Final XP Application

FINAL XP APPLICATION


I'll miss you guys!

Boss Project - How Games Can Benefit the Elderly

Here is the link to my Boss Project: 
 

ARG MATEY!  

My epic fail with the Alternate Reality Game "Chore Wars"

Since my family was preparing for a visit of 14 additional people for the Thanksgiving holiday, there was much work to be done.  I tried to get my family to play “Chore Wars” with me.  I set up the account and gave the sign up info to both my older son, Darren, and my husband so they could set up an account. 

My husband’s first reaction was “I’M NOT DOING THAT”.  He said I would have to set up the account for him.  I did that and tried to get him involved in choosing his avatar, but again he refused to participate. 

My son was more receptive and he set up his own account and created an avatar. 

I made up a list with various chores that needed to be done along with the XP that could be earned for completing, and I set about doing some of them.    I thought that maybe once I started pointing out XP for different chores that maybe the other two would start to come around and actually play along. So I'd be feeding the dogs and call out, I'm getting 5 XP for this!  It was truly a bit ridiculous!

It didn’t quite work that way.  My husband did a lot of chores, but he refused to enter his XP. So I did it for him.  I thought maybe he’d be encouraged to play along once he saw his score go up, but it never happened.  My son on the other hand, was willing to enter his XP, however, he was not motivated to do chores.  In the end, we “played” only for one day and my husband had the most points. He didn't care about the points, he was doing the chores because they needed to be done. Darren had the least points, he also didn't care, he was just not participating much because XP didn't mean anything to him and he hates chores. The screen shots below are of mine and my husband's results.

I think this game could be maybe used with smaller children, however, there is a lot of prep that goes into it and a lot of work for the participants to keep up with the scoring system. I also think it would have the tendency to encourage kids to adopt a "sticker and star" attitude wherein they only would want to do chores in order to gain points.  A sort of "what's in it for me" attitude, instead of doing the chores simply because they want to contribute to the family. It further reinforced my belief that fixing a "broken reality" cannot necessarily be done through a game. 

As for me and my family, this game was an epic fail and waste of time for me to set it up!

I DON’T BUY IT!

An academic Response to the TED talk by Jane McGonigal,  “Gaming can make a better world”

Janine Olah

                In the TED talk video by Jane McGonigal entitled “Gaming Can Make a Better World” in our class on October 23^rd , Jane McGonigal presents herself as a game designer who wants to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in games. She feels that in order to do this people need to be convinced to play bigger and better games. McGonigal points out that we spend about 3 billion hours per week playing online games.  She calculates that we actually need to play over 21 billion hours per week to solve problems like hunger, global conflict, poverty, climate change, obesity, and the like.  My first thoughts on this were: I don’t buy it! I do think we need to spend more time solving those problems, but I do not see how gaming can do it.  I do agree that gaming can help people learn some of the skills to solve problem and can help with collaboration, concentration and optimism, but I don’t think games themselves are the answer to the big picture problems.

                McGonigal’s point is that the intense concentration and optimism of a gamer on the verge of an epic win is what is needed in order for us to have the kind of deep focus that we need to solve big world problems.  An “epic win” is a win that is almost beyond what you think is capable.  So she feels that if we seek out to have epic wins against some of humanity's problems, we can relate our gaming skills to real world problem-solving skills. With this point I agree, but I don't think increasing hours online is the way to do it. 

                The problem is, McGonigal points out, that a lot of gamers feel they are not as good in reality as they are in a game world.  They are not as inspired to cooperate, not as motivated to do something that matters. IN GAME WORLD, they become the best version of themselves, get up after failure, stick with a problem as long as it takes, but in real life they feel overwhelmed, frustrated, cynical and even depressed. Still, McGonigal believes that if we can translate some of the skills gamers have into skills to use in the real world, we can solve big problems.  The main skills she claims gamers have are these 4 “superpowers of gaming virtuosos:

1.       1. Urgent optimism – Gaming fosters extreme self motivation and  hope of success

2.      2.  Social Fabric – Gaming builds up bonds, trust and collaboration with others

3.      3.  Blissful Productivity-People are happier working hard and gaming gives them hard work to perform

4.     4.   Epic meaning- Gamers love to be attached to awe expiring missions

                Towards the end of her talk, Jane McGonigal talks about up some of the games that have been created in order to help solve real world problems.  “World Without Oil” is a game where people try to survive an oils shortage; “Superstruct”, is a game with a premise that we only have 23 years left on the planet and teams were formed to invent the future of energy, food, health, etc; and “Evoke”, a game where social innovation skills were learned.  Here’s where I really don’t buy her premise. Yes, during those sample games, people were motivated to come up with ideas and solutions to problems, but I think that the majority of people when given the choice to play a socially-conscious game, or a fantasy game, would certainly choose the fantasy game. They are just more fun!  Even McGonigal admits that we use games to escape reality.  So if reality truly is broken, what would it take for people to want to stay rooted in reality, rather than fantasy? 

                I disagree with McGonigal’s notion that we need to spend 21 billion hours per week playing games.  I enjoy playing games and I think that there is a place for gaming in solving world problems.  I do think that skills that are learned in the games can be translated to the real world, but I don’t think the GAME ITSELF is the method to save the world’s problems. In order to solve the real problems, gamers actually need to budget their time in these fantasy worlds and take what they’ve learned within them into real life. Instead of increasing the time we spend playing games, we should increase the amount of time we do real-world epic winning in such spaces such as education and volunteerism.  Only then can the time we spend in-game translate to epic-wins outside game spaces. 

Sage Analyst Refection #2

Here is the link to my second Analyst Reflection for my Sage pathway,  It is for the class held December 2, 2015

Reflection #2

Taking advantage of the "flexibility", here is XP Application #3

Also, link to updated Game Log 

Required Response: CH. 2 & # Play Between Worlds

While reading the chapters in Taylor’s “Play Between Worlds” which mainly discusses the game “EverQuest”, I was surprised at how similar her description of how EverQuest works is to how Final Fantasy XIV works.  Both games seem to have very similar ways of operating. My observations of how the FFXIV world operates come from my limited, yet intense experience in the game over the past three weeks.  As in Taylor’s observation of EverQuest, FFXIV seems to have two different types of players, the casual players and the power gamers.  The casual players are content to focus on exploring the worlds in a slower pace and taking part in more of the social aspects, not being as focused on achievements, whereas the power players are much more focused on achieving goals and XP.  I first noticed this during my very first days when I was trying to work my way around, but was having trouble figuring out certain aspects of the game.  I noticed that even though I’d come across a lot of different players in the game, they rarely stopped to do anything but talk to the next NPC who would give them the next quest.  Hanging out at an Atherite, I saw many people pop in and out very quickly without so much as a “hello”. 

I learned a lot about myself as a player while playing FFXIV. First of all, as I mentioned in my game logs, I found playing with others much more enjoyable than playing my indy game by myself. Another thing that stood out to me was how my attitude towards the game changed once I found out that I had to complete up to a certain level by last Wednesday in order to compete in the dungeons.  Prior to that point, I was blissfully doing sidequests, trying to learn how not to walk into walls, etc.  Once I found out I still had like 18 quests to do in 2 days, I went into hyper power-gamer-like mode.  I ignored everything that wasn’t a main story quest.  No longer did I do any fates, sidequests or random exploring.  I also hardly read any of the dialog in the cutscenes,  Instead, I clicked through them quickly and didn’t pay much attention to what was happening with the story.  I was focused only on getting to the levels I needed to get to.  I had fun doing the quests, but I did notice a huge change in how much I enjoyed it when I became the other kind of player.  I am looking forward to now having a more relaxed experience in the game.

The parameters of the game make it so you do not need to have the company of others to play and to challenge yourself.  I enjoyed doing the quests and reading the story levels, even when no one I knew was online.  Roaming around alone, I felt less pressure to perform, and it was fun just to experiment with different facets of the game.  There were times, however, that I would have liked the company of others.  I like the fact that you could play at any time, without having to be part of a team, which is different from some real-life games. 

Specifically in my case, my success REALLY relied on interplay and exchanges with others.  The mechanics of the game were very hard for me to master and I found myself often on the receiving end of deadly blows.   Having classmates around that could help me “revive” was very helpful!  I also benefitted from the experiences of others and frequently was able to ask questions of them.   Later, when I was very much concentrating on getting to the levels I need to get to in order to play with the class online for the dungeons, I took to randomly asking strangers to help me. I was pleasantly surprised at how many were willing to cover me while I fought and therefore helped me be successful.  I feel that part of this willingness was the fact that I was “marked” as a newbie with a little sprout icon by my avatar.   I am wondering how this will play out in the future, now that I am part of the “rank and file”.

In “A Play Between Worlds”, Taylor talks about some changes in the game of EverQuest that caused some of the interpersonal aspects of the game to be eliminated, such as the systems of “porting”.  With porting, it used to be that Wizards and Druids would be the only ones who could port other characters, but the game was changed to allow self-porting and the creation of a centralized transportation hub with NPC porters.  This took away the need for characters to interact with Druids and Wizards in order to get ported.  In Final Fantasy XIV, one can use Atherites to transport, so I imagine it is a similar system to that of EverQuest.   You don’t need to rely on others to get around.  Still, when a classmate offered to “teleport” me within the game, I happily accepted this. 

Taylor writes, "In a game like Everquest where the social aspects of the game drive its success and some of the pleasure derived from playing it, the relationship between design and culture, and the importance of understanding the ways those intersections feed into the game, cannot be understated" (65).  I interpret this to mean that you cannot simply be a solo player in this game.  Sure you can travel independently for the most part, but there are many aspects of the game that require interaction with other players.  The game is designed to make you interact for some quests that involve dungeons , guildhests, or to defeat the more powerful monsters..  Also, once you fully buy in to the social aspects of the game such as joining guilds, etc., then the game becomes more and more addictive. It is addictive not only because it is fun, but also because you begin to feel a certain level of loyalty to your guild and you play so as not to let them down.  

Memorable Educational Games Quest Response

An interesting experience that I had with games being used in the classroom was actually for a recent college class, Organizational Behavior. The class dealt with the study of how individuals and groups behave in certain ways within organizations. Because it is a class that is in the College of Business, the goal of the class was to learn how managers can influence these behaviors by understanding them, and thus find ways of increasing organizational performance. 

On maybe the second or third day of class, we arrived to the classroom and were told to get into our group project groups. Each group was then given a supply of spaghetti noodles and gumdrops. (Each group had the same number of spaghetti noodles and gumdrops, but I cannot remember what the number was, nor is it that important...the important thing was that each group had the same resources). We were told that we had 40 minutes to design and build a structure that should support the weight of old VHS tapes. There were a maximum of 8 VHS tapes that could be supported. Points would be given for the group that had the structure that could hold the most tapes, for the structure that was the most aesthetically pleasing, and for the structure that was the tallest. One extra credit point would be given to the high point earner in each category. There were also varying level of points within those categories, so that even if you were not the tallest structure, you might earn some measure of points for being the second or third tallest. The group that had the most total points would win 2 extra credit points in addition to any category points they had earned. During the building process, we were also to be observing how we interacted with one another. 

While we worked, patterns of behavior began to form. Leaders and followers emerged. Introverted and extroverted personalities were revealed. Differing strategies were bandied about. Some people thought that the best was to earn points was to build the tallest structure possible even at the expense of weakness in holding the tapes. Others went for the strongest structures, and still others went for the most beautiful structures. My groups strategy was to use the strength of triangles to build a sturdy structure, but it was not the best looking thing. We also tried to get some of the "tall" points by adding spaghetti noodle spires and flags. We conserved our resources by cutting our gumdrops in half using our student ID's. In the end our group won the strength category because our structure was able to hold up all 8 VHS tapes (and probably could have held one or two more had the professor had them). We also got a couple of the "tall" points, but the professor thought ours was ugly and gave us only 1 point for aesthetics, even though we felt our didn't look as bad as he said. We ended up only a few point shy of being the overall winner, but at least we did win the category. 

OUR WINNING CREATION IN THE "STRENGTH" CATEGORY

The game really stuck out in my memory because I can remember the competitive feeling that came upon my whole group. We were very serious about winning the 1 (or 3) extra credit points. So much so that some of my group members were very stressed out. It also stuck out in my memory because it was very fun and challenging even though so very simple. 

The game was a good way to show what can happen with group dynamics when they are thrown together in a competitive situation. This was a good game to draw parallels to real life organizational behavior. The professor referred back to our game several times during the semester when explaining different organizational behavior theories.

The game definitely helped me understand the material better, because it put a lot of the "theories" into simpler to understand examples. For example, when lecturing on the "five stage model of group development", we could see tie-ins in each stage as our group worked on the project, from the formative stages, to the "norming stage" where team members take on clear roles, to the "performing" stage where members focus on meeting their goals. 

FFXIV Game log in which Ambria is knocked out a few times and pants-less

GAME LOG IX

Game:  Final Fantasy 14

Day(s):  

November 4, 2015 Approximate times 10:30pm-1:30pm 3 hours

November 6, 2016 Approximate times 10:00pm-midnight 2  hours

November 8, 2015 0915-1015 1 hour

Hours of Play:  6 hours

Progression:  Leveled up to Level 5

11/4/2015  approximate times 10:30pm-1:30am  3 hours

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

After my last session only getting to level 1, after many hours of play, I started this session hoping to find some of the main story quests so I could level up faster. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find them on my own.  Luckily, Almira Rae, a friend of Shannon’s, helped me out a lot.  She showed me how to find the Archer guild and how to use <POS> to show where I was.  (This came in handy later)  Almira Rae also  helped me learn how to kill squirrels,, etc  before she headed off to bed.  I continued a bit with some fighting, but I ended up stuck between some rocks and and evil-looking tree came and ended up knocking me out.  

Knocked out!

Fortunately, Mitsuki Lunam was online and must have figured out that I was unconscious.  She contacted me and I used the newly learned< POS> to get her there, and she healed me.  At the end of this gameplay,  I finished two quests:  Way of the Archer and Population Control and while doing so leveled up to level 4!

11/6/2015 2 hours

This Session I spent about an hour just trying to figure out Discord.  After much assistance from classmates and my older son, we finally got it working and ready to play for the in-game class.  I stayed online a bit and played and I leveled up to level 5, but I ended up getting killed by some evil fly and was lying unconscious somewhere in the Central Shroud when I logged off.



Unconcious again!

11/8/2015  0900-1000 1 hour

When we last left Ambria, she was unconscious, having been killed by some giant bug fly looking thing.  Therefore my gameplay began by returning to Gridania.  Actually, my game play began by my searching online forums to see if I could find out what happened to my clothes.  I somehow, during the last session, lost my pants/leggings or whatever was on my legs before.  I lost them when I was trying to do the “Passing Muster” sidequest where I was support to assemble a respectable set of equipment.  Somehow while trying to do that, I must have hit a wrong button and now I am in underwear!  I’ll never “Pass muster” now!  I remember Danni complaining about this very thing, and now it seems I am also in that predicament.  

I know it is just an avatar, but I really feel stupid running around in my underwear.

I decided to see if I would find a player who might be able to help me with this predicament.  I found two players sitting on a bench, I waved to each of them in succession, but no response. AFK, I guess.  I went wandering around, and I noticed how there are much fewer people playing the game at 9am than in the evening!  I couldn’t find anyone to ask my question that want’ either AFK, or running really fast, working on a quest.  So I thought I'd just go ahead and work on a quest in my underwear and hopefully I’d run into someone while I was doing that.

I decided to again try the “Passing Muster” quest, after having looked online for a hint about where to buy the items that are needed.  I have no idea if I CAN buy the items because I don’t know if I have enough money, but I headed there just the same.  I used the map (I’m getting little better at that) and started traveling towards the Central Shroud.  I came to a gate and tried to go through, but I wasn’t able to.  I clicked on the guards and found that I wasn’t allowed to use this gate because I was still an “untested adventurer”.  Now I see the advantages of leveling up!  I guess the only way I can get there is to teleport.  I went try that, but OH NO!  My teleport spell was no longer listed on my hot bar.  I have no idea what happened to it.  Did I lose it when I was knocked unconscious?   Wait a minute, maybe I still have it, but it just isn’t on my bar.  I checked the character traits and low and behold, there it was. 

 

 I need to ask someone about these bars and how I should equip them.  I happily tried to teleport to the central shroud, but was told “Unable to teleport.  Insufficient gil.  Sigh.  I don’t even know what gil is, I feel like a traveler in a different country, not understanding the language. Is that why it was missing from my hot bar? 

I decided to travel back to the Aetheryte Plaza in Gridania and try getting there that way.  I’m not sure how I was previously in the Central Shroud but apparently I am not able to get there via Aetheryte now.  I wanted to do to Bentbranch Meadows Aetheryte, but that wasn’t one of my choices.  I couldn’t use teleport either because of my lack of gil, which I had since googled and found that it is “gold”.  I was sort of stuck, if I didn’t have enough gold to teleport than I certainly wouldn’t have enough gold to buy some pants.  I guess I have to find a way to get gold in order to continue and buy some pants!

Things I learned these days:

1. The social aspect of the game is crucial to learning it.  If I hadn't had the help of many classmates and Shannon's friend, I'd probably still be standing in New Gridania at level 1.  The expertise of the others both in learning the aspects of the game, healing me, and learning the technical aspects of getting set up on Discord, were indispensable to me.  My original question in the log about "do people not like to talk to Noobs" seems to be answered, because many people came to my aid over the past few days.  Maybe this was just because they knew me IRL, so I may still explore trying to talk with others who do not know me in game to see how that goes.

2.  Even though in your brain you KNOW that the avatar is just that, an avatar, it is still very hard to separate the fact that it is a fictional character when you are walking around in your underwear!  I really, really do not want my character to still be in my underwear during the online class, and so I hope to discover a way to remedy this before  Wednesday.

Lost in Girdania....my first two Final Fantasy Game Logs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YlLDD0YrOAGLfejMwEtaFA3wouKx9zyhCjCwTZ0pBG0/edit?usp=sharing

GAME LOG VII

Game:  Final Fantasy 14

Day:  November 1, 2015

Hours of Play:  8:50pm - 11:00pm (2.0  hours)

Progression:  Completed one quest..."Attained" Level I

Game Reflections: I created my character for the game a few days before.  I suppose I didn’t have much imagination because my character ended up to be much similar to my D&D character...an Elven Archer..  I actually didn’t do that on purpose at first, but somehow it ended up that way.  Therefore, I decided to give my character the same first name as my D&D character, Ambria.  As for the last name, however, I decided to shy away from that name because my husband thought that “Ambria Timberwood” sounded like the name of a porn star.  My character was said to be a cave dweller, and so I thought of Laurel Caverns in Western PA, where I had visited often when I was younger.  I took a form of that name and my Elf became Ambria Lura.  I thought it was a pretty good name and less adult-film actress-like.

I’ll admit that I had a lot of help just getting set up with the game.  My older son downloaded it for me and even made a file with little hints of how to access the game for when he wasn’t there. My other son, and class guru extraordinaire, helped me get the character created.  

Starting the game was exciting, the music and the graphics made it seem like I truly would be entering a different world.   I, well..Ambria, started out on a sort of flying wagon that was taking me to Gridania.  An old man, Bremondt, talked to me a little, giving me some of the background of the land I was heading towards. Gridania lies in the Black Shroud, in the Eorzea forest.

By this time, I had summoned a friendly Guru to help me out a bit.  I was provided with a headset by my older son, and he set me up to talk with Brad on “Curse”.  Brad was very patient and listened to my endless series of questions and comments:  “how do you do this?...why did it do that?...How do I find that?...”

My first task was to go to the Carline Canopy and register.  I had to speak with Mother Miounne and sign the book.  But since this was the simplest of tasks, I succeeded.

My next quest was the “Close to Home” quest which involved three tasks:  1)_ visit the aetheryle and touch the surface; 2) visit the Archers guild and 3) Visit the markets and Speak to Parsemontret.  

I was fortunate to have Floraline Adorim come and teleport to my location and she helped me get around a bit by letting me follow her.  But I couldn’t totally rely upon her because she could not see the quest that I was working on.  Still, it helped to have someone in game with me.  We played around with some of the “social” buttons, dancing, kneeling, cheering, and even hugging. (which was more like grasping thin air)             

   Me and Floraline

After over two hours, of which much was spent walking in circles and walking into walls or trees, I finally finished this very easy “Close to Home” quest!  Go me!

Things I learned today:

1. Taking on a new identity represented by your avatar is very easy in this game.  It is also easy to immerse yourself in the game and to forget that the avatars you are interacting with aren’t the real people.  When Floraline and I started using the social buttons and dancing etc, I considered her as Foraline….and I wanted to cheer for her, clap or give her the thumbs up, etc.  For a little while, I forgot who the real person was behind the character.  As Dr. Turkle points out, “When we step through the screen into virtual communities, we reconstruct our identities on the other side of the looking glass”.  In this way, I was able to shed my real world identity as “Mom” and project the personality of my character, and also I was able to visualize Floraline as Floraline, rather than my son.

2. I learned that both my sons are very patient.

GAME LOG VIII

Game:  Final Fantasy 14

Day:  November 3, 2015

Hours of Play:  11:00pm - 1:00am (2.0  hours )

Progression:  Completed two short quests:   A good Adventurer is Hard to Find and Coarse Correspondence (still level I)

Even though I played for two hours, the first hour was pretty much me just wandering around lost trying to do the Coarse Correspondence quest that I had accepted last session.  This game challenges some of my most lacking skills, mainly hand/eye coordination and map-reading!  So much of my time was spent walking in circles and walking into walls, trees, etc.

AMBRIA, Lost in the woods, walking into boulders

 I kept trying to use the maps to navigate, but it seemed the little blue arrow which represented me kept disappearing.  I was so frustrated because I just wanted to get to the place where I could complete the quest.  

Because I was frustrated, I decided to project my emotions onto my character in the game and see if maybe, just maybe someone in the general vicinity would respond and maybe help me out a bit.

First I tried out some emotes and I learned to sit.  I sat down, dejectedly in front of two girl characters and cried .  I thought maybe they’d ask me what was wrong, but they just stared at me.  I figured that their human counterparts, probably were not at the keyboard, but then, they crossed their arms and such.  But they never spoke.  They stared at me the entire time, while I tried the following emotes:  dissappointed, sulk, cry, change positions.  Finally I got up and one of the girls left. I went outside,walked into numerous walls and trees and then then came back in.  The other girl was still in the same position.  I went up to her and typed in “You still here?   She crossed her arms again, and just stared at me.  But then, she reached up with her hand and put her hair behind her ear in an almost flirting manner. This was getting weird!  

Another person entered near us.  He was wearing a skirt and some gloves.  I said "Nice outfit" But got no response.  I think that I need to learn the mechanics of speaking.  Or maybe people don't like to talk?  

I decided to go leave that gal, and go sit down where there was another person sitting.  I cried in front of her, no response. Another person came up and had a like a pet fairy.  The fairly flew near me and so I clapped for it and cheered.  The owner of the fairy thing "bowed courteously to me"  That was the first time I got a response from anyone and it was kind of fun!  

Somehow, I figured out how to navigate the map and found my way to the person who I was supposed to give the letter to.  Quest completed in the slowest time ever, I’m sure.

While I was hanging around the leatherworkers’ Guild,  a “guy” named Blair Morgan approached my general location.  He kneeled before me.  Hmmmm, what to do?  I quickly cycled through the emotes and chose “blush with embarrassment”.  Next thing I knew...friend request from him!  I actually decided to accept this friend request, but then he just ran off. Oh my!  Time to log off!

Things I learned today:

1. As I suspected from my time in Fable II, I much prefer playing games with real people rather than AI’s, so I think I’ll enjoy this game more than Fable.  Though I didn’t have much success with establishing any kind of relationships with any of the non-class member characters, it was fun to try.  I found myself wondering if there are game taboos that you should not do that I was doing.  For example, is it rude just to walk up to someone and stand or sit beside them?   Do experienced players avoid Noobs?

Halloween Party Character Sketch

I will be dressing as my character from D&D, Ambria, the wood elf.  My character sketch is pasted below 

 

Ambria Timberwind

                Ambria Timberwind awoke from her sleep, the drooping leaves of the willow tree swaying gently above her, as she blinked her azure blue eyes, and wiped the sleep out.  “Thank goodness”, she murmured to herself, “Another night over”.  Ambria hated the night.  Her greatest fear was darkness, although this had not always been so.  In her younger days, which were much happier times, the cycle of light and darkness was welcomed.  Her family made their living by farming, and so the daytime brought life-giving sun, while the darkness brought rest from the weary work of the day tilling the land.  But that was before “The Dark Curse”.  One summer, when Ambria was in her 10th year of life, her family’s village had been cursed by an evil warlock angry with the villagers for not providing him with the bulk of their crops.  So he set a curse upon the village that from that summer on, each year the sun would rise less and less over their lands.  Ambria’s fear of the darkness started then, as the sun shone less and less each day and the darkness signaled evil and death.  For 9 years, the darkness increased little by little and the villagers lived with the fear that soon their world would see no light at all.  The long nights of darkness eventually caused crops to die and farmers, including Ambria’s family, were unable to grow food for sustaining themselves or to sell.

                Ambria stood up and stretched her lean, muscular arms to the sky as she shook off the fear of the night.  Her shaggy chestnut-colored hair tumbled across her forehead, and she shook to get it out of her eyes.  She laughed to herself when she thought about how long it had been since she had cut it.  Since the curse until now, it had been over 10 years!  When she first started out on this journey a year ago at the age of 19, she tended to keep it in a long braid down her back, but now more often than not, she just let it go however it wanted to go. Ambria wasn’t what one would consider overtly beautiful, but she is attractive and outgoing and never lacked for friends or suitors in her world.  She could be considered a bit of a tomboy, but this did not make her unattractive to the opposite sex.  In fact, her adventurous nature was one that makes her popular with males and females alike.  She, however, is very choosy about who she befriends. 

                Grabbing her leather boots, she smoothed out her torn skirt a bit, tied a scarf around her waist and tightened up the ties of her corseted top.  She struggled a bit to pull on her boots over her swollen legs.  The daily travels have been taking their toll on her body.  Still, she feels strong.  Her strength is coming from her determination.

                Fully dressed, Ambria reached into her explorer’s pack and hummed a little to herself as she pulled out a small amount of bread that she had stolen from a nearby village.  She unwrapped it from the greasy cloth it was packed in and ate it quickly, savagely.  “I didn’t realize how hungry I was!” she said aloud.  Then, sadly, she realized how trivial these words were.  She remembered with great sadness the fate of Kryztatha, during the later years of the curse. 

                Kryztatha was Ambria’s younger sister, and along with their two brothers Jovin and Dairenz, lived with their parents in the village.  During the later years of the curse, when their farm began to produce fewer and fewer crops and more and more villagers were facing illness and starvation,  Jovin and Dairenz, decided to leave the village in order to seek out food or a better way of life.  They fully intended to come back and rescue their other family members, including Ambria, their mother and father and their sister Kyrztatha.  However, while they were gone, the situation got worse and worse, and Kyrztatha, much to Ambria’s horror, had starved to death.  Distraught, Ambria and her parents decided they couldn’t afford to wait any longer for Jovin and Dairenz to return, and thus they set out on their own.  Unfortunately, the journey was too much for Ambria’s parents and along the way, they perished.  This left Ambria on her own to seek refuge, and also to search for her brothers in hopes that they would be reunited.  Ultimately, she hopes to join forces with them in order to lift the curse that is on their village and take the evil warlock out of power. 

                Ambria felt the tears burning on her cheeks as she remembered the loss of her family.  This was truly her greatest failure in life: that she was unable to save her sister or her parents.  As she remembers them, she grasped the amber pendant that hung from her neck.  When Ambria was born, her parents had named her after the gemstone, Amber, and as a gift, they fashioned an amber necklace, bound in gold, that she has worn since birth on.  The amber, which has many spiritual and natural healing properties, helps to give Ambria clarity in her pursuits and guides her along life’s paths.  Having this treasure from her parents keeps her focused on what she has set out to do.  Touching it brings her moments of solace.    

                But there’s no time for solace now! “I need to get on my way, “ Ambria stated boldly, and her words were carried off into the crisp autumn air.  She grabbed her pack, glanced inside and made sure that her thief’s tools were stowed away within.  She smiled when she thought of what she had become.  She was such a good girl growing up, but circumstances had changed her.  Now, though her inner being was still good and true, she often found that she must summon the dishonest and sneaky part of her nature in order to survive.  In her heart, she feels that these small changes are justified in order to combat the overall evil that she faces.  Though Ambria lives with the heartache of the loss of her family, she is also filled with an angry determination to find out the weakness in the warlock’s curse, so that she can help end the curse forever.  She is optimistic that she will meet up with her brothers and they will again be a family and can avenge the deaths of their sister and parents.  And Ambria is not afraid to break the rules—especially rules she feels are unjust-- to do so.

                  She strapped on her bow and quiver, making a mental note of how few arrows she had left.  “Hopefullly, I won’t need them today!”, she thought to herself.  But her optimism was a farce.  She knew that danger lay ahead, as it had for many days prior.  She would rely on her cunning and skill to survive the day.  She tucked her two daggers into her boots and her short sword, whose handle was also adorned with her namesake amber, into the scarf around her waist.  Lifting her pack onto her back, she prepared for another long day’s journey.

                 “Onward, then!  ” she said cheerfully to herself…more cheerfully than she really felt, and she set out on her way. 

 

GREAT SCOTT! It's XP Application #2

 GREAT SCOTT!!  It's XP Application #2