Over the past 12 weeks I have been working on The Zone Project. I have spent time creating, iterating, failing, and researching the relationship between Minecraft and Discord servers for the sake of growing my own Discord community. If you have been following this project you’ll know that this project has developed over the past 12 weeks significantly.
Here I am cultivating all my work into one report. There is a lot to go through, so strap in and lets go.
Research for digital studies is not as extensive as many other fields of study. Thankfully, there are countless studies on communities and societies. For this project I leaned heavily on a variety of different readings to think about different aspects and problems I was facing.
Also see my some of my thoughts on 3 epiphanies I had over the course as of this project and how I applied them my project development.
Whilst reflecting on my first epiphany, I was inspired by an article about the Dunning-Kruger Effect where Ingrid Pettersson reflects “Study participants are prone to over-estimate future designs and may face difficulties in expressing their needs and wants in words”. I reflected that similarly, users overestimate the designers and developers potential in regards to realistic opportunities and may face difficulty in expressing their dreams.
In researching my second epiphany, I realised it is healthy for a community to be active. I came to this conclusion with help from Leggy et al. who discuss how activity is healthy for the body and mind. That activity generates growth and counteracts entropy.
I found Marshall, Moore, and Barbour’s discussion ‘Persona Studies: An Introduction‘ to be a helpful guide to getting my head around being myself within my persona. I was particularly interested in this as I didn’t want to detach myself from my admin persona too much.
Similarly, Marshall and Barbour’s additional work ‘Making intellectual room for persona studies‘ was a nice supplement. In which I explored further the importance of intentional crafting of a persona.
I was particularly grateful for Anderson’s ‘Discord and the Harbormen Gaming Community‘. Anderson dives into the culture around a Discord server she is a part of. She addresses Discord’s origin, company profile, and basic user experience. Anderson focuses on the culture of the Harbormen Discord server; its creation and evolution. She also discusses resources she found helpful in her study.
This project has been under daily construction this semester. I have learnt that there is a massive difference between running a digital presence on mainstream social media and managing a digital community hub.
My users are constantly online. Every change, message, and new member is visible to them. I am not posting a couple times a week for some likes and comments. I am using a space as a user just like them. This hierarchal equality invites users to participate for their sake, to create their own content, and to own their place in our community. This means that iterations are noticeable and alter the culture of the community.
As a community server, one of the most unique aspects centres around the compilation of feedback. Along with observing what people do and don’t engage with, I also have the unique opportunity to ask users directly. I am constantly listening to my audience in their suggestions and comments on how they find channels and content.
One of the common examples for this has been feedback on the channel layout and options. In the Discord there are 3 main headings visible to all users; Welcome & Rules 📖, 🤘 General Chill, and 🎰 Other. Though the first section remains fairly rigid in its format, the second and third headings are very fluid. The aim of these sections is to provide users with a centralised area to use to enjoy the community. Including everything from jokes, memes, photos, thought provoking topics, and a bridge to the players in-game. With this purpose in mind, the channels within this section have come and gone according to peoples needs and uses. There has always been a generic “General” channel. In-game specific channels like “Builds and ideas” or “In-Game Needs” have adapted as necessary. Some of these due to specific comments, others because I see the use or uselessness of them.
Feedback hasn’t only come from the audience within, but also from my peers observing. As the famous proverb says “Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another“. I have found feedback from peers to be a valuable resource as they too are thinking about the concepts and content we are learning and how to apply them in a wide range of areas.
The most helpful comments have come from my peers ‘samuelcunningham‘ and ‘jmayfarrington‘ who challenged me to stretch further with my project. Suggesting things like collaborating with similar servers, pushing into instagrams reels, and using bots to automate and provide a face for the server. These comments were concrete in both praise and critique, providing specific examples and suggestions. Especially after joining the discord themselves to see the servers real use.
Thanks to the feedback from ‘samuelcunningham‘ and ‘jmayfarrington‘, as well as my users and online audience, The Zone has more than doubled in growth. Changes to the structure, style, and culture of the server has allowed it to flourish and be appealing to so many more users.
I’d like to stress that this report doesn’t discuss even close to all the iterations and developments this project has gone through. It is not a stand-alone blog, but in a series of discussions about my progress and process.
Please, check out these as a supplement to this report with more detail and depth.
Blogs for this subject and project can also be found under the menu options BCM 241 and BCM 302.
Take a quick look at our Twitch streams!
We have finished up our streams for now, but we will be back with more in a few weeks!! When we start again we hope for all new content, new collaborations, and some guest streamers!!
References:
Anderson, M, 2019, ‘Discord and the Harbormen Gaming Community‘,
https://mayajanae.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Discord-and-the-Harbormen-Gaming-Community.pdf
Ellis, C, Adams, T & Bochner, A 2011, ‘Autoethnography: An Overview‘, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, vol. 12, no. 1,
https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095
Frost, T & Nunan, D n.d, ‘The Dunning-Kruger Effect‘
https://catalogofbias.org/2018/03/22/twenty-years-of-bias-and-the-dunning-kruger-effect/
Legey, S, Aquino, F, Lamego, MK, Paes, F, Nardi, AE, Neto, GM, Mura, G, Sancassiani, F, Rocha, N, Murillo-Rodriguez, E, Machado, S, 2017. ‘Relationship Among Physical Activity Level, Mood and Anxiety States and Quality of Life in Physical Education Students‘, Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health: CP & EMH, 13, 82–91.
https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901713010082
Marshall, P, & Barbour, K 2015, ‘Making intellectual room for persona studies: A new consciousness and a shifted perspective’, CCAL
Marshall, P, Moore, C & Barbour, K 2020, ‘Persona Studies: An Introduction‘, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Pettersson, I 2017, ‘Travelling from Fascination to New Meanings: Understanding User Expectations Through a Case Study of Autonomous Cars’, International Journal of Design, vol. 11, no. 2,
http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/2634
Schwartz, David, ‘Using Discord to Facilitate Student Engagement‘ (2021). UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo. 122.
https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/122
Unknown, ~700BC, ’27:17′, The Book of Proverbs,
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2027%3A17&version=NIV
Boswell's Brain 