Esports : a new frontier for inclusion through competitive game engagement

Abstract

The unremitting cycles between necessity and the progressive granularity in the sophistication of machines are inherently fulfilling our needs and also enhancing our dependence on technology. If not instinctively or naturally, digital technology is fittingly merging as a personalised and natural appendage of human action and self-expression. It is clear that the potential on how the intrinsic flexibility of technology can enhance inclusion is becoming more tangible and within reach by anyone who is creative enough to recognise and harness the inherent plasticity of the same technology. Indeed, the facilitation of the soft skills through video games and competitiveness can boost inclusion. Therefore, the perceptions and opinions portrayed by volunteering participants working at a Maltese esports company and competitive video game players are employed to discuss how instilled decision-making, strategic thinking, and personalised and community building traits that characterise competitive video game play in the esports industry can also define the discipline as an emergent platform where personalisation of skills can be an attribute to inclusion.