Keeping an Eye on the Game: Video Gaming, Visual ...

Keeping an Eye on the Game: Video Gaming, Visual Literacy and Cultural Identity Sandra Schamroth Abrams

Abstract Video gaming is a multimodal activity that hinges on visual literacy, and this paper explores aspects of the gaming culture that relate to learning. Drawing upon data from a larger study, this paper focuses on three case studies of adolescent male gamers and addresses how collaboration and knowledge sharing appear to be accepted practices among gamers. The examination of the Discourse community of video gamers helps to reveal the practices and values that are part of the gaming culture. Interacting with others in real and virtual situations is part of the the multimodal gaming experience, and gamers seem to understand and embrace peer sponsorship that enhances their learning and gaming proficiency; such collaboration is part of the cultural identity of the gaming community and has important pedagogical implications. Key Words: video games, visual literacy, Discourse community, multimodality, gaming culture, sponsorship, collaboration 1.

Introduction “The red ring of death” sounds ominous, injurious, and disastrous, and it is all three for those who use Microsoft’s Xbox to play video games, as it indicates a major hardware problem preventing gamers from using the console. It is a phrase common to many Xbox owners, as underscored by the number of web postings related to it, in the form of articles and editorials,1 youtube videos, blogs, and even a Wikipedia entry. In other words, there is a community of people who not only recognize the phrase, but also understand the implications of it. The example of the “red ring of death” is an entree into the discussion of the gaming culture and aspects of that Discourse community2 that relate to learning. By examining the video game practices of three seventeen yearold males and how these students made sense of their multimodal texts, this paper addresses the types of learning that may be championed by the video game culture and discusses how digital literacy and visual literacy are inherently linked.

Keeping an eye on the game

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A Privileged Literacy Practice Video game playing often has been viewed as a privileged literacy practice, with associated information and language known only to “digital natives.” 3 The example of the “red ring of death” underscores how a new body of knowledge is developing along with technology, and those who utilize that technology are more apt to understand it, thereby revealing why the gaming culture may seem foreign to “digital immigrants.” 4 The language, “native” and “immigrant,” connotes a power play that helps to emphasize how those who are not familiar with video games may feel like outsiders, possibly threatened.5 Because the focus of this paper is on the learning that is embraced and supported by the gaming culture, the power structure of such labeling is not addressed here. However, the pedagogical implications of this tension are important, and by examining the gaming Discourse community, this paper attempts to reveal ways students are learning outside of school to help lessen the divide between digital literacies, such as video games, and traditional literacies that especially resonates in the classroom. 6 Just as there is a the digital divide between “natives” and “immigrants,” there also is a divide among the research on video game playing; there are those who tout its academic benefits7 and others who warn of its potential drawbacks.8 What is clear from the research is that video game playing involves learning-by-doing,9 and, as a result, imparts information that affects the gamer to some degree. This discussion focuses on case studies from a larger research project to explore how the gaming experiences of three adolescent males may reveal an accepted practice of learning that is part of the gaming culture and community. 3.

Defining Terms In order to address video gaming, visual literacy, and cultural identity, I discuss the concepts of multimodalities and Discourse communities, both which help clarify my understanding of literacy, identity, and situated practice.

A. Understanding Multimodalities The discussion of video game playing and visual literacy naturally necessitates the discussion of multimodalities and the ways that any mode, such as “image, gaze, gesture, movement, music, speech, and sound-effect,” provides meaning in various dimensions.10 Unlike school-based literacy, which typically is defined by traditional reading and writing,11 multimodal literacy is multi-faceted, accounting for all the elements [i.e., modes] that are part of the meaning making process, including the visual, gestural, linguistic, and spatial.12 Acknowledging multimodalities inherently validates

Sandra Schamroth Abrams

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students’ digital literacies, such as video gaming, and reinforces how critical thinking is equally important in traditional and virtual learning environments.13 B. Defining the Discourse Community Gee’s discussion of Discourses14 calls attention to the “saying(writing)doing-being-valuing-believing combinations”15 that inherently influence action and perception. More specifically, a Discourse involves “ways of talking, listening, writing, reading, acting, interacting, believing, valuing, and feeling (and using various objects, symbols, images, tools, and technologies) in the service of enacting meaningful socially situated identities and activities.”16 In other words, it accounts for all the sociocultural elements that are part of one’s identity and one’s value system. The identity of a gamer not only reveals what he/she does (i.e., playing, and perhaps mastering, video games), but also it provides insight into the language, knowledge, experiences, and perceptions that are formed in relation to or as a result of video gaming. Engaging in specific activities, such as video gaming, means interacting with “specific groups of people,” 17 who recognize, value and adopt the same Discourses; “being-doing” a gamer situates the individual among others in the Discourse community.18 Although gaming is an activity that can be done in solitude, in many cases, it involves some form of collaboration. This paper focuses on the gaming community and how sharing and learning can be synonymous for many gamers. Given that situated identity, values, and actions are part of one’s Discourses, the examination of the gaming Discourse community should reveal evidence of the cultural identity of that community. Further, the discussion of the gaming Discourse community can help highlight aspects of the gaming culture that promote learning and underscore the importance of collaboration. 4.

Collaborative Exploration and Sponsorship The following stories below are from three case studies of adolescent male gamers attending a public, suburban school in New Jersey. All three students were enrolled in eleventh grade English or math classes designed for those needing additional help in that subject. The three students, J.D., Robbie, and Eric (all names are pseudonyms), tell of their gaming experiences and ways they learned through exploration, collaboration, and sponsorship. J.D., Robbie, and Eric spoke of instances when they worked with others to discover ways of playing a game. The students admitted that they sometimes referred to the written manual or online tutorials, but that they usually learned through experimentation and suggestions from others.


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Prensky, an advocate for video games, explains that such behavior is natural for those from the “Games Generation,” who would “rarely even think of reading a manual. They’ll just play with the software, hitting every key if necessary, until they figure it out.”19 From the students’ testimonies, it seems an accepted practice among those in the gaming community to experiment with moves, share information, and learn collaboratively. When J.D. first spoke about his first time playing Super Mario Cart, he explained that he knew the rules of the game because it was based on an earlier version, but that he was stymied because of the unfamiliar remote. Along with his girlfriend, J.D. pushed various buttons until something worked: So it’s like our first race we’re both sitting there all pumped up to play it because we finally got the Wii. We’ve been talking about it for a while. My brother bought it for me. And so we’re sitting there all pumped to go and we hit the trigger and nothing’s happening. And we’re hitting all the buttons and we’re not going but finally like she hit this button by accident and she started to move. J.D.’s account reveals how the players naturally turned to trial-and-error experimentation “just by hitting buttons” to discover the remote’s functions, which supports Prensky’s statement and suggests that this may be a standard practice among those in the gaming community. This example also suggests that gamers knowingly may collaborate to solve a problem. Collaboration does not necessarily require gamers to work together in person. There are websites and blog posts specifically geared toward teaching and/or promoting specific video games,20 and gamers also virtually collaborate in an effort to support each other’s game play. For instance, Robbie played Battlefield 1942 online, and he communicated with his Croatian team members to learn “just in-game stuff,” such as “where the planes go and like what the map boat is and set orders.” Likewise, when J.D. was trying to join his friends’ online Call of Duty clan (a virtual team), there were specific steps he needed to follow, and his friend “told me what to do…he told me that I had to go into like… there is just a thing in the game and you make your own clan that I was in. Like you just enter like the name [of the clan].” In other words, knowledge sharing and peer support seem to be part of the gaming culture; although games can be competitive, there appears to be a peer network geared toward improving game status and proficiency and enhancing collaborative gaming. Further, some games, such as role-playing game Neverwinter Nights, have a Game Manager or an administrator (who may also be a game player),


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who oversees the playing to ensure that the values and the rules of the game are upheld by players. One student, Eric, noted how his moves in the game, Neverwinter Nights, needed to be consistent with the role and knowledge that typically defined his online character. He explained how his moves and reasons for his moves not only were regulated but also had to be legitimate: So you need to have like a justification of whether it’s a back story or it’s in-character, like I found all this stuff that told me, or have like for instance—what usually happens is admin approval. Say shoot an idea of like can I have this? Like if the admin says yes, then it’s justified. Although not all games are regulated, Eric’s discussion about the administrator’s role underscores how the gaming community values gamerto-gamer input and sponsorship. In this case, an administrator guides the gamer and preserves the game’s design and characters’ limitations. Eric explained that they’re the people who control the entire game, make the adventures, the campaign and all that stuff. If you have a good admin or GM, then it’s just more fun because like they’re engaging, they’re encouraging you for doing like being a good role player. Based on Eric’s description, the administrator’s role is that of manager and coach. Just like J.D. and Robbie, Eric had a sponsor offering information that, in turn, enhanced game play. These cases suggest that knowledge is not necessarily privileged within the gaming community; rather, the Discourse community values the sharing of information to improve and promote game play. 5.

Sharing the Experience Collaboration not only supported meaning making, but also was part of meaning making. Interacting with others either in person or on the screen involved movement and gestures that were part of the multimodal learning experience. J.D. told a story of imagination and performance when playing Rock Band at his friend’s house, and a number of his friends and he pretended to be rock stars jumping off tables while strumming their guitar remote. With a bunch of friends, we’re just like…getting into it and we’ll just mess around. Like when we do Star Power [a chance


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to gain extra points] I have a table behind me where I jump off the table…we’re all jumping around the stage.” J.D. was among others who not only understood that the object of the game was to act like a rock star, but also could interpret the multimodal signs— the sounds, the visuals, the movements—associated with Star Power and earning points. According to the “Hero Techniques” section on the Xbox website, “Building up your Star Power pays major dividends in your score, so master these sections over all the others.” Doing so requires the player to “play the song live once or twice to identify the Star Power sections, but it is worth taking a risk bombing on stage to pinpoint their locations.”21 In other words, J.D. and his friends needed to learn the location and meaning of Star Power in order to exhibit proficiency in that particular game. Jumping off the table during these sections was not part of the video game per se, but the action suggests that the performative aspect of Rock Band was part of the culture of that particular game; it was an accepted practice that enhanced the learning experience. Playing Rock Band and jumping off tables with friends may have enhanced J.D.’s understanding of the game, but, for Eric, sharing the gaming experience was more about pageantry; showing off virtual achievement reinforced Eric’s accomplishments and suggests that the game had meaning even after he had finished playing. Eric explained that he enjoyed showing his friends how proficient he was: “So, I like brought my friend, [Seth], over. I was like check out these awesome houses that I have…And he was like, nice. And I was like, yeah I know. I got this nice Lamborghini, this crib.” In other words, sharing his virtual craftsmanship with others was part of the meaning making experience; those within the Discourse community would value Eric’s virtual possessions as evidence of his gaming skills. 6.

Digital Literacy, Visual Literacy, and Discourse Sub-Communities The stories of J.D., Robbie, and Eric tell of a general gaming culture that appears to value the leverage of collaboration and the sharing of knowledge. Within the gaming community, there seem to be Discourse subcommunities that hinge on the recognition, valuation, and utilization of game-specific language, tools, values, and signs. For instance, Robbie learned from his Croatian teammates some techniques solely associated with Battlefield 1942. Eric’s game, Neverwinter Nights, had a Game Manager who oversaw the adherence to game rules and values for that game. The interpretation of the visual had to be substantiated; it had to coincide with the character’s role. Finally, J.D.’s experience using Super Mario Cart underscores how the use of tools may be game specific, and mastery of one


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game does not necessarily indicate mastery of others; each video game has its own Discourse community comprised of players who understand the game and its accompanying language, images, tools, and value systems. In addition, the three case studies reveal how one’s digital literacy is intricately linked to his visual literacy. In each case, the player could not achieve proficiency without understanding the relationship between what he did with real-world tools (e.g., remote, keyboard, guitar) and what happened on the screen. For instance, J.D.’s Rock Band experience was based on a collaborative virtual concert that entailed real body movement and gesture timed with the visual on the screen; in order to achieve Star Power, J.D. had to strum his guitar remote at a particular moment. Similarly, Eric’s display of virtual possessions suggests that he associated specific images with personal gain; such pageantry only had value because Eric (and ostensibly his friend) understood that the images were indicators of Eric’s gaming proficiency. Overall, the students understood the implications and applications of what they saw on the screen; as members of the gaming Discourse community, they developed a visual literacy that may have been game specific, but it was indicative of a general literacy skill. They were able to discern what occurred on the screen and make sense given the visual cues and images pertaining to a particular game. In other words, one’s digital literacy is naturally linked to one’s visual literacy because without the latter, the former would not be possible. Further, one’s membership to the gaming community suggests that one is visually literate and understands the premise of the video game world. 7.

Conclusion This paper addresses the gaming culture and its inherent visual literacy as a way to explore the learning that may be supported by the gaming community. Knowledge sharing, collaboration, and embodied play appear to be elements that may be part of the gaming Discourse community. Further, although members of the gaming Discourse community may have a general understanding of video games, each game appears to have its own community of players, a Discourse sub-community, that understands the features, language, and values of that particular game. The collaboration and sponsorship evident in the examples above suggest that gamers help each other navigate through the unknown, thereby enabling them to understand and adapt to the elements of the sub-community. The discussion about the gaming community reveals a specific culture of learning; there appears to be a group of people (e.g., gamers) who value knowledge sharing, appreciate learning-by-doing, and adhere to established rules in the gaming world. The gaming culture appears to embrace


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collaborative learning, and by understanding the accepted practices and the learning that is valued by gamers, educators may be able to tap into established forms of learning; if educators can utilize the learning students’ value in the gaming environment, then they may be able to engage students in ways meaningful to them.

Notes 1

C Beaumont, ‘Xbox Live update causing console problems, in Telegraph.co.uk. November 21 2008, viewed on 29 May 2009, ; M Fisher, ‘The red ring of death’, Team Xbox, July 7, 2006, viewed on 29 May 2009, .

2

J Gee, Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses, 2nd ed, Taylor & Francis, London, 1996, p.viii; S H Xu, ‘Rethinking Literacy Learning and Teaching,’ in Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, K.A. Hinchmann, H.K. Sheridan-Thomas, D.E. Alvermann (eds), Guilford Press, New York, 2008, pp. 42-43. 3

M Prensky, ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’. On the Horizon, vol 9, no. 5, October 2001, p. 2.; L Norton-Meier,‘Joining the Video-Game Literacy Club: A Reluctant Mother Tries to Join the ‘Flow.’ Journal of Adolescent & AdultLiteracy, vol. 48, no.5, February 2005, pp. 428-432. 4

Ibid.

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L Norton-Meier, “Joining the Video-Game Literacy Club: A Reluctant Mother Tries to Join the “Flow.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 48, no. 5, 2005, pp. 428-432. 6 I F Goodson, M Knoebel, C Lankshear, J M Mangan, Cyber Spaces/Social Spaces: Culture Clash in Computerized Classrooms, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, (2002).

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J Alberti, “The Game of Reading and Writing: How Video Games Reframe Our Understanding of Literacy”, Computers and Composition, vol. 25, 2008, pp. 258-269; FS Din, J Calao, “The Effects of Playing Educational


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Video Games on Kindergarten Achievement”, Child Study Journal, vol. 31, no. 2, 2001, pp. 95-102; J Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, Macmillan, New York, 2003; PA Greenfield, Mind and Media: The Effects of Television, Video Games and Computers, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1984; P Lacasa, L Méndez, R Martínez, “Bringing Commercial Games into the Classroom”, Computers and Composition, vol. 25, 2008, pp. 341-358. 8

V Anand, “A Study of Time Management: The Correlation Between Video Game Usage and Academic Performance Markers”, CyberPsychology & Behavior, vol. 10 no. 4, 2007, pp. 552-559; AA Berger, Video Games: A Popular Culture Phenomenon, Transaction, Somerset, NJ, 2002; G Giumetti, PM Markey, “Violent Video Games and Anger as Predictors of Aggression”, Journal of Research in Personality, vol. 41, no. 6, 2007, pp. 1234-1243. 9

D W Shaffer, How Computer Games Help Children Learn, Palgrave McMillan, New York, 2006; J Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, Macmillan, New York, 2003. M Prensky, Digital Game-Based Learning. C Aldrich, Learning by Doing, Pfeiffer, San Francisco, CA, 2005. 10

G Kress, C Jewitt, ‘Introduction’, in New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies: Vol. 4. Multimodal Literacy, C. Lankshear, M. Knobel, C. Bigum, & M. Peters (series eds) & C. Lankshear & G. Kress (vol. eds), Peter Lang, New York, 2003, p. 1.

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J Alberti, “The game of reading and writing: How video games reframe our understanding of literacy”. Computers and Composition, vol. 25, 2008, pp. 258-269; D E Alvermann, “Exemplary literacy instruction in grades 712: What counts and who’s counting?” in Literacy Development of Students in Urban Schools, J. Flood & P.L. Anders (eds), International Reading Association, Newark, DE, pp. 187-201.

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A Franks, “Palmers’ Kiss: Shakespeare, School Drama and Semiotics”, in New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies: Vol. 4. Multimodal Literacy, C. Lankshear, M. Knobel, C. Bigum, & M. Peters (series eds) & C. Lankshear & G. Kress (vol. eds), Peter Lang, New York, 2003, p. 155-172; G Kress, C Jewitt op.cit.; G Kress, T Van Leeuwen, Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, Arnold, London, 2001; K


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Pahl, “Children’s Text-Making at Home: Transforming Meaning Across Modes”, in New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies: Vol. 4. Multimodal Literacy, C. Lankshear, M. Knobel, C. Bigum, & M. Peters (series eds) & C. Lankshear & G. Kress (vol. eds), Peter Lang, New York, 2003, p. 139-154.

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D J Leu Jr, J Castek, LA Henry, J Coiro, M McMullan, “The Lessons that Children Teach Us: Integrating Children’s Literature and the New Literacies of the Internet”, The Reading Teacher, vol. 57, no. 5, 2004, p. 500.

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J Gee, ‘Literacy, Discourses, and Linguistics: Introduction’. Journal of Education, vol. 171, number 1, 1989, pp 5-17; J. Gee, ‘Reading as Situated Language: A sociocognitive perspective’, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 44, no. 8, 2001, pp. 714-725. 15 J Gee, “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction.” Journal of Education, vol. 171, no. 1, 1989, pp. 5-17.

16

J Gee, “Reading as Situated Language: A Sociocognitive Perspective”, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 44, no.8, 2001, p. 719.

17

J Gee, Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses, 2nd ed, Taylor & Francis, London, 1996, p. viii.

18

S H Xu, ‘Rethinking Literacy Learning and Teaching,’ in Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, K.A. Hinchmann, H.K. SheridanThomas, D.E. Alvermann (eds), Guilford Press, New York, 2008, pp. 42-43.

19

M Prensky, Digital Game-Based Learning, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2001, p. 59.

20

SS Abrams, ‘The Dynamics of Video Gaming: Influences Affecting Game Play and Learning’, in Design and Implementation of Educational Games: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives, P. Zemliansky & D. Wilcox (eds), In Press.

21

R Treit, ‘Techniques for Hero status’, Xbox.com , viewed 28 January 2009,


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Notes on Contributor Sandra Schamroth Abrams is an Assistant Professor of Adolescent Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at St. John’s University in Staten Island, New York. Email: [email protected]