Submitted by PPG Comunica??o Social (famecos-pg@pucrs.br) on 2018-04-03T11:10:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CAMILA_AMORIM_DIS.pdf: 1864621 bytes, checksum: 8e8e9a4203ea314c0f7e98377441b3f3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lopes (tatiana.lopes@pucrs.br) on 2018-04-13T14:20:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CAMILA_AMORIM_DIS.pdf: 1864621 bytes, checksum: 8e8e9a4203ea314c0f7e98377441b3f3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-13T14:24:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CAMILA_AMORIM_DIS.pdf: 1864621 bytes, checksum: 8e8e9a4203ea314c0f7e98377441b3f3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-23 / With the professionalization of electronic sports (e-sports) and the exponential growth of this market, many companies are investing in create unique experiences for their spectators. This research aims to understand how a computer game, especially the League of Legends, can be designed to be played and watched by many people as a sportive manifestation, turning a local reception into a global and connected activity. Based on the Grounded Theory, a methodology that supports the qualitative and quantitative data analyzes, favoring the multidisciplinary view on a given event. This work consists in three distinct phases: data collection and analysis, coding, memoing and theory writing. Where in the first phase, bibliographical surveys on games and esports were carried out, as well as analyzes of the media related to electronic sports. In the second phase, all the data obtained were codified and separated into categories and subcategories, where it was possible to understand that e-sports are a phenomenon formed from different social perceptions, relating games, sports entertainment and media. In the third phase, the memoing presents as inferences from the research for the work, to finally be possible a writing of a platform on a construction of e-sport and how its transformations in different transmissions. / Com a profissionaliza??o dos esportes eletr?nicos (e-sports) e o crescimento exponencial desse mercado, muitas empresas t?m investido em criar experi?ncias ?nicas para seus espectadores. Com isso em mente, este trabalho tem o objetivo de entender como um jogo de computador, especialmente o League of Legends, pode ser projetado para ser jogado e assistido como uma manifesta??o esportiva por diversas pessoas, transformando a recep??o local em um ato global e conectado. Para isso, ? utilizada a Grounded Theory, uma metodologia que permite o uso de an?lises qualitativas e quantitativas, favorecendo o olhar multidisciplinar sobre um determinado evento. Assim, este trabalho ? formado por tr?s fases distintas: coleta e an?lise de dados, codifica??o, memorando e escrita da teoria. Onde, na primeira fase, foram realizados levantamentos bibliogr?ficos sobre jogos e e-sports, al?m de an?lises das m?dias relacionadas ao esporte eletr?nico. Na segunda fase, todos os dados obtidos foram codificados e separados em categorias e subcategorias, no qual foi poss?vel entender que os e-sports s?o um fen?meno formado a partir de diferentes percep??es sociais, relacionando os jogos, o entretenimento esportivo e as m?dias. Na terceira fase, o memorando apresentou as infer?ncias da pesquisadora ao longo deste trabalho, para, por fim, ser poss?vel a escrita de uma teoria sobre a constru??o do e-sport e as suas transforma??es em diferentes transmiss?es.

The purpose of this research was to see at which extent the game League of Legends, during the world championship, could be seen as a brand community. I have used a quantitative content analysis where the variables that were measured consisted of the elements from the theory of brand community. The elements were (1) consciousness of kind, (2) rituals and traditions, (3) moral responsibility. I used the following research issues: <ul type="disc">What physical evidence is there to support that the League of Legends scene is evolving? What qualitative, visual changes have been made over the years (in League of Legends world championship finals)? At what frequency does the elements of Brand Community, as an amount of mentions by the commentators, occur in League of Legends (E-sport, world championship finals)? My findings suggest that the League of Legends E-sport scene is a brand community that is evolving; according to the set criteria’s for a brand community; and that the world championship can be seen as a brand fest, a gathering of a brand community.

MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game is a game genre where players play as two teams, competing against each other team on a battlefield. Toxic behaviors, such as cheating and communication abuse, have been a prevalent phenomenon in MOBA games, and game companies often adopt moderation systems to deal with the toxicity. However, previous studies suggested that players may have different interpretation and player use of the moderation systems, compared to the official explanations of the systems given by the game companies, and players in different MOBA games have different attitudes towards the same moderation system. But, to date, no study has compared the moderation systems in different games or investigate how players interpret the differences between the moderation systems. Therefore, in this thesis, the researcher investigates the similarities and differences between the moderation systems in two popular MOBA games, DOTA2 and League of Legends, and further explores the player perception of these moderation systems. The methods used in this thesis are conceptual modeling and semi-structured interview. The findings show that the two games have similar frameworks of their moderation systems, but the design philosophies behind the moderation systems are different. Players in the two games both report toxic behaviors included in the official taxonomy, but besides this similarity, the two groups of players interpret and use moderation systems in different ways, aligned with the design philosophies behind the moderation systems in their own games. The results also imply possible relationships between the different moderation system design and the difference between player interpretation and player use. Based on the findings, this thesis also gives three suggestions for future moderation system design.

Esports gaming is a new subject within various fields of research. Typically, research explores the relationships between games and its players or the developers. By contrast this thesis examines the highest level of play within gaming, professional players. To do so, it utilizes the example of League of Legends. Created in 2009, League of Legends has rapidly grown to become one of the largest online multiplayer games with a massive Esports scene that matches or exceeds that of traditional sports such as Basketball or Baseball. But what factors contribute to this sudden rise in League of Legends Esports popularity and how have professional players adjusted over the years? This thesis explores these questions and the overall evolution of professional teams and League of Legends over the course of its Esports growth. It finds that League of Legends is unique in its use of the immaterial labour and digital labour of professional players. Through a concept called the “Meta”, League of Legends is able to mimic traditional sports and maintain interest in its game. Further for professional players the existence and evolution of the “Meta” sharply influences the need for organizational restructuring over the years. Players and teams become complex organizations in which players’ transition from gamers to become workers in Esports. Exploring the League of Legends Esports setting uncovers a unique combination of sport and work within a new digital context. / Thesis / Master of Philosophy (MA) / The goal of this work is to explore the lives and labour of League of Legends professional players. Created in 2009, League of Legends rapidly grew to be one of the most played and watched Esport game in the world. Professional players are often heralded as celebrities and their decisions impact the larger League of Legends and Esports community. This work examines the realities of Esports for professional players. It further analyzes the structure and organization of play and work in the League of Legends Esports setting. For the developer, Riot Games, Esports serves a variety of purposes and this thesis explores this and the contributions of Esports professionals to the development of the game.

The professional scene of Esports got its humble start in the 1990’s, when the first tournaments for various games were hosted (McLeod, Xue &amp; Newman, 2022). The number of professional players has increased dramatically until today. How the market for these professional players works as a labour market in today's society is relatively unknown. However, what is known is that this labour market stands out in regard to the small number of female workers it houses (Ratan et al., 2021). This is especially true for the game “League of Legends”, which has a particularly small number of women, even by Esports-standards1. With the purpose of finding the origin of this fact, I have conducted a survey measuring the skill of the players as well as their tendencies towards sexism. The survey results showed that sexism does increase with skill. This measured sexism is on average higher among better players. This could indicate that sexism is acting as a barrier for women to enter the professional scene and that this could be one of the causes of why there is a lack of female players in League of Legends.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-12-04T11:47:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Guilherme Sousa Vieira.pdf: 3021145 bytes, checksum: 0652b6e7a3dbb42c0bef36ecaeb77a24 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-04T11:47:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Guilherme Sousa Vieira.pdf: 3021145 bytes, checksum: 0652b6e7a3dbb42c0bef36ecaeb77a24 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-10-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The present master's thesis had as its objective a research on the League of Legends game, exploring its design philosophies to identify and discuss within the heuristic theme in game design, using as base the heuristic evaluation of the reworking of one of its characters, the champion Xerath. We start by dissolving the game LoL, how it occurs, how it was in its initial form, how to put the philosophy of work of its developer studio and then we go to the description of the game in its technical and playful aspects. In the sequel we delve into the discussion of heuristics, identity & aesthetics in digital games, where we have developed on top of researched authors, especially the texts of Brenda Laurel, Sherry Turkle and James Paul Gee acquiring a basis for the heuristic evaluation of the character. Next, we focus on the contextualization of the character who came to be evaluated, the champion Xerath, his birth, his involvement with the author and his status before and after the reworking. In its final part, this research retakes the discussed points and applies the heuristic evaluation in the changes that occurred in the character, after that, the process of extrapolation of the work begins and final considerations / A presente dissertação de mestrado teve como seu objetivo uma pesquisa sobre o jogo League of Legends, explorando suas filosofias de design para identificar e discutir dentro do tema heurísticas no design de games, utilizando-se como base a avaliação heurística do Retrabalhamento de uma de suas personagens, o Campeão Xerath. Partimos por uma dissecção do jogo LoL, como ocorre seu surgimento, como era em sua forma inicial, como se coloca a filosofia de trabalho de seu estúdio desenvolvedor e depois partimos para a descrição do jogo em seus aspectos técnicos e lúdicos. Em sequência nos aprofundamos na discussão sobre heurísticas, identidade & estética nos jogos digitais, onde desenvolvemos em cima de autores pesquisados, principalmente os textos de Brenda Laurel, Sherry Turkle e James Paul Gee adquirindo uma base para a avaliação heurística da personagem. Em seguida nos dedicamos a contextualização da personagem que veio ser avaliada, o Campeão Xerath, o seu nascimento, o seu envolvimento com o autor e seu estado antes e após o seu Retrabalhamento. Em sua parte final, essa pesquisa retoma os pontos discutidos e aplica a avaliação heurística nas mudanças que ocorreram na personagem, após isso, se inicia o processo de extrapolação do trabalho e considerações finais

In recent years, the area of e-sports has been growing rapidly and has consequentially drawn attention from the general public as well as researchers. However, research in this area still remains sparse, especially concerning the psycho-social work environment of e-sports professionals. This is even more true when referring to research that includes the individual perspective of pro-players. To provide more knowledge in this area, this study aims to explore what psychosocial aspects are mentioned by pro-players in documentary interviews and investigate if the experiences portrayed could be understood using a theoretical perspective by applying the JD-R theory. This study is based on 12 docu-series episodes featuring two League of Legends teams where 10 different pro-players participated. The research sample could both be considered availability sampling, since the data was already available, and purposeful sampling, choosing a sample consisting of pro-players. The episodes were transcribed and then analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Many psycho-social aspects emerged from the analysis, resulting in two higher themes where the first theme “Working as a pro-player” portrays what the profession entails and the second, “The interdependent work”, depicts the experience of being a pro, a teammate and an individual at the same time. By applying the JD-R theory on the aspects mentioned, it was concluded that these experiences indeed could be understood using a theoretical approach, providing incentives to conduct future research in the area. Possible areas of research interest were also presented in relation to this. / E-sport är att område som snabbt har vuxit under senare år,vilket har attraherat uppmärksamhetfrån allmänhetenoch forskare. Forskning på området bedrivs dockfortfarande relativt infrekvent, speciellt när det gäller de professionella e-sportspelarnas psykosociala arbetsmiljö. Detta är speciellt framträdande närdet kommer till att inkludera individuella perspektiv från spelarna. För att bidra till mer kunskap inom området syftar denna studie till att undersöka vilka psykosociala aspekter som omnämns av spelare i dokumentära intervjuer samt undersöka om dessa upplevelser kan förstås utifrån ett teoretiskt perspektiv genom att tillämpa JD-R-teorin. Denna studie baseras på 12 avsnitt från två League och Legends-lagdär 10 olika spelare deltar.Urvalet kan både anses som bekvämlighetsurval, eftersom datan redan fannstillgänglig, och strategiskt urval, då urvalet inkluderade professionella spelare.Avsnitten transkriberades och analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys.Många psykososociala aspekter framträddefrån analysen vilket resulterade i två högre teman där det första temat ”Att arbeta som en pro player” porträtterarvad professionen innebär och den andra, ”Det avhängiga arbetet”, beskriver upplevelsen av att vara en professionell spelare, en lagkamrat och en individ samtidigt. Genom att applicera JD-R-teorin på de omnämnda aspekterna fastslogs det att dessa upplevelser kan bli förstådda genom en teoretisk ansats, vilket ger incitamentatt bedriva framtid forskning inom området. Möjliga forskningsområden av intressepresenterades även i relation till detta.

Online gaming communities have met a well-deserved rise in academic interest in recent years, yet the focus seems to linger or long-term or permanent communities; virtual temporary teams are a subject which leaves room for rich interpretations still. In this spirit, this thesis addresses the question of how strangers collaborate in solving complex tasks together, by way of analysing temporary teams in the “League of Legends” community. The focus of the study are the communicative and strategic practices that players employ during ranked games in their attempt to defeat the opposing team, as well as what might determine them to engage in such endeavours. The thesis sets off by presenting relevant information about the competitive League of Legends community, in the spirit of introducing the reader to a League-specific culture that will hopefully become familiar by the end of the study. This is followed by an account of related research on this matter, in terms of how previous studies connect to the one at hand. The theoretical foundation that follows is essential to the discussion of the findings. The methodological approach is essentially a cyber-ethnography, with a focus on two methods: textual analysis and semi-structured interviews. The main findings show a surprising level of complexity in what communicative and strategic patterns are concerned, which also points towards the interdependency between them. Moreover, the results show a clear connection between in-game social strata and player motivation in competitive communities. This study aims not only to update the knowledge we have on how social interactions are shaping and evolving in the context of online gaming, but also to provide results that are transferable and applicable in other fields of research; from culture and society to more particular areas such as management training and learning at work, a multitude of academic fields can benefit from and hopefully expand on the outcome of this thesis.

The main objective of this thesis is the description and characterization of media content generated within the community around the game League of Legends inside the phenomenon of e-sports. The central issue is the definition of metagame term and anchoring its functions in different types of media content rising in the community around the game League of Legends. The output of this work is analysis of different types of media content, in which the term metagame is designed, interpreted and transmitted to the audience.

Toxic Behaviour, the phenomena where a person behaves in a way meant to intimidate or belittle another person, is an influential issue spreading across the virtual spaces that is online gaming communities. In this thesis we explore the possible correlations between Toxic Behaviour and game mechanics in online multi-player games by analyzing League of Legends (Riot Games, 2009), one of the most prominent online games currently dominating the market (Statista, 2014). We have analysed the game using a contemporary design framework used in the game industry accompanied by an ethnographical field study of the regular player base of League of Legends we have determined the most common reasons behind why these players tend to engage in Toxic Behaviour and if those reasons are connected to the game’s mechanics. Finally, we conceptualize plausible solutions based on our findings that hypothetically could decrease the amount of toxic player’s continuing engagement in Toxic Behaviour.