#YesIPlay, but these days I spend much more time in these amazing gaming support sites that the gaming community creates for itself around games of all types. Almost every game has them: tabletop, pen and paper, mobile, flash, video. These spaces might be as dense as wikis like WoWWiki, representing thousands of hours of play and content creation, or as simple as a sub-Reddit. They are information from gamers for gamers and absolutely beautiful examples of what happens when a community decides to produce its knowledge in digital spaces. Within these spaces live all kinds of guides, statistical models, calculators, databases, non-textual representations like maps and screenshots and, of course, videos.
I’m a technical communication and rhetoric scholar and these spaces are my specialty. I study them because the community matters to me. The creation of these spaces, the representation and use of this knowledge, is important. It tells us something about games, gamers, and digital communities. It speaks to the power of the internet and the power of the digital in sharing and promoting content and knowledge creation. And I study these spaces because, without these spaces, these beautiful communities, I would not be able to say, #YesIPlay.
I came to video games sideways. Trying to survive a really nasty divorce, I reconsidered the family restrictions on video games and started letting my three boys explore their options on their own terms. Before I knew it, we had a second or third hand Playstation and Xbox, a truly ancient and Frankensteined tower, and cords running from the modem down the hall to bedrooms. The boys borrowed console games, played Runescape, and HAD A BLAST! They talked about games with me, explaining strategy and terms. They brought friends over and had parties where everyone huddled around the “big TV.” It was really great. These silent and heartbroken children used the medium of games to move firmly into a fun and supportive community.
Fast forward a bit. I met a nice guy who, along with his two kids, played video games all the time. They had a couple of computers and lots of legacy consoles. And they played WoW. Soon, so did my family. The new guy’s gift to us, a subscription to WoW. And we loved it. I was fascinated by the ability to play with people all over the globe. Talking to others through chat or Ventrilo, asking for help and getting it was amazing. There was a sense of community, a spirit of cooperation, something I desperately needed in my life. You might say I was a bit obsessed. Unfortunately, my learning curve was a bit steep because I’d never played video games as a kid and there was a lot to learn in Azeroth. That’s when I really found my love of the gaming community.
I love research of all kinds, from stew recipes to Halloween costumes to how to get a stain out, the internet is my research playground. Trying to “catch up” with all the other gamers in my life, I started researching WoW. Noxxic, Icy-veins, Wowhead – I spent hours in these rich, amazing, humbling halls of knowledge. I learned the lingo, the mechanics, and gained some confidence. I learned to play from a community that committed hundreds of hours to text and image and posted it for others to see. Without this community and these spaces, I NEVER would have been able fall in love with WoW and gaming in general. The knowledge shared in these communities is, by and large, top notch work – highly technical, highly professional, AND highly readable. I stand in awe of what these communities create and for all the negative, awful, and downright dangerous shit that some gamers throw out, there’s something beautiful and impressive going on. There is collaboration, knowledge making, and support.
And you know what? Something amazing happens when you don’t have to try and fail over and over with no clue as to how to proceed. You get to play. I’m a professional, a mother of five, a wife, a daughter, and a doctoral student. I don’t have the time, or the temperament, to fail without possibility of success. In order to play, I have to leverage my gameplay in a way that lets me play and still move forward. That’s what these amazing community spaces give me – they give me more time to play. And they make me feel a part of something.
Erica is a graduate student in Texas Tech’s PhD program in Technical Communication and Rhetoric. She studies gaming support communities and the technical communication and information products they produce. She’s been a tabletop and pen and paper gamer all of her life and is fanatical about all things gaming. Her latest digital obsession is ARK: Survival Evolved. When not gaming with her husband Robert, or reading for qualifying exams, she is mom to five kids, two dogs, and four cats.
