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ABSTRACT
Despite the growing popularity of esports, it has yet to gain mainstream acceptance as a legitimate pathway for personal success. Motivated by examining the positive side of esports play, this study aims to identify a systemic framework describing the benefits of playing esports and the process through which positive personal development can be fostered. Specifically, we first reviewed relevant literature on online games, traditional sports, and esports play motivations. We then employed the positive youth development (PYD) framework as the theoretical lens to guide our analysis. After receiving informed consent from 19 esports players, we used a semi-structured interview technique to understand the key benefits obtained from play. We used qualitative content analysis technique to generate 12 key categories important in esports play, and the Delphi method to establish group consensus about relations between each category pair. We then adopted a structured approach involving interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique to present a framework describing pathways for esports players’ positive development. In the positive development framework, Commitment, Self-Esteem, Communication, Cooperation, Emotional Self-initiative, and Initiative were found to be the given conditions, while Personal Growth was the linkage variable leading to fulfilment of five higher-end personal values.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Zixiu Guo
Zixiu Guo is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Systems & Technology Management at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Business School, Sydney. Her papers appear in the Information & Management, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS), Journal of Global Information Management (JGIM), IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Australasian Journal of Information Systems, the Australian Journal of Educational Technology, Computers in Human Behaviour, and ICIS, ECIS, AMCIS, HICSS. She is the best paper award winner in the 2009 IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, the winner of the AIS Award for Best Conference Paper in IS Education of year 2011, and the best paper winner 2011 AIS SIG-ED IAIM 2011 Conference. Her research interests include positive impacts of information technology use on consumer behaviours in various online contexts, including online gaming, online education, and online shopping.
Mike Cahalane
Michael Cahalane is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Information Systems & Technology Management at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Business School, Sydney. Michael’s work has appeared in Information Systems (IS) journals including Information & Management (I&M), Journal of the Association of Information Systems (JAIS), Journal of Information Technology (JIT), MISQ Executive (MISQE) as well as IS conferences including ICIS, ECIS, PACIS and ACIS. His research interests include the study of online communities, emerging forms of digital work, as well as technology mediated play through gamification and virtual reality systems.
Amelia Carbonie
Amelia Carbonie graduated from the University of New South Wales, Australia with a Bachelor's degree of Information Systems (Hons). Currently, Amelia is a business analyst consultant at Deloitte Sydney.