My Computers & Writing 2013 slide-show. There's a bunch of talky-talking that happens during a number of the pictures, so just reading this might not make much sense. Hopefully if you see the presentation, though, having access to it will remind you of my anecdotes and central premise.

2. In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene,
Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary
biologist and ethnologist, proposes
the existence of a thing he coins the
“meme” or “the new replicator.”

3. “a noun that conveys the idea of a unit
of cultural transmission… memes
propagate themselves in the meme
pool by leaping from brain to brain via a
process which, in the broad sense, can
be called imitation…If the idea catches
on, it can be said to propagate itself,
spreading from brain to brain.”
-Dawkins

5. “A meme is not equivalent to an
idea. It's not an idea, it's not
equivalent to anything else, really.
Stick with the definition. It's that
which is imitated. Or information
which is copied from person to
person.” (my emphasis)
-Susan Blackmore (2008)

7. The internet, of course, has come
up with its own slightly differing
definition of the meme, though the
core structure– seeing, replicating,
imitating– is the same…

9. My argument, based on my recent
research of online gamers, is that
we learn and gain mastery of many
skills through memetic practice:
through seeing, imitating,
replicating, and eventually
innovating.

11. Two quick examples of what I mean.
1. From my research: bubbles and
soundwaves
2. Leeroy Jenkins: Meme superstar,
pop culture icon, in-game
achievement

19. The group’s problem?
One member, in spite of high skill in
most situations, cannot move left
and right properly, and continually
he is bombarded by soundwaves
and ends up like the picture shows:
dead at the dragon’s feet.

21. The solution:
One of the team healers regularly
uses a spell called “holy shield” to
mitigate damage taken (“habitually”
she’d tell me). She tossed the spell
on said player when the rings came,
and it didn’t matter if they hit him,
because they didn’t actually hit him.

24. While this example shows quick
synthesis of two memes into a new
functional meme for a group, the
next example shows the widespread
impact memes can have in gaming
spaces written much wider than a
single group of ten players.

29. MEME pool:
1. Patient Zero: “Leeroy Jenkins!”
2. YouTube, pop culture spread
3. Leeroy appears at Blizzcon
4. “Jenkins” title added to WoW for
doing what Leeroy does in the
video successfully
5. Strategies for earning title are
developed and shared