Gaming Fluencies: Pathways into Participatory Culture in a Community Design Studio

Abstract

Many recent efforts to promote new literacies \ninvolve the promotion of creative media production \nas a way to foster youth’s literate engagement \nwith digital media. Those interested in \ngaming literacies view game design as a way to \nengage youth in reflective and critical reading \nof the gaming culture. In this paper, we propose \nthe concept of “gaming fluencies” to promote \ngame design as a context in which youth not \nonly learn to read but also to produce digital \nmedia in creative ways. Gaming fluencies also \npresent the added benefit of addressing equity \nissues of participation in the new media literacy \nlandscape. We report on an ethnographic study \nthat documented urban youth producing digital \ngames in a community technology center. Our \nanalyses focus on an archive of 643 game designs \ncollected over a 24-month period, selecting \na random sample to identify evidence of creative \nand technical dimensions in game designs. In \naddition, we highlight three case studies of game \ndesigns to identify different pathways into the \nparticipatory culture. Our goal is to illustrate \nhow gaming fluencies allow for a wide range of \ndesigns, provide low thresholds and high ceilings \nfor complex projects, and make room for \ncreative expression. In our discussion, we address how gaming fluencies represent a complementary pathway for learning and participation in today’s media culture.

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