#fatal1ty

Increasingly more people worldwide are playing online games. Whether strategic or adventure games, there’s something for everyone. Social gaming even broadcasts live on TV in South Korea, Japan and China – and has a huge fanbase. What is social gaming, and what potential does it offer the social media world? You’re about to learn.

The best-known pro-gamer is "Fatal1ty", a.k.a. Jonathan Wendel. He works for the Fatal1ty Gaming Gear team. Other successful pro-gamers include Dendi (Danil Ishutin) and UNiVeRsE (Saahil Arora). Each player is on a team under contract. Both teams and individual players are strongly represented on social networks – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. There, they post gaming news, share behind-the-scenes videos and announce tournaments and events. The top 20 e-gamers have a fanbase of around 5.8 million on Facebook (Dunn 2017). So, what about pro-gamers? They play social gaming professionally and are sponsored by well-known companies.  

Are e-gamers the new influencers?

A vital part of social media marketing, influencers allow companies to communicate with their target groups much more effectively (Hjorth & Richardson 2014, pp. 35-41). Remember how pro-gamers are the absolute stars in their industry and have a ton of followers? That's exactly why pro-gamers need to communicate with other gamers and use social media for self-promotion. On Facebook, for example, countless fan pages exist where other gamers can exchange ideas about idols or get playing tips (Partis 2018). But Facebook isn’t the top social gaming community. The ultimate social gaming platform is Twitch.

At first glance, Twitch looks like any other video platform, but some features are made for social gamers. Twitch sorts the video streams by channels and by video games (Asarch 2018). In the "directory", users get a list of the most popular video games, which usually have a worldwide audience. Plus, "communities" can collect streams for keywords such as "role playing", "art" or "Japan"(Asarch 2018). The main difference, however, lies in the interaction among players because it’s just as live as the streams themselves. Streamers and channels can be financially supported – either by the cheering function or by subscribing to a channel (Asarch 2018).

So how can social gaming be combined with social media?

The symbiosis of influencer marketing and vlogging with social gaming is that marketers can rely on branded games. Branded games have tremendous potential for companies to unify strategies, tactics and the customer experience of social gaming and social media (Mäyrä et al. 2017, pp. 16-21). Many companies that sponsor social gaming benefit from a huge reach and a very interactive and international community, which particularly offers large companies the opportunity to enter a new market. For example, the Asian region in social gaming is very far ahead and an integral part of society. Another big potential is the live feature of the e-gaming scene. Companies can report live events via Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook or have gamers report on it in a channel takeover.

So, the only question is – why aren’t you already part of this exciting social gaming experience?

Reference:

Asarch, S 2018, What is twitch? Understanding the explosive life streaming service, newsweek.com, viewed 18 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2xAhWve>.

Dunn, J 2017, Competitive video gaming will be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020, researchers say, businessinsider.de, viewed 18 May 2018,<http://bit.ly/2L9tMOT>.

Hjorth, L & Richardson, I 2014, Gaming in Social, Locative and Mobile Media, Palgrave Macmillan, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 20 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2LOE1cx>.

Mäyrä, F, Stenros, J, Paavilainen, J & Kultima, A 2010, ‘Chapter 2: From Social Play to Social Games and Back’, in R Kowert & T Quandt (eds), New Perspectives on the Social Aspects of Digital Gaming, Routledge, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 20 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2Ld2ZkR>.

Partis, D 2018, "The role of influencers isn’t just growing, it’s also impacting how other players in the industry engage with their audiences", influencerupdate.biz, viewed 19 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2Hc4AEO>.

Image Reference:

ASRock x299 Fatal1ty Gaming i9

ASRock x299 Fatal1ty Gaming i9