The Order of Play: Seeing, Teaching, and Learning Meaning in Video Games

This paper explores the locally-produced meaning-making practices of video game players, taking the position that the contingent properties of situated actions play a significant role in the construction of meaning. The participants of this study are Asian adolescents from China, currently studying in New York City, who play video games after school. There are four participants in the following example: Jason, Andrew, Kevin, and Li. As Li was a novice player to the game, her participation yielded interesting insights on the underlying assumptions that both expert and novice players possessed. In particular, it reveals that the expert players had their own definition of proper play that they needed the novice to understand, and the initial failure to communicate with the novice showed that the experts’ interpretation differed from that of the novice. The study is guided by ethnomethodology, an approach that has been applied to many studies involving human-machine interactions, and has been increasingly important in helping us understand how people make sense of environments that involve different interfaces and equipment. The findings show that, even when their interpretations of the action diverge from the game designers’ intentions, these interpretations continue to make sense within the context of their interaction. The findings also highlight the importance of describing these meaning-making practices as they emerge in situated time, as they demonstrate how players are able to comprehend one another in an inherently ambiguous environment. It demonstrates how players’ actions are shaped by their social relationships and are continually refined and clarified by the ongoing deliberation with other players. These findings can help future educational researchers better understand the process of learning in virtual environments, the role of social interaction during play, and can potentially improve our approach towards designing better games for education.