Nuevos escenarios de consumo de videojuegos: twitch.tv y los esports

Zusammenfassung

Videogames ceased to be a niche entertainment long time ago, whether they were targeted at children, computer enthusiasts or at those who were following the path from arcades to consoles and computers. Its use and audience have increased at the same dizzying pace than its technical design has improved, and technological and communicative developments were implemented. In short, the evolution of ICTs combined with digital entertainment to expand its possibilities and reach to the general public. As a result, videogames transcend any initial barrier or limitation that they will face as a medium and as an industry. Specifically, online options and the standardization of smartphones, in terms of their use and easy access to software in the form of applications, have been two of the key advances in the current boom in videogame consumption. Videogames have been integrated into digital content dynamics at the same level as the rest of the industries related to media such as audio (music, podcast, etc.), video (cinema, series, VOD, streaming, etc.) or the text (books, blogs, written media, etc.). Moreover, considering the digital and interactive nature of videogames since their inception, the online transition has been an organic and dynamic step. The media and consumption convergence are other fundamental characteristics that the technological evolution of Internet and the mobile environment has made possible thanks to its expansion and integration. As part of this convergence, new ways and forms of videogames consumption emerge and modify the standard scenario in which them and their related content are accessed. Two of these new ways are videogame streaming and esports, understood as the competitive practice of videogames as a spectacular show. This thesis is about analysing these two scenarios, with special emphasis on the second one, esports, the current state of the phenomenon, its industry and its audiovisual aspect, as well as its possible evolution. The resultant investigation is based on a main objective and five secondary ones derived from the first. The primary objective aims to study the phenomenon of esports as a three-dimensional construct: an emerging, indefinite and dynamic one, with a mixed industry and a multi-convergent scenario. The secondary objectives seek to characterize the scientific literature of esports, to delve into the historiography of the phenomenon and its relationship with the audiovisual medium, to identify the conformation and the current functioning of the industry generated from them, define the structure of the sector from a techno-socioeconomic perspective facilitated by the interaction of the industry's own components and to analyse the audiovisual aspect of their broadcasts via streaming. The methodology used to address this analytical-descriptive research is divided into three blocks in order to study the observations made on esports, the subjects involved, and the objects produced. The first one is built on two complementary tools such as an adapted (quantitative) meta-analysis and a qualitative content analysis of the existing scientific production about esports. The second block uses the Delphi method applied to a panel of experts belonging to the industry and some in-depth semi-structured interviews carried out, also, to connoisseurs of the phenomenon in its entirety. Finally, the last block proposes the construction of an ecosystem model of the esports industry, considering the actors and activities involved, as well as the relationships between them. The formal and content analysis of the streaming of the most relevant esports competitions complete the study of the most representative objects of the phenomenon. The results obtained because of the diverse and complex methodological apparatus developed become a young, growing, heterogeneous and dynamic scientific production that reflects the characteristics of the phenomenon studied. A condition that can also be seen in the built ecosystem model, which adopts a circular structure that revolves around the vital importance of the user-player-consumer. The ecosystem has an active dynamism embodied by the multiple activities and actors that make it up, full of new elements and some that will be defined and integrated in the near future. The experts consulted by the Delphi method and the interviews themselves reinforce these results while pointing to future improvement needs, focused on the optimization of processes, services and dynamics coupled with the real integration of women and all types of users and audiences. The audiovisual format and production of the broadcasts of esports via streaming are an object of study still to be exploited, since it synthesizes and exposes the essence of the rest of the results in the form of analytical audiovisual content. The tool proposed and used for this study allows to identify the similarities and differences between the streams according to the titles, genres and competitions of esports, in addition to facilitating its comparison with the broadcast of traditional sports. Finally, this thesis points to future lines of study aligned with the challenges the esports industry itself must deal with. A special interest is shown in the possibilities of the phenomenon as industry, medium, content and source of competitive narratives.