Understanding the origins of video game gamblingDr Mark R Johnson

Killam Memorial Postdoctoral FellowDepartment of Political ScienceUniversity of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

INTRODUCTION• I research the intersections between games (play?) and money.

• Esports/professional/competitive gaming• Live streaming and Twitch.tv• Fantasy sports betting• Loot boxes, microtransactions, gamification, gamblification, etc etc etc

• Although gambling/video games have combined in quite striking ways in recent years… this comes with a long history, which helps explain their recent success

• (Which I will now attempt to cover in the following nine minutes)

ARCADE BETTING• In the earliest days of video game arcades,

players would wager money on the outcomes of multiplayer games

• Or, even simpler, the winning player stayed on the game, whilst the loser had to give up their place, so one “bet on oneself” and one’s skill at the game

• Wagering money in/on video games is thus just as old as the medium itself

UNPREDICTABILITY MECHANICS• Videogames as a whole are replete with

“unpredictable” game mechanics

• Many games generate their spaces of play randomly, or via semi-predictable rules

• One’s effectiveness is also often pseudo-random, with skill and luck intersecting in one’s play

• Gamers are therefore used to navigating unpredictability in the pursuit of victory

GAME VERSIONS OF GAMBLING• Video games are also replete with digital

versions of casino gambling games

• There is no monetary wager in these games, but the mechanics are reproduced

• Over the last few decades these have become increasingly common, normalising gambling games for video game players

• Minigames and the discourse of triviality

NON-MONETARY WAGERING• All games actively encourage us to wager

• Not money, but time, effort, and social status are wagered when we play

• These are often overlooked when we consider any form of “wagering”, but these are also put at stake in all kinds of games

• Video game players are thus used to their play having real-world consequences

AND NOW, IN THE PRESENT DAY…

ESPORTS GAMBLING• In a broad sense, two forms: “internal”

and “external”

• Internal: betting on/with in-game items, similar to many other game mechanics and games which normalise gambling

• External: betting on competition results, similar to betting in arcades and, indeed, on betting on “oneself” in play

CONTEMPORARY GAMBLING SPECTATORSHIP• Many esports gamblers broadcast their

gambling live online through the Twitch.tv live streaming service

• Broadcasts opportunities for profit/victory, vicarious thrill of viewing

• The spectatorship of the arcades, the normalisation of gambling, the role of wagering in video games…

THE PAST, THE FUTURE

• As I have (rapidly) shown here, gambling and video gaming have a long interwoven history

• This newly corporatized gambling on/in/with video games thus seems acceptable, capitalising on the grassroots nature of much “older” video game gambling

• Esports etc represent a newfound formalization / legitimation of gambling on video games

• By understanding the roots of the cultural acceptance on video game gambling, we can understand more about its present success in Esports, loot boxes, and beyond

THANKS FOR LISTENING!

Twitter: @mrj_gamesEmail: markrjohnsongames@gmail.comPublications: http://bit.ly/mrj_papers Journal: Critical Gambling Studies (forthcoming)