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SHIFT IN ESPORTS PROMINENCE

BY CHASE ANDRIES

The world is watching as gaming has become increasingly prominent; more money, more prizes, and more attention. It has become a profession for many and for many more gaming has become a main source of entertainment. Today Tyler Blevins, widely regarded as “Ninja”, is the face of the gaming industry and was recently the first gamer to ever be featured on the cover of ESPN, demonstrating enthusiasm and fascination behind this famous streamer and Youtube content creator.

Why is this important? Other than the fact he has the opportunity to play video games and create Youtube videos for a living, Ninja racks up roughly $500,000 dollars monthly and six million dollars annually. According to Forbes, that is three times as much as an average NFL player, which demonstrates the development of the entertainment industry and brings the growing relevance of gaming into focus. Following an interview with Ninja, NBC writes that Ninja's income is, “derived from Amazon Prime subscribers, who are allowed to donate to his Twitch channel, and his 5 million subscribers on YouTube,” (Kim, 2018) which sheds light on the system of which he brings money and highlights the importance of his utilization of Youtube.

Even with the subscribers, Youtube generates revenue in other areas as well. The most obvious of these areas is popularity and communication of his product, streaming. Though Ninja streams on Twitch, the uploaded Youtube videos of his games are a source of advertising to subscribe to Amazon and Twitch accounts ultimately increasing his streaming audience and his profit. The utilization of Youtube to enlarge his capital is also boosting the participatory culture of gaming. Chamberlin offers Youtube, “as a phenomenon that has become part of mainstream media even as it has perplexed elements of the media industries it has joined,” (Chamberlin, 2010, p.96). This suggests though Youtube has many different aspects of its content, it has become a main source of media and entertainment in our culture. 

With a platform such as Ninja’s, especially in the Youtube universe, there is a lot of potential for advertisement within his videos. Other than advertisement through sponsorships, Youtube offers to pay content creators to put commercial-like breaks within the videos. With this opportunity through these advertisements, the gaming industry has promoted fundraising and charity work through gaming. For example, in a Twitchcom Pro-Am victory earlier this year, Ninja and artist Marshmellow won one million dollars to donate to a charity of their choice. 

No, I am not suggesting Youtube was the inspiration for streamers donating to charitable causes, but it has begun to open up a new avenue for gaming and other entertainment industries to merge and to promote charitable causes.

Youtube content creators, such as Ninja, are opening up avenues and creating ties within the sports and gaming industry. Through the development of Youtube utilization and the growing rate of participatory culture, the content creators are shifting the dynamic of multimedia culture. The development of these streaming services in relation to gaming and the relationship between gaming and sports shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

References
Chamberlain, D. (2010). YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture, by Jean Burgess and
Joshua Green. Popular Communication, 8(1), 96–98. https://doi-org.duproxy
.Palni.edu/10.1080/15405700903502312. Retrieved from Communication and Mass Media Database.
Kim, T. 19 March 2018. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins Explains How He Makes More Than $500,000 a
Month Playing Video Game ‘Fortnite’. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/19/Tyler-
ninja-Blevins-explains-how-he-makes-more-Than-500000-a-month-playing-Video-game-
Fortnite.html. 

 Word Count: 528
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Comments

  1. KHNovember 5, 2018 at 12:43 PM

    Chase,

    Gaming is certainly BIG business and, as you suggest, so-called legacy media are playing catch up with a gaming culture populated primarily by digital natives who have made a name for themselves in an increasingly popular and quite lucrative domain of e-sports.

    For the most part, your post demonstrates your knowledge and appreciation for game culture. Unfortunately, it also demonstrates persistent problems with your written expression and a lack of oversight from your writing group.

    First and foremost, your post doesn't conform to our house style (font style, size). Second, there are far too many punctuation errors in such a short post. Third, you haven't quite mastered APA reference style.

    More substantively, your writing isn't as clear and concise as it might be. For instance, you write: "Though Ninja streams on Twitch, the uploaded Youtube videos of his games are a source of advertising to subscribe to Amazon and Twitch accounts ultimately increasing his streaming audience and his profit."

    I get it. But this is awkwardly stated and difficult to follow.

    Then there's your use of outside sources. You mention a Forbes profile, but don't reference it. Why not? More important, the "academic source" appears to be a book review. Technically, this counts, but it's a short review essay, not a substantive journal article. (FYI unlike original research articles, book reviews are NOT peer reviewed.)

    As there's no shortage of academic work on participatory culture, this seems like a shortcut for this crucial aspect of the assignment.

    In sum, the topic is clearly relevant to any study of contemporary media culture. But your post falls short of the mark on several counts.

    22 pts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 6, 2018 at 7:39 AM

    Chase,
    I really enjoyed reading this post specifically because of how interesting I find this topic. I think you do a great job of incorporating some very important information about gamers and celebrities using there platform to spread messages to the youth and all around the world. Your organization and formatting looks very neat and this post consists of proper mechanics as well as the grammar throughout it. Lastly, your citations look very well done and it looks like you referred to Purdue Owl so great job. Overall, this was a great post and I am happy I was able to read it. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete

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