As I am completing this research for three separate classes I have received a whole range of feedback, some of which I have been able to take on board through the onset of my DA as mentioned within my Beta Video. However, I would also like to mention feedback from my pitch in which I will be taking on in the future plus sources of additional research I have used to produce my DA that I wish to use for my contextual essay in the coming weeks.
Current Statistics
At this time, I’ve been working daily to increase traction towards both my blog and Twitter page by interacting with the community to boost the possibility of supplementary criticism but this climb has been slow in terms of comments but an increase in poll interactions, likes and views. I’ve reached the 50 follower milestone on my Twitter page this past week which I hope to be a sign of greater commentary to come.
Pitch Feedback
Above are the comments I received from my pitch which seems to document a mixture of people that have played Runescape previously, those who may be aware of the game but haven’t played it and some that don’t know the game at all which has provided me with extensive evaluation on what I could do to improve my DA.
Blog Post Concepts
The main points of feedback received were idea’s on what to include as topic points for my DA to gain greater insight into my research around my analytical framework of nostalgia and participatory media culture contributing to the narrative of OSRS to prolong popularity. A thought that has appeared over multiple comments was the concept of researching the contribution that Runescape has had on other MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft, as somewhat of a pioneer to the genre. This is a point I wish to take on board in a later blog post, perhaps closer towards final submission as preperation for my contextual essay as I wish to focus on gaining an understanding of Runescape itself before branching beyond. While I have a history with Runescape, I have very limited play time with any other kinds of MMORPGs so to expand upon the point would require a longer period of research to ensure appropriate recognition.
Other subjects I wish to post about have been mentioned by mephiston087 specifically which includes the party hat economy, which is a fantastic topic that relates to the purpose of my research as it demonstrates the effect that community participation has on the game, and the differences between OSRS and Runescape 3. While similar to the contrast against other MMORPGs, the distinctions between the nostalgic 2007 version of the game and the newly refurbished 2013 edition that doesn’t receive anywhere near the same active player count or recognition would provide significant vindication into the importance of nostalgia for the franchise and how it effects the gameplay/community. While I have a number of other topics that I wish to produce for my DA, I would like to prioritise these suggestions within the coming weeks as I feel they will benefit my overall research.
Suggested Research Sources
A notable contribution from the feedback receieved from my pitch were the sources provided for added research that have aided me in my DA’s development and my general investigation of OSRS and its community.
Oryem provided the suggestion of ‘Making sense of community in Runescape’ by Benjamin Walker which I had not come across within my own research however inquires into the concept of community built into Runescape as a social entity. Within the findings section, there is detail regarding the surveys he collected from 1200 players, of which he interviewed 40+, that reveals the development of the Runescape community, how it divides by niche sub-communities and its form of hierarchy. This information has been able to help me to construct my DA as it provides a great decipher of how the community involved with Runescape works which benefits the composition of my blog posts to establish trust with the reader that the information being examined is done so by someone invovled with the community.
Jacob also provided another source that will be useful for the up and coming post regarding the influence Runescape has had on other MMORPG franchises, in particular World of Warcraft. As WOW is a great competitior against Runescape for the genres top spot, the source of ‘World Of Warcraft Classic: Maybe You Can’t Go Home Again’ by Luke Winkie presents an overview of why their OSRS equivilent, known as World of Warcraft Classic, didn’t have the same impact on the franchise. I’m interested to explore why this is with the help of this article and additional resources in the lead up to final submission.
Additional Source List
Here are some additional sources and short descriptions of their content that have also aided my approach to my DA and some that should help me within the coming weeks:
- ‘Public Memory and Gamer Identity: Retrogaming as Nostalgia’ by David Heineman has really helped my understanding of nostalgia and how the ‘official’ history of gaming has been altered by the communities or ‘vernacular’ memory, which greatly connects to my chosen analytical framework.
- ‘Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture’ by Joost Raessens breaks down the meaning of participation when it comes to gaming, justifying how computer gaming can be categorized by paticipatory media culture. This has significantly helped my understanding of how gaming can insight participation in more ways than just playing the game itself and helped my construct my framework
- ‘Follow the Trope: A Digital (Auto)ethnography for Fan Studies’ by Milena Popova has assisted in my grasp of the role I have as a autoethnographer within an online setting and what responsibilities I have ethically and practically to complete this study on a community that I’m making myself a part of.
drawoncedrawtwice 
Firstly, I just wanted to state that this is a really engaging blog post and beta video to watch/read, the visual aspect of your video was well put together paired nicely with your voice over. There is evidence throughout your beta video that you have in fact done your research on the popular news and how the topic you’re studying has kept up with these current events in order to remain relevant after 20 years. The quality of your work is great! You’ve done your best to communicate with your audience, you’ve listened to feedback and updated your methods accordingly in order to get the best result for your DA. I think your idea to change from developing YouTube videos to Twitter and WordPress posts was a great idea and has defiantly had a positive influence on your research and ability to produce great work! You’ve used your community and the audience you’ve built up to aid your research, this seems to be a key and consistent theme throughout your project. The structure of your post and use of statistics is very professional and informative, it gives a more in-depth look into your topic and what you’re actually exploring and trying to convey to your audience. You’ve put a great deal of context into your post itself, explain concepts for your DA and how you intend to implement them. Discussions regarding various aspects of your project such as peer feedback and how you have iterated this into your DA, or sources you’ve been recommended is very structured and organised, being ladled with subheadings makes your post easy to navigate and find specific information regarding your project and its progress thus far.
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Well, the first thing I’ll say here is that you’ve put an astounding amount of work into this DA, and it really shows in your beta. I’m a big fan of the humorous vibe of your video (memes are always a solid choice for communicating ideas simply and effectively) and the progression from it to the blog post is solid. I did not feel that any of the content overlapped, so good job on making use of all your afforded space.
That bein’ said, it does seem that your accompanying blog post is… a bit too long (1000 words..)? And considering that the length criteria is in fact only 250 words, I feel like you might want to think about how you can summarise this information further in future – “quality over quantity” and so forth. However, what you’ve given to us in the blog post *is* quality, and such didn’t feel like it overstayed its welcome, so it’s not that big of a deal I guess.
All in all: the overall quality and coherency of your research is fantastic, and you’ve done a great job of synthesising the development of your online persona with gathering valuable data via audience engagement. I have only played OSRS briefly as a wee child, and always wondered how it’s been doing while I was gone; your content so far is shaping up to be an excellent resource for me to find out.
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