Integrity and digital sustainability in eSports

Abstract

This chapter explores the interplay between integrity and digital sustainability within the rapidly evolving industry of eSports. Along with its unprecedented growth, the responsibilities of eSports organisations and eSports participants, whether players or spectators, stress the need to understand eSports from the lenses of sustainability and integrity. Informed by a comprehensive review of existing literature, this chapter relies on a qualitative analysis of industry practices, codes of conduct, and indicative cases and maps out the current landscape to identify potential challenges and opportunities pertinent to the integrity and sustainability nexus in eSports. By addressing frequently discussed issues, we further delve into more contemporary integrity challenges to reflect on the idiosyncrasy of the industry, eSports specificities and peculiarities, and digital complexities, i.e., data collection, transparency, storage, privacy, and security issues. This leads our inquiry to the identification of key digital sustainability matters, such as digital waste and energy footprint, digital inclusion and empowerment, as well as digital well-being and freedom. Finally, we review and contemplate on our sustainability/integrity agenda through the lens of the triple bottom line and link our earlier considerations focusing on economic prosperity, environmental and social matters in the industry of eSport.