Whether you’re a die-hard gamer or just a casual observer, you’ve probably heard the term ‘esports’. But have you ever wondered how it should be written? Should ‘esports’ be capitalized or not? It’s a question that’s sparked quite a debate in the gaming community.
Is Esports Capitalized
The Evolution of Esports
Examining the evolution of Esports reveals a transformation from basement pastime to mainstream spectacle. Back in the 1970s, primitive video games like Pong lay the groundwork for Esports. As technology improved, so did the complexity and variety of games. By the 2000s, with high-speed internet facilitating multiplayer games, Esports started gaining wider recognition. Today, tournaments for games like League of Legends and Fortnite attract millions of viewers and offer multi-million dollar prize pools.
Understanding the Esports Market
The esports market is a rapidly expanding sector with a diverse ecosystem of players, developers, sponsors and viewers. It’s claimed its place at the forefront of contemporary entertainment, with Pew Research stating that 18% of adults in the U.S., aged 18 to 29, watch Esports most or some of the time. Financial giants like Goldman Sachs project that the Esports market could generate over $2.96 billion in annual revenue by 2022, largely due to media rights deals and advertising.
Is Esports Capitalized: Grammar Rules
Looking at Associated Press Guidelines
The Associated Press (AP), a standard-bearer in English language style guidelines, offers clear guidance on this matter. AP takes a specific stance, electing to use ‘esports’ in a lower case. They uphold this view across any usage, whether it’s the start of a sentence or a mid-sentence mention. By doing so, AP suggests that ‘esports’, like ’email’, has become a standard term and doesn’t generally require capitalization.
Insights from eSports Style Guides
Though AP stands firm on the lowercase, eSports style guides cast a slightly different perspective. Some argue for the use of ‘Esports’ as a capitalized term, citing its growth into a distinct cultural entity. Others advocate for maintaining the ‘e’ in lowercase and capitalizing the ‘s’, shaping ‘eSports’. They justify this format referencing terms like ‘eCommerce’ and ‘eLearning’. Advocates of this style suggest it emphasizes the digital nature of competitive gaming. As with many linguistically malleable phenomena.
Reasons to Capitalize Esports
Significance of Correct Capitalization
In written English, proper use of capitalization especially for collective terms such as esports, isn’t just about grammar. It’s about respecting cultural relevance and signifying an object’s importance. Capitalizing ‘Esports’ or ‘eSports’ interprets it as a distinct entity, highlighting its digital evolution and global acceptance. For example, just like ‘Internet’, once considered a common noun, now capitalized due to its unparalleled role in digital culture.
Promoting Uniformity in Esports Community
Esports, an international assembly of diverse gaming cultures, deserves uniformity in its presentation. Capitalizing the term ‘Esports’ or ‘eSports’ enforces a uniform expression across languages, countries, and cultures. Insistence on such unification ensures every individual participant, regardless of their locational privileges, perceives esports as a legitimate, consolidated global phenomenon, akin to the Olympics or the NBA. Hence, capitalizing ‘Esports’ promotes inclusivity, globalism, and unity in the esports ecosystem.
Situations Where Esports isn’t Capitalized
Different Media and Journalistic Standards
Admittedly, the choice to use lowercase ‘esports’ is notably driven by media standards and journalistic practice. Media outlets, such as the Associated Press (AP), suggest that ‘esports’ should remain lowercase, similar to traditional sports names. Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary also log ‘esports’ as a lowercase entity. It’s a nod to uniformity, mirroring grammatical rules applied to traditional sports categories like football, basketball, or tennis.
Language and Regional Considerations
Moreover, language and regional preferences hold sway in the esports text case debate. Certain nations, specifically those with non-Latin alphabets, may localize the term, rendering ‘esports’ in a format tailored to their language. This makes the use of capitalization, particularly the ‘eSports’ variation, less common. Some regions may simplify to ‘esports’, matching their local language rules and leading to a universal low-case preference. Hence, one could argue that it’s not only about coherence in esports culture, but also about compatibility with existing linguistic norms.