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Fantasy Seasons: Time, Ritual and Community within the game of Fantasy Sports

Sun, August 12, 10:30 to 11:30am, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 100, 103B

Abstract

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 40 Fantasy Sport users, this paper presents six case studies of Fantasy “managers” whose discussion of the seasonality and rituals of their game play helps us understand the mechanisms that make an online game and tool for competition apt for facilitating and galvanizing social communities. The cases are organized in pairs, with each pair focusing on a different scope of time: first, daily rhythms of play, then seasonal, and finally across seasons. To do so, it puts the case studies in conversation with literatures about rituals and community, starting with Durkheim, as well as the characteristics of persistent and durable online and offline leisure communities. By considering these different rituals by their frequency, I argue that each builds on the previous. As such, it is the mundane micro-level ritual of spending just a few seconds daily on one’s Fantasy team that undergirds the social organization – Fantasy Leagues – that regularly persist for many years. Paradoxically, it is the minimal time commitment required of users to play Fantasy Sports that facilitates a long-term time commitment. Similarly, despite its narrow focus on sports, users report that the common focus yields a low maintenance community that provides support and reprieve. This has implications for the way that online communities and social games are understood and developed, as well as implications for encouraging community building and relationship maintenance with a low barrier to entry, in terms of time, emotions, and social investment. In particular, I suggest Fantasy Sports offer an important avenue for community building among adult men.

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