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Expertise in Professional Overwatch Play

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Expertise in Professional Overwatch Play University of Central Florida STARS Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works 2018 Expertise in Professional Overwatch Play Joey R. Fanfarelli University of Central Florida, [email protected] Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ucfscholar University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Fanfarelli, Joey R., "Expertise in Professional Overwatch Play" (2018). Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 769. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ucfscholar/769 International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations Volume 10 • Issue 1 • January-March 2018 Expertise in Professional Overwatch Play Joey R. Fanfarelli, University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA ABSTRACT eSports is a rapidly growing phenomenon in competitive gaming. Expertise is an interestingtopictostudyinrelationtoeSports,aseSportsathletesareconsidered amongthemosthighly-skilledplayersoftheirparticulargames.Examiningexpertise notonlyadvancestheunderstandingofwhatskillscomposeprofessionalplaybut ,enablesadeeperstudyoflearningingames;beforelearningprocessesarestudied it is important to detail what learning these processes should produce. This study examinesexpertisethroughtheapplicationofthematicanalysistoaseriesofinterviews with professional players of the eSports game, Overwatch. The goal of this study istoidentifywhichskillsareperceivedtobeimportanttoprofessional-levelplay by professional players. Two overarching themes were identified, game sense and ,mechanics.Anumberofsub-themeswereidentifiedasimportant,includingsurvival anticipation/prediction,communication,thoughtfulness,aim,abilityusage,movement .andpositioning,andteam-basedmechanicalsynergies KEywordS Esports, Expertise, Game Sense, Games, Learning, Overwatch, Professional, Skills, Video Games DOI: 10.4018/IJGCMS.2018010101  .Copyright©2018,IGIGlobal.CopyingordistributinginprintorelectronicformswithoutwrittenpermissionofIGIGlobalisprohibited  1 International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations Volume 10 • Issue 1 • January-March 2018 INTROdUCTION &Anexpertisapersonwithaboveaverageability,talent,orknowledge(Kirschner Williams,2013).Thestudyofexpertsisnotanewphenomenonandhasreceivedstrong attentionfromtheliterature.Howeversubstantiallylessfocushasbeengiventothe .studyofexpertiseingamesandresearchonexpertiseinesportsisstillinitsinfancy Thisisproblematicasexpertiseisdomain-specific(Murphy&Alexander,2002);while aprofessionalfootballorAmericansoccerplayermustbeabletopreciselycontrola ballwithherfootandmaintainanintenselevelofstamina,aprofessionalbasketball playerwouldbepenalizedforfootcontrol,andaprofessionalchessplayerhaslittle useforthetypeofphysicalstaminausedintheaforementionedsports.Similarly,with esports,eachgamehasdifferentgoals,rules,andaffordances,indifferentsettings,and withdifferentcontrolschemes.Playersneedtobecomeproficientwithmanipulating ,thecontrollingmechanismstoreacttospecifictimingstructuresingames(Egliston Expertgameplayersmustmastercomplexskillsthatworkinsynchronywith.(2007 &,thegame’smechanics(Thompson,Blair,Chen,&Henrey,2013;Horn,Cooper Deterding,2017).Asresearchersstudythecompositionofexpertisewithinaparticular esport,theygainanunderstandingoftheaspectswhichneedtobemasteredinorder tobeconsideredanexpert.Onceunderstood,theseaspectsenablethestudyofthe -processesrequiredtodevelopthatexpertise,andalsoallowforcross-gameandcross domainstudyoftheaspectsandprocessestobettersituateesportsandplayerswithin .thegreaterbodyofexpertiseresearch Whilemuchworkremains,expertiseresearchingaminghasprogressedsubstantially sinceSudnow’s(1983)Pilgrims in the Microworld,ananecdotechroniclingtheauthor’s journeyfromnovicegamertocompetentplayerintheAtarigame,Breakout.Other earlygamingexpertiseresearchexaminedexpertiseinvideogames,focusingonhow video game-based expertise transfers to non-game-based tasks. For instance, both Sims&Mayer(2002)andGreenfield,Brannon,&Lohr(1994)examinedhowspatial .abilityingamestranslatedtospatialabilityoutsideofgames &Esportsexpertiseresearchpickedupinthelate2000s.Jakobsson,Pargman Rambusch (2007) conducted interviews with professional Counter-Strike: Source playersatthe2007WorldCyberGames.Althoughthearticlefocusedprimarilyon thetransitionfromnovicetoprofessionalplayer,itmentionedexpertisewithinits ,analysis,citingtheimportanceofteamcommunicationandadaptationtotheenemy .anddescribedtheimportanceofbothphysicalandmentalaspectsofgamemastery :Reeves, Brown, & Laurier (2009) also examined expertise in Counter-Strike Sourcebyproposingandanalyzingtwogameplayvignettes.Theauthorsarguedthe importanceofconsideringtheplayerexperience,andpresentedasetoffeaturesof expertiseinCounter-Strikeplayers,asaresultoftheirvignetteanalyses.Theauthors recommendedexamininghowthesefeaturesremainordifferacrossexpertiseinother .FPSgames,orgamesofothergenres Donaldson(2015)theorizedaboutexpertiseintheMultiplayerOnlineBattleArena esportsgame,LeagueofLegends.Thisresearchprovidedanin-depthexaminationof 2 International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations Volume 10 • Issue 1 • January-March 2018 mechanicalandmetagameexpertise.Theauthorconcludedthatthedevelopmentof .metagameexpertiseisparticularlyimportanttoexpertplay Castaneda,Sidhu,Azose,&Swanson(2016)usedpreandpost-playsurveysin conjunction with eye trackers to study differences across players with a range of gamingexperience.Theyfoundthatnoviceplayersreflectedmoreonconcretegame ,elements,andweremorelikelytolookatthesamespotonthescreen,twiceinarow ,whencomparedtoexpertplayers.Whilethiswasnotastudyofprofessionalplayers itdidutilizetheesportsgame,DefenseoftheAncients2,andyieldedstrongdataon .visualpracticesofplayerswithhighlevelsofexpertise Other studies have examined expertise in games in other ways, such as using quantitativemetricstoassessexpertiseinTetrus(Lindstedt&Gray,2013)orrecording gameplayandaskingtheplayertonarratehisorheractionsinWorldofWarcraft Kirschner&Williams,2013).Whilethisresearchisquitevaluable,thereisstillmuch) thatremainstobestudiedwhenconsideringexpertiseinmodernesports,atopicthat islikelytofinditswayintothepubliceyeiftheesportsmarketcontinuesitsrecent .andcontinuoustrendtowardsuccess Esportshasexperiencedrapidgrowthinrecentyears(Hamari&Sjöblom,2017).At over$99.6billioninrevenuein2016,8.5%higherthanthepreviousyear,thesedigital ,competitionshavenotonlybecomepopular,buthavebecomelucrative(Armstrong ,Inparallel,theacademicliteraturehasrecentlystrengtheneditsfocusonesports.(2017 asevidencedbythethirdspecialissueofthisjournaldedicatedtothetopic.Thatis nottosaythatesportsresearchhasnotbeenongoing,butithascertainlyachieveda .strongerfocusinrecentyears Professionalesportsathletes,aswithanytraditionalsport,representthehighest ;tierofskillfoundwithintheplayerbase.Theypracticeforlonghours(Collins,2017 Kari&Karhulahti,2016),learnthegameinandout,andultimatelyformtheirown strategiesandnewwaysofplayingthegameinordertomaintainanedgeontheir competitors.Expertiseandlearning,therefore,areatthecoreofanathlete’sesports experience,andthusatthecoreofesportsitself.Thepresentstudyseekstoexamine .expertiseinamodernesportsgame,Overwatch Overwatch Overwatchisacompetitiveonlinemultiplayerfirstpersonshooter(FPS)gamewhere playersformintotwoteamsofsixplayerseachinobjective-basedplay.Playerschoose fromalargerosterofplayablecharacters,calledheroes,whoeachhavetheirown special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Hero selection can be changed at any pointduringthegameaslongastheplayerisintheirteam’sspawnarea.Eachhero has a “primary fire” ability which is typically a straightforward attack or healing action (e.g., swinging a hammer, shooting a gun, extending a healing beam), and someheroeshaveasecondaryfireabilitywhichtendstobeslightlymorecomplex e.g.,hackinganopponent’sabilities).Heroesalsohaveotherabilitieswhichrequire) ,atimertocountdownbeforetheycanbeusedagain(e.g.,layingatrap).Beyondthat allheroeshaveanultimateability,whichchargesovertime.Theseultimateabilities 3 International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations Volume 10 • Issue 1 • January-March 2018 canturnthetideofthegame,enablingacharactertotemporarilybecomeanextremely powerfuldamagedealerorhealer,ormakingenemieslesseffectiveoreasiertoattack
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