Getting-to-know. Inquiries, sources, methods, and the production of knowledge on a videogame wiki
| Date | 09 October 2017 |
| Published date | 09 October 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-11-2016-0145 |
| Pages | 1299-1321 |
| Author | Olle Sköld |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Getting-to-know
Inquiries, sources, methods, and the production
of knowledge on a videogame wiki
Olle Sköld
Department of ALM (Archival Studies,
Library and Information Science and Museums and Cultural Heritage Studies),
Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sociocultural underpinnings of wiki-based
knowledge production in the videogame domain, and to elucidate how these underpinnings relate to the
formation of wikis as resources of videogame documentation.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper is based on a three-month ethnographic investigation of
knowledge practices on the Dark Souls Wiki (DSW). In focus of the analysis were the boundaries and
knowledge aims of the DSW, together with how its contributors organized inquiries and used various sources,
methods of investigation, and ways of warranting knowledge claims.
Findings –The principalresult of the paper is an empiricalaccount of how the DSW functionsas a culture of
knowledgeproduction, and how the content andstructure of the wiki connects to the knowledgepractices of its
contributors.Four major factors that influenced knowledgepractices on the wiki were identified:the structures
and practices established by the community’s earlier wiki efforts; principles and priorities that informedwiki
knowledge practices; the characteristics of the videogame in focusof the site’s knowledge-building work;the
extent and typesof relevant documentation providedby videogame industry, thevideogaming press included.
Originality/value –Previous research has shown interest in investigating the mechanisms by which
community-created knowledge and online resources of documentation emerge, and how these are utilized in
play. There is, however, little research seeking to elucidate the sociocultural structures and practices that
determine and sustain collaborative online videogame knowledge production.
Keywords Wikis, Knowledge production, Ethnography, Social media, Practices, Videogames
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
When Ward Cunningham developed the first instantiation of wiki technology in the
mid-1990s, his stated aim was to create “[t]he simplest online database that could possibly
work”(Cunningham and Leuf, 2002). Whereas the basic functionalities of current wiki
platforms are described in largely similar terms, research has shown that wiki-based
knowledge production is considerably more regulated and ritualized than the open-ended
characterization of the wiki as a collaborative content management system seems to
necessitate (e.g. Jemielniak, 2014; Mittell, 2009; Reagle, 2010; Sundin, 2011; Toton, 2008).
The apparent discrepancy between the modularity with which the wiki platform has
become synonymous, and the distinctly regimented ways in which knowledge is produced
on Wikipedia and other wikis may be explained by insights attained in the sociocultural
study of knowledge[1], where knowledge production is colloquially viewed as bounded and
particular (Becher, 1989; Knorr-Cetina, 1999; Latour and Woolgar, 1979). The production of
knowledge is here understood as the result of patterned activities connected to the aim of
making “organized statements of facts or ideas”(Bell, 1973, p. 41, as cited in Knorr-Cetina,
1999, p. 6) in a specific and regulatory context, be it professional or leisure, university
science labs, or wikis (cf. Hartel, 2010; Law and Lynch, 1988; McKenzie and Davies, 2010).
Here, the overarching purpose of this paper emerges. The paper aims to delve into how
wikis function as bounded cultures of knowledge production, and to seek answers to how
the formation of the wiki as a documentary resource of recorded information connects to the
practices of knowledge production present on the site.
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 6, 2017
pp. 1299-1321
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-11-2016-0145
Received 30 November 2016
Revised 22 June 2017
Accepted 25 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
1299
Getting-
to-know
The present work achieves these purposes by reporting on a three-month ethnographic
examination aiming to uncover the sociocultural underpinnings of knowledge production on
the Dark Souls Wiki(DSW), a wiki in the area of contemporary videogameculture dedicated –
during the period of study–to investigating and documentingthe functionalities of the game
Dark Souls II (DS2). Previous related studies have strongly underlined the important and
“almost symbiotic”(Barr, 2014, p. 120) relationship between videogame communities and
social media, and have shown interest in investigating the mechanisms by which
community-created knowledge and online documentary resources emerge (e.g. Toton, 2008;
Steinkuehler and Duncan, 2008; Mittell, 2013), and how these are utilized in play
(e.g. Harviainen and Hamari, 2015; Harviainen and Vesa, 2016; Sköld et al., 2015). However ,
there is little research seeking to elucidate the structures and activities that determine and
sustain collaborative online videogame knowledge production. The relevance of the present
study is additionally heightened by previous research on knowledge-producing enterprises
like scholarly research (Becher, 1989; Latour and Woolgar, 1979; Knorr-Cetina, 1999) and
Wikipedia (Fallis, 2008; Magnus, 2009; Tollefsen, 2009), which indicate the usefulness of
sociocultural analyses of knowledge production to attain insights into the orderings and
operations that make up how knowledge is created and warranted in the domain of
videogame-related social media.This paper thus contributes to LIS researchby shedding light
on the socioculturalaspects of knowledge productionand the creation of documentationin the
large and influential videogame domain –an important step toward better understanding
interactions with recorded information and knowledge in contemporary online play and
videogame culture.
Three research questions guided the present study of describing and analyzing
wiki-based knowledge production in the videogame domain:
RQ1. What are the boundaries and knowledge aims that characterize the DSW as a
culture of knowledge production?
RQ2. Which day-to-day knowledge practices are carried out on the wiki, with a specific
focus on how the DSW’s community members come to attain knowledge by the
organization of inquiries and the use of various sources, methods of investigation,
and ways of warranting knowledge claims?
RQ3. What conclusions regarding the emergence of the DSW as a community-created
documentary resource in the videogame domain can be drawn on the basis of
knowledge practices on the site?
The study is theoretically inspired by LIS document studies (e.g. Brown and Duguid, 1996;
Frohmann, 2004) and sociocultural analyses of knowledge production in the sciences
(e.g. Becher, 1989; Knorr-Cetina, 1999).
2. Literature review
As videogames and videogaming have gained cultural and economic significance on an
unprecedented scale in the 2000s (e.g. Hunter, 2011; Malaby, 2007; Pearce, 2009; Shaw, 2010),
they have also become the object of considerable academic attention. This paper positions
itself in the growing body of work focused on investigating knowledge and information in
the intersection of videogames and player-authored social media resources like wikis, blogs,
and discussion forums. The findings of previous research efforts can be systematized into
three principal groupings, ordered by their level of abstraction.
2.1 Social media and videogames
First, there is a large segment of studies that accentuate the highly reciprocal relationship
between social media and videogames in contemporary online life. This relationship is in
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