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?