Embodied involvement in virtual worlds: the case of eSports practitioners

Abstract

eSports practice designates a unique set of activities tethered to competitive, virtual environments or worlds. This correlation between eSports practitioner and virtual world, we argue, is inadequately accounted for solely in terms of something physical or intellectual. Instead, we favor a perspective on eSports practice to be analyzed as a perceptual and embodied phenomenon. In this article, we present the phenomenological approach and focus on the embodied sensations of eSports practitioners as they cope with and perceive within their virtual worlds. By approaching eSports phenomenologically, we uncover ways in which its unique forms of virtual involvement overlap with as well as differentiate themselves from traditional structures of embodiment.

Social bodies in virtual worlds: Intercorporeality in Esports

“… 13 As we argued previously, forms of bodily agency and kinaesthesia are also present in these movements when the players navigate the virtual map (Ekdahl & Ravn, 2019 ; see also Klevjer, 2012 ). …”

“…Using any weapon in CS:GO proficiently entails an understanding of the different distances and tasks the weapons excel at within the virtual world (Ekdahl & Ravn, 2019 ). Because of this, weapons are often aligned with the particular ‘roles’ as part of a team’s overall strategy.…”

“…Anyone who has listened to the live commentators or a professional team’s voice communication during a LoL team fight or smaller skirmish will have a sense of just how much coordinated and complex movement and action is compounded into a few seconds. During these encounters, each player involved needs to have an immediate sense of who to avoid, who to stay close to, which specific abilities they need to anticipate, how everyone is moving, if any one opponent is particularly vulnerable, and how the overall power balance of a team fight is shifting in real time so as to know exactly when to retreat and when to push on – including an openness towards potentially innovative moves and actions in-game (Ekdahl & Ravn, 2019 ). These interactions had immediate social ramifications for the entire team and were understood and executed as having such.…”

“…In LoL-interactions, the encounter with other players was informed by the abilities of the players’ champions as different champions in LoL are able to do very different things in the virtual world and move very differently (Ekdahl & Ravn, 2019 ). This had an immediate influence on how and when the players moved around and interacted with their opponents, including what they paid attention to.…”

“…Even though esports is delineated by certain rules and technological limitations – a “frame”, to use Fuchs’ term (ibid.) – the virtual practitioners nevertheless routinely develop and execute what we have previously dubbed “virtual Fosbury flops” (Ekdahl & Ravn, 2019 ) – ways of innovating and surprising others within the frame of the competitive virtual setting. These typically expand what everyone involved with the game, often including the game designers themselves, thought was possible, changing the way the game is played and even developed henceforth (ibid.).…”