Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft

Leet NoobsTHE LIFE AND DEATH OF

AN EXPERT PLAYER GROUPIN WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Mark Chen@mcdanger markchen@uw.edu

University of Washington

This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.

World of Warcraft

MMOG 6 million subscribers in 2006

World of Warcraft

MMOG 6 million subscribers in 2006 Fantasy with races / classes

World of Warcraft

MMOG 6 million subscribers in 2006 Fantasy with races / classes Complete quests, kill

monsters for loot and XP

Raiding

Large group joint activity Highly coordinated Specialized roles Organization and leadership Molten Core

Main arguments

1. Expertise = sophisticated sociomaterial practice, accrual of social and cultural capital

2. Trust needed for efficient group work1. Can come from different sources

3. WoW community increasingly emphasized loot, changing nature of trust, killing my raid group

Expertise in game mechanics?

Expertise as sociomaterial practice Emergent through push-pull of constraints-workarounds Limited by access to the right social networks

World of Warcraft wiki

Regular chat channels and specialized ones by character role say whisper party raid healsting madtankin splittranq madsheep soulburn madrogues

Communication, coordination, and camaraderie

Hierarchical and interwoven

Communication, coordination, and camaraderie

19:30:00.953 : [2. madrogues] Rebecca: good... poison up... assist wei

-'good' refers to the fact that no Rogues said they have not done this fight. Even so, Rebecca clarifies our role—use poisons on our weapons and focus-fire on Wei's target.

19:30:02.484 : [5. madtankin] William: where is wallace tonight?

-madtankin channel for the Warriors. wallace is a character who usually comes to our raids.

19:30:07.703 : [Raid] Maxwell: Henry peels to Marcie

-role assignment

19:30:10.468 : [3. healsting] Drusella: *runs around like crazy people*

-Druids are getting a little silly now...

19:30:12.656 : [3. healsting] Sven: We could... DPS shaman, Holy Nova priests?

-more suggestions on turning certain healers into damage dealers instead

19:30:15.312 : [5. madtankin] Wallace: I didn't make it in time. Rawr!

-Wallace is still subscribed to the madtankin channel even though he is not part of the raid. These custom chat channels exist independently from any other channels in the game.

19:30:17.453 : To Lori: May I have a healthstone pretty please?

-Healthstones made by different Warlocks sometimes have different amounts of healing they can do (depending on how a player has 'specced' the character) which means they can be stored in one's inventory at the same time. In this case, I know Larry and Lori create different types of healthstones, so I've requested one from each.

19:30:17.687 : [Raid] Maxwell: Horace peels to Mary

-role assignment

19:30:19.640 : [4. soulburn] Lori: Les-for this fight you will be ssing Derek.

-what to do with that one soulstone that Lester has available

Visualizations are handy

Communication, coordination, and camaraderie

Trust/performance evidenced by joviality, level of chat

Communication, coordination, and camaraderie

I love our raid. I know we are all going to get burned out at times and frustrated and upset and disagree with one another. It is part of being human. We are like brothers and sisters really. Stuff like this is going to happen.

Meltdown prevented by realignment / reiteration of group values

Communication, coordination, and camaraderie

A new addon and its effect on raiding Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS Threat and aggro KTM = no longer keeping it in our heads Yet KTM only used temporarily in Rags fight KTM used on multiple scales of time and actor

networks / mangles (Latour, 2005; Pickering, 1993; Steinkuehler, 2006)

Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

Yo, over here!

!

Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

rogue (DPS)

warrior(tank)

priest (healer)

mage (DPS)Yeah, hit me!

Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

rogue (DPS)

warrior(tank)

priest (healer)

mage (DPS)

pew pew!

Yeah, hit me!

SS, SS, Eviscerate!

+300 +120

Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS

rogue (DPS)

warrior(tank)

priest (healer)

mage (DPS)

pew pew!

Yeah, hit me!

SS, SS, Eviscerate!

+300 +120

Has the most threat and monster “aggro”

Threat and aggroTime 1

Player Ability Activated Threat Generated (hypothetical)

Existing Threat

Total Threat(hypothetical)

Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 780 1040

Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 560 700

Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 400 800

Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 0 500

Time 2Player Ability Activated Threat Generated

(hypothetical)Existing Threat

Total Threat(hypothetical)

Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 1040 1300

Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 700 840

Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 800 1200

Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 500 1000

Threat and aggroTime 1

Player Ability Activated Threat Generated (hypothetical)

Existing Threat

Total Threat(hypothetical)

Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 780 1040

Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 560 700

Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 400 800

Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 0 500

Time 2Player Ability Activated Threat Generated

(hypothetical)Existing Threat

Total Threat(hypothetical)

Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 1040 1300

Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 700 840

Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 800 1200

Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 500 1000

KTM (KLH Threat Meter)

• Knockback• Rogues

getting aggro

this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.

this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.

I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.

this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.

I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.

so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro

this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.

I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.

so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro

i hit him once. that made no sense

this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.

I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.

so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro

i hit him once. that made no sense

Roger, they [the tanks] may have been out of position for just a second which is enough for anyone else to get aggro who is in melee range.

this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.

I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.

so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro

i hit him once. that made no sense

Roger, they [the tanks] may have been out of position for just a second which is enough for anyone else to get aggro who is in melee range.

Victory!

Conclusions• Becoming expert depended on access to expert

groups and expert practice (Collins & Evans, 2007)

• Not all players could gain access• Group success depended on coordinated action and trust in others to play their roles (Hutchins, 1995)

• For my group, trust came from hanging out and having fun: social capital

• KTM changed how raids worked

• Becoming expert depended on access to expert groups and expert practice (Collins & Evans, 2007)

• Not all players could gain access• Group success depended on coordinated action and

trust in others to play their roles (Hutchins, 1995)

• For my group, trust came from hanging out and having fun: social capital

• KTM changed how raids worked

Conclusions

The Death of a Raid

• KTM reflected overall change in WoW community• Emphasized efficiency,

progression, loot

• Didn’t just let us offload cognition; also offloaded trust (surveillance tool)

• Hanging out and having fun wasn’t enough anymore

• Eventual fracturing of group

The Death of a Raid

• KTM reflected overall change in WoW community• Emphasized efficiency,

progression, loot

• Didn’t just let us offload cognition; also offloaded trust (surveillance tool)

• Hanging out and having fun wasn’t enough anymore

• Eventual fracturing of group

Better understanding of games and development of tools led to demise of group—Were we playing it wrong??

Leet NoobsTHE LIFE AND DEATH OF

AN EXPERT PLAYER GROUPIN WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Mark Chen@mcdanger markchen@uw.edu

University of Washington

This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.

Leadership tasks required for raiding

Wolfenstein, 2010

Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004) Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session Met 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums Disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)

Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.

Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004) Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session Met 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums Disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)

Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.

Remember, who you give soulstones to will change when we encounter Majordomo Executus, but, until then, the priest or shaman who you’ve been assigned to should have your soulstone at all times.

Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004) Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session Met 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums Disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)

Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.

Remember, who you give soulstones to will change when we encounter Majordomo Executus, but, until then, the priest or shaman who you’ve been assigned to should have your soulstone at all times.

a magic item that warlocks can give to others so that they can come back to life if they are killed

priests and shaman can bring others back to life (resurrect)

it’s important to give rezzers the ability to come back to life so they can rez the rest of the raid group

unit frames showing health and status of raid members

my health and status

enemy health and status

cooldown timers for temporary effects

threat meter enemy

debuffs

ability buttons

more ability butt

ons

tank targets

chat window

various bits of info to keep track of

temporary bonuses or impairments (buffs

and debuffs)

minimap and

addon buttons

streaming combat text

name and health of enemy

the jumble in the middle is the actual in-game fight

Theorizing the practice• Push-pull relationship of objects in a

network of activity…– Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 2005)

– Distributed Cognition (Hutchins, 1995)

– Mangle (Pickering, 1993; Steinkuehler 2006)

– Assemblage (Deleuze & Guitarri, 1987; Taylor, 2006)

– Arrangement (Stevens, Satwicz, & McCarthy, 2009)

– Object-Oriented Ontology (Bogost, 2006, 2009)

– Roles and responsibilities constantly renegotiated, redistributed, and reconfigured to adapt to local settings

Analysis methods Discourse and interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995)

Functional Pattern Analysis (FPA) (Rogoff et al., 2002)

Visualization of chat (Chen, 2009)