A tribute to mad skill: Expert amateur visuality and World of Warcraft machinima

Tyler Pace, Austin Toombs, Shad Gross, Tony Pattin, Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper, we look at the prominent World of Warcraft machinima community as an expert amateur online community and present a multi-part study of a canon of the most successful works (i.e., machinima videos) produced by this community. By focusing our study on its roughly 300 most successful examples, the determination of which we explain in the paper, we are able to highlight the evolving visual practices, tools, and aesthetic sensibilities of the community. Chiefly, our study identifies how creativity support tools and visual practices are inextricably linked and mutually support the in-kind development of the other. For WoW machinima and its producers, the affordance of creativity tools and the cultivation of visual skill synced at key moments and in powerful ways to support the rapid growth, experimentation, and refinement of amateur expertise at the individual and community levels.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2013
Subtitle of host publicationChanging Perspectives, Conference Proceedings - The 31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Pages2019-2028
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Changing Perspectives, CHI 2013 - Paris, France
Duration: Apr 27 2013May 2 2013

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Other

Other31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Changing Perspectives, CHI 2013
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityParis
Period4/27/135/2/13

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A tribute to mad skill: Expert amateur visuality and World of Warcraft machinima'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this