Covering a quick definition of games and expert play; a summary of Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in WoW; and current and future research plans. Also, a choose your own adventure intro and a couple of easter eggs. :)

2. The Talk page 1
You see a man preparing to give an
academic job talk…

3. The Talk page 1
You see a man preparing to give an
academic job talk…
But all he’s doing is reading aloud.

4. The Talk page 1
You see a man preparing to give an
academic job talk…
But all he’s doing is reading aloud.
It’s a little surreal.

5. The Talk page 1
You see a man preparing to give an
academic job talk…
But all he’s doing is reading aloud.
It’s a little surreal.
In fact, he’s just playing a
choose-your-own adventure game…

6. The Talk page 1
You see a man preparing to give an
academic job talk…
But all he’s doing is reading aloud.
It’s a little surreal.
In fact, he’s just playing a
choose-your-own adventure game…
Do you:

7. The Talk page 1
You see a man preparing to give an
academic job talk…
But all he’s doing is reading aloud.
It’s a little surreal.
In fact, he’s just playing a
choose-your-own adventure game…
Do you:
Ask him to get on with it? (Turn to page 8.)
OR
Let him continue? (Turn to page 15.)

8. Get on with it! page 8
The man snaps his head up and begins to stammer.

9. Get on with it! page 8
The man snaps his head up and begins to stammer.
He apologizes profusely and

10. Get on with it! page 8
The man snaps his head up and begins to stammer.
He apologizes profusely and
makes excuses about losing track of time
or something equally inane.

11. Get on with it! page 8
The man snaps his head up and begins to stammer.
He apologizes profusely and
makes excuses about losing track of time
or something equally inane.
After he regains his composure,

12. Get on with it! page 8
The man snaps his head up and begins to stammer.
He apologizes profusely and
makes excuses about losing track of time
or something equally inane.
After he regains his composure,
he asks how you all are.

13. Get on with it! page 8
The man snaps his head up and begins to stammer.
He apologizes profusely and
makes excuses about losing track of time
or something equally inane.
After he regains his composure,
he asks how you all are.
He prepares to roll a 20-sided die.

14. Get on with it! page 8
The man snaps his head up and begins to stammer.
He apologizes profusely and
makes excuses about losing track of time
or something equally inane.
After he regains his composure,
he asks how you all are.
He prepares to roll a 20-sided die.
Turn to page 23.

15. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…

16. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…
…

17. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…
…
The man looks up, realizing everyone’s looking at him.

18. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…
…
The man looks up, realizing everyone’s looking at him.
He stammers and does a nervous laugh.

19. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…
…
The man looks up, realizing everyone’s looking at him.
He stammers and does a nervous laugh.
After he regains his composure,

20. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…
…
The man looks up, realizing everyone’s looking at him.
He stammers and does a nervous laugh.
After he regains his composure,
he asks how you all are.

21. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…
…
The man looks up, realizing everyone’s looking at him.
He stammers and does a nervous laugh.
After he regains his composure,
he asks how you all are.
He prepares to roll a 20-sided die.

22. Let’s see what’ll happen page 15
After a short while…
…
The man looks up, realizing everyone’s looking at him.
He stammers and does a nervous laugh.
After he regains his composure,
he asks how you all are.
He prepares to roll a 20-sided die.
Turn to page 23.

23. D20 results
Roll Result Effect
1 Critical Strip to your undies, run around like a
failure! chicken, and faint.
2-9 It’s looking Continue with presentation, but try to
iffy. be more engaging.
10-19 It’s going Continue with presentation, but don’t
well! get cocky.
20 Critical A beam of light shines on you for the
success! rest of the day.

24. Emergent forms of expert gaming
Outline:
 brief statement on why games matter
 past research on learning and expert practice
in World of Warcraft (WoW)
 current and future plans
 takeaways
―Of all the things that make me a geek, nothing brings me more
joy, or is more important to me, than gaming. I am the person I am
today because of the games I played and the people I played them
with as I came of age in the 80s.‖ – Wil Wheaton

25. Games are important
 huge cultural significance; shared, global
 ubiquitous and pervasive
Ian Gibson
SharpWriter

26. Games are important for
learning
 game = systems of
constraints w goals
 play = exploring and
understanding systems
 expert play = pushing,
exploiting, hacking
systems for an imagined
future
 gaming = contextualized
play in a larger ecology
linkitch
(see also: Gee, 2011 GLS chat)

27. The world is made of systems!
 gaming life systems
-> success in life
 How to cultivate
gaming attitude?
enfu
(see also: Sutton-Smith, McGonigal)

28. What does gaming look like?
 a lot like STEM practice (cf. NRC’s framework for k12 STEM
and LSIE volumes)
 expert practice emerges out of “mangle” (Pickering, 1993)
 critical, inquisitive, goal-oriented, playful
(For more on 21st century skills, turn to page 74.)
 But each subculture/affinity group is a little
different. It’s not monolithic.
 Next up: expert practice in WoW raiding

29. Leet Noobs
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF
AN EXPERT PLAYER GROUP
IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT
This work was funded in part by the
National Science Foundation through
the Science of Learning Center
program under grant SBE-0354453.

30. World of Warcraft
 MMOG
 6 million subscribers in 2006

31. World of Warcraft
 MMOG
 6 million subscribers in 2006
 fantasy with races / classes

32. World of Warcraft
 MMOG
 6 million subscribers in 2006
 fantasy with races / classes
 complete quests, kill
monsters for loot and XP

33. Raiding
 large group joint activity
 highly coordinated
 specialized roles
 organization and leadership
 Molten Core

34. Leadership tasks required for raiding
Wolfenstein,
2010
See also:
Reeves &
Read, 2009

35. Ethnographic methods (Taylor; Steinkuehler)
 pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session
 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time
 over 1000 hrs of chat data
 ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums
 disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)
Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but
until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.

36. Ethnographic methods (Taylor; Steinkuehler)
 pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session
 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time
 over 1000 hrs of chat data
 ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums
 disciplined perception (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.

37. Ethnographic methods (Taylor; Steinkuehler)
 pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session
 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time
 over 1000 hrs of chat data
 ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums
 disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)
a magic item that warlocks can give to others so priests and shaman can bring
that 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

38. Theorizing the practice
• Push-pull relationship of objects in a
network of activity…
– Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 2005)
– Distributed Cognition (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 responsibilities constantly
renegotiated, redistributed, and
reconfigured to adapt to local settings

39. Communication practices
Regular chat channels and specialized ones by
character role
 say
 whisper
 party
 raid
 healsting
 madtankin
 splittranq
 madsheep
 soulburn
 madrogues

40. Communication practices
Hierarchical and interwoven
19:30:00.953 : [2. madrogues] Rebecca: -'good' refers to the fact that no Rogues said they have not done this
good... poison up... assist wei fight. Even so, Rebecca clarifies our role—use poisons on our weapons
and focus-fire on Wei's target.
19:30:02.484 : [5. madtankin] William: -madtankin channel for the Warriors. wallace is a character who usually
where is wallace tonight? comes to our raids.
19:30:07.703 : [Raid] Maxwell: Henry -role assignment
peels to Marcie
19:30:10.468 : [3. healsting] Drusella: -Druids are getting a little silly now...
*runs around like crazy people*
19:30:12.656 : [3. healsting] Sven: We -more suggestions on turning certain healers into damage dealers
could... DPS shaman, Holy Nova priests? instead
19:30:15.312 : [5. madtankin] Wallace: -Wallace is still subscribed to the madtankin channel even though he is
I didn't make it in time. Rawr! not part of the raid. These custom chat channels exist independently
from any other channels in the game.
19:30:17.453 : To Lori: May I have a -Healthstones made by different Warlocks sometimes have different
healthstone pretty please? amounts of healing they can do (depending on how a player has
'specced' the character) which means they can be stored in one's
inventory at the same time. In this case, I know Larry and Lori create
different types of healthstones, so I've requested one from each.
19:30:17.687 : [Raid] Maxwell: Horace -role assignment
peels to Mary
19:30:19.640 : [4. soulburn] Lori: Les-for -what to do with that one soulstone that Lester has available
this fight you will be ssing Derek.

41. Analysis methods
 Discourse and interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995)
 Functional Pattern Analysis (FPA) (Rogoff et al., 2002)
 Visualization of chat (Chen, 2009)

42. Some game play

43. Main topics of book
1. expertise
2. trust

44. Expertise in game mechanics?
i.e., players exploring boundaries

46. various bits of info to keep track of
temporary bonuses or minimap
impairments (buffs +add-on
streaming combat text buttons
and debuffs)
name and health of enemy
tank targets
the jumble in the
middle is the actual
more ability buttons
cooldown timers 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 buttons

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

48. Expert play
= pushing, hacking, tweaking boundaries
= arrangement of sociomaterial resources

49. Expert play
= pushing, hacking, tweaking boundaries
= arrangement of sociomaterial resources

50. Expert play
= pushing, hacking, tweaking boundaries
= arrangement of sociomaterial resources

51. Expert play
= pushing, hacking, tweaking boundaries
= arrangement of sociomaterial resources

52. Expert play
= pushing, hacking, tweaking boundaries
= arrangement of sociomaterial resources

55. World of Warcraft wiki

56. Camaraderie and trust
 shared values of hanging out with friends
 gaming more than just players’ relationship
with game – huge social component

57. Camaraderie and trust
 meltdown prevented by realignment /
reiteration of group values
I love our raid. I know we are all going to get
burned out at times and frustrated and upset
and disagree with one another. It is part of
being human. We are like brothers and sisters
really. Stuff like this is going to happen.

58. A new add-on and its effect on raiding
 no longer keeping models in our heads
 real-time visualization of numbers
(For details of how fights in WoW worked and how the add-on
changed the group’s practice, turn to page 80.)

60. Death 

61. Victory!
threat meter add-on

62. Insights from WoW
• Becoming expert depended on access to expert groups
and expert practice. (Collins & Evans, 2007)
• Not all players could gain access.
• Group success depended on coordinated action and trust
in others to play their roles. (Hutchins, 1995)
• For my group, trust came from hanging out and having
fun: social and cultural capital.
• Add-on changed how raids worked.

63. Insights from WoW
• Becoming expert depended on access to expert groups
and expert practice. (Collins & Evans, 2007)
• Not all players could gain access.
• Group success depended on coordinated action and trust
in others to play their roles. (Hutchins, 1995)
• For my group, trust came from hanging out and having
fun: social and cultural capital.
• Add-on changed how raids worked.

64. The Death of a Raid
• Add-on reflected overall change
in WoW community.
• emphasized efficiency,
progression, loot
• Didn’t just let us offload
cognition; also offloaded trust.
(surveillance tool)
• Hanging out and having fun
wasn’t enough anymore.
• Eventual fracturing of group.

65. The Death of a Raid
• Add-on reflected overall change
in WoW community.
• emphasized efficiency,
progression, loot
Better understanding of game and
• Didn’t just led to demise
development of tools let us offload of
group—Were we playing offloaded trust
cognition; also it wrong??
(surveillance tool)
• Hanging out and having fun
And what’s this mean for education?
wasn’t enough anymore.
• Eventual fracturing of group.

66. What next?
continue investigating local gaming cultures
• marginalized groups
of players
• BoardGameGeek
users
• DIY culture
• golden age for table-top

67. What next?
review of game
making tools for
k-16 use

68. What next?
design games that explore morality, critical
engagement, meaningful decisions, and
humanity

69.  Gaming practice is highly situated and
emergent in local cultures.
 Expert gamers push at boundaries, find
workarounds, and work towards an imagined
future.
 Education (incl. game designers) could
cultivate a gaming way of life.

70. Psst!
Is that an
easter egg?

71. Emergent forms of expert gaming
Congratulations! You’ve found the secret page!
It lets you teleport to other parts of the story
and see the parts you missed!
Go back to beginning. (Turn to page 24.)
See more about 21st century skills. (Turn to page 74.)
Learn about how fights work in WoW and how
an add-on changed practice. (Turn to page 80.)
Read about possible courses from this
speaker. (Turn to page 73.)
Attempt to break this presentation. (Turn to page ??)

73. Possible courses
Gaming in context
• Ecology of gaming (Salen)
• In-game, in-room, in-world (Stevens et al.)
• Mangle of gaming (Steinkuehler)
• Assemblage of play (Taylor)
Games ethnography
• Ethnography and virtual worlds (Boellstorff,
Nardi, Pearce, Taylor)
• Making virtual worlds (Malaby)
• Gaming as culture (Williams, Hendricks,
Winkler)
Designing games for museums
• Active Prolonged Engagement (Exploratorium)
• Learning science in informal environments
(NRC)
Social dilemmas and morality in games
• Moral ambiguity in The Witcher (Chen)
• Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin)
(To return to main story, turn to page 71.)

74. New literacies and 21st century skills
 Produce, consume, remix,
and critique
 Communicate and coordinate
 Play and problem solve
 Perform, identity shift, and
metacognate
 Think in systems and form
social networks
 (Jenkins et al., 2006, NRC, 2010)

75. New literacies and 21st century skills
 Produce, consume, remix, and critique

76. New literacies and 21st century skills
 Communicate and coordinate

77. New literacies and 21st century skills
 Play and problem solve

78. New literacies and 21st century skills
 Perform, identity shift, and metacognition

79. New literacies and 21st century skills
 Think in systems and form social networks
(To return to main story, turn to page 28.)

80. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

81. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

82. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
!
Yo, over here!

83. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
mage (DPS)
Yeah, hit me!
rogue (DPS)
warrior
(tank)
priest (healer)

84. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
pew pew!
mage (DPS)
Yeah, hit me!
rogue (DPS)
+300
+120
warrior
(tank)
priest (healer)

85. Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
pew pew!
mage (DPS)
Yeah, hit me!
rogue (DPS)
+300
+120
warrior
(tank) Has the most threat and
priest (healer) monster “aggro”

86. Threat and aggro
Time 1
Player Ability Activated Threat Generated Existing Total Threat
(hypothetical) Threat (hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 780 1040
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 560 700
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 400 800
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 0 500
Time 2
Player Ability Activated Threat Generated Existing Total Threat
(hypothetical) Threat (hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 1040 1300
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 700 840
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 800 1200
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 500 1000

87. KTM (Kenco’s Threat Meter)
(To return to main WoW story, turn to page 58.)