Alishan Jamshid

May 8th, 2021

Engl 210

Professor Furlong

The subculture I had originally chosen was Esports. Esports is a form of competition using video games. Esports is often organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. I was asked to interview someone directly involved in the E sports culture. At first I didn’t have anyone in mind, and then I realized my distant cousin is a semi-pro Fortnite player. Throughout this interview, not only did I get to learn more about the Esports culture but I also got to learn more about my cousin. I interviewed my 17 year old cousin Haaziq through zoom on a Saturday morning at 10 am. He seemed to be very tired but happy to hear from me because it had been so long. We started off the interview by greeting each other. I started off by asking a question I knew the answer to but I asked anyway to keep the interview as professional as possible. I asked “Where are you from?”, Haaziq replied “Islamabad, Pakistan. How about you?” and we both laughed breaking the slightly awkward barrier. My next question was more concentrated on the topic. I asked Haaziq “What drew you into the culture of Esports”. He replied “ well I got into gaming n back when the ps3 was still the newest console so maybe around 2007 I believe. I have strict parents so I wasn’t allowed to go out with my friends much, so gaming was my main form of entertainment.” his response was interesting because it was the same case for me and probably millions of other kids with strict parents. My next question to him was “what are your favorite things about the culture?”. He answered by saying “my favorite thing about Esports would probably be the availability and the connectivity. It is crazy how I can be sitting in my room in Queens playing with someone in London or even Africa.”. His answer had a connection to one of my main reasons for the growth of Esports… the technology. The technological advancements of current day is what makes it possible to be connecting with people across the world. Being able to play with people that are national and international makes it appealing for the younger generation because they don’t have to be psychically next to their friends to have fun with them. My next question was “what are things you don’t like about it?”. He said at times the community can get very toxic and not fun to be around. There are alot of trolls online that cyber bully other kids. My ultimate question to Haaziq was “do you believe Esports is the future and why?”. He answered with “Of course it’s the future, how could it not be? Esports has been at an all time high and only seems to be getting bigger and bigger. Kids rather go play basketball in a video game rather than go outside and actually play it nowadays. Some of these games are starting to look as real as reality with 4k graphics. You’re able to make money off of esports in so many different ways at this point. Like streaming, competitive playing and more.” His answer showed that he also believes Esports is going to be the future due to technological advancements and the ability to generate revenue around it. 

This interview gave me insight on the opinions of someone who is a part of the Esports community and their take on some of the questions I had. This interview definitely assisted me in answering my research question. It showed me that someone within the community agrees with my reasoning for the growth of Esports and that it will continue to grow. Haaziq also believed that some of Esports success was due to technological advancements and its ability to generate revenue.