Initial Adventures in WoW

A former student and basketball player of mine from a few years ago was ignoring all of his school work in favor of playing World of Warcraft. When his parents came to me for help, I was dismayed to learn of his problem. I sat down with him to ask why he was playing so much. I asked him why he enjoyed it so much. I asked him why he was skipping out on his responsibilities for WoW. My questions were dripping in skepticism.

His response wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought he would offer some platitude about how WoW was more fun that school and that he would fix his ways. Instead, he said something that resonated with me: WoW provided him with not only a sense of accomplishment, but also a sense of identity. I think his exact words were "I feel like I'm actually doing something." I was still skeptical, though now of his habits, not of his reasoning.

As I've likely intimated, I think it's pretty clear that I was not looking forward to playing WoW as part of my responsibility in this class. I think of gaming as a time waster. If you have time to waste, then go for it. If, like me, you do not, then it's best to stay away.

I'm not saying I've done a 180º turn in my first week or so of gameplay, but I'm starting to get it a bit now. I have found myself playing when I've had spare time (even, on two occasions, on my honeymoon, to wicked laughter from my wife -- "Go, get your WoW on!") and I have enjoyed it much more than I expected to. I realize that all of the components of this course are not there for us to enjoy, but for the skeptical among us, it's an important piece in encouraging student buy-in.

The thing I could see WoW being valuable for educationally is in helping people develop their problem-solving skills. Many things, including how to play, how to fight, how to collect items, etc. are not clear initially in WoW. I told myself at the start of this game that I would learn by doing and not Google, and so I've had to search throughout the game and its controls to figure those things out. It's been a refreshing experience, and I can see how the quests would force people to think critically about certain problems with in the gameplay.

Travelog - Tallahassee Beach

I went with Ben to Tallahassee Beach. The designer of this world has taken a more absurdist approach to building their space. There's nothing different about the gravitational pull, but there are several scenes of impending or already-happened disaster. Among the highlights are a shipwreck of what looks to have been a pirate ship, and an immovable train that appears to be headed straight for the ocean. There's also a large river delta and a detailed forest. I'm struck by the amount of time the designer must have spent in creating all of these elements. The educational purpose is not readily clear, and it seems that flying and teleportation must be the preferred method of transportation, as travel by foot is difficult.

Reflection after (my) first class meeting

If I'm being honest, wow, that was frustrating. I'm not good at gaming, and I realize that our skill levels range from absolute beginner up through expert. But I found the experience of meeting in person to be immensely frustrating. It seemed to me that the biggest issue was pacing. I think the pacing of instruction was a little slow, but more than that, I felt that almost everyone was doing something else at the same time they were in this class meeting. As a result, whenever anyone wasn't paying attention, they'd chime in and say, "Wait, what was that? Can you repeat that?" This seemed to happen with every step of the instruction.

I think it'd be easiest to attack this in three ways:

1. Require students to be singularly focused on the class meeting (there's no way to police this, but I'm not sure it was explicit).
2. Type out the steps in the group chat AFTER they've been said, one by one. This way, those who missed something have a reference point and don't need the speaker to chime in all the time.
3. Provide some sort of above and beyond activity for those who are moving at a quicker pace to do at the same time. I'm not sure how you could distribute this or decide who gets what, but it could work.

Week 3 Reflection

I missed class this week, but I got caught up with the Joykadia activities. I'm starting to feel more and more comfortable in Joykadia. I suspect that this is probably due to my inability to get to our class meeting, but the thing that I'm noticing is that this all feels very solitary. I realize that that is part of the reasoning behind having us come in and do some of these tasks with one another. But the truth is, even if I were doing these tasks with another person in the photo, there's very little collaboration involved (and I think it would be difficult to have it any other way with our level of gameplay). I'm sure this is different in games like WoW, but in Joykadia, it's tough to see how this could change. That, to me, is frustrating. A big part of these games is the idea that they bring people together and I don't really feel that right now.

I read, as part of this week's reading, a case on border patrol officers from O'Driscoll. What was interesting was how focused the case was on the technical issues of solving the problem. This is the sort of thing I would like to see in action with Second Life and it makes absolute sense to have students run simulations. What I only wonder is how well they could actually simulate border control issues. I understand that this is a logical exercise, designed to train people so well that when they're confronted with the issues and are reacting on emotion, their instincts are to make the logical and rational decision. But that ignores all the rest that I imagine comes with working at a border crossing. This is all to say, that while I could see this as a basis for training border officers, it hardly seems like it could function as anything more than that.

Week 2 Reflection

So... virtual worlds, huh? I don't know how I feel about this class so far. I am, of course, catching up with things only now, but I'm feeling like I have a handle in moving around, taking snapshots, etc. I still haven't mustered up the courage to go talk to anyone yet, but Ben and I have plans to meet virtually for Assignment 13. I'll say this: this isn't as bad or as frustrating as I initially thought it would be. I'm sure the tasks will get more difficult over time, but assignments 1-12 (save for 6) were manageable in a relatively small amount of time. I don't really understand the time that people spend kitting out their avatars, but alas, I think that's just one of those things I'm never going to get. I missed our first class meeting, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the next one is like.

I'm surprised at how detailed and built-up the Marlboro island is. I suppose I shouldn't be, as that's the point of this class, but still, it's cool that someone has taken the time to make everything work in that world, and work in the context of a class experience. I'm interested to see what person  to person interaction is like, particularly between people not in this class and my classmates and me. Each time I've logged on, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of people online when I am, but that might just be timing.

Until next time...