News/Research

Bo Ruberg Keynotes UCIESC 2019

27 Dec, 2019

Bo Ruberg Keynotes UCIESC 2019

Alum Bo Ruberg keynoted the UC Irvine 2019 Esports conference with a presentation on "Diversity and Esports: Video Game Culture, Collegiate Play, and Live Streaming."

From the description:

Esports and related topics like video game live streaming are important and exciting areas of practice and research today. However, esports still faces a number of considerable challenges in the realm of diversity and inclusion. This talk will address current problems and possible ways forward with a focus on three areas: "toxic" video game culture and its impact on esports, questions of diversity in collegiate esports, and how diversity issues play out in video game live streaming. The talk will build from the considerable body of existing scholarship on esports, providing an overview of work in this area. It will also draw from Dr. Ruberg's experience working with the Esports Arena at UCI, as well as their role as the PI for the Inclusive Streaming Initiative, an ongoing research group that addresses issues of harassment and inclusion in video game live streaming.

The Esports conference focuses on esports research and practice inclusive of both academics and industry professionals. Created to provide a space for esports researchers and industry leaders to come together to present research, discuss topics relevant to future work, celebrate collaboration in the growing field, and build bridges between the many communities that make up the field of esports.

Learn more about the program here! You can also watch the video of this great talk here!

The talk was also written about in Global Sports Matters here.

From the article:

“The longer something’s been around, the harder it is to change the system,” Ruberg said. “So I think because we’re in a moment of shift, we can bring in those values, which are: everyone deserves to have a chance to be here. Everyone deserves to feel welcome, and we can bring them to esports.”