Questions we Can Help you to Answer
Paper Instructions:
While it might seem like Esports and game design are fairly different topics, the fact of the matter is that balancing a game is among the most important aspects of having a viable competitive Esport. And to balance, to design a quality Esports experience, designers simply must understand genre.
The same is true of elite players. Knowing how a genre works, what to expect, what is bedrock and what varies, is critical to being able to move from game-to-game.
For this assignment, you're going to analyze and break down an Esports gaming genre. It will require some research. It might require diagrams and maps. It might require interviews. The idea is to map the genre in such a way that you build a useful document for others to consider.
You may argue for any genre you'd like, but here are the obvious Esports ones. Any of these would be fine:
1. Real Time Strategy (RTS)
2. Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA)
3. First Person Shooter (FPS)
4. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)
5. Battle Royale
6. Fighting Game (2D or 3D)
7. Racing
8. Sports sim
9. Competitive Card
10. Tower Defense (I know, crazy, right?)
These analysis reports should be as long as they need to be in order to do a good job, and can be in the form of a paper or a video. A recommendation is 5-7 pages of content (not including images), but we can talk about what that would mean in other formats.
You must address the following ten questions in your analysis:
1. What is the historical origin of the genre (first appearance, who designed it, why-- whatever you can cover)
2. What is the most popular/most well-known example of the genre? Why?
3. What is the newest example of the genre?
4. What platform/platforms is the genre most popular on and why?
5. Where do people compete in this genre? How often? How high are the stakes?
6. Is there a professional scene for the genre? Where?
7. Is there a collegiate scene?
8. Who is the most popular player (or team) for this genre?
9. What is the future outlook for the genre? Is it growing, is it fading?
10. What is one thing not covered by any of the other questions that you consider fascinating, interesting, important or valuable?
