Abstract

STOUT, BRYCE THOMAS. Smashing Some Bros: A Feminist Analysis of Governance in Super Smash Bros. (Under the direction of Dr. Nicholas Thiel Taylor). The modern esports landscape is dominated by platform-driven titles like Activision-Blizzard's Overwatch, Riot’s League of Legends, and Valve’s CounterStrike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. In contrast, the grassroots scenes that have risen up around Super Smash Bros. offer a unique glimpse of organized competitive gaming carried out without the level of active, “platformized” involvement and infrastructural support typical of other developers. This thesis includes three chapters exploring symbiotic angles of approach to the intersecting socio-technical conditions constituting governance of competitive Super Smash Bros. scenes. Past feminist ethnographic fieldwork at public gaming events helped to inform my recruitment process for 18 semistructured interviews conducted at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments near Raleigh, NC. Particularly salient aspects of this include attempted reflexivity and consciousness of how my subject position influences my work both in the field and the academy; ethnographically and citationally. This work is mediated by my close involvement in competitive Smash, although active effort is made to transform my own investment in Smash into an opportunity for reflexivity, rather than a constraint. Although the third chapter involves the use of conventional ethnographic fieldwork, the paper as a whole is to be understood as a connective ethnography examining the connections and layers of cultural, technological, and economic factors at play in competitive Smash, and where the Super Smash Bros. series sits in relation to esports more generally. Rather than immersing myself only in physical sites in order to observe a singular Smash community,, I also looked to the formative documents and the sustained communicative practices carried out by networks of people across multiple offline and online sites, united by passion and dispersed in space, collectively constitute Smash “scenes.” This involves critical analysis of the Super Smash Bros. Community Code of Conduct (CoC) primarily through the lens of hegemony, with a focus on case examples of “top players” accused of misconduct. The argument is that the CoC serves as a check for average players against “top player privilege.” The second chapter explores the socio-technical intersections influencing Nintendo’s relationship with the competitive Smash scene, and the related practices of resistance and coexistence. A major takeaway from this is that Nintendo’s decisions to not actively support competitive Smash make sense and are in line with their pro-family brand. Despite this, the grassroots sustenance of Smash scenes, fueled by passionate, voluntary labor and networked internationally via fan-made communication channels like SmashBoards.com makes Project M a compelling area of study. The third chapter, which draws on conventional ethnographic observation and participant interviews, offers a comparatively “on the ground” perspective of governance in Smash to compliment the critical analysis of the CoC and top player privilege, in the meritocratically driven spaces of Smash tournaments. As a whole, this connective ethnography offers a methodological foundation for future work on the complex relationships between fans and the creators (and controllers) of media. In this same vein, it offers a framework for future work on fervent networks of fans and the manifestations of governance of these groups and related spaces. © Copyright 2020 by Bryce Stout All Rights Reserved Smashing Some Bros: A Feminist Analysis of Governance in Super Smash Bros. by Bryce Thomas Stout A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science