When social networking meets online games: the activity system of grouping in world of warcraft

Using activity theory and genre theory as bases for analysis, this article examines the activity of grouping in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. The article first examines what grouping does in the overall context of the game, including its socialization and gameplay functions. Grouping involves a series of interactions and conventions that structure gameplay objectives and model expected behavior. Groups are formed through specific interfaces in the game that enact social networking processes and can be examined comparatively alongside web-based social networking technologies. By looking at interface design, the article identifies how grouping as an activity is mediated and what social expectations are put in place when players participate in groups. Next, the article considers the role of other texts in the activity system of grouping, focusing on two examples: the game FAQ and message board. The FAQ is especially noteworthy as an instance of player-produced technical writing. Players write FAQs to document basic game information, present game strategies and walkthroughs, and help other players solve problems. As a genre, this type of FAQ is characterized by a number of tensions that can productively challenge how we think about the conventions of electronic and printed text. FAQ writers make different kinds of rhetorical moves that situate the text within the larger activity of gaming and outline specific purposes and audiences. The FAQ is also examined here in the context of message board interaction, which is used in part for more localized discourse that the FAQ does not address specifically. Working at various levels of abstraction and consolidation, this system of online texts mediates group activity and provides a space for extra-game interactions to directly influence the in-game interactions and behaviors of players (and vice versa).