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Zane Helsel Rebecca Agosta English 1101 November 11, 2013

Champions of the Internet and Those Who Forge Them On UNC Charlottes campus, there exists a group whose purpose is not academic in any way but instead is a gaming community. They are massive, yet almost unseen, boasting nearly 500 members and the only reference to them I found on the school grounds was a single banner promoting themselves. This community is as Swales defines to us as a Discourse Community because of its traits of Intercommunication, Shared Goals, a relationship between Experts and Novices, a shared amount of terminology, and an exchange of knowledge (471-473). I will describe how this community fits this definition by first giving an overview of the group then showing how it identifies to those characteristics and finally explaining my methods.

At a first glance and brief history of League of Legends This groups focus is on the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game of LoL (League of Legends). It is a very fast paced online game where players in teams of 3 or 5 go head to head against other players in an attempt to conquer the other teams base with the assistance of NPC (Non-Player Controlled) allies. At the start each player is allowed to pick from a pool of Champions that can only be used once per team to promote balance in gameplay. This kind of gameplay is originally based on a mod called DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) for an earlier game called Warcraft 3. This mod was hugely successful back in 2003 and lead to the

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development of many spinoffs that were no longer mods for existing games but instead standalone games. As stated by Wikia by 2008 this lead to the commercial development of what is considered by many to be the most successful MOBA game of League of Legends. This has led to an ever-growing public base and has skyrocketed in popularity over the years to the point that it helped spark the popularity and rise of e-sports (electronic sports). E-sports are televised in certain countries such as South Korea and have huge tournaments with even larger cash prizes, valuable gaming hardware, and even corporate sponsorships for their winners. These events draw in hundreds of thousands of spectators and are a huge source of income for players and gaming developers alike. In addition, the more exposure this speech community of online gaming receives, the more new players join and promote it even further. The UNC Charlotte LoL Community is no different from this. They take this idea of group gaming to a higher level than can be achieved on a solo level, and they give their members support that is not available on an individual level. Their mission statement is as follows This group was made to create a community for gamers so that we can meet awesome new people, make friends, share incredible moments, and have fun together through a game that we all enjoy. This can be found on their private community Facebook page. This page is their primary means of communication when not playing the game. Here is where they publish guides to play styles for individual Champions, gaming strategies, and even screenshots of their victories like trophies of old warriors.

Shared objectives and activities for the community The mission statement, as posted in the above paragraph, is this groups primary goal, but in addition to that they strive to have a group made up of highly skilled and proficient players. This

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goal is accomplished by group practice matches which are unranked in the games ladder system that do not tarnish their players records. That being said this game is heavily based on individual skill and the ability to work together as a team to promote the bigger picture of a win, versus a loss. In a loss a player may have a high number of slain enemy champions but did not follow the team leaders strategies. This is similar to other physical sports where one player who may be skilled thinks that he or she can carry the team but in reality end up hurting it by not following the groups overall strategy. This kind of behavior happens a lot in these kinds of online gaming communities which is why like-minded players will band together for the common goal of teamwork achieved victories which leads to a more enjoyable gaming experience. Players with these negative traits are seen as loose cannons and serve as a detriment to the overall group and unusually find themselves bouncing from group too group.

Terminology of the Community Swales had said before in his essay that discourse communities will have their own terminology that is special to them. Here some of it just common words with a slightly different definition that are heavily used in this kind of community. Much of the following applies to not only the UNC Charlotte LoL Community but to the larger gaming community. Some terms unique to LoL are Ult which is a champions (players) most powerful attack which has a long cool down and thus needs to be strategically used in battle to turn the tide and make a push (surge of players) on the opposing teams bases or nexus. As Ive said before many of these terms are from the larger gaming community such as for how the champions are classified in terms of Tank, (a character designed to soak up a lot of

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damage) DPS, and (a character that is meant to deal a lot of damage) Support (a champion that enhances the abilities of teammates). (Ewing) These are just a few terms that are unique to this community and I could literally go on for ages regarding many more terms that Ewing told me about but most of them refer to items in the game, specific champions, or events occurring during the match. This use of specialized vocabulary helps to quickly inform team mates of the goal, purpose, or strategy without wasting valuable time explaining things that the community as a whole knows. Therefore this method of specific lexis leads in to ways in which this community ultimately communicates.

Communication between members It has been stated before that this Community in particular makes great use of the social media website of Facebook; this serves a multitude of purposes to the community as a whole. It allows a greater dissemination of knowledge and game related information that could ever be possible in the game it self. This use of social media allows the members to realize the humanization of their peers which is something in gaming that gets put on the back shelf; it allows them to connect on a new level that their in-game avatars cannot display. Instead of being viewed as just a computer generated champion the members are able to see their friends in real pictures and often meet in physical locations to discuss topics of gaming. This use of external social media allows socialization between the communities members and lets them plan events for the group such as internal tournaments and competitions. The other aspect of this groups communication is their use of in-game methods, inside the game exists the ability to have user generated custom conversation channels for group members to use. They use this to put together groups for practice matches as well as ranked

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matches that affect the members standing in the overall LoL gaming community. The ability to instantly see who is online from your group makes this an invaluable resource to its members to create balanced teams to face opponents in the arena for promotion in the ranked ladder system. When inside of actual matches the players still have access to this channel and as such can talk with more experienced players who are not in that particular match and ask them for advice regarding strategies and tips on how to handle developing situations. This kind of resource is not available to players who do not belong to these kinds of communities and as such it shows on a group level in their overall performance.

Use of Experts and Novices From my observations I was able to see some interesting first hand experiences of expert players taking newer novice ones essentially under their wing and showing them the ropes by engaging in practice matches and using this a means to teach larger picture strategies. This kind of behavior benefits everyone involved as the novice gains confidence in their abilities and the ones teaching develop a deeper understanding of their own techniques. The game has in itself a very useful feature allowing players to watch matches that are going on currently this allows both novice and expert players alike the opportunity to view first-hand the implementation or failure of strategies and allows them to learn from them. This balance of newer and older players is reinforced by the use of training guides that are published and shared almost daily on the communities Facebook page, they also tend to use programs that record games for playback much like a football coach would do with his players. This lets all players see things they might not have seen when so close to the action while in a game. As it was mentioned in the Mirabelli article the ability to read (546) is not limited to

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reading of text or instructions but the ability to read the opponent is where these expert players truly shine especially when they are in a leadership position where their voices carry weight and they can direct their teams away from traps and in to potentially victory.

Methods of data collection I spent my time researching this community by first contacting the groups president and informing him of my goals for this project which were to prove that his group did in fact meet Swales criteria to be considered a Discourse Community. Nick contacted me where he informed me that the groups page on the schools website was incorrect in posting meeting times and locations as the group did not yet at that time meet in person as a whole entity. However he did agree to assist me in any way he could, so he made a post on the groups Facebook page and he and a few other members agreed to be interviewed by me. Following the interviews I was given access to their pages and as well to their in-game chat channels where I was able to observe the interactions between members and even sit in a spectator mode and watch some of training of unskilled new players being led by those that were of a more veteran status. These observations were exactly what I needed to complete my work and proved valuable in the information I was able to discern. Lastly after these observations and interviews I compiled my data and began the writing and organization process.

Final thoughts and conclusion Overall I found that I received far more information than I expected and I can see that this community does more than simply play a game together. They coach and mentor each other to be better at something they love doing. This game is huge there are actual tournaments for it and

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it is even televised under the classification of an e-sport in some countries. My research has allowed me to come to the conclusion that this is a series of interconnected discourse communities inside the larger speech community of online gaming. This community in particular meets all of the criteria listed by Swales to be a discourse community they have their own lexis although shared among a larger community it is still theirs. They have goals for their organization and its members. Intercommunication is their lifeblood and keeps them moving forward. They have genres that fit them adequately, and the community is driven by an expert/novice idea that there are always new people joining and learning and always older players with experience to share. All of these things combined help form this group in to what it essentially is a complete discourse community.

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Works Cited Ewing, Nick. Personal Interview. 1 November 2013. League of Legends. leagueoflegends.wikia.com. Wikia. n.p. n.d. Web. 29 October 2013 Mirabelli, Tony. Learning to Serve. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston, MA. 2011. 538-556. Print. Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston, MA. 2011. 461-488. Print.