The connective play of MOBA spaces: how player streams

speak to, influence, and direct the actions of wider play spaces

Josh Jarrett

Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England

@Joshua_Jarrett

Connective context of MOBA play

• MOBA as participatory (Jenkins, 2006) genre

• Ludic emergence and paratextual mimicry of MOBA play

• Reliant upon the constant circulation of playstyles to balance the games many different variables.

• Heavily ludic / competitive genre that also allows for emergence, imagination and spontaneity

• MOBA as connective (Djick, 2013) genre

• As a genre it really came to prominence almost 6 years ago with the release of League of Legends and soon after player streams started to become a popular

Streamed MOBA play and the playful turn in online audiences• Mimicry and ludic emergence

• Streaming really started to become popular (the same as e-sports) as League of Legends did with ‘own3d’, Azubu and later Twitch dominating the space.

• As of March 2015 31% of all watched play upon Twitch is League of Legends and 12% Dota 2

Online open discussions

• “Watching streams has had a tremendous impact on how I play LoL. I first saw LoL on Twitch and thought it looked interesting. At the time I didn't have any gamer friends, so I had to learn completely on my own. I read a ton of guides and watched a lot of streams to learn and improve my play. I remember being mystified in those first few streams I watched where the casters were talking about "junglers" (what the heck is a jungler?) and having to look it up (oh, there's this area on the map called the jungle) and ganking (oh that's where the jungler comes into a "lane" to try to kill someone). Wow, how far I've come, I'm now a jungle main...”

Connectivity of streamed play

• These playful practices exist within what Djick has termed ‘the Culture of Connectivity’ whereby different actions upon different platforms or ‘microsystems’ all exist in a symbiotic relationship.

• They form a playful ecology of ludic interactions

• Every stream is a microsystem that interacts with other systems (forum / reddit spaces, guides, other streams, content producers, and the game itself)

Fountain hook (Dota 2)

Tryndamere (League of Legends

AP Tryndamere (League of Legends)

Circulating play styles, circulating stakes

• Story of ‘AP Tryndamire’

• A play style that emerged from a player on a stream, was utilised by players across the wider connective spaces and eventually by professional e-sports players on a competition stage.

• The developers soon reacted to this emergent play style by severely limiting, or balancing, its effectiveness.

• These instances point towards a dynamic set of different values between stakeholders of the play space that often diminishes the value of playful innovation.

Circulating play styles, circulating stakes

• Following Djick’s conception of connectivity as a means of ‘mapping the convolutions’ between different stake holders, technological actors and microsystems provides a useful approach towards viewing these emergent play styles.

• MOBAs provide an ideal case study viewing play through a participatory perspective and player streams are one central microsystem in this connective context of play.

• How can we critically engage with these circulations of play?

• When are the interests of players being worked against by developers or other external actors that contextualise MOBA play?

• Thank you for your time

• *This picture was my badge where I (poorly!) attempted to draw a MOBA stream.