APRIL 30, 2018



Grant CaskeyProfessor Gabrielle TurgeonUWRT 1104-0135 February 2018TitleBefore this assignment I did not know what discourse communities were, and I definitely did not think that I would learn about them by playing video games in school. When I first heard that we would be required to play World of Warcraft, I was excited. I never thought that I would be asked to play a video game for a class in college. I downloaded the game, booted it up, and was pumped to play it after watching the cut scene. It was an epic fight with some amazing looking characters and armor. After watching the cut scene, I was prompted to create a character. I actually had the opportunity to play the game using a couple of different characters, but I will explain more about this later.I took some time looking at all the characters and different classes I could choose. Since this was an avatar-like character I wanted to find one that had some of the traits and strengths I think I have. For my first character I ended up picking the Druid class. The Druid class is described as healers that want to protect life. They can also change their form to take on different roles in the game. I thought this class fit me well because I do not like to see people or animals get hurt and I like to help my friends when they need me. Generally, I am easy-going and can get along with anyone. I also thought that I could play a lot of different roles in the game with this character. I then chose the Worgen race. This race was part of the Alliance. The Worgens are a type of werewolf that can change from Human into a werewolf. I picked this race because I like dogs and wolves a lot and the character looked really cool. The Worgens are also known as good fighters. I see myself as a fighter because no matter how hard something is, I never give-up. I wanted my character to look cool so I gave my werewolf pitch black fur and neon blue eyes. Since Worgen’s transform from humans to werewolves I picked a young-looking guy with light colored hair that somewhat resembled me as my Human character. This seemed to be a good fit for me because I do not like to stand-out, but I am very competitive. I wanted to be this unassuming character that no one would pay attention to until it was time to battle and then I would turn into a beast ready to beat anyone. After creating my character, it was time for me to pick a name. This is when I hit my first road block. Almost every name I tried was already taken. I ended up going to a website to generate names for my character and class. After generating many names, I finally found one that worked and I liked. I picked the name Whiteclawer because I have light colored skin and hair, but my wolf character has very big, sharp claws. When I got into the game, I noticed how different it was compared to other games I play. Most of the video games that I play have someone talking to you, but in this game, I had to read a lot of dialogue boxes to understand what I needed to do next. This took some time to get used to because I typically can learn things quicker by listening to others instead of having to read everything particularly when I am playing a new game. I also had to get used to the controls. It took me a little bit of time to figure out how to fight enemies and complete the quests. My character only had magic to work with, so every fight consisted of me throwing fireballs at the enemies, which got boring. When progressing through the early levels of the game, I noticed dialogue that said I had been bitten and wasn’t feeling well which is what caused me to transform into a werewolf. Around this point in the game, I had hit level five and reached the time limit that I was required to stop playing the game. The place I stopped at was called Gilneas. A few days later I got a message that the Dalaran server, which was the server I was playing on, was full, and that I needed to join the Aggramar server. This is where I had the opportunity to play the game again and create a new character. My second time around, I decided to pick a different class and race to see how the game changed with another character. I like to be challenged and I wanted to see what the game experience would be like using a different character. This time I chose the Warrior class and the Draenei race. This class and race had some of the same traits as the Druids and Worgens. The Draenei are also healers and they are heroic with a lot of strength. The Warrior class are very strong leaders that use heavy armor and weapons to defeat their enemies. I also liked how the Draenei looked. This race was also a part of the Alliance. I changed the look of my character by making it as blue as possible with some wicked facial hair. I added the facial hair because my mom gives me a hard time about not shaving. Once again, I struggled with finding a good name for my character, so I just let the name generator built into the game give me a name. The name I got was Thaarr. When I started up my second run, I immediately noticed that I was not in the same place as I had been during my first run. This time I was in a wooded area. During my first run I had been in a city. In this play, I went around healing fellow members of my race and fighting assassins as well as evil flowers. I enjoyed this play much more because I knew what I was doing, and I liked using the sword better in fights than the magic. I again stopped at level five at a place called Azuremyst Isle.I enjoyed playing the game, but I still did not understand what a discourse community was until I did some more research. I learned that a discourse community is a group of people that have the same basic values, assumptions, and methods of communicating. According to John Swales’ article, The Concept of Discourse Community, there are six characteristics of a discourse community. “I would now like to propose six defining characteristics that will be necessary and sufficient for identifying a group of individuals as a discourse community.” (220). The first characteristic is that the people in this community have an agreed upon set of goals. One example of this is a baseball team. Everyone on the team has the same goals which is to win games and to improve as a team. The second characteristic is that the people in the community have the same mechanics of communication among its members. An easy example of this is that we all talk on the phone and text. Some of us even write papers or blog to communicate. The third characteristic is that they use participation to provide information and feedback. This one is pretty self-explanatory. You have to participate in a group if you wish to be a part of that group and you have to be willing to share your thoughts and ideas. According to Swales, “The secondary purposes of the information exchange will vary according to the common goals: to improve performance in a football squad or in an orchestra, to make money in a brokerage house, to grow better roses in a gardening club, or to dent the research front in an academic department.” (221). The fourth characteristic is that the community uses one or more genres to communicate. “These may involve appropriacy of topics, the form, function and positioning of discoursal elements, and the roles texts play in the operation of the discourse community.” (Swales 221). A discourse community might communicate through websites articles, blogs, and even graffiti or chalk drawings. The fifth characteristic is that the discourse community has developed or acquired its own lexis. What this is referring to is the type of jargon or slang that might be used in the discourse community. It is often very unique and is used to explain or refer to terms that relate to that community. A baseball team will use different terms that only other baseball players use. For example, a coach might say “turn two,” which means he wants his infield to get a double play. The sixth characteristic is that the community has a threshold level of expert members. This means that there must be a ratio of beginners to experts in the community for it to exist. The ratio is dependent on the specific community. For a baseball team you must have nine players to field a team, but the experience and skill level of those players may vary depending on how long they have played the game and their skill level.I began to realize that World of Warcraft was a discourse community when we went to their forum during class. I saw people using the site to communicate with each other, ask questions and meet-up with others in the game. I got to see the size of the World of Warcraft gaming community. It is very easy to see that World of Warcraft qualifies as a discourse community. Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of World of Warcraft, has a strong, supportive community that wants to see the game continue to get updates and improvements. I also saw people using jargon and slang that only people who have played World of Warcraft would know. I could also tell that many people are passionate about this game with the number of posts that can be accessed on the forum as well as how well the site has been organized. In addition, as with any game you have a wide range of skill levels with some people just learning the game for the first time, like me, compared to others that are very skilled at playing the game. This made me realize that I have been a part of other gaming discourse communities such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Fortnite. The group gameplay reflection was ultimately an exercise to expose the class to the World of Warcraft discourse community. We were put into groups and asked to play World of Warcraft for an hour and thirty minutes. During this hour and thirty minutes I realized several things that were different with playing in a group verses playing solo. The first was how much more fun I had when playing in a group. It was much more entertaining to play World of Warcraft while talking with other people and completing the same quest. I enjoyed helping my groupmates complete their quest as well as doing the same quest that they were doing. My groupmates and I were all around the same level and in the same location, which allowed all of us to complete the same quest. Also, if one of us needed help with something, the other two group members would try to help. There were serval times that one of my groupmates either needed help finding a certain NPC to turn in their quest for a reward or needed help finding a specific enemy they had to kill. One of my group members also asked me how I was able to use a sword. I told them that I had the sword because I chose the Warrior class, while they chose a class that started off with magic. Playing with a group kept me from becoming bored of just grinding out quest and leveling up, while also giving me the opportunity to get to know some of my classmates. When I played the game solo, I got bored fairly quickly. My character only had magic to work with, so every fight consisted of me throwing fireballs at the enemies, which got boring. Also, almost every quest was exactly the same, which made the game repetitive and only added to the boredom. Now that I know what discourse communities are, I realize that I have participated in several discourse communities in the past, and I continue to participate in discourse communities today. When I was in high school I was on the varsity baseball team. This team was considered a discourse community because it had all six of the discourse community traits. We had our goals which were to improve as a team, win more games, and make it to the playoffs, which is characteristic number one. We kept in touch with each other through texting and social media, which was characteristic number two. We set off to accomplish our goals by weight lifting and practicing every day, which is characteristic number three. After every game we would write down on a whiteboard the things we did good and the things we needed to improve on for the next game, which is characteristic number four. Whenever one of us would hit a homerun, we would say that he dinked one out, which is an example of characteristic number five. During my final season, we had eleven seniors on the team out of twenty-four players. This ratio was a good balance of “experts” on the team. This an example of the sixth characteristic. Another discourse community that I currently participate in is my church. The church members have set goals to help other people in the community and to help other people in other parts of the world which is characteristic number one. Another thing I noticed is that my church uses websites, social media, and Sunday service to communicate among its members. This is characteristic number two. My church also needs its members to participate in service projects in order to accomplish the goals of helping others. This is characteristic number three. The church also uses posters, signs, newsletters, and emails to inform people of things that are going on at the church and to help get people involved. This is characteristic number four. The church also uses words during its Sunday service like gospel and prayer which is characteristic number five. Lastly, the church has many seasoned members as well as new members every week. This is an example of characteristic number six. This assignment helped me understand that discourse communities exist by looking at the groups that I have been a part of and seeing if they had all six of the characteristics. In order to complete this assignment, I had to do some research to make sure that I understood what a discourse community was and that I understood the six characteristics. I now see that there are potentially millions of discourse communities. It is important for us to know and learn about discourse communities because it allows us to realize that discourse communities are all around us. Discourse communities effect who we are, who we talk to, and what we do with our lives. Grant,Great job! It is obvious that you understood our unit on discourse communities. 99 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download