The day before yesterday, I drove up to Irvine to go to a tech Meetup held at the University of California at Irvine’s new eSports Arena. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I’d been to several LAN centers and the like, including one here in San Diego. Generally they are relics of a bygone era; kind of like internet cafes trying to hold on by offering gaming. Some are better than others, and you do find some there are still in active use. But the facility at UCI is on another level. It has the professionalism that you would expect from a major research institution. First, the physical facility is excellent; clean, organized and functional. On the day I visited, all the equipment looked new and was all in working order; a collection of modern-looking gaming seats all arranged next to gleaming monitors and identical PCs. And the place was full, and vibrant.
Now, you may ask, what is an eSports Arena? Well, the idea is to build an arena for eSports that rivals those you would find for, well, regular sports. It’s a combination practice space, broadcast booth and green room all in one, suitable for e-athletes-in-training. The fact that it has the backing of a full four-year research university really kicks the authenticity and legitimacy up a notch; there were jerseys for the players, scholarships (yes, scholarships) for the team members, and a regular schedule of competition against other universities. It’s a clear sign that eSports has, if not fully arrived, then at least advertised that it’s coming.
A few interesting things I noticed from my trip:
- As a 40-year-old man, I can’t help but think that, if eSports is going to be a thing, one of the things that needs to happen is Weekend Warrior eSports. That is, people like to watch sports that they like to play, but we can’t all be professionals. But we want to feel like professionals, with referees, prizes, arenas, etc. eSports is fundamentally a social experience and I, for one, would like to be able to sign up for leagues and go in person to play games against other folks, who have been sorted by age or ability level to where I can hope to compete. Somebody get on this.
- I don’t mean to be racist, but I can’t help but point out that almost every single student I saw playing and competing there was Asian and male. Over 90% of them. I’ll leave it to others to sort out the socioeconomic implications of that, but I don’t think eSports can fully arrive until it broadens its focus.
- They allow the public to come in and play, but there is a (fairly standard for this sort of place) $4/hour charge. I don’t know if that’s waived for students. I could see myself going and playing at a facility like this, but there has to be more to justify my $4/hour. Events, competitions, things organized around people in my age/ability level (see above). Otherwise I’ll just play at home.
- As a research facility, one of the cool things about the UCI eSports Arena is that they are actually getting involved with research. The director of the center spoke, and he talked about projects ranging from the effect Minecraft can have on Alzheimer’s all the way up to projects about the socioeconomic impact of gaming.
All in all, it was a productive and entertaining glimpse of the future.
