Language

The language used by William Collis in the TED talk “How video game skills can get you ahead in life” is mainly pedagogical. When he talks about esports, Collis introduces several gaming concepts that might be unfamiliar to people who do not have vast video gaming experience. However, Collis attempts to explain these concepts in a simple way, so that his audience can understand them:

Now, gamers call this constantly evolving suite of strategies the meta, short for the ‘metagame’. And it would be like if every few weeks the rules of basketball fundamentally evolved. Maybe three-pointers are now worth five points, or NBA pros can dribble out of bounds. (ll. 52-54)

Here, Collis first explains the abbreviation “meta” and then makes a parallel between the strategic skill necessary in esports and the widely-known game of basketball to make the meaning clearer. He explains how esports are more unconventional than basketball because players are constantly forced to adapt to “new abiliti...