Month: February 2017

I began using the Pokémon Go app for the very first time with a basic understanding of how it works. When I was abroad in Ireland during the summer, I watched a couple of my friends play Pokémon Go when we walked around the city of Galway. Nowadays only a few of my friends still play the game.

When I first downloaded the app on my smartphone, I was able to customize my avatar and noticed that the player has two options: male or female with light skin tones. I also noted that customization is limited to a few clothing items, unless you make purchases through the app.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to interact with the Pokémon. When the app asked for permission to take photos and access my media file, I denied it. So when I tried to catch the Pokémon, the app crashed. I didn’t realize that the app needed that permission, so the issue resurfaced after I reinstalled it. After talking about Pokémon Go with some classmates, I realized that I had to grant the game that permission. Once I did that, I was finally able to catch Pokémon.

I wonder why the game doesn’t just use a unisex avatar with a spectrum of hairstyles/lengths, skin tones, and clothing in customization. From what I’ve noticed, thee player watches their selected avatar walk around a map and reflect their own position. They mainly see the back of their avatar as it moves.

Unlike multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, the avatar doesn’t have a significant role in the game. Identity can’t really be reflected by the avatar, and yet the player receives two choices regarding the avatar’s sex instead of a unisex character with a variety of clothing options. The article “Blackless Fantasy” presents the importance of having accurate racial representation in games. To achieve that, the video game has to offer space for players from different backgrounds and genders. Pokémon Go doesn’t achieve that, even though the avatar has the simple role of showing where the player is headed on a map. It’s designed for a particular audience, which excludes a black audience. I think Pokémon Go could improve and become more inclusive by using avatars that don’t only present a binary gender or one specific skin tone.

 

Device: Laptop
Location: Bedroom
Time: 1 hour

I spent some time in the Undercity after “translocating” back to the world of the Undead. I rode a bat back to Brill, a nearby town, to work on some more side quests. I met a Dwarf named Crispin who gave me a couple of them. I didn’t do very much exploring during my last session except reach level ten. I played for thirty minutes, took a break, and then returned for another thirty.

The World of Warcraft game has noticeably prospered since it was released in 2004 probably due to its broad appeal. It’s appealing for anyone teenage or older because of the variety in characters and stylization. Even though the avatars are confined to binary sex, they are not constricted by gender in the game world (unless it involves other players). Without the constrictions of a set narrative, the game offers the option to explore without flashback scenes or mandatory check-points. The player has the freedom to progress through side quests or ignore it all together and simply explore.

The article about the under-representations of gender, race, and age in video games by Williams shows that video games don’t have proportional characters that appear in the population. White male characters are the most common characters in video games. World of Warcraft avoids pushing a specific race as the best one, but at the same time, it doesn’t offer an equal platform for each race in the game. There’s still an over-representation of whiteness through the limited skin color stylization, as I mentioned in the previous session.

In World of Warcraft, I also noticed that all of the characters are adults. There doesn’t seem to be an option for children, teens, or the elderly. I don’t personally find this problematic. Age can become an issue in the multiplayer game, especially since it there could be a higher chance of pedophilia issues. Letting a middle age man control a little girl avatar would be problematic. Having a set age seems to level the playing field. I wonder if teen or children avatars in World of Warcraft would have a lower set of skills than the adult and elderly ones.

Overall, I’ve had the most fun immersing myself in this game thus far.

Device: Laptop
Time: 1 hour
Location: Bedroom

During this session, I accidentally entered another world. I clicked on a glowing object that looked interesting and translocated to a place called Shermoon City. It was a bright, happy orange and populated mainly by blood elves. I noticed that the chat section was more active than I’d previously seen. Players were trying to find guilds or looking for recruits that could join and play at certain times a week. When I interacted with the elves, they greeted and said goodbye in English as well as their own language. After speaking to a Tauren and an orc, I noticed that they didn’t have a secondary language. I wonder if World of Warcraft elevates certain races among others through language.

It made me think of how J. R. R. Tolkien spent a lot of time crafting the language of the elves into something flowing and beautiful while the orc tongue received much less attention. The Blackless Fantasy article by Higgin discusses the treatment of Black characters in multiplayer role-playing games and the treatment of race in Lord of the Rings. Those books present the conflict between stark white (dwarves, elves, men) versus black races (orcs, South Men of the Mountains). Ultimately, the white races win. But how does World of Warcraft treat race?

The humans, dwarves, and elves all have a standard light skin tone which can be altered by the player. However, the skin tones only darken to a tan. It has a limited range, which unfortunately excludes representation for Black players. They can’t recreate themselves in an avatar other than the non-humanoid races through appearance. White dominance affects the more humanoid races, such as the elves and the dwarves rather than the Tuaren or the wolf-like creatures. The skin color detail within customization marginalizes Black representation even though there are several race options since it’s such a constructed, inculcated identifier of race in society. That construction of race also appears in this game world.

I noticed that the game developers borrowed accents and dances from specific cultures for the various races. For example, the Taurans express a similar relationship to the earth as Native Americans do and that doesn’t seem ethical. The game developers gave a race with mostly animal features the same beliefs as a marginalized race. Does representing them in this way as a race in the multiplayer video game empower the culture they appropriated from or simplify it? I think an argument can be made for both sides.

Device: Laptop
Location: Bedroom
Time: 1 hour

I actually tried to help out another player against two of his/her/their enemies. The player was alone and fighting two game characters at once. I clicked on the attackers but for some reason, I wasn’t able to shoot them with my arrows. I noticed that in the chat section, some of the players in Dalaran were chatting with each other. Someone said “what’s up” and another player responded with “deez nuts”. I posted “omigod” into the chat as a response. Either the previous comment or my own got an “lol” from another player. During this session, I re-encountered a game character named Lilian and unwittingly administered poison to a dwarf prison before my computer shut down due to low battery power.

In the last blog post, I expressed an interest in different aspects of the World of Warcraft world as well as a set focus on rising in level (I reached level eight in this session). This time around, I realized that I’ve been acting as a socialist player type in this session as well as in the second session. When I played the game with Alyssa, I soaked some of her gamer knowledge. I took time to interact with the players in this session, however I don’t find them more interesting than the game world . . . yet. I have a theory that the longer I play this game, the more I’ll want to bond with other players and lose my focus on interacting with the world.

Anyhow, I noticed that one of the characters I met during my first thirty minutes with World of Warcraft reappears a couple times. I met an Undead named Lilian. For one of my first quests, I had to approach her and convince her that she’s dead. For the second quest involving her, I used a mirror as proof that she’s no longer a living, breathing person. During this session, I saw Lilian encaged and destined for certain death. My friend Alyssa even mentioned her when we played together. Apparently, Lilian has a sad story, which I have the opportunity to see unravel. I would classify this as an embedded narrative since I’ve progressively learned more about her.

Time: 1 hour
Device: Laptop
Location: Bedroom

I died twice in this session. I was killed by two human pumpkin farmers and I somehow lost my spider pet. In the ghost world, I had to hunt down my body in order to return to the game. The second time I died, I was killed by a couple dogs during a quest. After that, I took a break, and then returned to my side quest which involved looking for specific flowers. I completed all of the flowers and then got stuck in rugged terrain. I accidentally jumped to the bottom of a steep hill and couldn’t move out of that one spot. Luckily, I was able to transport myself somewhere else with a hearthstone.

Out of the four distinct player categories defined in Bartle’s article from class, I consider myself a combination of an achiever and an explorer. During these three sessions, I’ve avoided interacting with other players and focused almost entirely on completing each assigned quest. So far, the side quests generally involved gathering plants or killing specific Undead characters (and creatures). I enjoy collecting items for some reason, which is why I consider myself an achiever. I’m more interested in acting on and with the world instead of the surrounding players. Outside of playing the game with my friend Alyssa, I haven’t tried to socialize and no one has tried to socialize with me (thankfully).

I’ve spent some time exploring the different towns and found some fascinating objects. I saw some sort of electricity generator with a skull (it might have something to do with magic). The picture blow shows this strange construction. I clicked on the object but I couldn’t interact with it. I wonder if a mage / magic user can interact with it.

In the sky, I noticed that a giant air balloon shaped like a shark would go by. I found it rather amusing. Why a shark with yellow eyes?
 

Location: Bedroom
Device: Laptop
Time: 1 hour

During this session, I played World of Warcraft with my childhood friend named Alyssa. She’s played the game for about seven years and regularly plays it with her guild. Alyssa created a night elf mage and joined my server. She quickly leveled up to five, which was my current standing, and we roamed around one of the towns. Alyssa showed me where to sell items, that I could make my avatar dance, and what dueling between two players is like. We dueled each other briefly. Before playing the game with Alyssa, I didn’t socialize with any of the other avatars.

When I selected the dance command, my undead avatar danced like a punk rock star. He banged his head, made the hand sign synonymous with rock music, and even played the air guitar. He even grabbed his crotch as part of the dance. My friend made her avatar dance as well, which looked very graceful in comparison. The night elf made controlled, flowy movements with her arms. My friend selected a “flirt” command and I couldn’t find the command for my character. I don’t know if that was because my character is male and flirting isn’t part of the male stereotype or if both sexes in the night elf race have that as an option. However, the dances seem to be assigned based on sex and the stereotypes that surround being male or female. I looked up a video on YouTube showing the dances for all of the races. I noticed that most of the male dances involve crotch grabbing and the female dances have flowing movement and/or hip action.

According to Judith Butler’s article on performative acts and gender constitution, “gender is instituted through the stylization of the body” (519). With World of Warcraft, I can stylize my character depending on sex. It almost seems like the player can extend or even create their own identity with the avatar since there are so many options in regards to race and skillset. I can almost make the character my own through customization. Because the avatar’s sex doesn’t impact progression within the game, it seems as though I can institute whatever gender I please. The fact that the dances have distinct movements based on sex implies that the game enforces gender.

Location: Bedroom
Device: Laptop
Time: 1 hour

I spent about five or more minutes forming a character. The hardest part was choosing the race and the skill set. I ultimately decided to be a male undead creature instead of an elf or the wolf one. I selected the hunter skill set since I liked the idea of having a pet. I named my avatar Razeberk and entered the world of Dalaran with a pet spider. I started completing the quests in the undead world while figuring out how to easily move around with a touchpad and a keyboard. It wasn’t too difficult to control my avatar.

I found my role in the game similar to a game I’ve been playing from 2005 called Fate which can be multi-player or single player (I’ve only experienced the latter). Like World of Warcraft, Fate similarly offers either male or female as the avatar’s sex and the option to change facial features. You have the option of choosing a cat or a dog as a pet for the avatar’s companion (you can also change your pet into any creature of your liking depending on what magic fish you feed it). Most of the time you spend playing the game is set in the dungeon. You and your pet basically fight an assortment of creatures, from rats to griffons.

Unlike World of Warcraft, Fate introduces a set goal: you have to reach a certain level and challenge Fate itself in addition to various side quests (I haven’t reached that point yet). It seems like World of Warcraft offers a wide range of quests from collecting herbs to engaging in battle. There doesn’t seem to be an overall goal other than the ones you make for yourself.

So far, it seems like World of Warcraft is an enacting narrative, according to the definitions provided by Henry Jenkins’ article titled Game Design As Narrative Architecture. It focuses more on performance than exposition, since the game-play doesn’t surround a set narrative or follow a sequence of events. It seems like this game offers environmental storytelling. In the world of my avatar, I’m provided with backstory about the Dark Lady and an ongoing war which I am now part of. I’m interested in seeing if there are any embedded narratives concerning some of the characters I’ve interacted with during these quests.

Location: Same as before
Device: Same as before
Time: 50 minutes

I followed Scott Waldron’s (the youtuber I mentioned) walk-through of Zork I and found the skeleton key in the maze. It didn’t even occur to me that I could go up, not just North, West, or South. Without a specific set of commands, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the maze or find the Cyclops Room. I would’ve found myself lost just like the five (or more) other times I tried leaving the maze. In the room, I encountered a cyclops and tried killing him with my sword, which had no effect on the creature except making it angry. Through watching Waldron’s playthrough, I was able to scare the cyclops away by stating “odysseus” instead of trying to kill it multiple times. I probably would have been crushed by the creature without that specific command.

I found Zork frustrating, but not as much as Civilizations. Having an easily accessible manual made my own play-through less challenging than it could have been. The manual provided a historic background behind the game’s structure, which leads me to believe that Zork I has an embedded narrative. I found a pamphlet and a matchbook that gave information about the city described in the manual. They both built on the description of a lost city and enrich that storyline. At the same time, Zork is also an emergent narrative since you create your own story based on how you progress. However, I don’t have the ability to develop my character within the game and I’m restricted to solving one puzzle at a time to reach different locations. Without completing the puzzles, I can’t find the treasures hidden at the various locations and ultimately finish the game. I was able to find a jeweled bracelet, a gem egg, and a bag of coins which was only a few of the times available for collecting.

Location: Bedroom
Time: 1 hour
Device: Laptop

I restarted the game from a previous save point, before the game malfunctioned. During this session, I accidentally entered the bat room for the second time. The bat transported me to a ladder which was a new location for me. The ladder led to familiar areas, which surprised me since I thought that I had explored everything. Even though I’ve drawn a map as an aide for navigating through Zork, I still get a little lost. I often re-view the descriptions of the rooms I’ve entered before.

After referring to the same youtuber I referred to in the first or second session, I realized that I missed a lot rooms and left most of the puzzles unsolved which wasn’t a heartening discovery. I also discovered that he was referring to some notes while easily moving from one specific location to the next. I wonder how much time it takes for the standard individual with some general gaming experience to obtain a familiarity with how to play Zork. I’ve spent a few hours exploring this game with not much more than a basic understanding of how it works.

I noticed that within each of the rooms I entered, there were very specific descriptions. For instance, at the dam, the text describes a control panel with a bolt that has a “small green plastic bubble”. This object seems significant due to its specific description but at the same time, I’m not sure why the bubble would be important. I tried touching it, to no avail. I wasn’t sure how to approach solving the mystery behind its function. The bubble doesn’t offer any hints as to where I could use it or with what, like most of the objects I come across in this game.

 

Location: Bedroom
Device: Computer
Time: 1 hour

I continued from my last save point and received continuous notifications about my lamp getting dimmer. While I was in the maze, I decided to turn it off, which was a bad idea. I was immediately killed by a grue. I returned to a previous save point and kept the lantern on but unfortunately, I ran out of light in the sample place I was before.

Then the game stopped. Zork wouldn’t accept any of my commands. At one point in the game, I left my computer asleep and the Zork webpage open in-between commands. Perhaps that’s why it malfunctioned. When a game malfunctions, is it in a state of pure process as described by the article titled Gamic Action, Four Moments? Does the machine execute an ambience act just like when it pauses? It seems to me that in this game, there’s a state of pure process between each command. Movement within the game only occurs when I give a command.

The picture below shows the moment of confusion I had with the game when it stopped.

Perhaps the game was still at a functional capacity since it responded to my commands with text. At the same time, the game didn’t react to my requests other than calling them illegal commands. I couldn’t save or restore. I don’t think that the game was in a state of rest due to the fact that it reacted to outside stimulus from me as the operator, to an extent. Normally, those commands are accepted within the game and allow progression. I couldn’t make any movements either, which I found frustrating. This could have also occurred due to an internal system error. I haven’t experienced any other technical issues in this game besides what I just described. I hope the game functions without issues in the next two sessions.