Vocational Congruence for Esports and Gaming Video Content in Post-Secondary Education

The video gaming industry has grown reliably year-over-year since its inception in the 1970s. In 2018, video game revenue worldwide peaked at 43.8 billion USD (Shieber, 2019), surpassing the film industry’s 41.1B (McClintock, 2019) by a healthy margin. As gaming’s relevance is cemented and its legitimacy becomes less of a debate, it continues to permeate other areas of the media, including competitive sports and traditional video content. Esports has seen an immense global market growth over the last five years, and as gaming video content continues to establish a strong foothold in streaming media, its influence on a wide range of careers is becoming more and more apparent—most noticeably in the television and film entertainment sector.

This research examines and interrogates how the rise of esports and gaming video content (GVC) is poised to change the landscapes of both sports entertainment and streaming video, necessitating the need for integrative content production training, and a shift in emphasis from the traditional application of broadcast media in education. Through ​The Armoury project—which includes a framework for curriculum change and the introduction of GVC production facilities—it is the aim of this research to provide the necessary insights to inform vocational congruence within university course offerings to better serve students headed towards careers in the field of games and esports media.