This week we were asked to research communities of practice.
Straight off the bat, I am not a natural networker. I am a happy introvert. I understand how important this skill is, though. From running a digital agency, I had to develop skills in networking, and by the time I left, I was pretty comfortable doing this when it came to finding clients and employees.
But regardless of that experience, this is a weak spot for me, and I can improve hugely here, particularly when it comes to networking with other practitioners. I've tried a few things in the past, including:
- Hackathons
- A mentor scheme (I was the mentee, and this was really useful - but it was one on one, so more my thing)
And I'm a regular user (but regrettably not a contributor to) Stack Overflow and other similar online communities. Going way back when I also ran a few fan-based gaming sites, which had moderate popularity and communities.
But in recent years, I think it's fair to say I have done the bare minimum when networking with other practitioners. So how can I change this, and why bother?
What are communities of practice?
I felt it was worth taking a step back here and making sure what I understood as communities of practice was, in fact, correct.
Etienne Wenger defines it as:
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. (Wenger, 2011)
We are a social species and natural collaborators. Being part of a community of like-minded people who can help support and grow each others' skills in a shared interest makes sense. As summarised in this week's lecture content, it's good for tacit knowledge, trust, empathy and reciprocity (Parker, n.d.).
Going further into how communities of practice can be important in game-based learning, a 2009 study which looked into how people learn in socially in virtual worlds concludes that:
In terms of the learning process, learning could be characterised following Wenger’s model of Communities of Practice, taking into account notions of trajectories of participation and the nexus of the multi-membership. This confirms the value of this model in both analysing and designing virtual worlds to support learning. (Oliver and Carr, 2009)
So for both developing my own skills, but also refining my own practice, communities of practice need to be an important element of my future study and work.
Challenge Activity
This week's challenge activity is very much worth reflecting on in the above context. I need to take stock of why communities of practice are important for my development and set some goals based on that.
For that reason, the challenge activity was a useful starting point:
1. Identify a community of practitioners that aligns with your interests and aspirations for the future.
2. Create an ethnography report, no more than 800 words long, that is based on ‘participation observation.’
(Week 9: Challenge Activity, 2021)
The perfect opportunity to take a look at the indie game practitioner community:
I've chosen for pretty obvious reasons to follow the indie game practitioner community. I've taken a look at some of the prominent game jams like GGJ and Ludum Dare and worked from there to find communities online.
Tone and Language
This community is, on the whole, inclusive and supportive. People are encouraged to share incomplete work, and feedback is respectful (on the most part, there are always some...) and constructive. The tone is very casual, with lots of emojis and gifs to communicate, and it seems varied personalities are encouraged. It's not that dissimilar to the way we've been operating as a student cohort on Discord.
When using forums associated with professional production (e.g. unity, Pixi etc.), the tone can be drier and less patient, and perhaps the stressors and pressures of the industry are more prominent. They are still helpful if you are asking clear questions, though.
Activities and behaviours
There are numerous activities in this community, right from online gaming itself to gaming conferences. Perhaps the most relevant to practitioners are game jams as they encourage collaboration. Then there is the expo, where developers show off their games and where other practitioners and fans can play them for the first time. These activities link together with a common theme: they are community-driven, which seems to be at the heart of the indie game world.
It's also clear that there is a lot of "failure" in this area (or perhaps more fairly, commercially unsuccessful games). The communities that tie it together are really important for leveraging failure as a learning experience.
Another interesting area here is Crowdfunding. Although this isn't directly linked to a community of practitioners, as an option, it appears to be a very important socially driven tool. This is also relevant to interaction, patterns and rules. More than just funding it, Crowdfunding appears to serve in helping you build a fan community. Funders get the game or bonus merch for investing, but I think, more importantly, they feel invested in the journey.
Types and modes of interaction
The community interacts both digitally and in person. Although with more weight on virtual in general. There are regular meetups for jams or expos all over the world. There are also socially driven help tools like Stack Overflow (which is useful for any development!) and engine specific forums (like https://forums.unity.com or https://forums.unrealengine.com) for getting help with production. There are also numerous other interaction tools like itch.io and twitch for sharing content, and while game jams are often held virtually, there are some exceptions, such as Pirate Jam which takes place on a fleet of boats.
People communicate and work together with tools beyond forums, such as Slack and Discord and open source version control services like Github.
Patterns and rules
This is a little hard to observe in an hour as the community is huge. Although I spent a lot of time in these communities as a teenager, that was some time ago now (😅), so I need to play a more active part again.
I have observed a few interesting things. The first is that there is a seasonal pattern to many expos and jams, which allows a certain level of hype and prestige to them (especially the bigger ones).
Then touching again on Crowdfunding, expos and jams, there is a distinct pattern of taking people on your game building journey. It's not enough to just put a game out there. Including the indie gaming community in the production process (both other practitioners and potential fans) seems just as important as the game development process itself. It builds fans and importantly encourages other developers to input into your game and elevate it (and your own skillset).
It seems to differ a little depending on what you are doing when it comes to interaction rules. In game jam communities, people seem to be very helpful, even to novice developers. However, time-wasting isn't appreciated if you are navigating forums with working professionals. In particular, people get called out for not searching for an answer themselves first or asking questions that may be too basic.
Overall, there is a sense that people want each other to succeed and grow, and to make interesting games in this community. Professional or hobbyist, this community is filled with fans.
(Week 9: Challenge Activity, 2021)
Summary
Communities of practice are clearly important for several reasons. From my research into the indie game development (and fan) communities, there is a clear community ambition for participants to succeed and help each other grow as practitioners and people.
It seems to me that you can't produce successful indie games without an active presence of some kind in the indie game community. It's a fan-driven world where people feel invested in the games they contribute to. This spans across practitioners (INDIE Live Expo, 2021), investors (Video Games at Indiegogo | Indiegogo, n.d.) or players, and the journey is as important as a result.
As highlighted, I am far from active enough in this area, and so I've got some pretty clear goals to act on.
- Take part in a Game Jam in 2021
The first one I'll be taking a look at is Ludum Dare (Kasprzak, n.d.). - Join 1-2 indie game dev communities online
Game Dev League Discord (Join the Game Dev League Discord Server!, n.d.) and forums.indiegamer.com (Indie Gamer Forums, n.d.) will be my starting points. - Attend 1-3 indie game expos over the next 12 months.
Covid-19 limits this a bit, but Spillexpo (SpillExpo – Spillmesse og Oslo Comic-Con, 2021) here in Norway is currently on track to go ahead in November 2021.
List of Figures
Figure 1. PixelChoice, n.d. Pixel art design with outdoor landscape background. Colorful pixel arcade screen for game design. Banner with button level up. Game design concept in retro style. Vector illustration.. [image] Available at: <https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/pixel-art-design-outdoor-landscape-background-1715459347> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
References
Discord. n.d. Join the Game Dev League Discord Server!. [online] Available at: <https://discord.com/invite/0TYNJfCU4De7YIk8> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
Falmouth Flex. 2021. Week 9: Challenge Activity. [online] Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/912/discussion_topics/22182?module_item_id=54142> [Accessed 25 July 2021].
Indiegogo.com. n.d. Video Games at Indiegogo | Indiegogo. [online] Available at: <https://www.indiegogo.com/explore/video-games?project_type=campaign&project_timing=all&sort=trending> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
Indie Gamer Forums. n.d. Indie Gamer Forums. [online] Available at: <http://forums.indiegamer.com/> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
INDIE Live Expo | Broadcasting All the Latest Info on Indie Games. 2021. INDIE Live Expo | Broadcasting All the Latest Info on Indie Games. [online] Available at: <https://indie.live-expo.games/en/> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
Kasprzak, M., n.d. [online] Ldjam.com. Available at: <https://ldjam.com/> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
Oliver, M. and Carr, D., 2009. Learning in virtual worlds: Using communities of practice to explain how people learn from play. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), pp.444-457.
Parker, A., n.d. Week 9: Researching Communities of Practice. [online] Falmouth Flex. Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/912/pages/week-9-researching-communities-of-practice?module_item_id=54138> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
Spillexpo.no. 2021. SpillExpo – Spillmesse og Oslo Comic-Con. [online] Available at: <https://www.spillexpo.no/> [Accessed 1 August 2021].
Wenger, E., 2011. Communities of practice: A brief introduction. [ebook] National Science Foundation (U.S.). Available at: <https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/11736/A%20brief%20introduction%20to%20CoP.pdf> [Accessed 1 August 2021].