Well yesterday I discussed the influence of technology on the writing world, so today I figured i would explore other aspects of the internet and one of the communities it forms. With Daniel's assistance, I explored a community he is familiar with: gaming, more specifically League of Legends. Basically, League of Legends is an online multiplayer (5 people per team) game that reminds me of laser tag. The two teams each have a base, and they try take down the other team's base. In the process of doing so, they destroy towers that would otherwise prevent them from reaching the base. Additionally, they must fight the other team to protect their own base. That may be a mediocre way of describing it, but if I had to explain it to my little brother, that's how I would phrase it. The birth of this analogy took place when I began playing matches with Daniel against robots, but I never really understood or appreciated the community as a whole. So here's a little shout-out to and opinion of another world created by the technology of the internet.
To get a deeper understanding of the culture behind League of Legends, we watched a webseries that began with this episode. It follows one of the top 8 teams, TSM, in America (Canada, USA, and Mexico - South America will enter the League next year) who represented our continent in the 2012 Worlds competition as they begin the 2013 season. By watching this, which reflects the format of a reality TV show, I recognized the same thing I complained about people ignoring in the online writing world: the humanity. It's so easy to forget that there are people behind the names, the stats, the articles, the everything on the internet. Perhaps that is one of the most important contributions within the internet: online videos or video chatting that remind us of the humans behind the conversation, work, etc. online. As this thought prodded my mind during the webseries, I began asking questions about the team's journey as well as the game's journey.
For TSM to reach this point, they first had to form a team, which can be the hardest part. In TSM's case, one player recruits gamers that play other positions. Just like other sports, each of the five players has a skill set that reflect their individual role in the match. Next, the teams battle it out in matches with other teams in America to compete for one of the top 32 spots. Then, in a round robin, these 32 teams go through an intensive week of playing each team twice to compete for the top eight spots. Each game ranges from twenty minutes to an hour...that's a lot of screen time. This is where we meet TSM in this season. Now, they play each of team in the top 8 four times to qualify for Worlds, which the top 2 teams from America attend.
The creators behind League of Legends are from the States (woohoo!) and are still very engaged in their company. Rather than sitting back like most business tycoons who don't interact with their product and consumers outside of the profit they gain because of them, the first and second in command of their company commentate during Worlds every year. They could easily sit back and enjoy the fortune they have collected from this now worldwide phenomenon. In fact, League of Legends has been considered for the 2020 Olympics. Teams like TSM will have to battle for a spot to be a part of this history-in-the-making.
No comments:
Post a Comment