taylor (2012) são as características intrínsecas aos jogos de computador, que conferem outras propriedades ao e-sport. Por serem artefatos computacionais, contexto e negociação das regras são diferentes de esportes tradicionais. O espaço de jogo, a computação dos dados e os limites já são determinados inicialmente no código do software, havendo então outras camadas de regras que trazem nuances ao jogo – no entanto, a noção de que a governança das regras está no computador é muito relevante. Por conta disso, possibilidades de trapaças podem surgir a partir da manipulação de regras já inseridas no código, ou por meio da exploração de possibilidades que estão no mundo do jogo. Na próxima seção, iremos investigar a questão das regras que estão presentes no software e aquelas que Taylor (2012) apresenta como “nuances”, ou seja, fora dos domínios do código. Entre outras características dos e-sports apontadas por Taylor (2012) estão as regras dos torneios em si. Um mesmo jogo pode ter regras diferentes dependendo de qual campeonato ele está inserido. A autora comenta que há as de regulação básica do jogador, como restrições de idade, guias sobre o tamanho dos times e substituições, guias sobre quais os equipamentos são permitidos, entre outras; e as regras específicas do game.
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