Beth's research focuses primarily on investigating online gaming communities, how they impact players sense of identity and community, and how they may provide support to individual players. Her thesis focuses on one game in particular, League of Legends. Her research looks at what being a gamer means to players, and how it informs and impacts the development of identities online and offline. She is interested in how gaming communities form, to what extent they are facilitated by game developers and in-game structures, and how communities differ between different game genres and titles. Beth is also keen to investigate how gaming communities extend beyond being purely in-game communities, and extend into other online-realms and well as offline realms of community.
PhD research focus
I've just started my first phase of data collection. If you have an interest in League of Legends (whether you play, used to play, follow esports, cosplay, etc.) I would love to hear from you! I'm currently looking to find out about they ways in which people interact with League of Legends, and how the League of Legends community is perceived. Please follow the link below to be taken to the survey, and please feel free to share it with anyone you think may be interested!