ABSTRACT
Amateur game design communities are fruitful spaces for research in professional and technical communication (PTC) [9, 10, 16]; these communities often mirror many professional practices such as iterative design and the creation of extensive documentation. Before crossing into these spaces, however, researchers and practitioners must understand the makeup of these communities, which may (anecdotally) serve as potential spaces for marginalized people in ways the games industry does not. In this study, we used the International Game Developers' Association's Developer Satisfaction Survey as a base for our own surveys of three amateur game design communities. In mapping these communities, we found that each mirrored the games industry in several categories, but that each community also displayed unique differences that necessitate a variety of approaches to conducting research in or on such sites.
- [n. d.]. About. https://www.igda.org/page/aboutGoogle Scholar
- Tabetha Adkins. 2011. Researching the "un-digital" Amish community: Methodological and ethical reconsiderations for human subjects research. Community Literacy Journal 6, 1 (2011), 39--53. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Stuart Blythe, Jeffrey T. Grabill, and Kirk Riley. 2008. Action research and wicked environmental problems: Exploring appropriate roles for researchers in professional communication. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 22, 3 (July 2008), 272--298. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Richard Colby and Rebekah Shultz Colby. 2019. Game design documentation: Four perspectives from independent game studios. Communication Design Quarterly (May 2019). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ellen Cushman. 2002. Sustainable service learning programs. College Composition and Communication 54, 1 (2002), 40--65. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jennifer deWinter and Ryan Moeller. 2014. Playing the field: Technical communication for technical games. In Computer games and technical communication: Critical methods and applications at the intersection. Ashgate, New York, NY, 1--13.Google Scholar
- Doug Eyman. 2008. Computer gaming and technical communication. Technical Communication 55, 3 (2008), 242--250.Google Scholar
- Charlie Hall. 2018. Why 2019 could be the year video game unions go big. https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/27/18156687/game-workers-unite-game-developer-union-us-uk-franceGoogle Scholar
- Alisha Karabinus and Rachel Atherton. 2018. Games, UX, and the gaps: Technical communication practices in an amateur game design community. In Proceedings of the 36th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication. Milwaukee, WI. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Alisha Karabinus and Rachel Atherton. 2019. Communally designed deception: Participatory technical communication practices in an amateur game design community. Technical Communication 66, 3 (Aug. 2019), 257--271.Google Scholar
- Julia Mason. 2013. Video games as technical communication ecology. Technical Communication Quarterly 22, 3 (2013), 219--236.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Rudy McDaniel and Alice Daer. 2016. Developer discourse: Exploring technical communication practices within video game development. Technical Communication Quarterly 25, 3 (2016), 155--166.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Marc Ouellette. 2014. Come out playing: Computer games and the discursive practices of gender, sex, and sexuality. Ashgate, New York, NY, 35--51.Google Scholar
- Cody Reimer. 2017. Dialogic, data-driven design: UX and league of legends. In Rhetoric and experience architecture, Liza Potts and Michael Salvo (Eds.). Parlor Press, Anderson, SC, 241--257.Google Scholar
- Anthony T. Sansone. 2014. Game design documents: Changing production models, changing demands. In Computer games and technical communication: Critical methods and applications at the intersection, Jennifer DeWinter and Ryan M. Moeller (Eds.). Ashgate, New York, NY, 109--124.Google Scholar
- Rebekah Small. 2018. Mods and convergence culture: Connecting character creation, user interface, and participatory design. In Proceedings of the 36th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication. Milwaukee, WI. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nick Statt. 2018. Riot Games says fixing studio culture is 'top priority' after extensive reports of workplace harassment. https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/29/17796238/riot-games-league-of-legends-toxic-sexism-workplace-culture-harassment-apologyGoogle Scholar
- Luke Thominet. 2018. How to be open: User experience and technical communication in an emerging game development methodology. Communication Design Quarterly 6, 2 (2018), 70--82.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rebecca Walton, Maggie Zraly, and Jean Pierre Mugengana. 2015. Values and validity: Navigating messiness in a community-based research project in Rwanda. Technical Communication Quarterly 24, 1 (Jan. 2015), 45--69. Google ScholarCross Ref
- Johanna Weststar and Marie-Josée Legault. 2016. IGDA developer satisfaction survey summary report 2016. Technical Report. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.igda.org/resource/resmgr/files__2016_dss/IGDA_DSS_2016_ummary_Report.pdfGoogle Scholar
- Johanna Weststar, Victoria O'Meara, and Marie-Josée Legault. 2018. IGDA developer satisfaction survey summary report 2017. Technical Report. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.igda.org/resource/resmgr/2017_DSS_/!IGDA_DSS_2017_SummaryReport.pdfGoogle Scholar
Index Terms
- Professional practice, amateur profile: mapping amateur game design communities
Recommendations
Games, UX, and the Gaps: Technical Communication Practices in an Amateur Game Design Community
SIGDOC '18: Proceedings of the 36th ACM International Conference on the Design of CommunicationBecause professional game design processes and practices are often obfuscated, it is difficult for researchers to study how game design happens. In an effort to fill some of those gaps, this paper explores an amateur game design community with visible ...
WEARPG: game design implications for movement-based play in table-top role-playing games with arm-worn devices
AcademicMindtrek '16: Proceedings of the 20th International Academic Mindtrek ConferenceCombining the physical and the digital is one of the most trending topics in game research in HCI. Augmenting the table-top role-playing games (TTRPG) by adding electronic devices is a growing research area, yet the introduction of new play styles is ...
Exploiting Players?: Critical Reflections on Participation in Game Development
CHI PLAY '17 Extended Abstracts: Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in PlayPlayer involvement in the process of game development has become a de-facto standard in both industry and academia. Participation is intended to empower players, while helping designers create better games. However, participation also introduces ...
Comments