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Computer Games and Technical Communication
Taking as its point of departure the fundamental observation that games are both technical and symbolic, this collection investigates the multiple intersections between the study of computer games and the discipline of technical and professional writing. Divided into five parts, Computer Games and Technical Communication engages with questions related to workplace communities and gamic simulations; industry documentation; manuals, gameplay, and ethics; training, testing, and number crunching; and the work of games and gamifying work. In that computer games rely on a complex combination of written, verbal, visual, algorithmic, audio, and kinesthetic means to convey information, technical and professional writing scholars are uniquely poised to investigate the intersection between the technical and symbolic aspects of the computer game complex. The contributors to this volume bring to bear the analytic tools of the field to interpret the roles of communication, production, and consumption in this increasingly ubiquitous technical and symbolic medium.
336 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2014
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August 8, 2016
3.5, really.
The collection is necessary & important in its argument that technical communication is connected to the gaming industry, often dismissed as frivolous or extraneous to technical communication. The argument is obvious to those who are versed in this area, but for those technical communicators who still resist this fact, the book is an effective introduction to and legitimization of the topic. Therefore, it would be fair to say the audience for this text is one willing to explore the idea that technical communicators can serve the gaming industry. Technical communication traditionalists will balk, and are likely not going to be convinced by the results presented here. Additionally, experts in this area will likely not get as much out of the text, as some of the examples are a bit dated now (Second Life, World of Warcraft).
While there are some issues with the text (chapters masquerading as "studies" and vice versa; chapters more about analysis of content of games than the role of technical communication in gaming), it is certainly a groundbreaking text in its territorial claims. The purpose it serves in the discipline is that it truly is the first collection to take the link between disciplines seriously, and for that, this reviewer is grateful.
Section II is by far the best section of chapters, although the section looks primarily at manuals - something the introductory chapter looks to challenge and problematize, i.e. where can technical communication intersect with gaming. If we are to move beyond traditional views of the discipline, manual writing is certainly not going to set the world ablaze. However, this section does provide useful and fascinating historical data, most especially Kocurek’s chapter, “Rendering Novelty Mundane: Technical Manuals in the Golden Age of Coin-Op Computer Games.”
One chapter in this section, Luce’s “’It Wasn’t Intended to be an Instruction Manual,’” also highlights some salient gendered problems in the gaming community. Addressing a virtual rape game, Luce investigates not only the sexist problem of such a manual, but also the ethical concerns connected to writing such a manual. Acknowledging that similar issues exist in the technical communication industry is risky, and I appreciate that the text addressed in some small way sexism/ a gender gap predominates both cultures.
Section III, Getting the Player Involved, is most problematic to me. Games do encourage agency within the player, but problematically the expertise of the technical communicator is never reconciled with this developing player agency/ expertise. DeWinter provides a chapter that outlines in-game tutorials (training the player). Therefore, if the player is in control of his/ her/ their experience, whether that be through such tutorials, modding (Moberly and Moeller), game patches (Sherlock) or data mining in social networking games (Vie), then what role does the technical communicator play in that scenario? All of these chapters are incredibly strong and interesting, raising important issues of user engagement. This plays into the dual focus of the book (pedagogy and research), but the chapters do very little to work the reader out of this logical conundrum of expertise. For example, a lot of the chapters pull source material from “fan sites” like Gamasutra. Given the slow engagement of games by the technical communication field, one might ask, “what role does the technical communicator play in light of developing player expertise?” To put it a different way, it feels like the text situates the technical communicator on the sidelines of gaming rather than squarely in the game. Not enough attention is paid to professional practicality (“market and job opportunities,” as Eyman notes [2]), and for that, I would love to see another volume focused primarily on workplace applications, lacking as they are here.
The fourth section, “Games in the Professional and Technical Communication Classroom,” exacerbated my other problem with the text. I found the split focus between pedagogy and research to not be effective on the whole. The two are very specific in their outcomes and audiences, and so it might have been a more cohesive argument to have split the sections into two different volumes, even if to consider the audience for the collection: will the reader be both an educator and a researcher? Gamification of course content is old hat at this point, and the game examples (in this case, World of Warcraft and Second Life) are dated as well. I suppose I have to consider that the publication date is 2014, but even still, I would have loved to see this be as boundary pushing on multiple levels as it is within the technical communication discipline.
Overall, though, the text is a strong, necessary addition to the canon of computer games and technical communication. The editors have gathered a strong representation from across the field, and therefore the editors’ thesis is supported. Where was this text when I was dissertating, having people look at me as if I had three heads? Legitimizing the conversation is something for which I am subjectively grateful.
The collection is necessary & important in its argument that technical communication is connected to the gaming industry, often dismissed as frivolous or extraneous to technical communication. The argument is obvious to those who are versed in this area, but for those technical communicators who still resist this fact, the book is an effective introduction to and legitimization of the topic. Therefore, it would be fair to say the audience for this text is one willing to explore the idea that technical communicators can serve the gaming industry. Technical communication traditionalists will balk, and are likely not going to be convinced by the results presented here. Additionally, experts in this area will likely not get as much out of the text, as some of the examples are a bit dated now (Second Life, World of Warcraft).
While there are some issues with the text (chapters masquerading as "studies" and vice versa; chapters more about analysis of content of games than the role of technical communication in gaming), it is certainly a groundbreaking text in its territorial claims. The purpose it serves in the discipline is that it truly is the first collection to take the link between disciplines seriously, and for that, this reviewer is grateful.
Section II is by far the best section of chapters, although the section looks primarily at manuals - something the introductory chapter looks to challenge and problematize, i.e. where can technical communication intersect with gaming. If we are to move beyond traditional views of the discipline, manual writing is certainly not going to set the world ablaze. However, this section does provide useful and fascinating historical data, most especially Kocurek’s chapter, “Rendering Novelty Mundane: Technical Manuals in the Golden Age of Coin-Op Computer Games.”
One chapter in this section, Luce’s “’It Wasn’t Intended to be an Instruction Manual,’” also highlights some salient gendered problems in the gaming community. Addressing a virtual rape game, Luce investigates not only the sexist problem of such a manual, but also the ethical concerns connected to writing such a manual. Acknowledging that similar issues exist in the technical communication industry is risky, and I appreciate that the text addressed in some small way sexism/ a gender gap predominates both cultures.
Section III, Getting the Player Involved, is most problematic to me. Games do encourage agency within the player, but problematically the expertise of the technical communicator is never reconciled with this developing player agency/ expertise. DeWinter provides a chapter that outlines in-game tutorials (training the player). Therefore, if the player is in control of his/ her/ their experience, whether that be through such tutorials, modding (Moberly and Moeller), game patches (Sherlock) or data mining in social networking games (Vie), then what role does the technical communicator play in that scenario? All of these chapters are incredibly strong and interesting, raising important issues of user engagement. This plays into the dual focus of the book (pedagogy and research), but the chapters do very little to work the reader out of this logical conundrum of expertise. For example, a lot of the chapters pull source material from “fan sites” like Gamasutra. Given the slow engagement of games by the technical communication field, one might ask, “what role does the technical communicator play in light of developing player expertise?” To put it a different way, it feels like the text situates the technical communicator on the sidelines of gaming rather than squarely in the game. Not enough attention is paid to professional practicality (“market and job opportunities,” as Eyman notes [2]), and for that, I would love to see another volume focused primarily on workplace applications, lacking as they are here.
The fourth section, “Games in the Professional and Technical Communication Classroom,” exacerbated my other problem with the text. I found the split focus between pedagogy and research to not be effective on the whole. The two are very specific in their outcomes and audiences, and so it might have been a more cohesive argument to have split the sections into two different volumes, even if to consider the audience for the collection: will the reader be both an educator and a researcher? Gamification of course content is old hat at this point, and the game examples (in this case, World of Warcraft and Second Life) are dated as well. I suppose I have to consider that the publication date is 2014, but even still, I would have loved to see this be as boundary pushing on multiple levels as it is within the technical communication discipline.
Overall, though, the text is a strong, necessary addition to the canon of computer games and technical communication. The editors have gathered a strong representation from across the field, and therefore the editors’ thesis is supported. Where was this text when I was dissertating, having people look at me as if I had three heads? Legitimizing the conversation is something for which I am subjectively grateful.
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