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Kevan Bateman
ENC1102-0031
Professor Jennifer Murray
October 20, 2014
League of Legends Focused Data Analysis
A discourse community can be defined as a group of individuals bound by a common
interest in which they communicate through approved channels where the discourse is regulated.
John Swales wrote an essay titled The Concept of Discourse Community, where he stated the
phrase six defining characteristics that will be necessary and sufficient for identifying a group
of individuals as a discourse community (4). Using the definition and Swales characteristics,
the League of Legends community can be considered a discourse community. A discourse
community uses genre and genre sets in order to accomplish goals and to articulate the
operations of the group. This being said, the genres found within League of Legends are chat
boxes, forum posts, streams, and individual interaction between members such as handwriting,
emails, text messages, etc The community uses their discourse, technology, and League of
Legends related websites to allow two complete strangers to overcome distance and achieve a
common goal of increasing their ability to play, defeating the other team, and ultimately winning
the game.
Teamwork
Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) are videogames that require a minimum of
two players to work together and cooperate with one another in order to achieve a common goal
of beating the game and/or winning. James Paul Gee states in his journal What Video Games
Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy that When players play in massive multiplayer

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games, they often collaborate in teams, each using a different, but overlapping, set of skills, and
share knowledge and other values with one another (3). The concept of teamwork is extremely
important in these types of games as members cannot work together without the cooperation of
one another. Communication is a necessity for teamwork and players cannot work together
unless they converse with the other player(s). During the League of Legends world competition,
the announcers analyzed the communication between both teams and explained that one team
was able to gather more information and work better together as a team because of their excellent
communication with one another. Michael Hartman directly states that without communication,
you cannot win an online team based game because you lack the teamwork required, in Better
Communication for Winning LoL (Intro). Kevin Moberly and John Alberti in the journal
Computers & Composition both talk about how games cannot be completed unless the players
communicate with one another and work together. Alberti says Video gamers are both the
readers and writers and without them, these games could not function, the goals would not exist,
therefor the game would not be completed (259). In League of Legends, the communication
between players currently in a game can be found in the chat box, which allows active players to
talk to others in their game, both on their team and the opposing team.
Education
Education and the variety of ways in which people learn are a large part of todays
society. This applies not only to society as a whole, but the gaming community of League of
Legends as well. Richard Colby and John Alberti in Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video
Games explore theoretical and applied writing that is relative to gaming and provide innovative
ways to enhance composition and scholarship using video games. They also talk about how
playing video games encourage students to consider how they read, write, and conduct research.

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In Gees article, he argues that schools, workplaces, families, and academic researches all have a
lot to learn about learning from good computer and video games (1), and how they can use
game and game technologies to enhance their learning. He also talks about how Good games
operate at the outer and growing edge of a players competence, remaining challenging, but doable, while schools often operate at the lowest common denominator (2). Education isnt just
about learning things you learn in school, but also learning about the game itself. In order for a
player to develop their skills within a game, they must learn about the strategies, lexis, and the
skills that are required. These skills are usually related to one of the five roles within the game.
These roles are Marksman (ranged character that uses a gun), Support (risks their lives in order
to keep the marksman ahead of the game), Top-Lane (physical character built to absorb damage),
Mid-Lane (magician that can manipulate both friend and foe), and Jungler (hides around the map
until the chance to help a teammate confirm a kill arises). These roles are learned through
practice and voiced through members of the community. Niek gives an in depth guide that
explains the overall objective, what each of these roles are and what they do, and the specific
terminology needed to understand the game in his article titled Why Am I Here: A Guide to
Roles and Lanes, posted on the League of Legends forum board. Without the posts like his,
new players, or players with little experience, will have trouble learning about the roles, terms,
and objectives in the game.
Influence in Writing
Albertis journal and Matthew S.S. Johnsons Public Writing in Gaming Spaces, talk
about how the writing in video games reframe our understanding of literacy and impact the entire
community as the goals of one member can usually be related to the goals of another.
Communication is self-motivated and impacts the entire community as almost any member can

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read it. Johnson states that text and writing from players in reference to computer/video games is
not only directed to a specific audience with specified purposes, but has the potential to cause
change within the community and that gamers are agents who have the power, through writing,
to shape the electronic worlds, and influence our understanding of literacy (Intro). Forums,
posts, and other genres are training grounds for becoming a citizen of the community because
they call for participation. Gamers and other members of the community influence not only the
game, but fellow members by spreading their ideas and knowledge between one another and by
communicating with each other while they actively play the game. Alberti calls video games
dialog discursive spaces and reading and writing the arenas of socialization, communication,
and ultimately, play (260).
Understanding Other Players
Every piece of writing contains both fact and/or opinion about how each and every
member must communicate and understand one another in order to succeed. Whether the
writing is referring to understanding the lexis and terms that other players are saying, or talking
about understanding the language and how another person is speaking, they are all talking about
individuals communicating with one another to accomplish the common goal. The player is both
the reader and the writer in an MMO and must understand the game in order to communicate
with others. This allows them to use and learn things like abbreviated terms and the strategies
that other members are using which ultimately result in the team succeeding. In The Semiotic
Ecology and Linguistic Complexity of an Online Game World, Steven L. Thorne, Ingrid
Fischer, and Xiaofei Lu state the texts are extremely relevant to the actions, decision, and
problem-solving that players face when playing an online game and show the relationship
between the player and their environment (280). Without the ability to understand one another,

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members of the community have to try much harder in order to communicate and work together
to achieve their goal. Each of these articles also contains information that shows how technology
has made communication easier and helped people with similar interests overcome distance and
come together not only just to speak, but to cooperate. Although technology allows members to
easily communicate, it causes members of the community to become less familiar with one
another because of lack of physical interaction/face to face conversation.
Conclusion
Using Swales six defining characteristics for identifying a group of individuals as a
discourse community, the League of Legends community can be defined as one based on his
definition. Communication between members is needed in order to cooperate or accomplish a
goal and through this communication and technology, two people can overcome distance and
converse even when familiarity with one another isnt very high. Most of the communication as
it refers to League of Legends is about strategy and helping other players become educated. It
(the communication) shows how video games are reframing our understanding of literacy and
how an individual can speak their mind through text with a result of influencing the entire
community. Genres and genre sets allow members to come together and accomplish a goal.
identified above, Teamwork, Education, Understanding, and Influence in writing are all
necessary components of communication within League of Legends. These components are
required in order to achieve the ultimate goal of winning the game.

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Works Cited
Alberti, John. "The Game Of Reading And Writing: How Video Games Reframe Our
Understanding Of Literacy." Computers & Composition 25.3 (2008): 258-269.
Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Colby, Richard, and John Alberti. Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video Games: Reshaping
Theory and Practice of Writing / Edited By Richard Colby, Matthew S.S. Johnson, and
Rebekah Shultz Colby. n.p.: New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013., 2013.OneSearch.
Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy / James
Paul Gee. n.p.: New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004., 2004. OneSearch. Web. 20 Oct.
2014.
Hartman, Michael. Better Communication for Winning LoL. Altered Gamer. 17 Apr. 2012.
Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Johnson, Matthew S.S. "Public Writing in Gaming Spaces." Computers & Composition 25.3
(2008): 270-283. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
Moberly, Kevin. "Composition, Computer Games, And The Absence Of Writing." Computers &
Composition 25.3 (2008): 284-299. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 20
Oct. 2014.
Niek. Why Am I Here: A Guide to Roles and Lanes. Weblog post. League of Legends
Community RSS. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

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Thorne, Steven L., Ingrid Fischer, and Xiaofei Lu. "The Semiotic Ecology and Linguistic
Complexity of an Online Game World." Recall 24.3 (2012): 279-301. ERIC. Web. 20
Oct. 2014.
Worlds Group Stage 1 Day 1. Riot Games. 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.