Player Productivity: Experiential Knowledge in a game modification forum

Chad O'Neil

Extended Abstract

Player productivity in connection with game modifications has been examined both broadly as a form of participatory design (Taylor 2006) and specifically as an expression of creativity (Wright, Boria, & Breidenbach. 2002). For Taylor (2006), making mention of player involvement in the creation of game modifications for the popular massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft (WoW) is a part of grounding her contention that "scholars and designers need to pay serious attention to the role of players in game culture.. as prime agents in producing and sustaining the very systems they are engaged with" (par 9, Taylor 2006). Wright and his coauthors (2002) examine the specifics of such player engagement in the context of the first person shooter (FPS) Counter-Strike. Where Wright and his coauthors (2002) "argue that the playing of FPS multiplayer games by participants can both reproduce and challenge everyday rules of social interaction while also generating interesting and creative innovations in verbal dialogue and non-verbal expressions" (par 2); Taylor (2006b) argues that game developers are not recognizing the way these kinds of activities produce and sustain a shared game space. Though Wright and his coauthor's (2002) work is useful in cataloging the kinds of creative action players participate in as they play, it is Taylor's (2006) call to connect such activities with the evolution and maintenance of a game space that I am concerned with.

This poster focuses on player discussion in a game modification forum. The modification, ORA2 is a player-developed extension to World of Warcraft. In the analysis of verbal data (see Geisler 2004) from the forum I explore the relationship between discussion of in game experience and modification development. In the poster I outline this relationship and possible connections to and extension of T. L. Taylor's critique of game developer conceptions of players. My initial findings seem to indicate that conceptions of players (as unskilled / unknowledgeable and/or rational and selfish actors) are also present in this particular forum even though it is player created and organized (Taylor 2006).

References:

Geisler, C. (2004). Analyzing streams of language: Twelve steps to the systematic coding of text, talk, and other verbal data. New York, NY, Pearson Longman.

Taylor, T. L. (2006) Beyond management: Considering participatory design and governance in player culture. First Monday, October 2006. Retrieved November 2007 from http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1611/1526

Wright, T. Boria, E., & Bridenbach, P. (2002). Creative player actions in FPS online video games: Playing Counter-Strike. Game Studies, 2(2). Retrieved September 2005 from http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/