dint u say that: Digital Discourse, Digital Natives and Gameplay

Author(s)

Theresa O'Connell, John D. Grantham, Wyatt Wong, Kevin Workman, Alexander Wang

Abstract

Traditional, new and modified discourse analysis methods were applied to a corpus of 858 discrete gameplay discourse events disclosing discourse characteristics during collaborative problem solving. Four teams of four digital natives each played PanelPuzzle, a limited-time span, goal-oriented game, in a virtual environment. Discourse both reflected and impacted team dynamics. It disclosed players roles and manifested leadership. To promote team success, gameplay digital discourse tone was serious, showing little evidence of fun although players reported enjoying gameplay. Brevity, ill-formedess and distorted syntax were chief characteristics, but, because it was goal-oriented, it differed markedly, e.g., in vocabulary, from reported social digital discourse. Nevertheless, digital natives used digital discourse effectively to communicate, build community, collaborate and accomplish gameplay tasks. We conclude that gameplay digital discourse constitutes a distinct linguistic register which prioritizes efficiency over well-formedness. We characterize this register in a taxonomy and a meta-taxonomy. This register

Citation

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

collaboration, communication, computer mediated communication, digital discourse, digital natives, Discourse analysis, games, roleplaying, usability engineering, collaborative virtual environments, virtual worlds, video games

Citation

O'Connell, T. , Grantham, J. , Wong, W. , Workman, K. and Wang, A. (1970), dint u say that: Digital Discourse, Digital Natives and Gameplay, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (Accessed April 16, 2024)