research-article

A tribute to Mad skill: expert amateur visuality and world of Warcraft Machinima

Authors:

Jeffrey Bardzell,

Shaowen BardzellAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 2019 - 2028

https://doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466267

Published: 27 April 2013 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we look at the prominent World of Warcraft machinima community as an expert amateur online com-munity and present a multi-part study of a canon of the most successful works (i.e., machinima videos) produced by this community. By focusing our study on its roughly 300 most successful examples, the determination of which we explain in the paper, we are able to highlight the evolv-ing visual practices, tools, and aesthetic sensibilities of the community. Chiefly, our study identifies how creativity support tools and visual practices are inextricably linked and mutually support the in-kind development of the other. For WoW machinima and its producers, the affordance of creativity tools and the cultivation of visual skill synced at key moments and in powerful ways to support the rapid growth, experimentation, and refinement of amateur exper-tise at the individual and community levels.

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Toombs ALee AGuo ZBuls JWestbrook ACarr IWu YLaPeter M(2022)"We're so much more than the in-game clan": Gaming Experiences and Group Management in Multi-Space Online CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551196:CSCW2(1-29)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555119
Allred AGray C(2021)"Be Gay, Do Crimes": The Co-Production and Activist Potential of Contemporary FanzinesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34795205:CSCW2(1-35)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2021
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Index Terms

A tribute to Mad skill: expert amateur visuality and world of Warcraft Machinima
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2013

3550 pages

ISBN:9781450318990

DOI:10.1145/2470654

General Chair:
Wendy E. Mackay
INRIA
,
Program Chairs:
Stephen Brewster
Glasgow University
,
Susanne Bødker
University of Aarhus

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 27 April 2013

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Cited By

Larsen BCarstensdottir E(2023)“Anything a Guardian Does Is Canonical”: Player Understanding of Canon in DestinyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36110297:CHI PLAY(237-263)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611029
Toombs ALee AGuo ZBuls JWestbrook ACarr IWu YLaPeter M(2022)"We're so much more than the in-game clan": Gaming Experiences and Group Management in Multi-Space Online CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551196:CSCW2(1-29)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555119
Allred AGray C(2021)"Be Gay, Do Crimes": The Co-Production and Activist Potential of Contemporary FanzinesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/34795205:CSCW2(1-35)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3479520
Twigg-Smith HO'Leary JPeek NKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)Tools, Tricks, and Hacks: Exploring Novel Digital Fabrication Workflows on #PlotterTwitterProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445653(1-15)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445653
Frich JMose Biskjaer MDalsgaard PKoskinen ILim YCerratto-Pargman TChow KOdom W(2018)Twenty Years of Creativity Research in Human-Computer InteractionProceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3196709.3196732(1235-1257)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3196709.3196732
Toombs ABardzell SBardzell JBegole BKim JInkpen KWoo W(2015)The Proper Care and Feeding of HackerspacesProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2702123.2702522(629-638)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2702123.2702522
Carter MDowns JNansen BHarrop MGibbs MNacke LGraham T(2014)Paradigms of games research in HCIProceedings of the first ACM SIGCHI annual symposium on Computer-human interaction in play10.1145/2658537.2658708(27-36)Online publication date: 19-Oct-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2658537.2658708
Livingston IGutwin CMandryk RBirk MFussell SLutters WMorris MReddy M(2014)How players value their characters in world of warcraftProceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing10.1145/2531602.2531661(1333-1343)Online publication date: 15-Feb-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2531602.2531661

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