Talking Game Design - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 58

the game developers at Media Molecule made tools that they then handed
over to players to rewrite the game they are playing. As players write their
own levels, Media Molecule moves away from their original role as author,
becoming an audience for the levels developed by those who were the origi-
nal audience for LittleBigPlanet . In a more limited, yet larger ef ort to gen-
erate user-generated content, Spore is designed in such a way that “the vast
majority of the creatures and structures that will inhabit the Spore universe
will come from the brains of its user base.” 33 Spore allows people to upload
their creations to a centralized server where they can then be downloaded
by other players and integrated into the play experience. Leveraging the
creativity of players, Minecraft became a hit largely because of the open-
ended design of a world that allows players to build almost anything they
want. This spawned a community of YouTube videos where players show
of their creations, as “the best part of the game is defi nitely the building.” 34
These games are popular in large part because they redefi ne how play hap-
pens by blurring the lines between player/audience and developer/author.
Given a general depiction of how players are talking back and construct-
ing the discourse of video games, understanding the full implication of their
role requires taking a deeper look at two case studies, each of which shows
a dif erent aspect of the role of players in the discourse of video games.
First, two incidents surrounding Call of Duty demonstrate how players can
insert themselves into the design process, responding to and restricting the
choices developers make and dramatically impacting the design of games.
Second, a variety of player driven contributions to World of Warcraft illus-
trate how players can guide feedback and force changes in their games of
choice. These two case studies, along with the examples noted above, dem-
onstrate exactly why examining the context of game design is a crucial part
of using wordplay as a critical tool.
CALL OF DUTY : LIMITED CHOICE
One of the key pieces of contemporary fi rst-person shooter (FPS) games,
like Call of Duty , is that they can be played online with friends and strang-
ers from around the globe. Often shipped with slim ol ine of erings, this
kind of game gets most of its play value through online battles with others.
Although there are many dif erent games in this genre, the Call of Duty
series of games is particularly interesting for several reasons. Perhaps the
most notable feature of the series is its massive sales fi gures. The back to
back launches in 2009 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and 2010's Call
of Duty: Black Ops were both hailed as the “biggest entertainment launch
in history” at the time of their release. The two games combined to rake
in $670 million and sell 10.3 million copies of the games within just the
24-hours after their respective debuts. 35 The size of these launches is made
even more interesting by the fact that the parent company for the developer