48 GENIUS INTERVIEW Dr Florian Block
for games and behavioural data. After Cambridge Analytica, everyone has to be hyper-aware of the ethical implications of collecting behavioural data and using people’s content online. We want to be at the forefront of driving responsible data access. Also, I think it is important that we democratise this data, so it’s not only research entities and large corporates that can mine this data for value – for instance, players could extract insights about strategies and performances from the data that help them be better players. If large game companies could agree on a common standard for gameplay data, we could work on easy-to-use tools to extract value from this data across games, and for the average esports fan. I think that would be a fantastic way of getting the games industry into a shared space in which everyone can innovate and be empowered based on human behavioural data. FEED: What really is the difference between esports and real world sports? People new to esports may think: “I’m just watching someone sitting in a chair.” FB: First of all, esports really are a lot more complex. It’s not easy to watch if you don’t know the game. I guess that’s
true for other sports too, but the rules of football are easy to grasp just by viewing it. You have to bear in mind that these games were designed to be fun and competitive, they weren’t necessarily designed as an audience experience, but the community has made it into something that people watch. Essentially it’s about skill. It’s about mental skill. It’s about strategy. It’s about understanding a tactical space and how to exploit weaknesses and leverage synergies between your teammates. It’s about reaction time. It has elements of physical performance too. Some of these athletes do 200 actions per minute with a mouse and keyboard. It’s physically quite straining, which you wouldn’t expect. And there’s the mental focus - some of these games are played over five hours for the best of five. There is a physical aspect similar to darts, and similarities to chess on a strategic level. I think that’s what many people don’t grasp, and that’s what attracts the audience. Some of these people have incredible skill at playing these games. And some people are just really amazing in navigating these virtual tactical spaces. And I think that’s why people want to watch them. It’s the human performance that people want to see. That’s very similar to sports; sports may be how athletic someone is in
We want to translate eSports data into meaningful stories for the audience
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