MIT Game Lab X Tencent: “Postitive Values of Esports” Panel

We have invited Tencent Interactive Entertainment and a number of distinguished guests to discuss the topic the “Positive Values of Esports” — what we think these values might be and how we can encourage them in our esports games, competitions, and communities.

Scot Osterweil, Creative Director of the MIT Game Lab and Education Arcade, will facilitate a discussion on stage with TL Taylor, Professor of Comparative Media Studies, MIT, with our guests:

• Mars Hou, Vice General Manager, Marketing, Tencent Interactive Entertainment
• Sage Huang, General Manager, Product Department of League of Legends
• John Lasker, Vice President, Digital Media Programming, ESPN
• Lu Jingchao, Dean of Announcing & Hosting Art, Communication University of China

We invite the general public to come listen to this discussion and think about what we can do as players, tournament organizers, community members, game developers, broadcasters, commentators, and publishers to support social values in esports.

About the Speakers
T.L. Taylor is Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT. She is a qualitative sociologist who has focused on internet and game studies for over two decades. Her research explores the interrelations between culture, social practice, and technology in online leisure environments. Her book Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming (MIT Press, 2012) chronicles the rise of e-sports and professional computer gaming. She is also the author of Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture (MIT Press, 2006) which used her multi-year ethnography of EverQuest to explore issues related to massively multiplayer online games. Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method, her co-authored book on doing ethnographic research in online multi-user worlds, was published by Princeton University Press (2012). She is currently at work on a book about game live-streaming (under contract with Princeton University Press). More information about her and her work can be found at http://tltaylor.com.