Blending the Real and Virtual in Games: The Model of Fantasy Sports Frank Shipman Department of Computer Science & Center for the Study of Digital Libraries Texas A&M University

Real and Virtual: Together “Real or virtual” vs. “real and virtual” –Decades of comparisons of on-line communities to physical communities –Computer games vs. in-person games Separation is artificial – forms of entertainment and art can integrate the physical and digital This is not news … we see it all the time.

Existing Methods for Combining Real and Virtual Using real people –Playing against other people –Basing people in game on real people Using external personal contacts –Friends lists Using physical location –Location aware games/arts Clearly not an exhaustive list

What are Fantasy Sports? Fantasy sports: a derivative entertainment Players of fantasy sports take on the role of coach –Draft actual sport players for team –Decide which players start each week/game –Get points based on player statistics that week –Trade players to other teams/waiver wire Many other variants of fantasy sports exist

Why Fantasy Sports? Fantasy sports rely on real sports Fantasy sports can / will change the real sport, perhaps to the point where real sports rely on fantasy sports … A big, mainstream phenomenon –27 million players in the US in 2008 survey –75% play on-line –$800 million to 1 billion dollar industry –Magazines and TV shows devoted to topic Yet, rarely discussed in gaming literature

History of Fantasy Sports Dates 1962: paper-based fantasy football game 1979: start of Rotisserie baseball Characteristics: –Leagues among local friends and colleagues –Significant effort of collecting statistics and computing winners –Trophies and prizes for winners (and losers)

Digitization A natural fit –Automatic collection and manipulation of statistics reduces overhead of leagues. –Network provides easy access for players from around the world to create leagues. Effect –Low overhead, no knowledge of other players –Low consequences results in lower interest –Players abandon teams early in season

Recapturing What Was Lost New interfaces aid sense of community –League statistics / power ratings / transactions –League newspapers / polls –League message boards Integrating virtual and real sport news –News of injuries, anticipated changes to starting players, and weather forecasts –Alongside articles about fantasy teams

Rhetoric in Fantasy Sports Empowerment “becoming the team's manager, owner, and president all in one” “have star athletes working for you” Competition “ever thought you could do a better job than the people running the teams?” “show the world just how smart you are” Participation “In Fantasy Sports, you can be as much the beneficiary of an athlete's performance as the athlete himself!”

Framework for Games and Sports Fantasy sports combine spectatorship with gaming –Players must understand and anticipate the real sport –Players act in the virtual sport based on this knowledge Real ActionVirtual Action Player ControlPlaying sports Playing games External Control Watching sports Observing game playing

Emotion and Engagement Lessons from fantasy sports –Ease of playing resulted in less commitment to game –Community presence and surrounding context can increase engagement –Real consequences increase engagement (e.g. financial or other awards) –Connection to events in the real world can remove the boredom that results from predictable game engines

Potential Effects of Fantasy Sports on Real Sports Audience: –Greater interest driving larger television audiences –Spectators via multiple media Game: –Rule changes to better support fantasy sports (e.g. injury reports, starting line-ups) Viewing: –Personalized presentations of real sports events

Games as Derivative Forms Simple model –Real world acts as data source for game engine –Model maps data to game Real-World Event Collection of Data from Event Model Mapping Data to Game Context Virtual Event

Examples of Model Simple mappings –Fantasy stock markets –Fantasy elections Streaming or querying data –Weather and traffic in racing or other simulation –Play/action selection in sports game based on database of play selections retrieved by similarity of conditions

Fantasy Sport meets Reality TV Information flow in model is in single direction What if: An Alternative “XFL” –Vote for next play, or player substitutions –Audience communication with players on the field

Summary Fantasy games have 45 year history –10s of millions of players in US alone –Billion dollar industry Connecting the real and digital –Using the real world as data for or part of “game engine” –Community, context, and consequence result in engagement Potential for digital games to be combined with existing modes of entertainment