1 Eric Johnson Professor Rytov ENC 2135 8 February 2015
The NBA 2K16 Digital Discourse Community When a great amount of people think about video games, there are many who frown upon them with such thoughts like: “They incite violence in the kids who play them,” or “They are too addictive.” However, the millions of people who play video games every single day have a completely altered attitude to video games. Whether it is a simple hobby to some, or a complete lifestyle to others, you cannot deny the fact that they require a great deal of discussion and interaction between players of the same game. This is how their digital discourse communities are born. When it comes to NBA 2K16, I can tell you right now that I do not play around. But before I tell you about my attitude toward the game, let me convey a little about the game itself. Without getting into the deepest details, NBA 2K 16 is a basketball video game where you virtually play basketball. You can run your own franchise, collect cards to create your own team and play against other people’s teams, you can even create your own player who looks and plays exactly like you. The possibilities within this game are fundamentally endless, and that is why it is the subject of one of the largest video game communities there are. I take it very seriously as do most of my friends and fellow discourse community members. It is all about competition in this game and being the very best, and it creates a huge topic of discussion for members of this community all around the globe. There truly is a myriad of genres that this particular discourse
2 community entails, but there are only three primary ones that I think are the most important to the NBA 2K community. The first, and I believe most important, genre that the community uses to communicate is live video streams on a website and app called Twitch. Twitch is the only website of its kind (that I know of) that allows users to live stream broadcast video game content to millions of users at a time. The second genre that I will talk about is YouTube videos. If you are unfamiliar with this genre of communication, you have been living under a rock for the past decade. The final genre I will be discussing is that of “tweets” which are spoken on another social media site called Twitter, which I am also sure that you are familiar with. When discussing Twitch live streams, you must understand that this is an extremely young, while at the same time popular genre of communication. The community member whom I had the privilege of
interviewing went as far as
saying that it was his
“favorite” communication
genre. It launched just
4 years ago by a subsidiary of
Amazon.com, and had
already announced that it had
1.5 million broadcasters and over 100 million visitors per month in 2015. Essentially, it is a platform that allows gamers playing thousands of different video games to connect with each other through live video streaming of whatever game they choose. It truly is a gamer’s best friend when they want to watch their favorite game played by their favorite streamer. There is also a comment section below the video that allows viewers to share thoughts and converse with each other about the game. There isn’t any other genre of communication that is more friendly for 2K users because the entire community uses this, including the game’s producers and developers themselves.
3 This genre is mainly rhetorical in the use of Logos. It is logical for the members to use this genre of communication because what better a way is there to communicate about your favorite game than watching your favorite personalities interacting with everyone via live video. This is the reason why it is so largely used throughout all players of this game. Everyone who I have met and talked to through the game has told me about their favorite streamer and most of them tune in often to watch them play. Sometimes they are even “subscribed� to one of the streamers which means that they get notifications on their devices whenever the person has gone live. As you can tell this is all a very efficient way to connect in the community making it logical in my opinion.
4 Secondly, without YouTube videos, community members would not be able to access on demand gaming content the way that they do currently. Pretty much all of the very successful Twitch streamers
have a YouTube account as
well that they
post highlights from their
stream on. They
can also post videos of
anything that
they think their viewers
would like to see.
This genre allows the
community to interact by accessing thousands of 2K videos whenever they want to. Users are able to “subscribe” to their favorite “YouTuber” to be instantly notified whenever he or she posts a video. People can also leave comments on the videos and like or dislike people’s comments as well as the videos themselves. My fellow community member would go on to say: “This would be a genre that a much wider range of people use. There are still a lot of 2K players who don’t even know about Twitch, and so this is a form of digital discourse that less experienced players use as well, as more experienced players, like myself.” Without YouTube, there would be no on demand 24/7 video digital community, because obviously one’s favorite streamers aren’t streaming every single hour of every day. I believe that this genre can appeal to one’s emotions more than any of the other genres that I have mentioned. This is due to the fact that in a good majority of the streamer’s YouTube clips, they are showcasing some of their most hysterical moments in playing the game because these clips get a lot of views and likes, which leads to subscribers which is what these streamers are ultimately aiming for. In my opinion, in order to become a successful YouTube streamer such as the likes of Chris Smoove, or Cash Nasty, you must be funny. At the end of the day, community members respond the best to humor and so this helps to build a following and
5 become much more popular in the community which is why the Pathos in YouTube videos is such a big help.
6 The third and final genre that I use to link up with my community is none other than “tweets”. “Tweets” come from a website and app called Twitter that allows people to post whatever they want when they want about anything that they want. Over the past decade, Twitter has become one of
the most popular
social media sites on
the planet. The NBA
2K community is
extremely active on
Twitter every single
day. From getting
hashtags to trend, to
connecting with the
game developers, community members use “tweets” to talk to each other throughout the app. Tweets can be words, pictures, or even small videos. Big streamers usually have a Twitter account that they use to instantly hold conversations with their viewers about whatever is going on in the world of 2K. This genre is definitely the most immediate form of communication that is used. It is the genre that I, personally, use the most. All day long, I can pull up my Twitter in a second and get the latest buzz in the 2K world. NBA 2K has a team of dedicated developers and media delegates that are also extremely active on Twitter. These individuals are tweeting 24/7 about the latest in-game content that has been released, what is going on in the real world of the NBA, and about the latest news in the 2K community. Anyone who just plays the game can pull up their Twitter account whenever they want to and tweet at these guys and expect a response very quickly, which I think is the main reason why “tweets” are such a fantastic genre in my community. Without it, there would be no way to communicate with everyone at such a user friendly and efficient pace. There would also be no way to connect so well with the in-game developers.
7 I will say that tweets involve a huge ammount of credibility, or Ethos. This is because on Twitter, every user has a certain following to follower “ratio”. This determines how credible the tweets are in a lot of cases. Well established users on Twitter also get “verified” which is literally nothing but a check mark on your profile which is basically just Twitter expressing that you are a big deal. If a particular figure in the community has a numerous ammount of followers and is verified by Twitter, then his tweets are much more credible and will be taken much more seriously than tweets of someone who has a tiny ammount of followers. In the community, members tend to follow a particular streamer via Twitter, and these credential characteristics play a huge role in determining who one may follow. Being that this is the second of the NBA 2K series that I have really started playing a lot, one could say that I am relatively fresh to the digital NBA 2K community. With this being said, although I am new, I have learned extremely fast and paid great ammounts of attention to the discourse and genres used within this group. At this point in time, I would say that I am one of the average, yet very committed NBA 2K players within the community. Although I do not have a yYoutube, or Twitch account of my own that I live stream gameplay on, I often visit these sites to observe the many different personalities that they have to offer (all at the expense of my study time unfortunately.) I play the game very frequently due to the fact that I played and watched basketball since I was in the fourth grade. This game is very realistic and this leads to it being genuinely fun and addictive to all of its players, which in turn delivers the innumerous amount of players who are part of the vast discourse community that has come about today. So, I would view my position in the community as being one of the many affiliates who loves to play the game and contributes to the hype and communication that are involved in the discourse. Obviously, my position in the community is greatly affected by the genres mentioned above due
8 to the fact that without these genres of communication, I would not be able to get the up to the second news and interact with the big players in the community like I am able to right now. These tools allow me to be the enormously active member of the community that I am today, and without these awesome advances in recent technology I would be in the dark with a lot of things, and for this I am very grateful. Within the last two decades or so, technology has progressed so significantly which has led to such advancements that allow for these fantastic tools used every day within my community. People such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have made such great advancements in the personal technology world with Microsoft and Apple that have made personal computers and phones a possibility. People use their iPhones, laptops, personal computers, and tablets everyday to access Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter. These personal devices are the type of technological developments that have created the ability to use the digital genres in my community. Without the people who created the companies who essentially developed these devices, there would be no discourse community in which I am a part of.