Participation cues: Coordinating activity and collaboration in complex online gaming worlds

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThe development of digital communication technologies not only has an influence on human communicative practices, but also creates new spaces for human collaborative activity. In this article we discuss a technologically mediated context for interaction, computer games. Closely looking at interactions among a group of gamers, we examine how players are managing complex, shifting frameworks of participation, the virtual game world and the embodied world of talk and plans for action. Introducing the notion of PARTICIPATION CUES, we explain how interactants are able to orient to, plan, and execute collaborative actions that span quite different environments with quite different types of agency, possible acts, and consequences. Novel abilities to interact across diverse spaces have consequences for understanding how humans build coordinated action through efficient, multimodal communication mechanisms. (Computer-mediated communication, language and technology, gaming, gesture, participation, multimodality)* I N T R O D U C T I O NThe recent rapid development of digital communication technologies has resulted in new spaces for collaborative activity. In new technologically mediated spaces, people are adapting communicative practices and in some cases inventing new ones. In this article we discuss a technologically mediated context for interaction, a "LAN (local area network) party" or temporary gathering of people who network their computers together to play multiplayer computer games. We analyze ways a group of players manage complex, shifting frameworks of

Liminality in multitasking: Where talk and task collide in computer collaborations

“…Working at the computer involves a coordination of the real world and the screen/ virtual world (Gardner & Levy 2010;Keating & Sunakawa 2010). Working at the computer involves a coordination of the real world and the screen/ virtual world (Gardner & Levy 2010;Keating & Sunakawa 2010).…”

Video Gaming as Practical Accomplishment: Ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis, and Play

“…Another relevant point of reference that speaks to multiactivity while playing and the management of different kinds of participation is work by Keating and Sunakawa (), who also investigate LAN gaming settings. In following the interaction between members of gaming groups, Keating and Sunakawa document the various methods deployed by players to manage their activities in “real space” and “virtual space.” This includes articulation work (Schmidt & Bannon, ) conducted by players in the course of play: that is, players' analyses of the game as it unfolds, which they use to coordinate group actions between them, and to render coordinative features of that action mutually visible.…”

“…In terms of genre, EMCA studies have explored “beat‐'em‐ups” (Hung, ), sports games (Mondada, ), massively multiplayer online games (Bennerstedt & Ivarsson, ), first‐person shooters (Reeves et al., ), adventure games (Laurier & Reeves, ), and racing, sports, platform, and real‐time strategy games (Aarsand & Aronsson, ) . Equally, we find a variety of naturalistic pre‐existing settings or arrangements of video game play in focus, such as in the home (Mondada, ) or in dedicated gaming spaces (Keating & Sunakawa, ; Sjöblom, ). While there are cases of interventions that study the introduction of novel gaming circumstances for players (e.g., see Moore et al., ), these are rare.…”

Language, Discourse, and New Media: A Linguistic Anthropological Perspective

“…When dealing with discourse and discursive performances, it is important to note that they are not purely accomplished through language. We always communicate multimodally, including in new media discourses (Goodwin 2000(Goodwin , 2006Keating and Mirus 2003;Keating and Sunakawa 2010;Streeck et al 2011). As argued by Goodwin, human action is accomplished via the mediation of various semiotic resources.…”

“…It is very important to conduct ethnographies along these lines for new media interactions. Keating and Sunakawa (2010) investigated how players built coordinated action through multimodal communication mechanisms in online gaming environments. They looked at the movement and talk of the participants in the non-online world in addition to the online world, as well as how each world helped participants create and shape the other.…”