Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-5ws7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-04T01:08:10.519Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Apprenticeship in Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

By
Constance Steinkuehler  and
Yoonsin Oh
Edited by
Constance Steinkuehler ,
Kurt Squire  and
Sasha Barab
Constance Steinkuehler
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Kurt Squire
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sasha Barab
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Get access

Summary

Imagine an entire 3D world online, complete with forests, cities, and seas. Now imagine it populated with others from across the globe who gather in virtual inns and taverns gossiping about the most popular guild or comparing notes on the best hunting spots. Imagine yourself in a heated battle for the local castle, live opponents from all over collaborating or competing with you. Imagine a place where you can be the brave hero, the kingdom rogue, or the village sage, developing a reputation for yourself that is known from Peoria to Peking. Now imagine that you could come home from school or work, drop your book bag on the ground, log in, and enter that world any day, anytime, anywhere. Welcome to the world of massively multiplayer online gaming.

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) are highly graphic 2D or 3D video games played online, allowing individuals, through their self-created digital characters, or avatars, to interact not only with the gaming software (the designed environment of the game and the computer-controlled characters within it) but also with other players’ avatars. These virtual worlds are persistent social and material worlds loosely structured by open-ended (fantasy) narratives where players are largely free to do as they please – slay ogres, siege castles, barter goods in town, or shake the fruit out of trees. They are notorious for their peculiar combination of designed “escapist fantasy” yet emergent “social realism” (Kolbert, 2001): In a setting of wizards and elves, princes and knights, people save for homes, create basket indices of the trading market, build relationships of status and solidarity, and worry about crime.

Type
Chapter
Information
Games, Learning, and Society
Learning and Meaning in the Digital Age
 , pp. 154 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Apple, M. 2004 Ideology and curriculumNew YorkRoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Barab, S.Thomas, M.Dodge, T.Carteaux, R.Tuzun, H. 2005 Making Learning Fun: , a Game Without GunsEducational Technology Research & Development 53 86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. S.Collins, A.Duguid, P. 1989 Situated Cognition and the Culture of MeaningEducational Researcher 18 32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, A.Brown, J. S.Holum, A. 1991 Cognitive Apprenticeship: Making Thinking VisibleAmerican Educator 6 38Google Scholar
Csibra, G.Gergely, G. 2006 Munakata, Y.Johnson, M. H.Processes of change in brain and cognitive development: Attention and performanceOxford, EnglandOxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1993 Flow: The psychology of optimal experienceNew YorkHarper PerennialGoogle Scholar
Engestrom, Y.Miettinen, R.Punamaki, R.-L. 1999 Perspectives on activity theoryCambridge, EnglandCambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, N. 1995 Critical discourse analysisLondonLongmanGoogle Scholar
Frith, U.Frith, C. 2010 The Social Brain: Allowing Humans to Boldly Go Where No Other Species Has BeenPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 365 165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfinkel, H. 1967 Studies in ethnomethodologyEnglewood Cliffs, NJPrentice-HallGoogle Scholar
Gee, J. P. 1996 Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discoursesLondonTaylor & FrancisGoogle Scholar
Gee, J. P. 1999 An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and methodNew YorkRoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Gee, J. P. 2003 2007 What videogames have to teach us about learning and literacyNew YorkPalgrave MacmillanGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C. 1973 The interpretation of culturesNew YorkBasic BooksGoogle Scholar
Gibson, J. J. 1986 The ecological approach to visual perceptionHillsdale, NJErlbaum. (Original work publishedGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, C 1994 Professional VisionAmerican Anthropologist 96 606CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greeno, J. G. 1997 On Claims That Answer the Wrong QuestionsEducational Researcher 26 5Google Scholar
Greeno, J. G.Moore, J. L. 1993 Situativity and Symbols: Response to Vera and SimonCognitive Science 17 49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. 1982 Language and social identityCambridge, EnglandCambridge University Press
Hacking, I. 1986 Heller, T. C.Sosna, M.Wellbery, D. E.Reconstructing individualismStanford, CAStanford University PressGoogle Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. 1978 Language as a social semioticLondonEdward ArnoldGoogle Scholar
Hammersley, M.Atkinson, P. 1986 Ethnography: Principles in practiceLondonRoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Hutchins, E. 1995 Cognition in the wildCambridge MAMIT PressGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, H.Squire, K.Tan, P. 2003 Laurel, B.Design research: Methods and perspectives (pp. 244–252)Cambridge, MAMIT PressGoogle Scholar
Kolbert, E. 2001
Kress, G. 1985 Linguistic processes in sociocultural practiceOxford, EnglandOxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Lave, J. 1988 Cognition in practiceCambridge, EnglandCambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lave, J.Wenger, E. 1991 Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participationCambridge, EnglandCambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. C. 1983 PragmaticsCambridge, EnglandCambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCracken, G. D. 1988 The long interview: Qualitative research methodsNewbury Park, CASageCrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLuhan, MarshallInterview, Playboy 1969
Packer, M. J.Goicoechea, J. 2000 Sociocultural and Constructivist Theories of Learning: Ontology, Not Just EpistemologyEducational Psychologist 35 227CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senju, A.Csibra, G. 2008 Gaze following in human infants depends on communicative signalsCurrent Biology 18 668CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sperber, D.Wilson, D. 1986 Relevance: Communication and CognitionOxfordBlackwellGoogle Scholar
Squire, K. D. 2003 Video Games in EducationInternational Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming 2 49Google Scholar
Davidson, D. 2007 Games, Learning, and Society: Building a FieldEducational Technology 4 51Google Scholar
Steinkuehler, C. A. 2004 Kafai, Y. B.Sandoval, W. A.Enyedy, N.Nixon, A. S.Herrera, F.Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the Learning SciencesMahwah, NJErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Gee, J. P. 2006 The Mangle of PlayGames & Culture 1 1Google Scholar
Street, B. 1984 Literacy in theory and practiceCambridge, EnglandCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Tharp, R. G.Gallimore, R. 1991
Davidson, D. 1998 Rousing minds to lifeCambridge, EnglandCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. 1999 The cultural origins of human cognitionCambridge MAHarvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Turkle, S. 1995 Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the InternetNew YorkTouchstoneGoogle Scholar
Vera, A. H.Simon, H. A. 1993 Situated Action: A Symbolic InterpretationCognitive Science 17 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. 1978 Mind in societyCambridge MAHarvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Wenger, E. 1999 Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identityNew YorkCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Wertsch, J. V. 1998 Mind as actionNew YorkOxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, B. S. 2010 http://www.mmogchart.com

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×