Category: Uncategorized

During the weekend, I tried playing Pokémon Go while it was sunny outside and walked to Hendrick’s Park with one of my friends. I tried tapping on one of the Pokémon stops along the way and couldn’t access the items due to a sudden lack of internet connection. There weren’t many stops along the way to this park, unfortunately. There was a lot more at Riverfront Park probably because it’s more well-known. The most exciting moment I had while playing Pokémon Go, overall, was seeing one of the eggs hatch. A Pollywog was born, which was rather anti-climactic since I had already captured one of those at that point. The slogan for Pokémon Go is: “Gotta catch ‘em all” but no, you really don’t. It may be encouraged but it’s not mandatory. I think that if you catch enough of one type of Pokémon, you can level one of them up. I haven’t bothered to try it. Whenever I collect more than one type of Pokémon, it’s usually because I think it looks cool.

This game was the most infuriating one that I’ve played for the class. I found Pokémon Go more of an inconvenience than anything else. The player has to go out of their way (to the stops for balls and berries) to progress through the game without an end goal. Most of the time I couldn’t even open the app. I’m curious to see if the game will become more popular during the summer. When it first released, the app was a hit but I don’t think it will be as widely played partly due to the crashing and partly due to the loss of novelty. The updates can only do so much. I wouldn’t recommend Pokémon Go to a friend mainly because I’m so frustrated with it.

I walked to the Riverfront Park after class by myself, to catch Pokémon along the river. One of my friends told me that when she played the app over the summer, she found aquatic Pokémon by water features. I spent about fifteen minutes trying to login to Pokémon Go. The app said that it didn’t recognize my account and requested that I try again or try a different account several times. I used more data than Wi-Fi as I played the game. For some reason, that works better. I successfully found a few Pokémon that I’d never seen before and captured them. I collected more Poke balls from the stops / landmarks than ever before and achieved level ten.

The article “Gamification and Post-Fordist Capitalism” presents gamification as a form of manipulation. It makes something mundane appealing and enjoyable. For instance, Pokémon Go makes exercise like walking a fun, diverting experience. In this case, walking is gamified and encouraged through the phone app. This is both positive and negative. I’ve seen videos where Pokémon Go helped little kids at the hospital be active and have fun. I’ve also heard stories about people almost getting hit by a car because they were playing the game and not paying attention to their surroundings.

I noticed that when the app boots up, the reminder to be alert at all times appears first before the game begins. I usually heeded that warning. When I played the game at the park, I was walking in the middle of a paved footpath when I looked up to see a bright light. In a couple seconds I observed that the light was coming from a bicyclist’s helmet. I got a gruff and loud “right in front of you” before I quickly moved to the side. This app can definitely be a dangerous distraction, especially if the player isn’t paying enough attention to the world outside of the game.
 

I played Pokémon Go between classes on campus and paused at several stops to collect more of those balls for catching Pokémon. I noticed that if you click on the stop and an image doesn’t surface, you generally won’t be able to collect any items. Sometimes you have to wait for the image to appear before swiping the phone screen and then tapping the bubbles of berries or potions. I’m not sure what the potions are for.

While I walked from class to my apartment, I was transporting a box on my scooter and playing the game at the same time. It didn’t really work, I couldn’t catch Pokémon and walk with the scooter at the same time. I had to stop every so often to catch one of the creatures or go out of my way to reach a Pokémon stop. In order to play Pokémon Go effectively, it seems like you need to go out with that as your only activity while walking.

Under the lens of aesthetics from the article “MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research,” this game has a fantasy and a competition component. The player engages with creatures that don’t exist and eventually fight other players in the gyms. I personally found this game interesting because of the diverse, changing amount of Pokémon. I noticed that whenever I consecutively stopped at a Pokémon stop or captured my first creature of the day, the app would tell me that I was continuing a four-day (or more) streak. I think the app could improve by including some sort of reward after a certain amount of streaks. The player could receive a bunch of golden coins (I don’t know how to collect those, perhaps they need to be purchased) and that would make the game more fun. Pokémon Go would be a lot more fun if the crashing issues could be fixed since they affect the accessibility as well as the mechanics of the game. They deter me from trying to play Pokémon Go more often.
 

So far, I’ve encountered some sort of issue every time I’ve tried to play Pokémon Go outside of the apartment. Usually the app crashes or refuses to function after I open it or it refuses to work at all. I walked not too far from where I live today while trying to access the app when it started drizzling. After I opened the app, it reported that there was not enough data on the server and I needed to log in to my account. After the first time I tried logging in, the app claimed that it didn’t recognize the account even though it worked a couple hours before. I’m getting more and more peeved at Pokémon Go and the complications that arise when I try to play it. Either there’s no internet connection, no GPS signal, not enough data from the server, or I have to log back into my account. Whenever I try logging back into Pokémon Go, the app tells me that I need to retry. I complained about the game to one of my friends, and she said that the crashing is why she stopped playing it.

I recall that this game was overwhelmingly popular during the summer even though the app crashed a lot in the U.S. because so many people were playing it at the same time. It’s not as widely used now, probably because of the fact that it continues to malfunction so much and due to the cold weather (on the west coast of the U.S, anyway).

Pokémon Go has an interesting amalgamation between diegetic and nondiegetic action. The player engages with creatures on the app, which holds a digital space that incorporates the player’s surroundings. There’s diegetic action in the music and the sounds that plays while interacting with Pokémon. Would actions that happen outside of the app while playing it be considered non-diegetic, like a person crossing the street behind one of the Pokémon? It seems like Pokémon Go merges the virtual world with the outside world that we understand as reality. I suppose this combination is in fact part of diegetic action since the experience lies in the app.
 

I played the Pokémon Go app on my phone throughout the day and came to the conclusion that I have the best luck in my apartment, which is right next to a gym at a cafe. Every so often I can open up the app in my bedroom and see if there are any new Pokémon around. One or two usually pop up. I’m not sure what the benefits are of catching multiple duplicates of the same Pokémon so I’ve just been focusing on catching new ones. I tried playing the game to and from a restaurant later with my friend in the evening when it snowed. It was so cold I had trouble flicking Pokémon balls on the wet screen.

I noticed that Pokémon Go doesn’t have any narratives. There’s no emergent narrative or otherwise surrounding the avatar / the Pokémon. I didn’t spend my childhood collecting Pokémon cards or playing a Nintendo so I might be unaware of the stories that may surround the different creatures. I’ve seen people cosplay as the male avatar character with the red Pokémon balls and I knew what Pikachu looked like before I started playing the game. I get the feeling like I’m missing out something.

Pokémon Go seems to function as a simulation without any narratives. The objective of the game is to catch Pokémon anywhere outside through an accessible app. There are set conditions and an education of rules in the beginning through text and the image of a character. After that, the player is free to wander around with or without interacting with the creatures that pop up. The slogan “gotta catch ‘em all” promotes a specific behavior, which the chapter “Simulation versus Narrative” by Gonzalo Frasca mentions as part of what simulation incorporates (237). Including an emergent narrative or an embedded narrative would potentially hinder the game’s success in addition to its internal issues (which I will elaborate on in the next blog).

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?