Mike
We recently had the pleasure to talk to Professor. Anders Drachen, from the University of York about the launch of The Arena Research Cluster (ARC) happening this month. ARC is a new research network focused on encouraging knowledge exchange, collaboration and innovation in esports. The network will be an incredible resource for academics, businesses and individuals interested in growing and nurturing the evolving world of esports with a wealth of knowledge available at the users fingertips.
What is ARC?
At this time there is an abundance of research being done both in universities and companies in esports from all corners of the globe and sectors of the market. However, these are scattered individual pieces, which make it difficult to grasp an overall view of what’s currently available. ARC aims to solve this issue by offering a hub where all this can be accessed by anyone at no cost, which will be constantly growing thanks to the function for research network members to upload their work to ARC’s online reference library.
Esports research ranges from match analyses, sociological studies, game analytics, machine learning models and all the way to all the way to psychology and even the design of new tools for streamers and commentators. Other than collaboration and knowledge exchange, ARC sets out to connect the community who share a passion for innovation in esports. This currently includes over 700 contributions of not only academic research but industry based research as well from businesses, events, publishers and individuals.
The Arena Research Cluster was started because we have realised that the international research community is big - hundreds of academics and professionals work with esports R&D - but the knowledge generated is fragmented because esports is a very interdisciplinary and incredibly fast-evolving sector. ARC provides a way for us to stay connected and exchange knowledge
How Does This Benefit The Industry?
This collective will be generous in what it offers and consist of a variety of tools, research and searchable library of network members, to assist individuals, businesses and academics immensely in efforts to grow the esports community.
For anyone wanting to get involved in esports this is a great resource to dive into a wealth of knowledge at no cost. The ability to use ARC as a network to distribute information quickly is also one of the many benefits of having a centralised location.
Across industry and academic research, we have experts in psychology, anthropology, sociology, media studies, computer science, big data, business intelligence, management, marketing, business studies and many other areas all working with esports. But we have lacked a good venue for communication and collaboration, crucial in an interdisciplinary and very dynamic sector like esports. ARC solves this problem
Conclusion
In conclusion, ARC will be an incredible resource for businesses, individuals and academics in esports to help grow and share a diverse range of information with a developing industry. It will provide a wide range of knowledge, information and analytics in one place which will be constantly growing thanks to the function for members to upload their work to ARC’s online reference library.
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