1. Mary O’Brien
May 8, 2015
World of Learncraft:
Instructional Design in Popular Video Game Franchises
The following study discusses the need to investigate and analyze the role of instructional design in popular
video game franchises in order to spot deficiencies in current instructional designs that can be used to promote
technical communication’s involvement in better video game products. Issues include the role of non-playable
characters, as well as the level of detail in task instructions and training. While researchers have overlooked
this aspect, these factors can be a major factor in player engagement, particularly with new consumers. The
influence of instructional design allows for the possibility of an influx of technical communicators into the field,
as the industry continues to grow and now requires proper structure in order to stay sophisticated and relevant
to consumers and properly address gamer needs.

2. Introduction
The world of video gaming is quickly advancing as new methods, techniques, and forms constantly
revolutionize the cutting edge. However, the whirlwind speed of video game advancement also comes at an
unpleasant cost as the unaccustomed, especially those unfamiliar with prior incarnations of the technology, get
further left behind in the dust. Often the reason for such abandonment is confusion resulting from
unaccommodating, improperly designed technology.
I [the researcher] have experienced firsthand the impacts of technology that is improperly instructed and
the subsequent struggles that ensued. In my pilot study for this project, I played a Starter Edition of World of
Warcraft to test out my theories I had towards gaming structure at the time. Due to poor non-playable
characters (NPCs), vague instructions that were needed in order to complete major tasks, and nonexistent
training to gain a strong sense of gameplay controls, major progress in the game did not occur. Even attempting
to find my needed answers online (the new gamer’s manual in the digital age) proved fruitless and only
exacerbated my confusion. However, this experience is likely a common one for those like myself with limited
gameplay experience, a niche of the market traditionally underserved. But as the gaming world diversifies with
the arrival of smartphone entertainment, the need to address these concerns in the game designs is now
necessary in order to preserve an industry that, if unchecked, will fail to maintain the current levels of
innovation present in recent product offerings.
Indeed, the stakes are now higher than ever. While the industry is rather secretive on their true
production costs, games now resemble the blockbuster films of Hollywood. The game Destiny, released by
Activision in 2014, has a confirmed production and promotion cost of $500 million, a figure staggering to an
infamously unstable industry (Karmali, 2014). As a result, if games fail to meet sales expectations, such as the
2013 Tomb Raider selling half of its expected copies in its first month on the shelves, it can doom a company

3. (Square Enix, 2013). Yet despite these added risks, the industry still operates haphazardly about addressing user
needs beyond graphics, bug fixes and needs the assistance of a more educated power.
Technical communicators could provide a better sense of reaching users, helping to both increase sales
and customer retention. The connection of technical communication to video games dates back decades, often
in the form of the oft-neglected instruction manual. As games turn from paper manuals to in-game tutorials and
digital manuals, the role of technical communicators is changing as well, though still held back by traditional
definitions of the field. The expertise of technical communicators in making materials understandable to a wide
audience is a welcome view to a product that needs transparency and accessibility to draw in and satisfy
consumers and satisfy those acquainted with the product. Bringing in designers with a nontraditional view to
games, along with academic theories such as procedural rhetoric, have the potential to make products more
structurally complex.
Literature Review
Accessibility in the context of specific user experiences, especially with a game’s design, has not been
researched in depth, but the currently available studies project the view that change is needed for better user
understanding. There is a lack of substantial academic research on how technical communication could be using
video games as a tool, but the evidence that does exist makes a clear and compelling case for looking into this
vast library of digital text that have yet to be looked at with a scholarly eye. The best way to tackle the weighty
issue of video gaming from an academic perspective is to view it as a community. Stephen Bronak (2008) puts
forth the idea in his article on designing virtual worlds, "Designing Virtual Worlds to Facilitate Meaningful
Communication: Issues, Considerations, and Lessons Learned", that “[a physical] presence is the critical
attribute that differentiates virtual worlds from other online technologies”, and as a result must be considered in
any worthy analysis of a virtual environment like video games (p. 264). Although the analyzed text is digital,
the human factor of these games must still be considered in order to properly assess how to apply heuristics in

4. the right way to best appeal to audiences.
There is also a need to examine the opportunities present alongside the analytical potential. Douglas
Eyman, in his examination of video games, outlines that technical communication and video games are both
fast-growing industries and how technical communication can aid the industry by forming a symbiotic
relationship with each other and improving their respective impacts. Technical communicators can even line
themselves up for future employment through expanding their position to that of both designer and rhetorician,
both of which are vital to continually innovate and make games more accessible to a wider audience scale
(Eyman, 2008, 245). Video games, according to Eyman, allow researchers multiple portals and observational
modes within and out the games themselves to learn about and pick at the very fibers of game structures.
Eyman’s view also expands the idea of video games as more than just texts, but also technically designed
worlds that leave the door open for technical communicators to invade the gaming industry. Eyman’s arguments
have helped the researcher develop their argument about the overall importance of this angle of the industry to
be investigated.
Julia Mason’s "Video Games as Technical Communication Ecology" (2013), influenced by Doug
Eyman’s aforementioned work, also examines various elements of technical communication tools from literacy
to map usage in game play to show how games are complex systems that while will not look exactly the same to
every person, providing “designed experiences in which participants learn through a grammar of doing and
being”, including technical writing, to aid the player in achieving tasks and goals (p.226). To Mason (2013),
games perform similar work that contributes to the knowledge economy (an economy in which growth is
dependent on the quantity, quality, and accessibility of the information available, rather than on the means of
production) in a similar fashion to technical communication. Video game guides are also brought up as an actor
in the system, with Mason noting that the guides engage players in literacies that “extend far beyond the game
itself” and would otherwise be disinterested in reading at all, a factor that will be examined in the study if the

5. materials are present (p. 226).
The present landscape of academic literature on technical communication in video games is arid in terms
of any history of manuals or other such materials in video games in which the context of the problem’s current
state can be set. Jennifer DeWinter’s article "Just Playing Around-From Procedural Manuals to In-Game
Training” (2014) provides some background of gaming instructions with games, particularly the troubling
disconnect that the player had to do during gameplay in order to go through the provided instructions. The
conflict that resulted, having to leave the game in order to look over instructional materials, prompted for the
introduction of what was once in print into the games themselves, to the chagrin of more experienced gamers
who felt that such measures treated them like idiots (DeWinter, 2014, pgs. 72-76). The impact of the integration
of training into games, as well as the effectiveness of the modern incarnation of instructional materials in
tandem with in-game counterparts, is a major part of the study that will be examined by the researcher, keeping
in mind the issues brought up by DeWinter.
Moving on beyond manuals is the factors that can influence player enjoyment-the core of video games
as an entertainment entity. In Chapter 8 of Evaluating User Experience in Games, Heather Desurvire and
Charlotte Wiberg (2014) conducted a study about game approachability principles that could lead to better user
experiences. The results of their study indicate that instructions and tasks need to clearer, as well as any
expectations vital to player success. “While they are learning these tools, the players must be sufficiently
motivated”, which can be a challenge if not given proper time to learn and develop needed skills to complete
tasks (Desurvire, Wiberg; 2014, 132). The principles listed in the study are useful for forming the needed paths
to research a solution to the problems presented by the study, as well as guidelines to look for during the
gameplay research sessions.
An earlier chapter of the same book examines the core elements of the gaming experience. Eduardo
Calvillo-Gamez and his colleagues assess the core elements of the gaming experience (CEGE) theory. Gamez

6. explains that “evaluating experience places the emphasis on going beyond usability by looking at the relation
between the user and the task”, and purports that while this theory is a good starting point, the need for a more
detailed way of looking at the gaming experience (like the style of video game reviews) could be a better way to
convey the positives and negatives of specific games in order to better inform consumers and make games more
accessible (Gamez et al. 49, 58).
Gee’s standard of “Good methods of getting people to learn and enjoy learning” is a beacon to change
the “business as usual” attitude in the gaming industry and show how video games need to finally adapt by
formally enacting rules to make games both high quality and more consistent in accessibility across the broad
field and make game experiences at an even level for any player (Ruggill; McAllister, 2011, 2;Gee, 2003,
21). Ruggill and McAllister (2011) also rally for a clearer language for games; they argue, “play is the
language of computer games, and games are the idiosyncratic grammatical response to that language” (p. 2).
Some companies, such as Nintendo, also take usability seriously into their product and project development, to
the advantage of the diversifying market. Over the course of interviews about the two Wii Sports games, the
gaming institution alluded to months of intense development for the Wii system to create “games even the
people watching can enjoy” and hopefully understand despite merely observing (Iwata). After all, Iwata also
notes that the public has found the Wii games to be approachable and fun, a telling factor in making the Wii the
most successful console launch in recent memory through games that were originally testing prototypes
(Iwata). The accessibility of Nintendo’s games and products are a beacon of the hopeful future a focus on
player engagement could provide to future games better success and longevity.
Engagement strategies in games can also be influential in instructional design, as noted in Michele
Dickey’s "Engaging by Design: How Engagement Strategies in Popular Computer and Video Games Can
Inform Instructional Design." Dickey describes how video games and other new media can be used to inform

7. instructional design, going into detail about the games being a safe place to explore and learn concepts with few
negative consequences, providing a new angle to instructional designs in gaming.
This sentiment is also expressed in Neal Shambaugh, and Susan Magliaro’s A Reflexive Model for
Teaching Instructional Design. Shambuagh and Magliaro (2001) examine how teaching instructional design is
also about how learning is a constructive process, built on past experiences of players, which is essential for
player growth during gameplay. Their prior experience argument is important contextually for if no prior
experience is present in a gamer, a game may need to be able to accommodate a lack of experience to promote
both the gameplay and learning involved to reinforce a positive experience.
Panagiotis Zaharias, Christos Gatzoulis, and Yiorgos Chrysanthou, in their article “Exploring User
Experience While Playing Educational Games: Focus on Temporality and Attractiveness”, (2012) go into
greater detail as to what specific factors influence user experience beyond playability. Zaharias and company
use their paper to explore influential user experience factors. Among their findings, function and usability were
found to be crucial to player satisfaction during the gameplay session. Such facts from gamers themselves
makes clear that while graphics and design are useful to sell a game, the games also need to be clear in function
and purpose in order to engage players enough to enjoy their gameplay.
Others like Maria-Virginia Aponte and her colleagues’ article “Difficulty in Videogames: An
Experimental Validation of a Formal Definition” (2011), make a more nuanced, scientific approach to measure
the impact of difficulty in video games on the ability of the player, noting the delicate balance between making
games challenging enough to maintain interest without frustrating features which will alienate even the most
patient gamers. Rowan Tulloch (2014) builds on this struggle in order to highlight a alternative view to the rules
ruling the virtual game environment in “The Construction of Play: Rules, Restrictions, and the Repressive
Hypothesis”, incorporating Foucault in supporting his argument that rules promote, rather than restrict, gamers
and their play and allowing them to better “bring play into being”, as well as the “constructive force behind

8. [player agency]” to fully realize their potential (pgs. 339-340).
Lastly, the most recent publication of academic literature on video games and technical communication
illustrates the alienation felt by technical communicators in the game industry as they are held back from using
their talents for the good of the company. Jeff Greene and Laura Palmer, in their piece in the recently published
Computer Games and Technical Communication: Critical Methods & Applications at the Intersection, highlight
that while technical communicators do exist in the game industry, they are restricted for the most part to
manuals. In their overview of the current industry practices, Palmer and Greene pose thought provoking
questions, such as whether the modern definition of the role and abilities of technical communicators has
penetrated the game industry’s understanding of their role in the development process (Greene, Palmer; 2014, p.
19). The questions posed here are a great test for the results of the completed study by the researcher and will
open doors to what can be changed to better facilitate proper instructional design by those trained to do so.
That technical communication in video games is shown to be critical to game design for making games
accessible and enjoyable to players new and old, streamlines game tasks to make them more efficient to
complete, and to have instructions and rules serve their intended purposes, rather than serve as murky progress
impediments, as shown through the preceding literary landscape. With respect to this, I extend streamlining
game tasks and transparent instructions and rules as ways to read the success or failure of the instructional
designs shown in these commercial designs that are the current face of the industry.
Methodology
The study commenced with the researcher playing the following three games:
Batman: Arkham City (2011)
Bioshock Infinite (2011)
Tomb Raider (2013)
The games, two of which are action-adventure and one a first person shooter, were selected not only due to the
interest in the games by the researcher, but also due to their popularity in the market and their critical and player

9. acclaim. The reason for picking ‘popular’ games is that these are the faces of the present video game industry
and if changes are to be suggested in popular, well-known games, the changes would hopefully trickle down to
change future video game development, making a more open industry. The statement this study hopes to
achieve is that fancy graphics and fight combos cannot replace a solid foundation of good instruction and clear
objectives.
The researcher played only in single player mode (multiplayer mode is available in Tomb Raider) in
order to emulate the ‘classic’ player experience of figuring out a new game on their own. In addition, since
multiplayer mode is only offered in one of the study’s games, it is not an avenue that can be adequately
explored in this study-though it leaves the door open for other studies to pursue the issue. Additionally,
multiplayer mode would present the situation where a more experienced player can help, instead of seeing the
efforts of the new player alone. The games were played in two-hour sessions, with the researcher recording
notes using the Voice Memo application on an iPhone 5C while playing the games. The application Steam,
which allows games first released on consoles to be played on PCs and Macs thanks to the process called
porting, was used to play the games on a Mac for the study. Porting in the case of the study is to adapt software
for a game or product to a new platform than the one the game was originally intended for (for example, a Mac
version of a game being made for a game originally released on a PC/Xbox/Playstation). The Mac used in the
study is a 13.3” MacBook Pro with a 1 terabyte hard drive and 8 gigabytes of memory, customized to
accommodate the study’s heavy computer space needs. The MacBook Pro, as well as Steam, were chosen for
the study as Macs are in essence a new frontier in gaming, and Steam is a rapidly expanding and popular option
in gaming as the technology allows for games to be played on more than just overpriced consoles.
Each of the games got three two hour gameplay sessions, totaling six hours of research gameplay each
with a study total of 18 gameplay hours. The sessions were timed using a timer, also on the iPhone. The data
collected during these sessions were tabulated on an Excel spreadsheet, with the data correlated to a selected

10. number of the Game Approachability Principles (GAP) introduced in Heather Desurvire and Charlotte
Wiburg’s (2014) article “User Experience Design for Inexperienced Gamers: GAP-Game Approachability
Principles” (pgs. 136-137).
The principles examined in the study are as follows:
• Amount and Type of Practice-Game allows opportunities for sufficient practice of new skills/tools
• Reinforcement-Game provides feedback of player's actions
• Self-Efficacy-Player competent with learned skills and tools after initial training
• Game Play-Player able to succeed at meeting goals
• Goals of Game Clear-Coolness & Entertainment, Game attracts and retains player's interest
• System Thinking-Actions & Skills learned are useful throughout the game
• Self-Mastery-Player learned new skills and tools to play the game
The selected principles were chosen due to the similarity to issues of player experiences discovered in the
research for the literature review, specifically Zaharias et al., Calvillo-Gamez, Ruggill and McAllister, and
Gee’s observations on factors that affect player performance.
Once the games’ data is compiled, analysis of the patterns present in the data commenced, highlighting the
largest issues that persisted across the sessions. The rhetorical impact of these issues, and how technical
communicators could aid in the suggested changes made by the researcher.
Gameplay Results
The gameplay of the study was slightly more varied than expected, but the researcher identified some glaring
issues and omissions. These deficiencies are identified in the following sections for each game.
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham City had several worrisome issues throughout the sessions. The game often had issues
with camera angles suddenly changing amidst combat, navigation, or activity completion, resulting in confusion
while completing tasks and inability to focus on enemies to employ more than the most basic tactics to subdue
them. Instructions provided by the developers are often vague to the point that when looked upon for reference,
they fail to aid the researcher in achieving goals in an efficient manner, at least without extreme frustration. This
applies to not only in-game instructions, but the manual as well that is provided with the game’s software. For

11. instance, hints for moves such as counter or strike are always displayed with an old-style Microsoft mouse,
despite the researcher playing the Mac version of the software with the MacBook’s normal keyboard and
trackpad. Referencing the manual proved to be unsuccessful, for many of the resources within the manual
pertained to the use of a game pad (also not used in this study) or provided information that proved to not work
when it should have, such as the keys to press for various combat moves.
Batman also had rather poor mapping and navigational aids, as well as impeding labeling. One of the
first instances this occurs is when the researcher needs to locate a radio signal in order to locate the Joker. A
radio frequency map is provided, but it is not clear on how to use it-the researcher can turn one way and be in a
good frequency zone and in a bad zone in the opposite direction (Figure 1). This particular task was a problem
throughout all the runs-in fact, in the second run it took over a half hour to find the signal. The map provided
also fails to provide any navigational aid, looking like a giant gray-green blob rather than a map and has little
markings to provide guidance to go in a particular direction to complete the goal (Figure 2). A compass in
general is in the top center of the screen and does not provide much assistance, often aiding more in getting the
researcher lost than getting them to their goal.

12. Figure 1 (Rocksteady Studios)
Figure 2 (Rocksteady Studios)
The labeling in the game also provides vague guidance as to when tasks are completed or new goals are
assigned. The end of a task to save Catwoman in the courthouse has Two-Face shoot Batman, making the
researcher believe they had failed when in fact they had succeeded and it is the transition to a cut scene. Often
task goals are only displayed right at their start and are unable to be really read in detail unless looking at the
map, which makes the efficacy of the map even worse when cluttered with objectives that obstruct the map and
fail to display side missions, making the researcher forget about them.
Motivations in the game are nonexistent and the role of non-playable characters (NPCs) is mainly to
provide instigating comments and insults. If the researcher dies during the game, a villain (mostly Harley Quinn
in the part of the game covered in the sessions) appears on the screen along with a hint in the upper right hand
corner and spouts negative comments like “you’re a lightweight loser” or “stupid little dead bat” as you wait for
the game to resume, making the researcher only more frustrated. Villains are meant to antagonize the player to

13. continue with gameplay, but with the putdowns so extreme it could backfire and make the player give up the
game out of anger and frustration (Figure 3).
Figure 3 (Rocksteady Studios)
In terms of the study’s GAPs in the game, none are present in the game’s instructional design. The
design is very negative towards new players and provides no time to practice skills, leaving newer players on
their own. Resources provided prove to be no help and often contradictory, especially when formulated for a
system that is not the one in use (in this case the PC). The negative feedback of NPCs and the difficulty of
autonomy reinforcement in the game for players make it the poster child of troubling game designs that hurt the
player rather than help.
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite (BI), although having issues on its own, is a step up in terms of a first person shooter
(FPS) especially if it is a player’s first game of that genre. One thing to take note is unlike Tomb Raider or
Batman, BI did not come with a manual. That being said, the game’s hints and tips are helpful without feeling
like the player is having their hand held through the game, a balance that allows the game to better fulfill the
study’s GAPs by giving the player autonomy. This allows for further progress by upgrading weapons and
abilities at a gradual pace, rather than all at once and having the player try and remember it all with disastrous

14. results. The process allows the player to fully acclimate and learn the skills needed to complete tasks and
survive.
However, some issues still persist such as providing instructions that seem contradictory when not
effective. One such example is telling the researcher to press the Z key to improve shooting accuracy but the
action is counter effective due to the inability of seeing opponents due to fog or the opponent being farther away
from the player (Figure 4). Introductory sequences for Vigors (potions that provide abilities to better subdue
opponents) play like a silent film, but are too fast to allow the player to properly absorb the information needed
to properly use the Vigor later on, to the player’s disadvantage (Figure 5). The setting of a cloud city can also be
cumbersome, for it impairs the player’s ability to see opponents properly or navigate at times without the use of
a navigational arrow hint, which can be accessed by pressing the N key (Figure 6). This inability to see can
sometimes spell trouble for the player, who then cannot anticipate nearby enemies or other such threats in a
timely manner.
Figure 4 (Irrational Games)

15. Figure 5 (Irrational Games)
Figure 6 (Irrational Games)
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider by far was the easiest game of the three to acclimate to. The fact that in this reboot
of the Tomb Raider franchise the player is playing Lara as she develops into the Tomb Raider makes the game’s
instructional design effective for any player. Skills are quickly acquired, but in a fashion that makes the player
feel empowered rather than overwhelmed and enough time exists that the player quickly acclimates to the skills

16. needed to progress. Over the three runs completed in the study, this is the only game in which the researcher
made significant progress over the previous run’s stopping point. Lara/the player’s most enduring problems
throughout the runs may just be timing the key strokes at exactly the right moment, which when in a life or
death struggle can result in failure that can take a few tries to overcome. Timing issues are enhanced by hints
placed at a low viewing angle on the screen, making the player lose focus and possibly fail due to looking
towards the hint and not towards the current task. The following figures showcase a selected sampling of how
the instructional design synced with the story to allow the researcher to progress in the story without having to
actively look out for design features (Figures 7-10).
Figure 7 (Square Enix)
Figure 8 (Square Enix)

17. Figure 9 (Square Enix)
Figure 10 (Square Enix)
Discussion/Analysis of Results
The collected results of the study have resulted in some unexpected results. The researcher admittedly
had doubts about the games’ instructional designs and whether they would be effective or not, for the most part
the games in the study provided more instructional design, although the efficacy greatly varied from game to

18. game. Batman was notably the outlier of the selected games, with significantly higher persistent problems that
cannot be solved with the resources both programmed in the product and provided by the developer. However,
the designs present in both BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider present instructional designs that spell a hopeful
future, as well as balance that should also be considered in improving the designs-a mediation between clarity
and handholding. Alas, Tomb Raider is a prime example of procedural rhetoric that should be an industry
standard, for as Lara continues on her way to becoming the Tomb Raider, so does the player in a set fashion that
empowers the player and enhances enjoyment of the game.
However, the rhetorical implication of the results shows a divide in the industry in terms of design.
Tomb Raider, although part of a franchise, builds up with the player, making the game approachable and
appealing to neophytes. The decision to reboot Lara Croft’s story and making her bare in her abilities, building
through the game makes Lara Croft relatable to players on a level of pathos and allows the procedural rhetoric
of the game to play seamlessly as she gains agency. BioShock Infinite and Batman both came with a vibe of
“you should know this” that speaks to a hierarchy of ethos that currently plagues the industry and alienates new
players, and the presence of this logic in the two games presents a condoning of elitist and exclusionary
environments that solidifies negative stereotypes about the gaming. The fact that BioShock and Batman are both
part of franchises that are the figureheads of the current game market speaks for a troubling rhetorical platform
for an industry currently reviled for its adherence to antiquated norms.
Thus, technical communicators have been presented a great opportunity to change not only an industry
that needs refreshment, but also provides a new definition to the roles technical communication can provide in
the new digital society. Technical communicators are trained in how to reach wide, diverse ranges of people in
effective, clear ways. Their educated views of translating the difficult into the transparent should be a
requirement in design teams whose fields of game design is only just starting to enter the academic
subconscious, and is only in its infancy as of the time of this study. Instead of regulating technical

19. communicators to the shadows of writing unviewed manuals, game development companies need to provide
them a place in the design teams to give a fresh look to designing games and provide better perspective on the
games’ roles as entertainment and how to best reach consumers. The ethos of technical communicators provides
a standard in an industry where many are self-taught in their skills rather than molded through university or
other educational institutions, a foundation that now is showing its necessity as the tried and true methods of
game production are leading to financially bloated, poorly crafted, and expensive games that displease gamers
and drive them further into the clutches of other entertainment outlets.
In addition, game companies should actively recruit technical communicators to not only be on design
teams, but also to educate their staff on the importance of actively thinking of the consumers beyond quality
control testing to ensure long term patronage. Companies like Nintendo thrive due to paying attention to players’
needs in both the types of products produced for their consoles, but how they are constructed in order to appeal
to the greatest amount of people. The industry standards perpetuated by the exclusionary ethos of major
franchises need to be retooled to cater more to the accessibility and approachability to consumers, rather than
profit margins and blockbuster budgets that speak negatively to the goals of gaming as just an expensive means
to an exploitive end.
Bibliography
America, N. (n.d.). Iwata asks-games that even the people watching can enjoy. Retrieved from
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/wii_sports/0/3
Aponte, M., Levieux, G., & Natkin, S. (2011). Difficulty in videogames: An experimental validation of a formal
definition. New York, NY: Association for Computer Machinery. Retrieved from
http://dl.acm.org/dl.cfm?CFID=651481889&CFTOKEN=51832435
Batman Arkham City (Version OS X) [Computer software]. (2011). Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Interactive
Entertainment.
Bioshock infinite (Version OS X) [Computer software]. (2013). Qunicy Massachusetts: Irrational Games.
Bronack, S. C. (2008). Designing Virtual Worlds to Facilitate Meaningful Communication: Issues,
Considerations, and Lessons Learned. Technical Communication, 55(3), 261-269. Retrieved April 01,
2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/43095347?ref=no-x-
route:833e9ce17b02bb0e8ad9335fbb51398e
Calvillo-Gamez, E. H. (2010). Assessing the core elements of the gaming experience. In R. Bernhaupt (Ed.),

20. Evaluating user experience in games: Concepts and methods (pp. 47-68). New York: Springer.
Co., S. L. (2013). Briefing Session of Revisions to Consolidated Results Forecasts. Briefing Session of
Revisions to Consolidated Results Forecasts. Retrieved March 30, 2015, from http://www.hd.square-
enix.com/eng/news/pdf/130326slides.pdf
Cummings, E. (2013, April 4). Bioshock Infinite Return to Sender Vigor. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6cM5i0jlDY&list=PLWBMfWKtwwoL-
WXPGnIRBrH9bZ7Nrtu0_&index=3&spfreload=10
Desurvire, H., & Wiburg, C. (2010). Evaluating user experience in games: Concepts and methods (R.
Bernhaupt, Ed.). New York: Springer.
DeWinter, J. (2014). Just Playing Around-From Procedural Manuals to In-Game Training.pdf. In J. DeWinter &
R. M. Moeller (Eds.), Computer games and technical communication: Critical methods & applications
at the intersection (pp. 69-86). Ashgate Publishing.
Dickey, M. D. (2005). Engaging by design: How engagement strategies in popular computer and video games
can inform instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(2), 67-83.
doi:10.1007/BF02504866
Eyman, D. (2008). Computer Gaming and Technical Communication: An Ecological Framework. Technical
Communication, 55(3), 242-250. Retrieved April 01, 2015, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/43095345?ref=no-x-route:cb7429d3dd9c10136feae70160a08ab7
Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Greene, J., & Palmer, L. (2014). It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Pulls Out a Manual: Finding a Role for
Technical Communicators in the Game Industry. In J. DeWinter & R. M. Moeller (Eds.), Computer
games and technical communication: Critical methods & applications at the intersection (pp. 17-34).
Ashgate Publishing.
Kapralos, B., Haji, F., & Dubrowski, A. (2013). A crash course on serious games design and assessment: A
case study (pp. 105-109). Vancouver, BC: IEEE. doi:10.1109/IGIC.2013.6659152
Karmali, L. (2014, May 6). Destiny is a $500 Million Gamble For Activision, Says Kotick - IGN. Retrieved
March 30, 2015, from http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/06/destiny-is-a-500-million-gamble-for-
activision-says-kotick
Mason, J. (2013). Video Games as Technical Communication Ecology. Technical Communication Quarterly,
22(3), 219-236. doi:10.1080/10572252.2013.760062
Nintendo. (n.d.). Iwata asks-games that even the people watching can enjoy. Retrieved from
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/wii_sports/0/3
Nintendo. (n.d.). Iwata asks-wii sports: A truly ground-breaking collection of games. Retrieved December 8,
2014, from http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/wii_sports/0/0.
Ruggill, J. E., & McAllister, K. S. (2011). Gaming matters: Art, science, magic, and the computer game
medium. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.
Shambaugh, N., & Magliaro, S. (2001). A reflexive model for teaching instructional design. Educational
Technology Research and Development, 49(2), 69-92. doi:10.1007/BF02504929
Tomb raider (Version OS X) [Computer software]. (2013). El Segundo, CA: Square Enix.
Tulloch, R. (2014). The construction of play rules, restrictions, and the repressive hypothesis. Games and
Culture, 9(5), 335-350.
Zaharias, P., Gatzoulis, C., & Chrysanthou, Y. (2012). Exploring User Experience While Playing Educational
Games: Focus on Temporality and Attractiveness. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-
Mediated Simulations, 4(4), 19-32.