Game On: Embattled eSports Athletes, Ever Optimistic, Eagerly Await the Challenges of Starting a New Club

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It’s enough of a premise to make a lot of college students turn their heads: a club at school, and maybe even some classes, designed around video games. That’s what Professor Jim Brown of the English department thought last year when the Camden County Community College eSports team approached him with a proposal. CCC had a program called Associates in eSports Production and were curious to see if a similar program could be set up at Rutgers Camden for transfer students.

“Although we did have a digital design studio, of which I’m the director, we did not have any comparable program here at RUC. So of course I was interested in helping to get that off the ground, both for their students and for ours,” Brown said regarding the idea to have a similar program at Rutgers Camden.

From there, Professor Brown hit the ground running and took the steps to get the program started. He was partway through the process of getting approval to teach the course when he decided to found a club to accompany the course. So far, only four students have enlisted in the program and it currently stands without an eBoard. Without the required student participation the club cannot receive formal recognition from the university as a Student Organization or receive any of the expected resources.

When asked about the difficulties in recruiting, Brown had the following to say, “the main stressor right now is finding enough people, for sure. Whenever students hear about a video game based club they jump at the chance, but so far we aren’t seeing a lot of progress in turning that into actual attendance. Most of the time we can just about field a team for, say, a 3v3 game of Rocket League, but not much bigger than that.”

There was a Super Smash Bros. Club affiliated with RUC before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is no longer active.

“They [the Super Smash Bros. Club] were active, man. They had daily drills and practices,” Brown noted of the predecessors to his current endeavor.

Despite the association most people might have with the word “eSports”, such as grimacing young experts locked in at expensive PC stations showing off dizzyingly high-level play, Professor Brown has said emphatically that it is not the expectation for the club.

“So, the first question out of everyone’s mouths, or one of the first ones inevitably is – ‘Do I have to be that good?’ and no! Absolutely not! We’re looking for anyone at any skill level who just wants to enjoy video games in a social setting. We’re not asking you to be an expert, just that you be game to try it out. This is about building something here, a community.”

In fact, when Professor Brown led the unofficial club and its four members to their first competition at the inaugural Garden State eSports Cup last semester, what resulted was a crushing defeat.

“[laughs] Yeah, we got destroyed! The game was Rocket League, and all the other schools, Stockton, Brookdale, CCC, they all had active programs with years of experience, jerseys, everything. They were all very good, seasoned players, but above all they were very nice and in the end we all laughed, played games, ate pizza, and had fun!”

Brown emphasized that the end goal of the club was about socializing with fellow players and having fun. Video games have a long record of serving as community building, as arcades became bustling social centers in the 80s when gaming exploded into one of the most profitable and accessible artistic mediums in history.

“Y’know, like you say with the laundromat Street Fighter machine becoming the town square for some kids, it really did get that social. I was looking for a way to break it down to my parents. They were born in the 50’s, and I realized their equivalent was pinball. It really spoke to them that every generation has this, like, social play element. For me it was the actual arcades, and maybe for people now it’s things like Xbox Live or whatever. Even an outdoor game like kickball, it’s in the same vein of play as people logging onto Overwatch or something”

It is in this social tradition that Professor Brown wants to build the eSports club, and the proposed Associates in eSports Production will handle the more academic side of the phenomenon.

“In much the same way students here can choose to major in film, not just passively sitting and watching movies but really dissecting the artform – writing, choreography, camera work, mastering the craft – I want an eSports program that will do the same for video games. I think some faculty hear ‘video games’ and assume I want the students to [laughs] just show up and play games with me and go home, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We want to investigate eSports as a cultural phenomenon. What is eSports? What was it in the past, what is it now, what will it look like in the future? What’s the history behind this thriving industry, and what’s its cultural context? There’s already decades of good academic tradition – journals, articles, university programs – surrounding video games and interactive entertainment. There’s a very strong future for gaming in academia and I feel we shouldn’t leave that stone unturned.”

Professor Brown encourages students interested in playing video games with their peers to look into the fledgling eSports club, and those interested in studying them to look out for the Intro to eSports Course when it comes time to enroll in spring 2025 classes. As for his personal favorite games? Some very unexpected but appropriately academic answers:

“The Portal games are great, I’ve beaten them multiple times over with my 12 year old and it’s fun every time. The puzzles are fun, the narrative is good too – it’s all well done.”