Like a professional
(moving) ethnography, participation, and reflexivity in esports research in the Brazilian Amazon
Keywords:
Game studies, ethnography, communication, esports, reflexivityAbstract
Esport is an expression that has gained popularity in recent years to refer to electronic sports, a particular form of practicing competitive digital sports games mediated by computers. Its expansion into a global phenomenon with multiple local repercussions has driven the proliferation of aspiring and professional teams of players engaged in the practice in different countries, as well as mobilizing a significant number of actors involved in this process. This article contributes a retrospective reflection on the ethnography of a community of semi-professional players from the Brazilian Amazon for whom (auto)biography, participation, and the photographic camera have become not only research but also a promotional resource. Examining the transformations that researcher participation and experimentation have fostered, both in the practice of ethnographic fieldwork and in the relationship with gamers, this paper explores the central role played by (auto)biography, participation and affect in ethnographic research on digital games and esports. Finally, some of the epistemological and methodological intersections between social markers, gamer culture, and professional culture in video games are considered. Some of the implications of these aspects for recording social scientific experiences at a time when participation is increasingly popularized and also pleasurable, however polarized, and problematic.
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