Chen.aera2011.social dimensions of expertise

Mark Chen, U of WA, @mcdanger, markchen@uw.edu Moses Wolfenstein, UWisc, @mosesoperandi, wolfenstein@wisc.edu Sean Duncan, Miami U, @scd, sean.duncan@muohio.edu Rebecca Reynolds, Rutgers, rebecca.reynolds@gmail.com Leah Bricker, U of WA, lbricker@u.washington.edu Philip Bell, discussant, U of WA, pbell@u.washington.edu SOCIALLY SITUATED EXPERT PRACTICE IN AND AROUND GAMING Google Doc for AERA2011: http://j.mp/fy8Jw1

SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF EXPERT PRACTICE IN ONLINE GAMING Mark Chen University of Washington @mcdanger markchen@uw.edu This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.

World of Warcraft§  MMOG §  6 million subscribers in 2006

World of Warcraft§  MMOG §  6 million subscribers in 2006 §  Fantasy with races / classes

World of Warcraft§  MMOG §  6 million subscribers in 2006 §  Fantasy with races / classes §  Complete quests, kill monsters for loot and XP

Raiding§  Large group joint acPvity §  Highly coordinated §  Specialized roles §  OrganizaPon and leadership §  Molten Core

Leadership tasks required for raiding

Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004)§  Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session §  Met 2-‐3 Pmes a week for 10 mos (11/05-‐8/06), 4-‐5 hrs each Pme §  Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data §  ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums §  Disciplined percepPon (Stevens & Hall, 1998) Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.

Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004)§  Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session §  Met 2-‐3 Pmes a week for 10 mos (11/05-‐8/06), 4-‐5 hrs each Pme §  Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data §  ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums §  Disciplined percepPon (Stevens & Hall, 1998) Remember, who you give soulstones to will change when we encounter Majordomo Executus, but, until then, the priest or shaman who you ve been assigned to should have your soulstone at all times. Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.

Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004) §  Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session §  Met 2-‐3 Pmes a week for 10 mos (11/05-‐8/06), 4-‐5 hrs each Pme §  Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data §  ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums §  Disciplined percepPon (Stevens & Hall, 1998) a magic item that warlocks can give to others so priests and shaman can bringthat they can come back to life if they are killed others back to life (resurrect) Remember, who you give soulstones to will change when we encounter Majordomo Executus, but, until then, the priest or shaman who you ve been assigned to should have your soulstone at all times. Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times. it s important to give rezzers the ability to come back to life so they can rez the rest of the raid group

Theorizing the practice•  Push-‐pull relaPonship of objects in a network of acPvity… –  Actor-‐Network Theory (Latour, 2005) –  Distributed CogniPon (Hutchins, 1995) –  Mangle (Pickering, 1993; Steinkuehler 2006) –  Assemblage (Deleuze & Guitarri, 1987; Taylor, 2006) –  Arrangement (Stevens, Satwicz, & McCarthy, 2009) –  Object-‐Oriented Ontology (Bogost, 2006, 2009) –  Roles and responsibiliPes constantly renegoPated, redistributed, and reconﬁgured to adapt to local seengs

Expertise in game mechanics?

various bits of info to keep track of minimap temporary bonuses or and impairments (buffs addon streaming combat text and debuffs) bugons name and health of enemy tank targets the jumble in the middle is the actual more ability bugons cooldown Pmers for in-game fight temporary effects my health and status threat enemy meter enemy health debuffs and status unit frames showing health and status of raid members chat window ability bugons

Expertise as sociomaterial practice §  Emergent through push-‐pull of constraints-‐workarounds §  Limited by access to the right social networks

World of Warcraft wiki

Conclusions and Takeaway Issues•  CogniPve frameworks for experPse don t account for emergent situated pracPce that depend on available sociomaterial resources. •  Becoming expert depended on access to expert groups and expert pracPce (Collins & Evans, 2007) •  Not all players could gain access

SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF EXPERT PRACTICE IN ONLINE GAMING Mark Chen University of Washington @mcdanger markchen@uw.edu This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.

Some game play

Fight conPnued §  Look at coordinaPon and use of addons

Mark Chen, U of WA, @mcdanger, markchen@uw.edu Moses Wolfenstein, UWisc, @mosesoperandi, wolfenstein@wisc.edu Sean Duncan, Miami U, @scd, sean.duncan@muohio.edu Rebecca Reynolds, Rutgers, rebecca.reynolds@gmail.com Leah Bricker, U of WA, lbricker@u.washington.edu Philip Bell, discussant, U of WA, pbell@u.washington.edu SOCIALLY SITUATED EXPERT PRACTICE IN AND AROUND GAMING Google Doc for AERA2011: http://j.mp/fy8Jw1

Chen.aera2011.social dimensions of expertise

by Mark Chen on May 04, 2011

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