Signs of meta-change in second modernity: the growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games

The transformation of the relationship between computer gaming, media and sport in the global age of 'second modernity' is analyzed through a critical case study of the World Cyber Games.

Abstract

Media, communication and information flows now define the logic and structure of social relations, a situation that affects almost every dimension of cultural life and activity. This article analyses the transformation of the relationship between computer gaming, media and sport in the global age of 'second modernity'. This analysis is undertaken through a critical case study of the World Cyber Games (WCG). This popular event and the 'cyber-athletes' that compete in it cannot be explained fully by reference to existing studies of computer and video gaming, media and sport, media events or organized sporting competition. It is not possible to think in terms of sport and the media when considering the WCG and organized competitive gaming. This is sport as media or e-sport, a term that signifies the seamless interpenetration of media content, sport and networked information and communications technologies.