Theorycraft and Optimization - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 129

way to play WoW based on the theoretical potential of the game, seeking
to understand the obscured rules behind the game. A community of theory-
crafters emerged on the fringes, eventually becoming a prominent force in
WoW 's ongoing design decisions. Theorycraft demonstrates how wordplay
can address a way of playing WoW that depends on work and analysis out-
side the game and a set of user mods and discussion within the game. The
point at which being a 'good' WoW player intersects with theorycrafting is
worth investigation, as it changes the terrain upon which play occurs.
There are two key reasons why theorycraft is an important object of
analysis. First, theorycraft is a productive discourse that reshapes play in
WoW . Theorycraft alters how the game works, similar to phenomena pres-
ent in sports and other games; this type of development of ers a glimpse
of a dif erent way to conceptualize games and wordplay. Theorycrafting is
as much a practice as it is a discrete thing. Theorycrafting is a way to play
WoW and fl uency with theorycraft is regularly sought by guilds that are
recruiting new members. Theorycraft also of ers a platform upon which
noted experts are celebrated for their insights. Theorycraft extends play
and centers gamers, rather than developers, as authorities in a discussion
of how WoW works. The rise in the profi le of theorycrafting demonstrates
how a new approach to a game can be designed by players and how online
gamers can alter their relationship with the developers of the games they
play. This shifts the ongoing procedures of the game world and notions of
play within it. Second, theorycrafting illustrates how wordplay can unite
analysis of processes and paratexts, the texts surrounding a primary text
that Mia Consalvo argues “work to shape the gameplay experience in par-
ticular ways.” 2 Theorycrafters set out to best understand the processes of
the game and, in mapping the procedures of the game through the devel-
opment of paratexts, have created a dynamic relationship that reshapes
WoW 's ongoing design. Understanding the connections between process
and paratext demonstrates the importance of wordplay's ability to analyze
the entire breadth of texts that are part of the discourse of video games.
Understanding the dynamics of theorycraft and what its development
means for online game play and world design requires several steps. First,
the increasing role of statistics in games and society sets up a history of the
term theorycraft and how it has grown in importance within the discourse
about and design of WoW . Second, an analysis of what players have to say
about theorycraft focuses on what they fi nd to be the relative merits of
theorycraft. Finally, the chapter turns to what theorycraft means for word-
play, game studies, and game design.
THEORYCRAFT: A HISTORY
Understanding the growth of theorycraft requires an examination of the his-
tory of the practice and a broader look at a cultural turn toward statistical