Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p.

1
Assignment One

Observation One
Tuesday, September 10, 2014
Blizzard Entertainments World of Warcraft

Note: This observation was a forty minute session displaying my efforts to level my character
up and do menial tasks rather than experiencing the story. As such story elements are largely
unimportant in experiencing the game for many players who focus on the meta aspects of
the game in wanting to purely advance. Many players do not even read anything other than
the objectives provided by quest-givers. This observation is focused on the community of the
game. Any terminology used is in the document will be defined in the various categories of
actors, artifacts, communities of practice, domains, practices of the community, and literary
practices.
Social Norms: presumed and accepted behavior of participants in society; conventional behavior
in an environment.
Figured World: A social community that has preconceived principles of behavior in what is
appropriate.
ie: The world of Azeroth.
Domain: an idea or concept held dear to the community.
Community of Practice: a set of individuals that share goals, interests, forms of
communication, habits, and work together to further their goal.
ie: The Alliance and Horde, guilds.
Practices of the Community: habits that a community share in social settings, and to further
their goal.
ie: Questing, PvP, instances, raids.
Artifacts: Objects, objectives, concepts, and beliefs that have value within a community of
practice.
ie: Loot, quests, honor.
Actors: individuals that answer various duties within the community of practice
ie: Player characters, NPCs.
Literary Practices: the custom within a community that deals with communication, be it verbal
or nonverbal.
ie: Sending messages via the mailbox ingame, using the chatbox.

Relevant Background Information: The observations listed take place largely in Black Fathom
Deeps and Dead Mines, two dungeons in which I observed and interacted in. To a lesser degree I
observed Tirisfal Glades (a region near the Undercity) while waiting for transport via Zeppelin to
Orgrimmar (the main city of the Horde faction). There are two factions in the World of Warcraft,
the Alliance and the Horde since I am a player focusing on leveling and am observing the
community of WoW, what they stand for are largely irrelevant. The first half of the observation
is done in Black Fathoom Deeps, an underwater dungeon, while the second half of the
observation takes place in Dead Mines. The last two observations is taken in an outer multiplayer
area.
Figured World:
Comment [1]: What exactly does meta mean?
Comment [2]: Your perception of your figured
world made me a little bit more interested in
playing this game. In some ways, playing video
games can also be applied to every day
scenarios. You can also communicate (chat)
with other people while playing this game.
Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p. 2
Assignment One

The figured world I choose to observe is the world of Azeroth, the setting for the Real Time
Strategy Warcraft series and the famous Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game:
World of Warcraft (WoW). I will be observing the gameplay of WoW as a completely
inexperienced player, knowing only its genre and very little to nothing of the lore. The server I
will be playing on is a Player Versus Player (PvP) server called Darkspear, distinct in that it is a
server that allows players of differing factions to openly engage in combat against one another.
PvP servers are generally filled with players who are more aggressive to other players and focus
less on the story element of the game, known as Player Versus Environment (PvE), and more on
direct player interaction. The purpose of engaging in the world is purely entertainment, while the
purpose of the figured world itself is to become the best possible version of yourself with
becoming the highest level, getting the best gear, and experiencing the gameworld. Players can
engage in many things at one time, PvP oriented players are not limited to the PvP gameplay, the
same is true for their PvE counterparts; the opportunities are nearly infinite in playing WoW.
Activities such as selling items on the market, questing, role-playing, fighting other players,
fishing, cooking, mining, and more are common within the community of WoW. The rules are
nil: in the game world there is no cheating allowed. Within the figured world some social norms
would be to not pray on the lower level players if you are a player disproportionately higher than
the inexperienced player. Players often use a general chat to communicate with other players and
join guilds to further themselves in a group effort. There are two basic communities of practice
within WoW, the Alliance faction and the Horde faction, within these basic communities of
practice lie guilds - groups of players who work together to benefit their group alone. Expected
behavior within a dungeon instance is to pull your weight, not just being there to reap experience
while other players do the heavy work. If you are not a tank, dont try to be a tank. Likewise, if
you are a DPS, do not try to aggro the mobs.
.Actors:
Tanks: any character whose purpose is to distract enemies from other party members
and absorb damage is referred to as tanks. In laymans terms tanks are meat shields,
allowing themselves to take the majority if not all of the damage between mobs. A
tank has the highest health of the party and primarily is tasked to hold aggro of the
mobs and keep mobs distracted and away from other party members. Classes such as
warriors, paladins, druids, death knights, and monks can specialize as tanks.
Damage Dealers(DPS): any character whose purpose is to deal damage in the group
against mobs are referred to as Damage Per Seconders(DPSs). This is often the most
common role in the group, and least critically responsible a mistake as a DPS is not
as fatal as a mistake as a healer or a tank. A DPS is tasked with dealing enough
damage to kill mobs, but not deal so much damage that the aggro shifts to them. Any
class in appropriate gear can play as a DPS. There are two types of DPS, ranged
(mages, warlocks, shadow priests, balance druids, elemental shamans, and hunters)
and melee (rogue, fury/arms warrior, retribution paladin, enhancement shaman, feral
druid, windwalker monk, and frost/unholy death knight).
Healers: any character whose purpose is to heal, protect, and resurrect their allies are
referred to as healers. Healers are often the scarcest party member when searching for
one as they have the duty of keeping the entire party alive for the instance. Healers
must predict damage, heal multiple targets, and weigh who has priority to be healed.
Healers are often referred as tanks best friends because the tanks purpose is to
Comment [3]: You did a great job of
explaining the background in the Relevant
Background Information and the Figured World
description. I knew nothing about WoW prior to
reading this and now I have a general basis to
develop any ideas off of. However, I was very
confused in the beginning, try giving a brief
overview of what WoW is exactly, probably
before the note about the observation. What is
the purpose of WoW? What got you interested
into the game?
Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p. 3
Assignment One

absorb damage their health as a result must be replenished by healers. Druids,
paladins, priests, shamans, and monks can specialize as healers.
Mobs: short for mobile, is a term for any NPC (non-player character) whose purpose
is to be defeated for loot, as an objective, or for simply experience. Mobs are most
often generically named, and common throughout the world. Mobs solely exist to be
killed and are usually hostile. Mobs may drop loot upon defeat and always provide
experience points.
Bosses: are special mobs, usually given a unique name and are significantly more
powerful than generic nobs. Bosses signify a milestone in dungeons. Bosses drop
better loot than their basic counterparts and also grant more experience. Bosses may
also have unique dialogue during battle.
Quest-Givers: Quest-givers are NPCs whose primary purpose is to provide tasks and
objectives to player characters with the goal of the player to gain XP. It is possible for
some Quest-Givers to do more than simply give tasks, players may have to
accompany the quest-giver during a quest and ensure his survival and keep mobs
away from him.
Artifacts:
Experience Points(XP): a unit of measurement for a characters level improvement.
Advancing to the next level necessitates a specific amount of XP. The higher the
level, the more content available to the player, and the more powerful. Most XP is
gained from the competition of quests, although killing mobs, exploring, and various
other activities reward the player with XP. This is the most valuable asset a player
receives upon completion of a task during early stages of play.
Loot: refers to any item, cash, or gear received from mobs, the completion of quests,
or discovery of storage containers. Gear is the term for any weapons or armor pieces.
Gear is what differentiates a fresh level 90 from a level 90 who has completed
every activity. Despite their level similarity, gear is given at different tiers based on
the difficulty of the raid done.
Health and Mana/Focus/Energy/Rage: Health is the amount of life points a
character has until death. Maintaining health is essential to the continuation of play,
the lower the health the more likely the player is to die from a randomly rolled critical
strike from an enemy. Mana for mages, warlocks, priests, paladins, druids, and
warlocks, while focus is for hunters, energy for rogues, and rage being for warriors.
This bar underneath the health indicates how much mana/focus/energy/rage the
character has to cast their spell. More powerful spells take more
mana/focus/energy/rage and have cooldowns, or a time limit to use them again.
Communities of Practice:
Party: Parties are two to five players using the party mechanic to be grouped
together. Party members can see each others health and mana/focus/energy/rage and
share not only loot, but also XP. An added benefit is characters may set their chat box
to see party chat only, with a more beneficial buff being healers are 20% more
effective to party members.
Dungeons: Dungeons are events where five or less players work towards defeating
all bosses in the dungeon, and completing all quests with the purpose of gaining more
XP. Dungeon mobs and NPCs are party of one community, the Dungeon, some may
Comment [4]: Does the game give you an
option use your loot to also buy more health? Is
there a price on how much loot you got to spend
on gear? What are the different types of gear
you can get?
Comment [5]: When you have low health, is it
a guarantee that you will die when your
attacked by the first player you come in contact
with? Is there a way you gain more health and
mana when it's low? Why is there a time limit on
when you can use your mana again?
Comment [6]: Are Mana, Focus, Energy, and
Rage like powers? How does one gain more?
Besides that, the artifacts section is very
detailed and helpful to the conception of the
game.
Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p. 4
Assignment One

be friendly to the player character while others may be hostile but they all exist to
give the player an opportunity to gain XP.
Domain:
Completing The Dungeon: An essential idea to the party is to complete the dungeon,
meaning the successful killing of all bosses, and the completion of any other side
tasks such as gathering herbs found only in the dungeon. The first run through of a
dungeon is often offers the most XP, as quests may only be done once. Subsequent
run throughs of dungeons rely on the slaying of mobs and primarily the bosses to
successfully complete the dungeon. The completion of dungeons itself also grants
XP.
Practices of the Community:
Keeping To Your Role: As mentioned there are three main roles a character can take
on: tanking, healing, and DPS. You select your role during the dungeon finder, which
groups individual characters and parties together, and are expected to carry out your
task. During early levels of play there are a plethora of players who are ignorant or
indifferent to this expectation. For instance, a tank is supposed to be the first to attack
a mob so as to gain aggro immediately. A DPS who attacks first may not only put
himself at risk, but also hurt the chances of the partys success. Player characters who
try to tank, with not being assigned the role, are often the target of anger by the real
tank of the party, and other members may refuse to assist you in combat or heal you
as such.
Using World of Warcraft Jargon: Aggro, mobs, DPS, AoE, are all WoW
terminologies. Aggro, short for aggression, is the aggressive intent of mobs. Tanks
have the highest health and armor, so they actually want aggro, while a mage who
deals heavy damage but wears cloth armor who attracts aggro will die. AoE, or area
of effect, are attacks that target an area on the playing field rather than a certain mob.
Similar web language like lol, lmao, stfu, and pwnt are used both seriously
and ironically. It is imperative to learn the jargon of WoW in order to understand
other players within game.
Using Loot Mechanics: Upon drop of valuable and rare loot, players in a party have
for options. Need, greed, disenchant, or no roll. Players select need for an item only
when they actually need the loot, abuse of this is frowned upon. Greed is selected for
players who dont need it, but want it. Disenchant destroys the loot in exchange for
spiritual essence, a material needed to enchant items. No roll is sparsely used as the
player gives up the chance to receive the piece of loot in his inventory.
Literacy Practices:
Chat: Being a video game, the only form of communication possible is through chat.
Players share a chat box within an instance, a party, and the community of players
surrounding them. The communication within an instance is often saved for insults
towards incompetent players, although random chatting also may occur.
Observation 1:
0:00 - Game started, I walk towards the zeppelin tower in Trisfal Glades to move towards the
city of Orgrimmar, waiting to be placed in a party to run through a dungeon. I am in an existing
Comment [7]: Try putting some of this
information somewhere in the beginning, so
then the reader has a better understanding of
what exactly you're talking about. The
information is well detailed and extremely
helpful, but would really come in handy towards
the beginning of the paper.
Comment [8]: Great observation all in all, is it
easy to tell who's inexperienced? Observation
was very detailed, although try using more
colorful, visual words that help paint a clearer
picture of what's exactly going on.
Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p. 5
Assignment One

party with my roommate, who is a tank. This is significant because tanks and healers are often
more valuable than my role of DPS as a hunter. Me being in a party with a tank thus expedites
the process of being matched up in a party.
1:12 As I am walking towards the zeppelin tower I am randomly attacked by a level 8 wolf
who I defeat easily as I was a level 24 hunter. I receive useless loot including shed fur whose
only purpose is to be sold.
1:30 Me and my roommate Cody have queued for a dungeon, meaning we started the process
of looking for a party at this time.
1:40 In a mere 10 seconds me and Cody have been matched with three other players in the
dungeon Black Fathom Deeps. I go to the quest givers in the dungeon and am tasked with killing
the various bosses within the dungeon.
2:14 The group enters combat with its first enemy and upon its death the group discovers the
loot of a lesser moon stone, an object to be sold to a merchant for money. We roll for the item
and another party member receives it. The party continues to go through the dungeon, killing the
mobs.
3:00 the party indicates for another hunter to turn his pet taunt off, because the pet steals aggro
from the tank, putting the party at risk as pets are easier to kill than tanks. I also fall off a cliff
and must backtrack to the rest of the party.
4:20 the tanks are attracting the attention of a large number of mobs and we start engaging the
first boss. The inexperienced or ignorant player still has his pet taunt on, increasing the difficulty
of the dungeon. We kill the first boss and I roll to disenchant the loot. Tension arises in the group
because the other hunter in the group acknowledges he has the ability to turn his pets taunt off,
but doesnt care enough to turn it off.
5:33 Two other party members level up. The only member of the party in top tier quality armor
is the healer, indicating the rest of the party is all scrubs.
6:55 I level up to 25, gaining new abilities, and successfully rolled a disenchant on a piece of
loot. The other hunter continues trolling, or agitating, the rest of the party. Mobs with low health
begin to run away, making it easier to defeat them. There are no mages in the group, which isnt
necessarily bad, as there are multiple types of DPS.
9:00 Still grinding through the dungeon, killing various mobs. A team member aggrod a
random mob to go after a chest, but it was locked and no one appeared to have looted the key,
irritating the rest of the party for wasting time and effort.
11:16 The inexperienced members of the party aggro a boss while still attacking other mobs,
leading the party to split our division of labor, causing the death of the tank due to a lack of
synergy. The boss drops a piece of loot which I attempt to disenchant.
12:30 The boss defeated, the healer resurrects the tank. There is very little communication
going on between the players thus so far. Continual grinding continues.
Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p. 6
Assignment One

15:17 We discover a player by the name of JohnnySin is afk, or away from keyboard, and is
taking up a player slot that could be for someone useful. We try to kick him, but that requires a
unanimous decision, and one player doesnt care and continues combat, where a kick must be
done at an interval of peace with 5:00 minutes with no combat.
16:20 I receive another quest. The player JohnnySin taunts the party by saying, Sorry WoW
isnt my life. He is not really contributing to the group. Another player responds by saying
Youre the one with the heirlooms, not me. The heirlooms are a piece of loot that indicates a
long play time within the game. JohnnySin replied by I followed people for that too, with the
tank dying again due to general stupidity and a lack of cohesion.
18:46 A lot of dialogue is going on in the chat about who has a life, and who hasnt. A player
by the name of Gweb suggests we let JohnnySin die, but WoWs automatic health regen saves
JohnnySin from death. JohnnySin said I dont give a fuck with Gweb replying Youre lucky
Blizzard makes it so hard to kick. One possible reason for this tomfoolery is that as of late,
Blizzard takes players from different realms (servers) and puts them into instances. Another
player Rockinblue laments he shouldve kept on soloing dungeons, meaning completing them by
himself.
20:46 The boss is aggrod, with JohnnySins pet being purposefully let killed by the boss. We
have one more boss at this point before we complete the dungeon. We unnecessarily aggrod a
group of mobs out of the way, wasting time and heals. The consensus is the healer is the only
other contributive team within the party, with the rest of the players being noobs or purposefully
increasing the difficulty of the dungeon by slacking.
23:45 Combat begins with the final boss. After the death of the final boss we complete Black
Fathom Deeps and the group discusses JohnnySins is a moron, as well as the other players for
tolerating him. This dungeon is a good example of how dynamic the world is, since it is
populated by players and not by computers with programmed schedules.
26:00 I return to the zeplin tower, waiting for the next zeppelin to my next city.
26:57 Me and my roommate start queuing for another dungeon and start discussing how a
player like JohnnySins can hinder the gameplay experience.
27:55 We found a dungeon and start Stockades, our next dungeon. A prison themed dungeon,
with quests exclusive to the alliance, meaning to get XP out of this dungeon we have to kill all
the mobs in the instance.
30:00 The entire party is in advanced tier armor. This team in contrast with the other team,
knows exactly what theyre doing, and includes a mage as the additional DPS rather than another
hunter. We have a druid healer rather than a priest healer, with druids being more AoE than
priests.
35:08 The first boss of the dungeon has been aggrod. A wanna-be tank paladin tries to get the
tank role, while being a DPS, is allowed to die by the entire party for not complying with his
assigned task. The healer is saying no heals with the rest of the party letting all the mobs attack
him.
Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p. 7
Assignment One

37:16 The rogue DPS dies, and the entire party pokes fun at him with the group telling him I
told you, how were those self heals, and other numerous badgerings.
38:44 I become level 25. The DPS Thebrickwall, now alive again is still teased numerously.
The entire party engages in laughing at him and he replies You sound like my effin teacher
bruh, shut up. He was also oblivious to what IRL meant.
43:40 We decide to kill the rest of the mobs even though we killed the boss momments ago, for
more XP.
Observation 2:
Note: PvP is more fast-paced than PvE, as a result the observation is not minute by minute, but
divided into five minute intervals instead.
0:00 - 5:00 The match begins. The first PvP mode we choose to play is called Battlegrounds,
a game mode in which we are tasked with capturing various landmarks across the map. The more
landmarks in possession the faster our faction gains resources, the first faction to gain 1600
resources wins the game. The team captures its first location, The Farm, other players attempt to
capture The Gold Mine, this does not go well and all players in the assault for The Gold Mine
die. The Farm gets attacked by Alliance forces but are repelled by various Horde players. The
Blacksmith, the central position in the map gets taken by Horde. I manage to get a few hits in
various players but are usually outnumbered and as a result die.
5:00 - 10:00 We lost the farm due to a large assault by The Alliance. I choose to assist in the
farm defense and attack various players with my Concussion Shot, which slows players
substantially and makes them more susceptible to attack. The defense of The Farm is successful
and I receive Honor Points, the currency used to purchase PvP gear. Horde forces also take The
Stables. The Alliance attempts to defend The Stable while launching an assault on The Lumber
Mills, and The Farm. I choose to return to The Farm and assist in its defense against two or three
attackers while other players stave off an assault on The Lumber Mills. Our defense of The Farm
and the Lumber Mills are successful while we lose The Stables to The Alliance.
10:00 - 15:00 An additional assault on the Gold Mine is made by Horde forces, with multiple
players engaging in combat with no real communication or organization. I die during my first
assault on The Gold Mines as combat in that area is sporadic and difficult to coordinate. During
my second assault on The Gold Mines I last longer and take out a few players, but the assault
fails again. At this point The Alliance is desperately holding onto The Gold Mines, with their
other pieces of territory being taken by Horde forces due to very little to no defense. I look at the
map and see players icons are being taken off near The Farm, indicating death. Moments later
the alarm for The Farm sounds confirming my hunch. A group of Horde forces including me
launch a counter-assault on The Farm, with me getting a large amount of kills and assists in
before my death.
15:00 - 20:00 We are currently in the lead in terms of resources and more Horde players rush
to The Farms defenses. I get close to death but manage to evade an Alliance mages attacks and
then get healed by a paladin on my team. Comfortably in the lead the Horde chooses to put
pressure on the Gold Mine while capturing other points on the map. During an assault on The
Comment [9]: You do a great job describing
what's going on in the match. Is the
"Concussion Shot" the best attack to use
against other players? How many locations are
there?
Discourse Observation Analysis Notes Timothy Villar, 2014, p. 8
Assignment One

Farm I die again. While respawning at The Blacksmith graveyard I intercept a hunter attempting
to sneak by and kill his pet. At this time we get a notification from the game indicating The
Horde is near victory at 1440 resources. The Alliance is kept at The Gold Mine for the remainder
at the match. Due to the presence of a healer despite the many attacks I receive we manage to
wipe out the forces at The Gold Mine right before victory is reached at 1600 resources.
Observation 3:
0:00 - 5:00 The PvP mode we decide to play next is Capture the Flag, a gamemode in where
we are tasked to go into the Alliance base, steal their flag, and bring it bake to ours while also
defending our flag. Very quickly into the match our flag is stolen while we steal their flag as
well, taking out the lone hunter defending their base. As soon as we exit the base we are
ambushed by Alliance forces, resulting in the death of all Horde players attempting to guard the
flag-bearer. Players manage to be revived instantly due to their souls being stored on stones by a
warlock. I attempt to assist the flag carrier but get intercepted by a rival hunter along route. Our
flag is captured again, but despite my efforts I get killed by an Alliance warrior.
5:00 - 10:00 - I intercept a player attempting to assault our base, and with the assistance of other
players, successfully kill him. In an attempt to flank the other team I go to the sidelines, but this
serves no purpose and am killed again. Luxxious gets close to stealing The Alliance flag, but dies
while another Alliance player steals the flag. I successfully slow him with a Concussive Shot but
the druid being in cat form still is fast enough to get out of my range. I come close to being killed
by a hunters spider pet but use my Disengage ability to launch backwards and survive with a
sliver of health and get healed by an ally paladin. The paladin and I attempt to attack opposing
forces but are simply outnumbered and die.
10:00 - 15:00 A large contingency of Alliance forces assault the base while some remain
behind to defend the center of the map. As our forces are unorganized we are spread out all over
the map engaging in combat wherever we meet an opponent. There is an attempt to steal The
Alliance flag which I assist in but end up getting ganked by a group of players. It is more
difficult to kill players on this game mode than Battlegrounds. Both flags are at the opposite base
at this point, making it impossible to score a point. We are down one flag capture at this point.
15:00 - 20:00 Both factions are sending no players out in an attempt to defend their bases, but
a small group of Horde is sent out to recapture the Horde flag while a larger amount of players
stay to hold the base. The Horde stronghold is successfully assaulted which results in the return
of the Alliance flag, and the scoring of an additional point for The Alliance. In a vain attempt I
rush The Alliance base and get killed within seconds. With two minutes left defeat is guaranteed
and as a result many people begin leaving the instance, pouring gasoline on the flame. After
many deaths the match results in an Alliance victory.
Comment [10]: Breaking the observations up
in longer increments was a great idea, as the
reader can now take in more information in
bigger clumps. It also allows us to get a better
bigger picture of what's going on exactly. Plus it
allows you to give a better general overview.
Comment [11]: Overall, the two observations
are detailed and your above and beyond
sections are very good. Sometimes I got lost in
the observation, but that's just because I'm not
that familiar with WoW. It seems like a fun game
to play!