Dr. John Harney and Dr. Vanessa Song are the faculty sponsors of Centre’s esports team, which was founded in the fall of 2019. Dr. Harney informed me that from the beginning, fostering a diverse and inclusive–and kind–playing environment was important to the team both as a moral duty and as a competitive strategy. He said that the best esports programs (Dr. Harney cited Colorado College as an example) prioritize the creation of a healthy, open, caring community.
This sense of caring community begins with players. Dr. Harney credits Josh West and Gus Crowe for “setting the tone and building the culture.” Dr. Harney insisted that they were “diligent on the fringes, which prevents big things.” One of the behaviors West and Crowe sought to curb is “tilting,” which is gaming slang for, as Dr. Harney put it, “being a jerk while playing a game.” Tilting is very often expressed in the form of angry, deprecating remarks toward your teammates when things are not going well. Such comments can take on misogynistic or homophobic overtones, as gaming culture has historically been marred by the culture of toxic masculinity.
I wanted to learn more about the ways in which Centre’s program dealt with these kinds of problematic–and just plain mean!–behaviors before they became issues, so I turned to West, class of 2022, who is a founding member of the esports team, a Lincoln Scholar, and a very good human, for answers.
My three questions and his responses as follows:
QUESTION: What was your experience with issues of diversity and inclusion in esports?
WEST: “The esports team is the first coed Centre College team and we have always had students of color and frequently had international students on our teams. This is not to say that we have an ideal blend of diversity, as we are still a majority male team and there should ideally be diversity of many kinds on a team. Unlike most traditional sports, our team practices require us to interact with random people on the internet, which can lead to challenges in maintaining a level of professionalism in the face of toxicity. With this in mind we have fostered an environment of inclusive language, clarifying comfort and intent, and use of gender-neutral language. Additionally, we never direct our frustration at each other and choose to face hate speech and blatant disrespect with overwhelming positivity, hiding chat or blocking voice communication, or even redirecting or distracting the conversation to a different topic.”
QUESTION: How have you brought these issues into greater awareness?
WEST: “We have talked about these issues within the team since the team’s inception in 2019. Recently, we hosted an ODI panel event where Dr. Harney, Jenna Morgan and myself spoke about what diversity and inclusion means in esports and what we can do to hold our program to the highest standards while improving the community we play in.”
QUESTION: Do you see esports moving towards adequately reckoning with these issues, both at Centre College specifically and in gaming culture generally?
“On a national level, the increasing number of large-scale litigations of game development companies for bad work culture is an encouraging sign of accountability. At Centre, it is encouraging the we have had our first female faculty member join the program to help coordinate and manage the Rocket League team, as she has mentioned that she hopes to serve as an indicator that Centre esports can be a safe and productive environment for players who identify as female. Esports is however limited to the already proportionately small amounts of diversity present on Centre’s campus, which represents and institutional challenge that Centre is aware of and actively trying to improve, though there is room for more progress to be made.”
In summary, West and others in Centre’s gaming program have created a culture that does not permit the bad behaviors that are known to crop up in larger gaming culture. Hopefully, this culture will continue to be fostered. Looking ahead, Harney says that esports are gaining cultural currency in the U.S. and that many prospective students are interested in participating in esports. Further, Pres. Milton Moreland is committed to helping the team continue to grow, perhaps even hiring full-time coach soon.
This additional institutional support, combined with the established culture of respectful play, should lead the Centre esports program toward a bright future. Let’s stay tuned! And if you are interested in learning more about the team, Dr. Harney and Dr. Song are an email away.