Society for Technical Communication Computer Gaming and Technical Communication: An Ecological Framework Author(s): DOUGLAS EYMAN Source: Technical Communication, Vol. 55, No. 3 (AUGUST 2008), pp. 242-250 Published by: Society for Technical Communication Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43095345 Accessed: 19-08-2018 18:38 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43095345?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Society for Technical Communication is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Technical Communication This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Sun, 19 Aug 2018 18:38:31 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms SUMMARY ♦ Provides an overview of gaming definitions and genres ♦ Argues that games provide a rich area for research and theory building in technical communication ♦ Details a five-part framework for mapping game activity to technical communication interests Computer Gaming and Technical Communication: An Ecological Framework DOUGLAS EYMAN viously published in the journal, as well as other brief items of interest to the profession. The editor The viously reserves reserves editor published the ofthe Technical rightright in to the condense to communicationcondense journal, as letters,letters, well invites as to otherto correctcorrect correspondence briefspelling spelling items of and and interest concerninggrammatical grammatical to the articles profession.errors, errors, and andand reviews toThe to editorinsert insert pre- bracketed clarifications. E-mail submission ([email protected]) is preferred; submission by fax or post is also welcome (see the masthead of this issue for the editor's fax number and postal address). familiar with the project, having completed many similar try offers rich opportunities for technical commu- projects in the past, so he had a very concrete plan for nicators both in terms of employment and in- accomplishing our goals and was able to clearly articulate This try nicators creased offers creasedarticle professionalprofessional status both andrich that argues computer opportunities in that terms the status of computer employment for and technical that game computer commu- and indus- in- the role each of us would play and when and where the games are complex rhetorical spaces well suited for tech- milestones would be in the overall project structure. nical communication research and theory building. After As my team moved methodically through the shared considering the connections between technical communi- virtual environment [with richly detailed three-dimensional cation activities and computer games, this article presents a (3D) graphics and sound effects], we used a wide range of five-part ecological framework for mapping game activities mechanisms to communicate with each other, from real- to technical communication practices. time chat to the deployment of visual markers (assigning particular individuals to specific targets) to nonverbal com- GAMING AND/AS SYMBOLIC-ANALYTIC WORK munication through hand signals and body language (car- In January of this year, I found myself working on a cross- ried out by our on-screen avatars). In other instances, functional team that had been put together to work online servers also provide means by which team members through a fairly complicated task. The team I was working can talk to each other directly, using microphones and with included experts with a wide range of disciplinary headsets. It struck me that the work we were carrying out perspectives and particular strengths in terms of their skills as part of the game was, in terms of the way a variety of and training. I was the only member of the team that had communication technologies were being used to mediate been trained as a rhetorician, and I found myself observing goal-oriented cooperative activity, very similar to the way the way the team leader guided each team member as we technical communicators work in nongame settings. rehearsed our roles before beginning the task proper, Although not all massive multiplayer online role-playing thinking that I might find a useful case study embedded in games (MMORPGs) are set in worlds of fantasy or science this process. The task of the team leader and coordinator fiction, the majority of them are, and that makes it easier to was complicated by the fact that several of the team mem- dismiss them as mere entertainment, as games that lack the bers were telecommuting from different locations; we had immediacy and complexity of "real life" activities, and as to juggle the difference in time zones and did not have a teleconferencing system available for this first meeting, although we did have a real-time chat application that we Manuscript received 7 February 2008; revised 31 March 2008; used for most of our communication. Our team leader was accepted 3 April 2008. 242 TechnicalCONMNGATlON • Volume 55, Number 3, August 2008 This content downloaded from 198.246.186.26 on Sun, 19 Aug 2018 18:38:31 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Eyman Computer Gaming and Technical Communication unworthy of attention. However, 4mthese Perhaps games most importantly, are all mapping con- the ecology structed systems that go through the of same game activities development onto technical cy- communication cles and business processes that any practices computer can provide application a theoretical lens that re- requires; and as such, they provide the flects same and opportunitiesrefracts "real world" positionsfor and technical communicators to provide the problems skills faced and by technicalexpertise communicators. that they bring to any systems development Seeing the elements project.of computer Ingames fact, that can be linked because technical communication isto technicallargely communication absent from practices the also provides an en- game development field, there istry both point for an technical exigency communicators and toan approach the opening for technical communicators game to design offer industry their and communicateexperience the value we can as information designers, information offer in architects, terms that will be usability readily understood. ex- The ecolog- perts, and documentation specialists icalto frameworka fast-growing I propose in industry.the second half of this article Documentation and usability represent focuses on howthe computer two most game systemsim- can serve as mediate avenues for bringing technical simulacra communicationof the range of knowledge into work activities of game design processes: technical communicators technical communicators are and howadept engaging at these virtual, systems documentation (both in terms game-based of activitieshow they can serve work to help and build both research how they are used) and usability. methods Usability, and rhetorical theoriesparticularly that benefit technical if com- approached as recommended bymunicators. Johnson, Salvo, and Zoetewey (2007) as the interpretation of human action that articulates contexts and accepts contingency, Definitions can certainly be shaped to fit the needs of game Before designers addressing and the gamers.reasons for In-considering computer deed, Laitinen (2006) found both that games "usabilityas useful sites expert of inquiry eval- and theory-building for uation and testing provided both technical novel communicators, and useful itdata seems forprudent to establish a game development" and that "there shared was vocabulary;no significant a glossary differ- of game types that will help ence in the number or the rated relevancy distinguish ofthe differentthe problems kinds of thegames and virtual envi- gamer and non-gamer usability specialists ronments that found." are currently This available.indi- Robbins (2008) de- cates that technical communicators scribes need the many not acronyms be gamers that describe to games and game- take advantage of the opportunities like virtual available spaces as "a inhierarchy the ofgame environment design industry (but, I would argue, descriptions to avail that ourselvesallows us to understand of these which environ- opportunities, we should make an effortments are suited to tounderstand, specific purposes" Sheif identifies not six key wholly embrace, computer game designacronyms/environment principles descriptions: and com- MUVE, MOO, MUD, puter gaming culture). In addition CVE, MMORPG,to opening FPS, and SPVE.the gaming industry to technical communicators Thein firstterms four descriptions of employment, describe systems of online I argue that computer games offer collaboration opportunities that are less obviously for game-like.both MUVE research and theorization that can be beneficial to the field of stands for multiuser virtual environment, which Robbins technical communication. describes as "a supercategory that includes any multiuser There are four primary reasons that technical commu- environment whether competitive or not; [a content