Earticle

This study was conducted to investigate the public interest in e-sports at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games and to understand the interest and response to the event. The research utilized topic modeling to analyze news articles published during the Asian Games period, aiming to identify changes in the distribution of topics on specific dates and to understand how these topics were influenced by events or situations. News articles related to e-sports during the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games were either utilized for data collection, and a total of 283 articles were analyzed. Through the research findings, insights into how e-sports are being embraced and understood globally were provided, laying the foundation for understanding the significance of this phenomenon worldwide. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the growth of e-Sports and its societal impact, as well as to offer insights into future trends in the e-Sports industry and policy directions.

The purpose of this research is to elucidate the educational significance for participating students of eSports club activities at high schools in Japan. It was decided to focus on students at four types of schools — public full-time ordinary course, public full-time technical course, private full-time ordinary course, and correspondence — affiliated with the North America Scholastic eSports Federation JAPAN (NASEF JAPAN). From these schools, students were selected at random according to grade level and sex ratio, and four focus group interviews (FGIs) were conducted, one in each school, with groups of six students each. The analysis was conceptualized and illustrated using the KJ method. This survey showed that there are commonalities in educational significance that can be achieved, even when school types differ, and that they can be achieved taking as a starting point the sociability and companions cultivated in club activities, i.e., <Sociability of advancing together with companions> and <Existence of companions to share growth>. Also, it was suggested that broadening of career development varies depending on whether, through eSports club activities, there is recognition of activities mindful of relationships and contact points between eSports and society, and whether there is recognition of eSports-specific specialized activities. On the other hand, specialized human resources education connected with development of industry through specialization for eSports is also likely to be significant, particularly at correspondence schools. Generally speaking, eSports club activities are connected with developing understanding of career education, and they are likely to be significant in allowing high school students who participate in eSports club activities to recognize that they are an opportunity for surveying the future, while touching on diverse values and having the same significance as sports.iamge

Changes in the external environment such as COVID-19 and the development of digital technology have brought about many changes in the coexistence of humans and machines. In addition to AI(Artificial Intelligence), various technological changes such as VR(Virtual Reality), XR(eXtended Reality), and AR(Augmented Reality) are occurring. In particular, these changes can be easily found in the eSports industry, which is due to the specificity of eSports based on electronic devices. However, most of the existing studies focus on the concept of eSports and the processes of users and viewers, and there is a lack of research on eSports games themselves. This study aims to redefine the characteristics of eSports and suggest marketing directions for eSports, centering on the concepts of “Mechanical economy”, “Thinking economy”, and “Feeling economy” presented from a marketing perspective. Based on the concept of this study, the researcher analyzed the evolution of genre of eSports and eSports users from 2015 to 2022 provided by the Korea Creative Content Agency. The results of the study showed that the “Feeling” factor is increasingly important in eSports over time, and the trends that eSports users enjoy are also changing. Therefore, this study suggests the need for research on new marketing methods to empathize and engage eSports users as digital technology advances.