Exposition is everywhere

I took a break from working on my final exams and booted up Star Wars: The Old Republic, an online role-playing game that allows players from all over the world to play together. As I cut down enemies and completed quests, I kept thinking about my exams, what's going on at work, whether I'm going to pass all my classes... And then I realized something.

My go-to stress relaxer is nothing more than an exercise in expository reading and writing.

(Stick with me on this.)




A couple months ago we read a piece by Dennis Baron called "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology" that discussed how technology is changing communication. While his piece focused on the computer itself, and written before online gaming existed, there are so many other things associated with computers and technology that are also changing how people interact with one another. This game is an exercise in expository writing--to an extent. Right now my character is inside a space station, a sort of virtual mall where players can buy new weapons and gear for their characters, level up their abilities, or just hang out and chat.

According to the chat window, there are 52 players on the station right now, most of them are minding their own businesses while others are using the general chat feature for various things. Some are talking about a mission they just finished, others are looking for players to help them complete quests.

I took a screen capture to show what the general chat window looks like:

Let me decipher this: Mixed in those sentences is one conversation between Espresso, Naxu'zati, and Kreight. It looks like Naxy and Merrald chime in, too. Then Nolaakri'tiri, Mephostopheles, My'kl, and Boj'it jump in with group requests (LFG means Looking For Group) to aid them in completing a quest. The orange text signifies a local conversation between two characters, Ni'preenia and Uiliana. Then the green text is another chat room, the Trade Channel, where Uiliana is looking to buy some armor for anyone selling.

This is what online in-game communication is: a bunch of conversations going on at once, most of them color-coded, and players learning how to read the madness. And there's a whole generation of people that can read the nonsense above and make perfect sense of it. It's like being in a crowded room and following everyone's conversation.

The thing is, there's no guidebook a player can read that explains how the in-game communication works. There's no class you can take that teaches you what "LFM", "PUG", or "PST" means. They're just things you learn as you're playing. 

And if you really want to see what online expository reading looks like, here's a screen capture of what a typical combat scene looks like:

At first glance, can you figure out how to play as my Level 50 Jedi Sentinel? Can you read the game's user interface and figure out how to take down that Imperial Devastation Droid?

Now, I'm not interested in whether the game's general chat is an effective communication tool or if there's a better model, nor am I interested in who decided that all online games should have a user interface that looks like the above picture. (Trust me, it's effective, it works.) But I've always been curious about the how.

How does this happen? How can we or how do we just adapt to new communication styles? When Baron wrote about literacy technology, he was clearly referring to word processors and emails. But these popular games with millions of subscribers from all over the world... they're forms of literacy technology, too. And more interactive than a word document.

Look at that chat window screen capture again. Who knows where those participants are from. One could be from America, another from Europe, a third from Australia. It's impossible to know just at a glance, but still, these people are using technology to communicate and play together.

Literacy technology isn't strictly limited to word processors and emails. It's all over the place; it's everything that deals with technology. And online games like Star Wars: The Old Republic is just another form of literacy technology when you think about it. Not only do you have to read and understand the chat rooms, but you have to read and understand how to play the game.

How else has literacy technology changed in the past few years, or changed how we think about communication? What other forms of online communication and interaction can be considered expository writing?