What's in a game?

Online gaming is a big deal – but so is watching online gamers.

- MARC WILSON

Back in 2017, I was part of a quick-fire presentation session at Te Papa Tongarewa on the theme of "bugs". One bloke talked about his love of VW bugs. One talked about using the bugs (yeasts) that grow wild around Wellington to ferment beer. I talked about spider phobias, and one woman talked about her job identifying the bugs in computer game code. It turned out my then-14-yearold son was right; you can make a living out of playing games.

Just imagine what the boy would have thought if he knew that Staffordshire University would open the first degree in esports a year later. That course focused more on management and coaching than playing, but students have access to a professional gaming arena and other facilities.

Covid had a dramatic impact on computer gaming. March 2020 saw a record 20 million concurrent users hopping on to the Steam gaming platform. Sales and revenue went up at least 5% during that year, but if you play video games then you probably also know that the post-Covid years have been a redundancy bloodbath for many game studios.