Mundane Fantasies: Pervasive Gaming, Sports Fandom and Everyday Patterns of Play within Fantasy Soccer
Olli Sotamaa
School of Information Sciences
FI-33014 University of Tampere
Keywords
Fantasy sports, sports games, fandom, pervasive games, rhythm design, fantasy
INTRODUCTION
Despite the obvious connections between games and sports, computer game studies have paid relatively little attention to sports games and sports fandom. Hugely popular sports titles and fantasy sports leagues not only attract an audience of dozens of millions of players, but they also importantly embody some of the ways in which digital games are connected to wider structures of production and modes of consumption in the contemporary experience economy. In fact, as suggested by Gosling & Crawford (2009), sports-themed games provide a particularly apt subject of study when looking the everyday patterns and social narratives around digital games.
In this paper, the focus is placed on Fantasy Premier League (FPL), the official fantasy game of the English Premier League that annually attracts over two million registered players. The study takes a look at the everyday motives, practices and stories of fantasy soccer managers. The objective is to better understand the nature of fantasy sports in the crossroads of sports fandom and digital gaming. The data is collected through a qualitative online survey (n=36) and follow-up interviews (n=9). Using this empirical data, the paper aims to articulate some of the key issues of fantasy sports for the game studies audience.
While fantasy leagues have in the past years gained some scholarly attention (Bernhard & Eade 2005, Farquhar & Meeds 2007, Hirsh et al. 2012), the phenomenon remains under-theorized from a game studies perspective. In addition, all the studies informed by the discussions within the emerging field of computer game research (Davis & Duncan 2006, Halverson & Halverson 2008, Serazio 2008) are based on US fantasy sports. Thereby, the study at hand looks at three interrelated themes: the pervasive nature of digital play associated with fantasy soccer, the changing character of fandom and the role of sports knowledge as gaming capital, and the everyday patterns and rhythms that spawn from playing fantasy soccer.
First, it appears that for many players the related activities – watching soccer matches and reading match reports – that envelope the immediate play session can become the core experience of fantasy play. Second, fantasy soccer not only increases the intensity of sports consumption but it can also dramatically change the entire way people perceive the sport. In some cases it appears that the very sport has become a secondary system – a mere facilitator – that is needed only to produce the required data and statistics for the game. Third, fantasy sports have a very particular relationship to time. The rhythm of play is tightly connected to the match schedules and TV listings, creating a season-long tempo dictated by the recurring weekly play patterns.
Finally, the discussions of fantasy within game studies have been dominated by fantasy and role-playing games. The findings of the study at hand suggest that fantasy sports can provide a topical subject of study when exploring the aspects of make-believe, other-worldliness and sense of wonder that inhabit our mediated everyday lives. Furthermore, the ‘mundane fantasies’ provided by fantasy sports can importantly contribute to our understanding of the modes of engagement associated with digital games.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernhard, B.J. & Eade, V.H. (2005). Gambling in a Fantasy World: An Exploratory Study of Rotisserie Baseball Games. UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal 9(1), pp. 29-42.
Crawford, G. & Gosling, V.K. (2009). More Than a Game: Sports-Themed Video Games and Player Narratives. Sociology of Sport Journal, 26(1), pp. 50-66.
Davis, N.W. & Duncan, M.C. (2006). Sports Knowledge is Power: Reinforcing Masculine Privilege Through Fantasy Sport League Participation. Journal of Sport and Social Issues 30(3), pp. 244-264.
Farquhar, L. K. & Meeds, R. (2007). Types of Fantasy Sports Users and Their Motivations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12(4). Available: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/farquhar.html
Halverson, E.R. & Halverson, R. (2008). Fantasy Baseball: The Case for Competitive Fandom. Games and Culture 3(3-4), pp. 286-308.
Hirsh, S., Anderson, C. and Caselli, M. (2012). The Reality of Fantasy: Uncovering Information-Seeking Behaviors and Needs in Online Fantasy Sports. In CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 849-864.
Serazio, M. (2008). Virtual Sports Consumption, Authentic Brotherhood: The Reality of Fantasy Football. In L.W. Hugenberg & A. Earnhardt (Eds.), Sports mania: Essays on Fandom and The Media in the 21st Century (pp. 229-242). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
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