Thesis:
The Simming community is an inherently-social writing ecology with interconnected, dynamic systems that shape the course of content creation.
During Twitch streams, a message in the live stream's chat can change the composing process and product in real-time. Responses to Twitter polls can determine the content of a mod in production, and influential YouTubers with engaged followers can be harnessed to market EA's official downloadable content. These examples of social exchange in the content creation process are some of the many ways that platforms in the 21st century are embracing interactivity in the content creation process to extend its shaping force. Furthermore, these new kinds of writing spaces are becoming increasingly prevelant. Scholars like Brooke, Dobrin, and Seas have asked: How will Writing Studies account for 21st century writing and its lightning exchanges?
In this project, I use Cooper's ecological framework to argue that the Simming community is an inherently-social writing ecology with interconnected, dynamic systems that shape the course of content creation. I maintain that systems of materials, ideas, purposes, and interpersonal interactions are both shaping content creation and being shaped by it.
Furthermore, I suggest that by examining ecological systems at work in the Simming Ecology, we reveal not just the inherently social nature of 21st century content creation ecologies, but also the cracks in this digital utopia--how the tension and interaction amongst systems serves to challenge and reinforce hierarchies of power and influence.