Running head: A PLACE FOR GAMERS 1

A Place for Gamers

Luis F. Enriquez

University of Texas at El Paso

Author Note

A strange type of community can sometimes turn out to be the best.

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Abstract

XBOX Live allows users of the gaming consoles by Microsoft to interact with others

online, home to some of the biggest servers, all of its communication takes place online. The

reason I like to game online is because after a long day at school, or whenever I have free time, I

can log on and not have to play alone whenever I do not feel like going out, I can play with

people I actually know, so that also makes it worth it for me. I dont play very many games, but

when I do, for the most part it is enjoyable, just not when I lose.
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A Place for Gamers

Society is so good at dividing people up into sections and its sort of unintentional, how it

happens, and as wrong as it is, it is really hard to try and change it when it has been going on for

tons and tons of years. The good side on this, is that there are groups of people who do not

discriminate on whatever your background may be, that is the neat thing about the discourse

community of XBOX Live. A way to play video games with no need for judgement, you are

brought into it by choice, and it is something that at times can bring us together.

To understand fully what a discourse community is and why XBOX Live falls under that

definition, let us take a look at John Swales characteristics that make up such a community. His

first rule, if you may call them that, states that a discourse community has common set of goals

(Swales, 471).

Although some individual parties might have opposing arguments as to how things are going to

get done, that does not take away the fact that there is something they all want. For example,

presidential elections have one common goal, its so obvious that you dont have to know

anything, but can conclude that the president for something is going to be elected. Theres

candidates to choose from and everyone as the ability to argue why one might be better than the

other, and in the end the one with the most popular vote wins. Everyone involved in this event

wherever it might take place and what for, theyre all part of that distinct discourse community.

XBOX Live is a service provided for XBOX 360, XBOX ONE, and XBOX ONE S users that

charges them a low monthly fee that allows them to use the online servers to connect with people

around the country, even the world. The goal for this community is to be able to play online, but

everyone has their pick as to what game they want to play and how they want to play it. You can

play games like Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, Madden, NBA2K, and many more, and even
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though theres a difference in the preference of what we play, there is no questioning that the

common goal is to log in and play with anyone around the globe.

Swales second law says the following: a discourse community has mechanisms of

intercommunication among its members (Swales, 471). What does means is that there is always

some sort of communication between the members of the group one might be part of. This

exchange of information not always has to be verbal, it can come from a website, a news ad on

the paper, e-mails, etc. As long as there is some sort of communication, the discourse community

is still very much together. One mean of communication in the XBOX Live group is between the

game makers and those who actually play the game itself. What the game makers always look for

is feedback, and they get it from how often users play the games, the number of sales, and the

rating fellow gamers give the product. No need for actual interaction, the message was delivered,

the game is good and the developers did not fail. This usually leads to a sequel to a game, as we

have seen with Grand Theft Auto, starting back with Play Station about ten years ago, and still

being relevant today with its newest product, Grand Theft Auto Online. One of the biggest

problems with this service is the complaints from XBOX users and Play Station users that they

want to be allowed to game with each other, This would enlarge the discourse community of

gaming, involving even more people than those who are already a part of each system.

XBOX Live is an all-online community, and that is one of the unique aspects of it, you

can talk to people through parties, send them messages, but the Microsoft servers are careful

with everything, any disrespectful comments that may be targeted to a certain user are

immediately blocked, being a bad sport, which simply means hacking a game to gain any sort

of advantage over others, can also lead to being suspended from the online services.
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Lets now take a look at Swales third law, which is leading back to the second law where

theres a use of participatory mechanisms to provide information or feedback (Swales, 472).

Game developers, again, look for feedback to how long gamers are active playing their product,

from the Play Store you can give ratings on how the experience was. Whenever you contact

customer service from Microsoft, you will get a survey asking how the quality of service you

received was. Seems simple, but how else would you know how to fix things?

Onto the fourth rule, which states that the community uses different genres, types of

written material, to get its point across to the group (Swales 472). Gaming would be really, really

boring if there was only one type of game, thats why there is a selection of different type of

games, from action to strategy, there is one for all the likes of those interested in playing. That

allows the group to be diverse and connect many more people, which how everything is going

down right now, it is a necessity. People complain a lot about how video games can be damaging,

but in a study by the University of Rochester they were able to show that reflexes are enhanced

thanks to the level of sensitivity they add to secondary factors in the gameplay (University of

Rochester, 2010). With this kind of research, we can see why video games are not as bad as some

make it seem, it allows a certain group of individuals to connect and at the same time it can also

help them develop crucial skills.

The fifth law talks about lexis and how theyre specifically acquired, which means

something that the group is only aware of or is part of them, such as is XBOX Live, which only

pertains to Microsoft and their company, only they can use it and that is what makes them

unique. In connection to that, the sixth law gives a certain limit for the number of members,

which in this particular case is anyone with an XBOX Live membership, so the limit changes
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regularly due to the newcomers, but the only restriction keeping someone from being a member

is having the apparatus itself plus the membership (Swales, 473).

Now lets break apart everyone involved in the XBOX Live community. It starts from the

top just like any company, it is the owners who take control of everything, they make deals with

the game developers as to how to sell an upcoming product, and seen before, companies who

have been with Microsoft since the beginning will usually get more attention. EA Sports is one

of the biggest contributors to the success of XBOX, releasing a version of every major sport for

fans to feel as if they are part of their team. Ever since the developers of 2K, a game company

dedicated to the basketball version of sports, took major success away from EA Sports NBA

Live, they decided to discontinue it. Authority in this type of world is needed due to how

hackers have been known to take stuff away from people, a few years back, a game was pretty

much destroyed due to how hackers took control of the entire online server, and since then

Microsoft has done what it could to prevent any more type of accidents related to this.

The most important piece of this community is those of us who actually play the video

games, the money and time spent on these activities are what keeps the community alive, and as

gamers the communication is simple, just invite people to a party while you play, and talk

through a headset, all of the communication taking place online. The way servers split people up

is by interests, so lets say you are playing a game, tons of people are also playing the same

game, but in a different way, when you choose a game mode and want to connect with those with

the same mindset. Servers will look for good sports, people who will not give you a good

experience due to how they have reacted in the past, level in the game, and things like that. This

makes the games more enjoyable because you are playing with people just like you, looking for

the same thing, which is what a discourse community is all about.

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The third members of all this are our game developers and sellers, they are the people

who get you the stuff you want to play, and there are specials given out by both when they want

to give back to their customers. For example, many games offer double XP on certain days. XP is

the credits, that rank you higher the more you get, so when you keep going higher and higher,

you are matched with people just like you. XP is also a specialized term used in games to let you

know that you can move up quick, for example when in a game, and you see that certain tasks

within your mission will give you more XP, you will most likely want to get those things done.

There are two main jobs in this community, play and make the games to be played. There

is many more to mention, but you can really just focus on these two because, again, theyre the

components to keep the community on its feet.

The issues seen in the past, are the fact that not everybody who games can play with each

other. There are three main types of companies, XBOX, Play Station, and Nintendo, yet you

cant cross a barrier and play with those across from a rival system. Rivalries between these

companies are clear all the time, because they are trying to attract the most customers. For

instance, each console has bought right to certain games so the other console cant have success

with it. Nintendo has the rights to Super Mario Brothers, one of the biggest names in video

games since such consoles were invented. XBOX has every right to the game series of Halo, a

first person shooting game that takes place in a futuristic type setting. Play Station has the

exclusive permission to only sell Uncharted, another game series. These rivalries have members

take part in them and sort of trash talk, the opposing console members. Its all a healthy rivalry,

but thats what allows both businesses to keep running.

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As simple as it may be, XBOX Live is a discourse community by definition with the help

of the six characteristics provided by John Swales. It is a community I barely joined a year ago,

but do not see myself going away from it anytime soon, because it is just that fun.
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References

Video Games Lead to Faster Decisions that are No Less Accurate. (n.d.). Retrieved February 08,

2017, from http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3679

Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.