Language and Representation: You have just discovered Searing Gorge! W00t!

Acronym: A word formed from the initial letters of other words. Hence as v. trans., to convert into an acronym (chiefly pass. and as pa. pple.). Also acro* nymic a.; acro* nymically adv.; acronyming vbl. n.; acronymize v. trans. (from OED Online)

Internet slang: Such terms typically originated with the purpose of saving keystrokes, and many people use the same abbreviations in text messages. They are also very commonly used in instant messaging. The terms often appear in lower case, with capitals reserved for emphasis; for example, the pronoun "I" often appears simply as "i". People also use "u" to mean "you," and "r" to mean "are." Much of the time people do not use apostrophes or punctuation at all.
Like most jargon, Internet slang / leet speak aggrandizes authors and readers, causing them to appear to have specialized knowledge of a complex medium. However, there are cases where using Internet slang is considered ridiculous, due to association with the stereotype of the internet n00b.
Some examples of internet slang are: "lol" meaning "laugh out loud", "rofl" meaning "rolling on the floor laughing" , "lmao" meaning "laughing my ass off" (or, as a combination of these two: "roflmao" meaning "rolling on floor laughing my ass off"), "omg" meaning "oh my god"
It also includes numbers with a similar pronunciation of a word or part of it (e.g.: 2, can be "too" or "to"; w8, means "wait"; etc)
Leet is a form of internet slang which uses numbers/characters instead of letters. (from Wikipedia)

Or, a clip (made using tools from The Movies) from my classmate Beth that really says it all about how subcultures appropriate images, language, technology, and politics to express new forms:

Terms that have been especially key for me in my WoW learning experience:

• FTW: "for the win," suggested as one of the most annoying Internet abbreviations around. I also just experienced "FTL" as I was playing an Alliance character on a PvP (player-versus-player) server and I saw this "screamed" at me in text, "Alli FTL, Horde FTW!!" as a level "???" (so much higher than me that I can't even see the exact number) player killed me and laughed. I made a : ( and "cried." [I have also learned these "emoticons" are passe. The new ones are read not sideways, but straight-on, e.g. a raised eyebrow is: o.0 ]


• all of the various abbreviations for the quests, evil bosses, zones, etc. in World of Warcraft (itself--wow): e.g. SFK, DM/VC (one of these links is informative, by the way--btw--, one of them is not-- this is typical of the instruction I would often find as I searched for support).


• lol: so absorbed into culture that when one types "lol" into the chat and commands to have the character "say" this outloud, it makes the character laugh. So far, other commonly known Internet slang abbreviations, e.g. wtf, brb, and ttyl, have not elicited swearing, a "hold-on" gesture, or a "goodbye wave," respectively. However, I say all of this because I am interested in how representative these systems are becoming. lol = laugh out loud = a command for the avatar to laugh in the environment. And all of these meanings exist at the same time. A side note, a few months ago I had to explain to a 50-something member of my family that "lol" did not mean "lots of luck." I think it is at these multiple, simultaneous levels of representation that the most significant generation gaps are taking place.


• W00t (those are zeros in the middle, by the way). Voted by users as the most popular word that should be introduced to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. And yes, it is frequently used in WoW chats. As is "ding" when one "levels," and after someone announces "ding," it is customary to say "grats" or more commonly used, "gratz," as alternate spelling is a hallmark of this language system.

Addiction: World of Warcrack

• In a short amount of time (about 3 - 4 weeks), I have gone from playing zero digital games (okay, I admit, I have a mild Solitaire habit) to playing World of Warcraft 2 - 3 hours a day. I have brought two characters up significant levels. Bentley, my gnome, is almost to level 30, and I easily took GenY up to level 17 (opting for the "expert" route, which I will discuss later).
• The game has certainly been acknowledged as addictive by experts, parents, and the general public, and it has become a part of a possible larger new problem of Internet/digital addiction.
• Some initial investigations:

Wayne, a classmate, notes that the maker of Runescape, has issued a series of tips on how to avoid addiction to its game: Jagex response to Runescape's role in addictive behavior

An editorial from Australian news on a teenager's WoW addiction (interestingly, in three of my guilds, I have encountered Australian and New Zealander players):

I should also say that my family has struggled with this very issue of a family member addicted to an MMORPG, so my father recommended a few books to me after I discussed this project with him, and I found a couple on my own. I have also had several high school students (in my role as an English teacher) who have been addicted to these games to the extent where it affected their performance in school. These were the most informative books, in my opinion:

• Plugged In: A Clinicians' and Families Guide to Online Video Game Addiction (T. R. Waite)
• Caught in the Net: How to Recognize the Signs of Internet Addiction--and a Winning Strategy for Recovery (K. S. Young)

I am really interested, especially with respect to how games' addictive properties might overlap with their motivating ones, in what exactly makes certain games so compelling.

• A study at Stanford's School of Medicine has recently proposed that certain games activate the reward regions of men's brains more than women's.
• Maressa Hecht Orzack has been specifically studying the addictive properties of World of Warcraft and is the founder and coordinator of the Computer Addiction Service. An article about her in the Harvard Gazette details the symptoms as she has identified them of generalized computer addiction.

Visual Table of Contents for Upcoming Posts

Topics in Learning in World of Warcraft: A Visual Table of Contents

Two goals here:

• I want to start narrowing my focus from World of Warcraft play in general to the specific learning activities involved. I would also like to begin matching my original intentions (as loose as they may have been) to my new discoveries and findings.


• There has been some specific feedback on the blog that the posts are just too darn long! This is probably true. I would like to keep the posts as brief as possible from now on and try to contain topics within more discrete blocks.

These are my areas of focus (there will definitely be overlap between these)

Gender: Are all boys warriors and Are all girls night elves?

Language and Representation: You have just discovered the Searing Gorge! W00t!

The Body: This is your body on WoW

Addiction: World of Warcrack

Strategic Systems: The economy, talent specing, and organizing information

Groups: Guilds, Parties, Raids, and Duels

Context, Schema, and Patterns: Why does every zone have a mine?

Okay, I'm Really Into It

I haven't posted for a while because I've been playing the game. A lot. A quick summary of what has happened since the last posting:

1. I started exploring, in general, a lot more. I created several different characters, of different classes and races, and genders, and I started them all on different servers. I have also started honing the specific learning outcomes that I see as fruitful as investigating as I play further.

2. Parallel with this exploring, I starting discovering more ways that the resources for WoW were not relevant only for my investigation into this project, but I started using them for actual improved performance in the game. This was a key transition.

I began travelling back and forth between observing the play and becoming a real player.

3. As I did this, I said to myself, "Was I doing this to understand the culture and to experience full immersion? or really was it because I liked playing?" A lot. Thoughts on what this feels like: Patty Hearst, Gonzo journalism, and the documentary Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale.

4. Although I have made about four or five characters (really, I can't count someone that's only at level three a full character), I have focused down to two: Bentley, a gnome rogue, currently at level 29, and Geny (I think of also as GenY), a night elf rogue, at level 17. Here are some images of my "toons":

5. The next series of posts will attempt to organize the thoughts and documents I have been amassing as I have been "leveling" and going further into the strange World of Warcraft. Much as Cervantes enters into his Part II of Don Quixote with a new consciousness of having participated in the text of Don Quixote after its publication, I am now both a participant and a researcher. Hopefully I will be able to deconstruct the chief focus-- learning.