Sensuous proximity in research methods with expert teams, media sports, and esports practices

Authors

  • Emma Witkowski RMIT University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v34i64.97014

Keywords:

esports, sensuous methods, playing research

Abstract

This paper examines epistemological issues in game studies research, specifically exploring qualitative research approaches to networked, expert computer game teams who engage in esports practices. Expert teams deliver their expert practice in part through interembodied sensitivities to sensorial team-based phenomena, which is made across multiple bodies and machines in the process of play. Drawing on fieldwork with World of Warcraft Arena tournament esports teams and research methods orientations from games studies, sensuous ethnography, and sports studies, a position of sensuous proximity in games research is explored and developed as a suite of research guidelines for engaging with esports teams high performance practices. I suggest a research approach that involves differing lenses and stances in the study of embodied team play, and varying scales of sensuous proximity to the layers of expert team practices that augmens the notion of playing research in game studies.

Author Biography

Emma Witkowski, RMIT University

Senior Lecturer | B.Design (Games)
Director - Playable Media Lab
Centre for Game Design Research

RMIT University | City Campus | Australia
School of Media and Communication
Bld. 14. Level 11. Room 04
GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001
Tel: + 61 3 9925 4756

 

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Published

2018-06-14

How to Cite

Witkowski, E. (2018). Sensuous proximity in research methods with expert teams, media sports, and esports practices. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 34(64), 21 p. https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v34i64.97014