Esports have attracted considerable attention over the past few years and become an industry that is projected to continue to increase rapidly. Intersecting with the esports industry are organizations and businesses that develop and support the esports game experience. Included is the entrepreneurial spirit of gamers, who are interested in creating their own career paths through capturing and posting gaming microassists on different public venues that are driven by advertising dollars, invitational competition monetary winnings, and other forms of marketing their expertise for financial gain. All these organizations and industries form satellites of career opportunities as well as opportunities for research and enhanced forward-leaning study. Such career opportunities can be explicitly addressed within the structure of university degree and micro-credential certificate programs, some of which have begun to offer esports-directed degrees, but most of which have not yet moved from esports clubs into a recognition of the business and industry monetization of esports.
The Handbook of Research on Pathways and Opportunities Into the Business of Esports addresses the intersection of esports gaming and the business and industry of esports, rather than an exploration of the video games themselves. It is the supporting and intersecting industry driven by esports and the vast opportunities this brings that are the foci of this book. Covering topics including digital learning, esport marketing curriculum, and gaming culture, this text is essential for business professionals, industry analysts, entrepreneurs, managers, coaches, marketers, advertisers, brand managers, university and college administrators, faculty and researchers, students, professors, and academicians.
Author Biography:
Sharon Andrews, Ph.D. , is an Associate Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas, United States of America. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science in the specialization area of Software Domain and Description Languages from the Center for Advanced Computer Studies of the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States of America. Dr. Andrews became the Chair of the Software Engineering MS Program at UHCL in 1997 and has served continuously as Chair of this program with the exception of two years. She is the designer, developer, and implementer of the Software Engineering MS curriculum, both the traditional MS degree as well as the founding creator and Chair of the Software Engineering Online MS Degree. Under her leadership the Software Engineering online MS program has been ranked 4th in the nation multiple times by Bestcolleges.com and is currently ranked 6th in the nation. As part of her curriculum design work she has, designed, developed and implemented each of her masters level Software Engineering courses as both 100% online, and mixed-mode learning environments. She has over twenty years experience creating and delivering courses in various distance education environments, particularly fully online environments. Some of her developed and regularly offered courses include Software Reuse and Reengineering; Software Architecture; Software Engineering; Software Life Cycle; Software Design; Software Process, and most recently, Innovation and Creativity in Engineering. Dr. Andrews's scholarly pursuits include publications within international, national, and regional refereed journals, conference proceeding publications, and service as Editor-in-Chief of an international refereed research journal, service as reviewer and editorial board member for international refereed journals and international and national professional conferences. She was the recipient of an ISSO/UH award in the area of domain specification, as well as numerous other grant fundings. Dr. Andrews also was a member of the Repository Based Software Engineering Research Program at the University of Houston Clear Lake and worked with companies such as Honeywell, Boeing, IBM, and Lockheed on various funded research projects involving Advanced Air Traffic Control. She has been a grant reviewer and panel member for the National Science Foundation. Dr. Andrews's areas of research within software engineering surround the issues of software architecture design, software knowledge reuse, problem conceptualization as well as curriculum design. Toward this end, her research has taken the form of the development of a framework for the automatic generation of architecture description languages, solutions to the problems of architectural erosion and drift, techniques and methods for the betterment of domain and knowledge engineering, and methods for the design and enablement of reusable software architecture. Most recently her research has expanded to include the injection of innovation and creativity into engineering, frameworks for gaming engagement, as the as well as expansion into the field of Esports, and its role in software engineering, the software industry, and academic curriculum by analyzing and synthesizing these intersecting disciplines with a multidisciplinary look at the areas of competitive gaming, software engineering, and innovation and creativity.
Caroline M. Crawford, Ed.D , is a Professor of Instructional Design and Technology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas, United States of America. She earned her doctoral degree from the University of Houston in Houston, Texas, United States of America, in 1998, with specialization areas in Instructional Technology and Curriculum Theory, and began her tenure at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) the same year. At this point in Dr. Crawford's professional career, her main areas of interest focus upon communities of learning and the appropriate and successful integration of technologies into the learning environment; the learning environment may be envisioned as face-to-face, blended and online (virtual or text-driven) environments, as well as microlearning and micro-assist deliverables.
