Why video game communities and why League of Legends?
- bmtnutbrown1
- May 10, 2019
- 3 min read
Welcome to my first blog post!
I've never blogged before, and it is honestly scary! I'm hoping to use this to document some thoughts and ideas, inspiration from events, and general gaming related activity! It's not all going to be about my research, but is usually going to be related somewhere along the way [a lot of my life revolves around video games].
With that being said, I thought a good place to start would be a little chat about why I'm researching video game communities, and also why I'm focusing on League of Legends in particular.
I have played video games for a large portion of my life. I can still remember the excitement at getting my first game console, a GameBoy Advance, and playing Scooby Doo: The Motion Picture - a game that has not aged well at all. I later got a Playstation One, and have very fond memories of playing Spyro; Year of the Dragon (which aged very well, even before Reignited). Video games have long been considered to be a solo activity, however even when I was younger, games were quite a social activity for me. I remember playing various games on the Playstation One with a few of my cousins. Very few of these games were multiplayer - I remember playing Spyro: Season of Ice on GBA with one of my cousins, coaching each other through the game and swapping when we got stuck. In high school, I would Simpsons: Hit and Run at a friends house, and we would play Mario Kart: Wii and Animal Crossing together connecting our games via the internet from the comfort of our own homes. I'd play Zelda: Twilight Princess alone in my room. In sixth form Portal, Minecraft, and Skyrim came into my life, and it was here that I attended what would be considered my first LAN at someones house.
It wasn't until I started my undergraduate degree, and I was introduced to League of Legends that I started to see how vastly social games are, and the different ways in which players can get involved. There was a community surrounding games. Games generally, and specific titles. I found out about esports, cosplay, gameplay videos and montages, speed-running, conventions, streamers, fan art, fan music - and I fell in love with all of it. It was from here that I became increasingly interested in how people interact with and participate in video games, video game culture, the community around them, and what this kind of interaction means to people. Importantly, this meant not just in-game interaction - and also not only online interaction.
As for why League of Legends, it was the game that really introduced me to all of this stuff that I became interested in. It is the game that has stayed with me - I still play with the university friends that introduced me to the game, and it got me going to many events, and participating in various forms of video game culture. I feel very comfortable with League of Legends, positioning me as an insider for my PhD research.
I am a part time PhD student, and I'm finally going to be starting my data collection soon! I have so many ideas and things that I was to look at and think about... let's see where this goes!
