Gaming Wikis & Learning
Matthew Barr, HATII
@hatii_matt
Gaming & social media
Gaming & social media
• Ever-closer integration
Gaming & social media
• All of the large gaming platforms include their own „social
network‟
Gaming & social media
• The future?
Games & learning
• Prensky (2001), Jenkins
(2006), Gee (2008) and Squire
(2011) influential in establishing the
pedagogical value of video games
• Recurring theme that modern video
games are complex beasts: to play
them, players must get to grips with
this complexity, and develop an
understanding of the in-game
systems.
Hello, Lisa!
I‟m Genghis Khan.
You‟ll go where I go!
Defile what I defile!
Eat who I eat!
Games as systems
• Kurt Squire suggests that we can learn „academic‟ content through
video games, including the in-game terminology, a range of strategies
and “the emergent properties of the game as a system”.
• That video games can help develop „systemic understanding‟, as
opposed to simply learning facts, is an idea echoed by James Paul
Gee (2005), who states that “what gamers learn is empathy for a
complex system”.
Why wikis?
• The wiki has become the de facto online reference
medium for gaming.
• Community-spirited gamers meticulously document their
gaming experiences for the benefit of others, from simple
guides (e.g. weapon statistics, character biographies) to
complex theories and strategies (including maps and
video captured from the games).
• The best gaming wikis are highly structured, providing
multiple routes through the information, a variety of
appropriate media and a lively discussion element.
WikiGeeks – Gaming and Collaborative Learning
• Always think carefully about your project title
• Interested in examining more closely the use of gaming
wikis, where players document their gaming strategies in
sometimes astonishing detail
• Some of the most tangible manifestations of gamers‟
pseudo-academic engagement with the gaming medium
• Made all the more interesting by the collaborative and
social processes that underpin the wikis‟ creation.
Dwarf Fortress
• The Dwarf Fortress wiki
currently comprises
– 1742 articles
– a comprehensive system for
quality assurance
– a „Centralized Discussion„ area
Flowchart which encapsulates one
possible approach to attaining self-
sufficiency for the player‟s in-game fort
Dark Souls
• Released by From Software for
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2011.
• Popular action role-playing
game, renowned for its challenging
difficulty and distinct lack of in-game
guidance.
• More opaque qualities of the game
encourage players to consult or contribute
to online resources such as wikis, as they
seek to make sense of the world presented
by the game.
Research methods
• Interviews conducted with
contributors to the Dark Souls wikis
at http://darksouls.wikia.com and
http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com.
• Interviews conducted within the
relevant wikis, with a one-to-one
interview using one wiki‟s built-in
chat system and a group interview
using the wiki‟s blog.
Research methods
• The wiki-based group interview was structured by creating
a blog post around a group of related questions and
asking volunteers to answer these questions in the
comments.
• Linked to a digital copy of a standard consent form and
tried to ensure that all participants were aware of this.
However, there was nothing to stop wiki users from
commenting on the blog – at least one participant was
probably under 18 years of age, so his responses can‟t be
used in any publication, for example.
Research methods
Some thoughts on research methods
• I would use the wiki/blog-based approach to group interviews again
• I may still attempt to conduct an interview in-game, and capture the
video and audio to post on YouTube, but my feeling is that the
asynchronous group interview approach worked best
• Interviewees had time to reflect on their answers and view each
other‟s‟ responses
• As is often the case with using focus groups rather than one-to-one
interviews, this sharing of responses probably had the effect of
drawing out more from the respondents
Some early results
• Those interviewees who actually participated were very
co-operative, and thoughtful in their responses. Some
recurring themes/observations:
• Standards are important to these respondents, not just in
terms of the completeness and accuracy of the
information contained within the wiki, but also with respect
to grammar and writing style.
Some early results
• I might have got lucky with the folk at darksouls.wikia.com
– other wikis were approached and the response was
much less impressive.
• In other cases, early indications of willingness to
participate quickly evaporated, resulting in multiple
failed attempts to schedule a Skype interview with one
respondent and another asynchronous interview simply
petering out.
Some early results
• For the most part, the motivation described by these
dedicated wiki contributors is almost entirely intrinsic:
they do it for the love of the game itself, and out of a
desire to support the community that has grown up
around it. Extrinsic rewards are of little concern.
What motivates gaming wiki contributors?
• Wiki contributor „Brainwasher5‟ started work on the
wikia.com Dark Souls wiki after discovering that he could
not correct erroneous information on other wikis devoted
to the game:
“I came across this wiki, which was at the time
even more woefully undeveloped than it is now.
But the only important thing for me was that I
could edit it. Dark Souls is a very meticulously
crafted game, so it only makes sense that all of
its information sources be held up to the same
standards, and that‟s why I‟m here.”
What motivates gaming wiki contributors?
“One reason I contribute to Dark Souls wiki that I hadn‟t
brought up before is the fact that there is so much in the
game (both lore-wise and gameplay-wise) that you can
miss at first glance. This is not a Michael Bay film;
things are not shoved into your face. Dark Souls is
much more coy when it comes to facts and lore, and it‟d be
a shame if busier or less attentive players play through this
amazing game and miss stuff. So I like to think that when
I‟m writing here, particularly about elusive or esoteric lore
or item facts, I am helping enlighten fellow gamers
regarding this jewel of a game.” - „Brainwasher5‟
What motivates gaming wiki contributors?
• Fellow contributor „Ltpliers‟ agrees that the quality of the
game is what motivates him to devote time to the wiki:
“I contribute to this wiki simply because I enjoy the game
and, with the information I have, I feel that it‟s good to give
back to the community for such a great game.”
“A wiki I find is a very convenient source of
information that saves time and the more
extensive we can make our wiki and the more
convenient we can sort it, the better off it will
be for standard users to allow them to enjoy
the game as much as we have.”
What motivates gaming wiki contributors?
“I feel that writing up the wiki is just as important as using it
as not only am I learning information myself but also giving
back to the community for such an excellent game.”
“Any time I have some free time I try to get some information
updated or try to fix up problems or formatting that we may
have missed so that others may find information more
conveniently and more thoroughly written.”
- „Ltpliers‟
What motivates gaming wiki contributors?
• Some final thoughts from Brainwasher5 underline the
general consensus that contributing to a wiki – even one
devoted to something as apparently trivial as a video
game – is a worthwhile experience:
“I think that editing wikis can be a very rewarding
experience. Even if you don‟t learn anything
yourself, enlightening others is, to me, highly fulfilling. Hours
spent editing and creating pages on this wiki are worth it, as
long as people read them and learn something new. I highly
recommend ANYONE, not just gamers, to try out editing a
wiki and see what they can do to improve it.”
Quick summary
• The intersection between games and social media
provides a rich seam for research
– Games are important!
• Social media is increasingly integrated into games, in
many different ways
– Not just about marketing
• If we can harness or emulate some of the enthusiasm
„gamers‟ have for social media, we are on to a winner
– What motivates gaming wiki contributions is a love of the topic