Growing up as the youngest son of four, Fernando Gómez often spent time watching his two older brothers play the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy video games as he sat cross-legged on his brother’s bed.
The games “brought us together a bit,” said Gomez.
Although that experience also inspired him to create the first esports program (competitive video games) run by San Francisco State University students, an experience that he took advantage of in a postgraduate job as digital content coordinator for the Portland Trailblazers .
“The 100 % of that experience is the reason why I am here today, doing what I do, ”said Gómez.
Teachers and students are citing success stories like Gómez’s when launching programs in esports, a form of competitive gaming, at universities across the state.
At least six c Cal State ampus and nearly all UC campuses have created esports programs since 2015 , in which students organize and compete in live tournaments, sometimes funded by corporate sponsors. Both Cal State Dominguez Hills and UC Irvine offer certificates in esports, which meaning students can get credit for playing video games.
Educators supporting the trend point to jobs available in video games and other forms of digital media, while students say Esports clubs and classes have given them another way to connect virtually during the pandemic.
“Higher education needs to evolve or die,” said Dina Ibrahim, Academic Advisor to the SF State Esports Athletic Club and Professor of Television Journalism. “We need to teach students relevant skills, that will give them work in a rapidly changing landscape.”
Ibrahim and other librarians, professors and administrators from across California State University connected to Zoom in at the end of March for the university’s first Esports Unconference , and it wasn’t a typical virtual meeting. Attendees flooded the familiar Zoom grid with photos of their favorite video games, while a mix of video game music themes played in the background.
To reflect their students’ ability to connect online , the organizers set up a Discord account, a community-based chat app, to communicate during the event. The goal: to network, share knowledge, and ultimately expand esports and gaming to 23 university campus.
Ibrahim shared the curriculum of his live streaming class, which he created after noticing the effects that esports and video games were having in the field of digital media. In the course, students learn how to market a brand, monetize it, and develop live-streamed events using Twitch, an entertainment site aimed primarily at gamers, and other platforms. For their final project, they help organize and market a live-streamed tournament with games like Overwatch, Valorant, and League of Legends.
“What I wanted to do was provide a place for students to they are doing it anyway get credit, ”said Ibrahim. “And not just focus on the gaming community; it’s really a game, plus content creation. ”
Those skills could help students land their first media jobs, said Mark“ Garvey ”Candella, program director Twitch educational and student education companies, a $ billion that daily attracts 30 million of visitors, mostly younger, to your website. Amazon Inc. purchased Twitch at 2014 for $ millions. The company makes money by showing ads to viewers, selling subscriptions, and taking a portion of the money viewers donate to streamers.
“All the skills that you are learning and using while playing games and esports are highly transferable and valuable skills in new and emerging digital media, ”said Candella, who has helped universities establish an esports curriculum that uses games as a vehicle to teach brand, management and hardware awareness. and software.
At Cal State Dominguez Hills, esports academic advisor Rubén Caputo says he has seen 37 students obtain internships based on their work in the program last year only.
Rhomeozon Blankas, A student who helped start the esports program at 2018 said he saw a surge in interest during the pandemic, since the students s turned to Discord for connectivity.
“ During the COVID summer, a lot of people started trying to get more involved on campus, even though they weren’t on campus, ”Blankas said. “ That was basically opening the doors to competitive esports for many students. “
Like Other college esports programs, Domínguez Hills started as an informal student club and is now a thriving organization that has gained sponsorships with companies such as Microsoft and Level Up Esports Apparel.
The university is building a new esports lab from $ , 000 in the campus library, according to the student-run newspaper, The Bulletin. It will be divided into three sections: a classroom, an incubator and a competition area with rows of computers.
The tournaments and games organized by Dominguez Hills will be broadcast on the team’s official Twitch account as well as a live audience there in the lab. Each member plays a unique role in marketing the events, operating the software to broadcast live and playing in the matches.
Campus President Thomas Parham says the idea is get to know students in their environment, doing what they like to do.
“I firmly believe that esports can be one of those activities that educate students about aspects of the culture of the game that will successfully translate into skills and knowledge that better prepare graduates for the workforce, ”said Parham.
Kieran Eng, a recent San Francisco State University graduate who who ran the university’s esports club, the Gaming Gators, said the pandemic has given legitimacy to the kind of online social events that gamers have been hosting for years.
“Nothing has changed a lot for us players, “Eng said.” But I think a lot of people now understand that it’s not just how wasting time. It is choosing to dedicate your time, invest in the people around you, and create a virtual community that is as interconnected as other physical communities. ”
The amount of Esports jobs nationwide more than doubled from 2018 to 2019, exceeding 6, 000, according to Hitmarker, a job board in line for industry. The vast majority were in California.
But Gomez, the SF State graduate who got a job with the Portland Trailblazers, said most people in academia don’t understand how it works. the esports job market.
For one thing, he said, entry-level workers often end up wearing a lot of hats to stand out and advance their careers.
“The funny thing about esports is that whatever your job title, add five more things,” he said.
As universities invest in esports said Gomez, students will be better prepared for the multiple skill sets required by the industry.
More than 170 Schools across the country have college esports teams, according to the National Association of Collegiate Esports , but the number with academic programs is much less, and students and professors involved in them say they still encounter skepticism from colleagues who view gaming as a mind-numbing hobby.
At UC Irvine, the first California university to pioneer a program of esports, students can earn a continuing education certificate, but there are no plans to develop a specialization in the field, said assistant director Kathy Chiang.
“We don’t think there is enough content for that, ”he said.
Finding space for an esports field on campus can be challenging, and the digital divide that has emerged during the pandemic also affects gaming, he said Ibrahim, the San Francisco State University professor. Some students lack strong enough internet at home to host live broadcasts, and their computers are not advanced enough to host competitive games.
Still, Ibrahim says games on the academic world are here to stay.
“ I think most people recognize that it is a huge component of the entertainment industry that generates profit and that it can no longer be ignored, ”he said. “You are acquiring skills that will prepare you to work in a very important industry that is only going to grow more after the pandemic.”
Marisa Martínez is part of CalMatters College Journalism Network , a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. This story and other coverage of higher education are supported by the College Futures Foundation.