The Presumed Prosumers an Observational Study of the Esports Experience

Master Degree Project in Marketing and Consumption The Presumed Prosumers An observational study of the eSports experience Susanna Järphag and Jessica Lawson Supervisor: Peter Zackariasson Master Degree Project No. 2016:139 Graduate School The Presumed Prosumers An observational study of the eSport experience Järphag, S. and Lawson, J. gamers around the globe. ESports, or Abstract electronic sports, are described by Wagner (2007, p.182) as “an area of sport activities The contribution of this article concerns in which people develop and train mental the fact that consumers of the eSports or physical abilities in the use of experience can be regarded as prosumers. information and communication This conclusion is based on an technologies”. Essentially, eSports take observational study carried out at Intel place when professional computer gamers, Extreme Masters in Katowice. Consumers or video game players, play against each of the eSports experience take on the role other in organised tournaments. In of prosumers as they contribute with Deloitte’s report: eSports bigger and resources such as time, money, skills and smaller than you think, they predict that efforts, as well as engagement and eSports will generate revenues of $500 creativity, which creates value not only for millions globally in 2016, which is an themselves, but adds to the entire increase of 25 % compared to 2015. It experience. It was noticed during the could be argued that eSports is becoming observations that the contribution of “bigger than basketball”, due to the fact resources varied between individuals, that the industry reaches tens of millions of which stress the importance of allowing people on a global scale and that the prosumers to participate on their own biggest events attract audiences of 40 000 terms. We conclude that the motivations of people and more than 150 million viewers prosumers are similar to the motivations of online. However, eSports offer fewer the consumers of the eSports experience. major events than traditional sports, which However, not all consumers of eSports are means that in dollar terms, eSports are not prosumers. Marketing actors within playing in the major leagues yet, although eSports cannot force the consumers to take there is a great interest from tech and on the role of prosumers, but they can media companies due to the growth however encourage them to collaborate by potential of the industry. Amazon acquired providing the consumers with Twitch for around $1 billion and the opportunities to contribute with their Swedish media company Modern Times resources in co-creational efforts such as Group, MTG acquired a majority stake in collaborative marketing. ESL, for $87 million in 2015, (Deloitte Global Report, 2015), which demonstrates Keywords: Prosumers; eSports; Co- the growth of the industry. Historically, creation; Collaborative Marketing games were not played competitively like they are today, but with the birth of the Introduction Internet, combined with gaming, the gaming community soon started organising A name that may be heard more often in official tournaments (Jin, 2010). As a times to come is eSports, a name used to result of this development, players who describe the scene of organised games were engaged in the community started played between professional computer forming teams and leagues that looked like 1 other leagues, such as the NHL (National and becoming a part of the experience. Hockey League) and Champions League. Increased sharing of video game content The difference is that eSports is built on and an explosive growth of the eSports online content, which then resulted in industry is an example of what is known as offline tournaments, whereas other sports “prosumers”, consumers who take on the are offline performances turned into online role as co-creators of the experience performances through online media and (Newzoo Global Esports Report, 2015). communities. Once teams and leagues were created, players started competing on The concept of prosumers was formulated a global level (Taylor, 2012; Jonasson and already in 1980 by the futurist Alvin Thiborg, 2010) and the money involved Toffler, who defined prosumers as with winning an eSports event has made someone who brings into existence certain the sport into a spectator sport with services, goods, or experiences for himself, broadcasted events in different parts of the or herself. Instead of selling or exchanging world (Jin, 2010), just like many other these goods, services, or experiences, the sports. According to Seo (2013, p. 1543), prosumer uses them for his, or her, own “eSports is a fast-growing consumer enjoyment (Toffler and Toffler, 2006). segment, involving multiple on and offline However, the concept has changed its interactions among and between meaning during the years and the idea of consumers, companies, and other prosumers as self-creators of value has stakeholders” and contends that eSports are been challenged by a view of prosumers as not only about gaming, but rather are creators of value on a bigger scale complex phenomena consisting of multiple (Tapscott and Williams, 2006), meaning interrelated experiential performances, that the value created by prosumers is such as online tournaments and offline important for other actors (companies, events, and multiple actors involved in suppliers etc.) as well. Seran, Izvecian and creating those experiential performances. Buiciman (2013) have defined prosumers The marketing actors of the eSports as consumers that create value by engaging experience consist of players such as in a process with companies for their own consumers, teams, companies, use or for the use of others (2013). They broadcasters, and sponsors of the eSports argue that the difference between the experience. traditional consumers and the prosumers is the fact that the prosumers are engaging What is most striking about eSports from a creatively in the interaction with marketing perspective is not the global companies (Izvercian and Seran, 2014). character of the industry and the Cova and Cova (2012, p. 150) have named extraordinary growth, rather the nature of prosumers “agents of their own destiny”, the value consumers seek when engaging because of their roles as co-creators of in competitive computer gaming (Seo, value and their influence on other 2013). Consumers of eSports appreciate marketing actors. the co-creational aspects of the eSports experience, which consists of almost no The aim of this paper is to explore if physical products and only a few services, prosumers is a useful concept to such as computer-game subscriptions, TV understand consumers of eSports. airings, and computer-game events (Seo, Previous research on prosumers has 2013). The way in which consumers take focused on the production process (e.g. part in experiences has changed Toffler, 1980; Tapscott and Williams, dramatically in the last 10 years, with an 2006) and the service experience (Chandler increase in people not only watching and Chen, 2015), but the concept of professionals, but also creating, sharing, prosumers have not yet been studied within 2 a specific context. Based on the claim of creators of value towards a value-in-use Newzoo Global eSports Report, that the view of customers as co-creators of value consumer of eSports is an example of a in the interaction with suppliers (Grönroos, prosumers, we will explore the concept of 2006). Value-in-use means that value is not prosumers within eSports further. What obtained until it is determined by the makes eSports such an interesting industry consumer in the process of consumption is the active role of the audience, and, (Xie et al., 2008). A paradigm shift has Crawford and Gosling (2009) emphasise occurred, where consumers have gone the paradigm shift that has occurred, where from isolated to connected, from unaware audiences are no longer passive, but rather to informed, and from passive to active co-creators using consumer goods in the (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2002), which construction of social identities. Taylor has resulted in the concept of co-creation. (2012) argues that “fans do not simply Co-creation, which is a business strategy consume but are crucial participants in the where the focus is on consumer production of cultural products” (2012, pp. experiences and interactive relationships, 188), which implies that eSports has gained extensive interest from consumers play an important role in researchers in areas such as economics, industry. management, and marketing (e.g., Sharma, Sugumaran and Rajagopalan, 2002; Etgar, In the case of eSports, even though the 2008; Evans and Wolf, 2005; von Hippel consumers may not be professionals, they and Katz, 2002; Pitt et al., 2006; Prahalad infuse energy into the events (Taylor, and Ramaswamy, 2004; Vargo and Lusch, 2012), which emphasises the active role of 2004). The research on co-creation has eSports consumers. This shed light on changed the role of the consumers in the whether the consumers could be argued to interaction with companies and consumers be prosumers or if they are only presumed are argued to no longer be satisfied with prosumers, which will be further interactions where they have passive roles. developed in this paper. The purpose of Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) argue this paper is to explore the concept of that consumers are looking for prosumers through an observational study personalized interactions based on their of the eSports experience. The growing individual needs in the consumer-company number of eSports consumers have not interaction, which is the focal point of only evoked interest from companies value creation. within the eSports industry, but from other industries as well (Taylor, 2012), which Numerous researchers such as Evans and makes it highly relevant to observe this Wolf (2005), Prahalad and Ramaswamy growing market segment from a marketing (2004), Seybold (2006), and von Hippel perspective. By looking at the concept of (2005) have acknowledged the significance prosumers within a specific context, more of involving customers in the value insight can be gained about who the creation.

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