Putting the RP back into the MMO

Yah, yah, I haven't written much lately. Doesn't mean I'm not playing hard. Tynaqua is now 80; I've started leveling Hellgrima (she's at 73 now). Fortknight is getting pretty geared from heroics. Life is good.

For some weird reason, perhaps attributable to a bit of withdrawal from Geo Martin's book series, I went looking for Kindle2 versions of Warcraft lore novels. I think these are graphic novels, maybe not. Found many. Decided to start easy (and cheaply) and downloaded Rise of the Horde. Figured I'd learn more about Thrall and the history of the Orcs and Horde, etc. etc.

I've only read about 20% of the book, but already I find myself getting real pleasure from connecting the backstory with the game. It feels weird and, let me dare to say this, it makes the locations and events in the game seem considerably more 'real' to me as a player in their midst. This makes play more enjoyable for me. BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious), I suppose, but not for the POWER of context, rather for the PLEASURE of it, that is, the pleasure of "knowing things," of being an Azerothian citizen-insider who knows what's going on.

Then I got to wondering about MMO play generally. I mean, hey, wasn't this stuff called MMORPG? It was back when I first got into it in 2005. I mean, it was supposed to be like taking D&D tabletop games online. Where did the RPG go? Is it just too hard to integrate story with play mechanics sufficiently well to satisfy a variety of player types?

I tried LOTRO (Lord of the Rings online), and it was beautiful visually, and had the same level of satifaction as playing with paper dolls. WoW's own Burning Crusade really sucked in large part, imho, because it made so little sense; it was just 'stuff to do.' But I have to say that Wrath of the Lich King has been a considerable improvement, mostly due to the cut scenes and phased play. (Although, good god, Arthas is showing up way too often on tasks that seem rather beneath him, eh? This is a snap of a rooftop fight in which Arthas, the Lich King, drops in to mock the failure of his minion. Shouldn't he be busy elsewhere?


Now it's highly possible I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about. Before WoW my RPG experiences were all in ye olde timey MOO/MUD/MUSH/MUCK worlds, which were often worlds that could be modified by competent players (OOP programmable, or rather, tweakable). And in those worlds, all was text, so story (or more often, "premise") and item/object descriptions were very important. Actions were rather limited.

My 15 year old daughter plays RPGs in online communities where there is NO real game mechanic, just interactive, collaborative, storytelling RP. These communities preset their culture and offer a sort of starter lore, and thereby create some boundaries and constraints on player imagination. But within that bounded space players wield a significant amount of freedom to create narratives, characters, events, and settings. She also plays Warcraft, so she knows both sorts of networked world making and play, and based on time spent, I would she prefers to play on the "RP boards." Yes, RP boards...these communities rely on browser-based forums and webpages (e.g., Yahoo groups or MS groups) to hold their worlds and stories.
...

I'll probably think about this more as I read and play more. Just wanted to jot this note before I lost the initial thoughts.

I Gotta Ride!

Damn this game. Dammit to hell. I'm trying to play and it keeps making new attractive goals for me before I can reach the goals I've already set for myself.

Yah, I just found out that the chopper is not BOP (Bind on Pickup) for engineers. Yeah baby, I can haz chopper! Well, Tigan can make it for me for only a butt load of mats AND about 15,000G. (ZOMG where mai gonna get dat kinda coin?). So glad I didn't sell all those titansteel bars, eternals, and artic furs. At least I have most of the other mats. [In the snap, that's Tigan driving and me in the sidecar.]

But this game does do that. Currently I consider myself to be on a bazillion quests, each with its own cool payoff. Well, I have made some progress. I did get the awesome Kalu'ak Fishing Pole and the penguin pet for being exalted with that faction. I did get the awesome war bear when my guild took out all three kings on the Alliance side; I blogged about that earlier.

In this regard it's a very clever world, not just a game, that Blizz has created. There is so much to do, so many things to go for, I just don't get bored playing. Now some of my guildies, well, about all they do is dungeons/instances or PVP. That would bore me very quickly. I guess to each his own. Interestingly, I'm NOT all about having the best thing or having something FIRST, and fortunately, Warcraft doesn't paint me into that sort of game corner. If they did, I'd have been long gone.

So now I've been "away" from the game for several days and I'm dying to jump in and get clear on what I need to do next, first, etc for my latest obsessions. =choppah= More later; gotta play.

Researcher's Notebook #1

Per my preliminary proposal, keeping my researcher's notebook posts here in my blog for committee review.

I think I like research. I think my insatiable curiosity is getting satiated, at least during the process. Each session is intense, and I have 6 groups meeting an hour a week for three weeks. Doc students depend so much on volunteers. I worked hard to design experimental interventions so that the participants would have fun at each experiment. Both types - the annotation (building) and wayfinding (treasure hunt) have elicited spontaneous comments that the experience was fun. The potential frustration level is high in the wayfinding exercise; I find myself working hard to stay within the script and not give too many additional clues, especially since I might do that for one group and not for the other, which would screw up the ability to replicate the experiment. On the other hand, very hard (impossible, in fact) not to intervene if the frustration level gets too high. Documenting whenever that has happened within chat summaries and interpretation.