At the end of June, I took part in the Digital Wellbeing Festival, speaking about the importance of mental wellness when working within esports.
I was joined by Chester King, CEO of the British Esports Association and what struck me most was how the playing of games is such a joyful part of life and that we must ensure that this aspect of esports is present for all players, is a crucial part of what we need to produce.
One of the challenges with this is the risk that things which become work-like tend often to become ways of detracting from enjoyment and so the goal must me to find pleasure in the work we do, so that there is a strong sense of value and enrichment that we derive from it.
Yet, we must also be wary of the desire for the labour industries to cultivate such desires, in order that we may better serve the processes of production. This is a difficult balance to strike and yet I think it is well mediated by also nurturing awareness of systemic means of our exploitation, so we may better exhibit and assert our agency within these systems.