I am very new to the topic of technical and professional communication, taking both this class as well as the 200-level Technical Communication class this semester. I'm not certain that I understand my identity in professional communication as I can never seem to get a straight answer on what technical communication actually is. It seems to encompass everything from teaching to journalism to manuals to directions on the back of a toothbrush box. I don't know what sort of title I would give myself because I don't feel like I comprehend enough about the field to give a confident answer. If I were looking at a job that seems to embody at least a portion of the vast vagueries of technical and professional communication, I think I would like to be a copywriter because I took the class a year or so ago and I found creating advertisements from aggregate data to be interesting and scratch my creative writing itch.
Looking at the reading list, I'm interested in the topic of technical communication with regard to video games, especially in how tutorials are designed to teach the player mechanics. Sometimes you have older games with very little hardware space and so manuals are included to teach the player the controls, while other times games include a suite of options and tips that constantly give advice on where to go and what to do. I'm interested in how those kinds of tutorials fit within the genre of video games as a whole, as well as the subgenres of video games, and how those tutorials either succeed or fail at teaching mechanics while also being part of the entertainment.