Game Enthusiasts or Code Enthusiasts: A compilation of motivational elements and technological expertise in game modding
Shree Durga
Wed., June 09, 3:30–4:30, Old Madison
In the last few years, much of the rhetoric surrounding games and game modding has revolved around reconceptualizing the perceptions about the field of Information Technology (IT). A growing body of research in the learning sciences has extensively focused on game modding as an authentic instructional and motivational paradigm for fostering core 21st century digital literacy practices. Studies about game modding argue that modding as a cognitive activity is inherently constructivist and exploratory (Kafai, 2006; Klopfer, 2003), and is guided through active self-organized learning (Squire, 2008) supported by highly participatory and social spaces (Jenkins, 2006; Steinkuehler & Johnson, 2009).
However, one of the challenges that remain central to the discourse of learning through modding is the constantly evolving relationship between the motivational elements of game play and the technological expertise required to actually accomplish some of the sophisticated tasks involved in the creation of game mods. Squire & Giovenatto (2008) argue that experienced players share an intrinsic motivation to author game artifacts as a way to remediate their understanding of game play. Recursive design spaces in games allow players to implement, or rather, refine their vision of an ideal game scenario (Durga & Squire, 2008).
In this session, both motivational elements and technological expertise involved in game modding is explored by constructing a typology of game mods and using it as an analytic tool to identify the functional elements in the kinds of discourses these mods tend to generate. As an example, the prevalence of scenario-based mods to aesthetic elements in mods and how player interactions around the former contrast to the player interactions in the latter are compared. The results of the functional content analysis of the mod types drawn from CivFanatics creation and customization forum — a widely known game forum of the Civilization series — are presented and intend to use the emerging framework to characterize the two kinds of game modders-game enthusiasts and code enthusiasts.
References
Durga, S., & Squire, K. (2007). Productive gaming and the case for historiographic game play (Chapter XII). In R. Ferdig (Ed.), Handbook of research on effective electronic gaming in education (pp. 200-218). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.
Kafai, Y. B. (2006). Playing and making games for learning: Instructionist and constructionist perspectives for game studies. Games and Culture, 1(1), 36-40.
Klopfer, E. (2003). Technologies to Support the Creation of Complex Systems Models – Using StarLogo Software with Students. Biosystems 71, 111-123.
Squire, K. & Giovenatto, L. (2008). The Higher Education of Gaming, E-Learning, 5(1), 2-28
Steinkuehler, C. & Johnson, B. Z. (2009). Computational literacy in online games: The social life of a mod. The International Journal of Gaming and Computer Mediated Simulations, 1(1), 53-65.