Knowing, not doing: Modalities of Gameplay Expertise in World of
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Knowing, not doing: Modalities of
Gameplay Expertise in World of
Warcraft Addons
Victoria McArthur Nicholas Taylor Abstract
York University York University In this paper we consider the impacts of game addons
4700 Keele Street 4700 Keele Street on conventional notions of game-based expertise in
Toronto, ON, Canada, M3J1P3 Toronto, ON, Canada, M3J1P3 World of Warcraft, through the analysis of 37
vickymc@yorku.ca nickttaylor@gmail.com travelogues - a data collection tool designed for use in
MMOG research. We adopt a multi-faceted definition of
Tamara Peyton Suzanne de Castell gaming expertise as described by Taylor, Jenson, De
York University Simon Fraser University Castell and Humphrey [33] and apply their
4700 Keele Street 8888 University Dr categorization of expertise modalities to the addons
Toronto, ON, Canada, M3J1P3 Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A 1S6 named by our study participants. We find that the most
tpeyton@yorku.ca decaste@sfu.ca commonly understood expressions of expertise in
games (time investment and skill) are less represented
Jennifer Jenson in the addons reported by our participants.
York University
4700 Keele Street Keywords
Toronto, ON, Canada, M3J1P3 Massively Multiplayer Online Games, Virtual worlds,
jjenson@edu.yorku.ca research methods, expertise, knowledge production,
technological tools, human computer interaction
ACM Classification Keywords
K.8.0. [Personal computing]: General – Games.
Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
CHI 2012, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, TX, USA.
ACM xxx-x-xxxx-xxxx-x/xx/xx.
General Terms As its central mandate, the study takes Actor Network
Design, Human Factors Theory’s injunction to "follow the actors" [19], whether
they be non-human or human. This enables us to
Introduction consider addons, authored and used by players to
World of Warcraft (WoW) is one of the most successful improve and/or enhance the World of Warcraft gaming
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) of all experience, as a social actor which influences the ways
time. The size and scope of possible interactions and in which gameworld participation is experienced and
intents within WoW situates it as "something between a gameworld expertise is realized.
game and a world" [1]. In this paper, following
Ducheneaut’s assertion that "narrowing our scope [to Using a framework for understanding different
specific online games] is a necessary first step in expressions of MMOG-based expertise – a multifaceted
analyzing concretely and critically what can be "expertise construct" - developed in an earlier work
accomplished in digital spaces" [8], we consider the [33], we apply their expertise modalities to our study of
impacts of WoW addon software on WoW gaming addons. Through this construct, we contest the
expertise and achievement. dominant idea of expertise as narrowly limited to skilled
performance and time investment.
The dataset upon which we draw for this paper comes
from a mixed methods, multiple locales approach to Approach
understanding expertise and leadership in MMOGs and The data for this paper draws most heavily on the
virtual worlds. Sites for the study include lab-based survey and visual data provided in participants’
settings in Canadian cities and observations of public "travelogues" a voluntary data collection tool developed
gaming sites (LAN events, Internet cafés, and informal for the study [21]. The travelogue collects visual and
gamer gatherings) in the UK and Canada, surveys, textual data from expert level players across multiple
interviews, participant self-reporting and researcher MMOGs and virtual worlds. Participants connect to an
direct observation. To date, we have over 600 online form that presents them with a series of nine or
individual multimodal datasets of people playing games ten questions to which they are able to provide both
and answering survey questions. The study’s primary textual and visual responses. The travelogue is
intent is to see whether and how it is possible to intended as a way of getting multimodal data, through
understand participants’ real world characteristics (such both visual and textual means. It allows participants
as gender, age and capacity for leadership) from their report on their behaviours and practices across the
in-game interactions. Both in its scope and in its entire ensemble of the MMOGs they play, providing a
methods, this is a study that examines the "on the glimpse into their 'domestic' play, and giving them
ground," complex relationships between virtual worlds, control over both the method and the content of what
and the localized practices of players in different they choose to represent to researchers.
environments and contexts of play.In the following sections we discuss the history of functions into a player’s WoW client. The open-source
addons, including popular narratives that have been standard XML is used for the graphical interface of each
constructed about them within and around the current piece of addon software [9].
player base. We then describe our conceptual
framework and the travelogue in greater detail. Next, As a kind of fan-created artifact, addons are a visible
we report on our data from 37 World of Warcraft and active aspect of committed WoW play for many
players who filled out travelogues (a sub-group within players. They are a tangible indicator of both the addon
the 69 travelogues), specifically, their textual and producer and the addon user relationship to the
visual responses regarding addon use. gameworld and its practices, providing a "tactical,
critical relationship to the game cultures they inhabit"
What are addons? [7]. Given the richness of this culture and environment,
In 2004, WoW’s developer, Blizzard, decided to allow WoW provides fertile ground in which to study the
the integration of user-created software into its WoW interplay of affordances between corporate owners,
game client. Known as ‘addons’, these bits of software hobbyist users, technical interfaces and social norms.
modify and augment the game’s technical affordances. WoW is one of the only MMOGs to allow for the
WoW addons typically serve one of two functions: they integration of add-ons into its core client technology.
either replace the default UI with a different theme, With over 4700 addons available, across 27 categories
appearance or layout, in a practice known as ‘skinning’ of functionality, the addon scene in WoW is sizable and
[7], or they add functionality to the client, through dynamic. Based on download lists available at
added popup menus, informational displays, game Curse.com, the main source of WoW addons, some of
sounds and mini-map icons. While in some academic the most popular addons globally include: QuestHelper,
work [e.g., 18], addons are conflated with ’mods’ (full which adds quest objectives to the minimap;
game modifications), there are fundamental differences Auctioneer, which tracks the trading activity and
between addons and mods. Addons only change financial performance of auction house commodities;
aspects of the user’s client software [9], whereas mods and DeadlyBossMods, which provides customizable
alter the core game mechanics and game goals [20, popup alert boxes and sounds related to specific
30]. Mods also add in new content or core game monsters’ real-time activities at higher levels of the
functions in multi-player first-person shooter games game.
such as Half-Life (user-community created Counter-
Strike) and Quake (user-community created Team Games, Addons, and Expertise
Fortress). For this paper, we reviewed the game studies literature
that considers gaming practice, group dynamics and
Addons are created using a proprietary API and a definitions of expertise. Themes in this literature
scripting language called ‘Lua’ [9], both owned and include: the impacts of the avatar and the game
managed by Blizzard. Lua is essentially a scripting interface on gaming practice [12, 14, 23, 35], the
language that enables the embedding of client-side nature of immersive learning in games and thegeneralizability of ludic learning to everyday life [1, 10, Most of the works cited above address expertise in
31, 32], and individual and group dynamics in high some way, but few provide an explicit, theoretically-
performing players [5, 6, 12, 17, 25]. grounded framework for understanding the relationship
between specific addons and different styles of expert
In the literature that discussed addon use both directly play. Drawing from work first published by Taylor, de
and tangentially [6, 12, 18, 29, 33], the dominant Castell, Jenson & Humphrey [33], we take up the
understanding of addon use is of a play practice that is "expertise construct" proposed therein and use it to
positively correlated to top tier, high functioning experiment with the development of a framework for
players participating primarily in guild groups, and who categorizing and conceptualizing addons based on the
play almost exclusively in order to pursue the kinds of expertise they extend to players – or, in ANT
successful completion of end-game group content terms, the kinds of work they carry on behalf of
(known commonly as raid groups). A key theme in this players. To do so, we apply the idea of an "assemblage
latter set of literature is the idea that addons "fix" of play" [34] as inspired by Actor-Network Theory, to
problems in the WoW UI. Chen’s work treats addons the discussions and self-reports of addons from
mainly as diagnostic tools, and as agents which participants.
overcome UI issues that would otherwise make certain
game instances unwinnable [6]. Similarly Golub states Expertise framework
that many game challenges – raids in particular - are Working with the expertise framework proposed by our
impossible to complete without the aid of addons [12]. project group [33], we look at how addons relate to,
This viewpoint is echoed within the CHI community. For and can be categorized using, the four modalities of
example, Bardzell et al. suggest that without addon expertise outlined in their construct: investment, skill,
use, "some game content (e.g., end-game raids) are all discourse and game knowledge.
but impossible" [3].
Investment is not just actual quantification of time
In much of this literature, addons are regarded as spent in-game, but also to the amount of ‘mindshare’
supplementary technologies that ‘fix’ the game, but or invested commitment players have in the game,
questions of how they inflect, expand or enhance player regardless of their actualized in-game practice.
agency are left largely unexplored. Specific addons are
rarely mentioned and the overall impression is of canny Skill is the operational competency and proficiency of
hard-core players maximizing the efficiency and players across a set of game assemblages. In the
efficacy of their play through addons. This incomplete context of addons we apply the skill modality to addons
view of addons and their role in gameplay, and how that directly impact the efficiency of play.
they relate to concepts of expertise is what we wish to
address in this section. Discourse evidenced not just through a mastery of the
social language [2] of gaming, but also through a
contingent and contextual awareness of discourses thatcirculate among players and between players and the communication, and action. Applying this concept to
interface. MMOG play, we can show that, and how, MMOG
expertise resides not in players’ embodied skills, but
Game knowledge refers to both the ludic knowledge (of precisely in the capacity of players to assemble a
game mechanics such as avatar class and race network of non-human actors that extend and enrich
affordances, skills and builds, game enemies and their capacity to carry out different game-based
quests, and so on) and narrative knowledge (of the directives. Seen in this view, addons do not "fix" the
plot, lore, and mythos of the game and its characters, game [6, 12], nor do they detract from players’
as expressed both in the game and through other embodied expertise; rather, they supplement and
texts). extend the cyberknetic apparatus of play.
Applying our understanding of these four modalities of Method & Data points
expertise to the study’s data subset, we sketch out a In this section of our paper, we present the
way to conceive of addons as non-human actors in the commonalities and differences we found between the
assemblages formed by players in the gameworld of affordances of addons reported through the travelogues
WoW, in ways that re-cast ‘expertise’ along post- and through participant observation, and their apparent
human, ANT-informed directions. We build from
impacts on game play expertise modalities.
Giddings and Kennedy’s argument that gaming
virtuosity, typically viewed in humanistic terms as
Using both the textual and visual data in the
expressive of expert players’ superior embodied
travelogue, we counted all instances of explicitly named
abilities, ought to be viewed instead as a "cyberknetic
or shown (via screenshots) addons. Next, looking at the
circuit" between player, game, and context, where the
textual and visual information separately, we analyzed
game ‘reconfigures’ its players [11]. To extend this
textual responses to see whether or not participants
insight to our analysis of addons, we borrow from
described the benefits of specific addons.
Latour’s notion of "plug-ins" [19], which he describes
as "circulating entities" that extend to human actors
Lastly, mobilizing the framework proposed by Taylor et
specific and contingent forms of competence. In
al. [33], we analyzed each addon and, based on its
writing, "you realize that to obtain ‘complete’ human
functionality, aligned it with one or more expertise
actors, you have to compose them out of so many
modalities. We used this framework in our analysis as a
successive layers, each of which is empirically distinct
way to understand and explain the relationship
from the next," Latour moves away from a humanistic
between addons and players, by reframing the impacts
model of the individual subject as a discrete,
of addons to ludic expertise.
autonomous agent whose capabilities and competencies
reside 'within' her/him. Instead, competence (as well as
Participants
subjectivity and personality) are seen as arising
Participants were recruited at LAN parties, public
through context-specific associations with non-human
gaming conventions, and on university campuses in
tools – "plug-ins" that supplement thought,Canada, as well as public gaming events in the UK. We the multimodal quality of the travelogue to both show
invited participants to fill out a travelogue documenting and tell us about these addons in different ways. For
their play in any MMOG of their choice. Presently, 69 example, some listed the addons textually by name,
travelogues have been completed and 37 were while others provided screen shots of their list of active
completed by World of Warcraft players (23 male, 14 addons in the WoW addon interface. Some participants
female). The age range was 19 to 60 years (mean 28, described the benefits each of the addons provided,
SD 8.18). others stopped at naming them. In general, there
seemed to be no reticence on the part of players to
In addition to the travelogue data for this subset, we name, show or discuss their addon selections.
also have additional data from survey, interviews, and
in most cases, one or more videotaped game play While the most cited addons (Table 1) were raid-related
sessions with researcher direct observation. (Recount, Omen and Deadly Boss Mods being most-
often mentioned), the screen snaps submitted via
It is important to note that while participants in the participants’ travelogues often belied this explicit
project represent all levels of expertise, including reporting. Images of participants’ addon folders showed
novice players, 27 of the participants who completed a that each player used an average of 10-15 types of
travelogue self-identified as "advanced" or "expert" addons. Many participants’ addon folders showed
players. The remaining participants self-identified as addons such as: AtlasLoot, which automates the
intermediate (2), novice (3), newb (1), and 4 chose not collecting of items dropped by vanquished monsters;
to rank their expertise. Participant self-assessments Altoholic, which allows a player to see gear and
were confirmed through qualitative observations of inventory across their various characters; SexyMap,
their play either in lab-based or public settings. which adds additional tracking, sizing and locator
functionality to the UI’s minimap.
While we acknowledge that our recruitment locations
affect the ‘ecological validity’ of the results, the fact Table 1 lists the 16 unique addons that were named by
that travelogue participants also self-identified as 3 or more travelogue participants. Mobilizing the
expert players means that the results should be taken expertise framework from Taylor et al. [33], we
as representative of this group. researched the functionality of each addon and linked it
to one or more expertise modalities. We looked at what
Results and Analysis the addon brought forth to the assemblage of play (i.e.,
88 unique addons were named by participants in the
travelogue. As shown in figure 2, participants utilized7
Table 1.. List of unique addons that were named by 3 or more participants.
Addon Number Modality 1: Modality 2: Modality 3: Modality 4:
Investment Skill Discourse Knowledge
Altoholic 3 Secondary Primary
AtlasLoot 8 Secondary Primary
Bartender 5 Secondary Primary
DBM 9 Secondary Primary
Decursive 3 Secondary Primary
Gatherer 3 Primary Secondary
Figure 1. A participant's addon list. GearScore 3 Secondary Primary
Omen 11 Secondary Primary
Pitbull 3 Secondary Primary
PowerAuras 3 Secondary Primary
Quartz 3 Secondary Primary
Quest Helper 3 Secondary Primary
Recount 17 Secondary Primary
SexyMap 3 Secondary Primary
Titan Panel 3 Secondary Primary
Figure 2. A Chinese player's XPerl 3 Secondary Primary
interface.
what action possibilities it op
opened up as its primary Gatherer displays is based on the player's own
function or action) and then what sort of secondary gathering data (or data that was shared by guildmates
impact hat addon had as a social actor upon the play via the addon). As a tool that enables more well-
well
assemblage. Within the set of 16 "popular" addons informed decisions regarding the often time-intensive
time
(within our participant group), we found that each gathering activities,
ies, we see Gatherer as strongly linked
addon was linked with two modalities: one primary and to investment.. In its visualization of where and when
one secondary. The distinction is illustrated in the the player obtained particular kinds of resources,
Figure 3. A participant following two examples. Gatherer is secondarily related to (ludic) knowledge.
demonstrating addons at Icecrown
Citadel.
The addon "Gatherer" ttracks and visualizes historical Conversely, Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) is one of the
data related to assets obtained via the gathering most popular high-end
end raiding addons in our dataset.
professions (e.g.
e.g. mining or herbing). The historical data DBM provides players with audio and visual alerts timed8
to specific NPC monster damage abilities, such as flame Within the HCI community, we need to recast the ways
breath (for the dragon Onyxia), poison waves (for in which addon use in MMOG play is understood,
Heigan in the Naxxramas instance) or frost damage (for especially in relation to "expertise." What is clear from
the Lich King in the Icecrown Citadel instance). DBM our travelogue data, surveys, interviews, and
also notifies players when specific phases of a fight are observations is that people are making use of addons
about to begin. DBM’s alerts allow players the time to as an affordance of the game - something that the
recognize and react appropriately to each danger. publisher, Blizzard, has openly facilitated. By carefully
Given this, DBM is linked here primarily with examining the role addons play as actors, researchers
knowledge: it makes information that is otherwise can gain a richer understanding of what it means to use
invisible visible. It is linked secondly with discourse; in specific addons. Presently, a search for "addon" or
order to meaningfully communicate with other players "mod" in the SIG CHI proceedings returns a very small
in a raid, the addons packages the specialized colloquial number of papers that only mention these assemblages
language of gaming and insert it into the assemblage of in passing [e.g., 3]. The difference between outsourcing
play in a way that is intended to goad players into agency and making invisible information visible is quite
specific actions. significant, yet these differences are often wrapped up
into the "does or doesn't use" model of expertise and
Discussion and Conclusions normative MMOG play.
With the categorization of addons using a multifaceted
framework, we have proposed a theoretically-grounded Acknowledgements
and empirically-driven model for conceptualizing and This research is sponsored by the Air Force Research
ordering the ways that addons extend different Laboratory.
manifestations and expressions of game-based ability.
We plan to mobilize this framework along two References
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