Gaming Communities

In this thesis, the author shares how different types of games have different kinds of communities with the aim of showing gamers and non-gamers alike how gaming communities can affect a person’s life. The commissioning company of this thesis is LateGame, an Esports café and bar located in Tampere, Finland. The research question for this thesis is: ‘’How do the communities of games affect the players?’’ Gaming communities are made up of gamers, stakeholders, developers, teams, tournaments, and the brands of certain games. (SGJ, 2021). First, this thesis goes into the meaning of an Esports community. Then, it examines how the communities can help and/or hurt the gamers. Next, it looks at how the communities are good but also in what ways they need to change, as well as showing the difference between genders within these communities. Furthermore, this thesis includes interviews with real life gamers as well as the owner LateGame. After the conducting of this thesis, the author found a few key elements missing from gaming communities: administrators who communicate and listen, gamers who are less toxic and more accepting of newbies, and an efficient way to stop cheating. Keywords Community, Online, Esports, Change, Gender, Gaming Pages 38 pages and appendices 07 page