Relationship-Building 101: Gaming?

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a big gamer. I mean, I’ve definitely played my fair share of games, that is if you include games like Candy Crush, Roblox, or even the occasional Call of Duty. I am by no means good at any of these, however, and I only began playing because of recommendations from friends or family.

A family friend developed an obsession with the mobile app, Candy Crush Saga–an obsession that soon took over my household. For the next few months, my mom and I were constantly competing, seeing which one of us could surpass levels at a faster rate and make it farther down the candy path. Later, after the Xbox came out, my brother tried to teach me how to play console games, but gave up when he realized I just wasn’t going to learn. When each round became difficult, I routinely handed over the controller to my brother in hopes of him passing the level for me. After I realized console games weren’t for me, my younger cousins introduced me to Roblox, an online platform that allows users to not only create games, but also play games created by other users. At every family function, six of my cousins and I would gather together in a room to decide which Roblox game we would conquer next. It seemed like there was a game for every occasion because Roblox housed a wide array of selections including obstacle courses, role-playing fantasy games, first-person shooter games, and even town and city games. 

From Fashion Famous to Flee the Facility to Superhero Tycoon, every game had an entirely different narrative and end goal. In Fashion Famous, players had 3 minutes to dress their character in an outfit that best corresponds to their given theme. Then players would walk down a runway for judges. Getting higher ratings on your outfits allowed you to climb through levels and unlock new accessories.

Switching gears entirely, Flee the Facility allowed five players to play in a server, randomly picking one to be the beast and the rest to be survivors. Survivors were responsible for traveling through the domain to hack computers and open an exit before the beast found and captured them. Superhero Tycoon, on the other hand, enabled players to pick a superhero and build a tycoon by buying droppers that make money. As players build their house and acquire weapons, they can attack other players and steal their gears.

I’ve played each of these games, and many more, for hours on end. Though I’m not a big gamer, I’ve found that I have connected a lot with people through gaming. Even if it was as simple as losing to my brother in Call of Duty, or basking over my victory in Candy Crush to my mom, or even calling my cousins every night to play Roblox, I strengthened my bond with the people I played with.

The competitive nature that games provide enables players to interact with others and provides a foundation for a relationship to further develop. Often, gaming has a negative stigma as people believe it reduces social interaction or is only meant for children. But, in my experience, gaming is what enabled me to enhance my relationships with loved ones by giving us a common interest through which we could work together or compete in order to achieve a particular goal. It’s funny to think that my close bond with my cousins can be attributed to a newfound Roblox obsession. If you’ve ever played Roblox or have any game suggestions, let me know and I’ll be sure to mention it at my next family event!

-Riya Patel

Pokemon Showdown: The Underground Community of Smogon University

We’ve all played a Pokemon video game before. The iconic franchise started with Pokemon Red and Green in 1996 and has since spawned eight generations of video games, a theme park in Japan, and countless Pokemon cards cherished by 8-year-olds around the globe.

Pokemon Red and Green were originally released in Japan in 1996 for the Game Boy console.

For the past 25 years, Pokemon video games have all followed the same formula:

1. Receive a starter Pokemon.
2. Battle other Pokemon trainers to increase the level of your Pokemon, including bosses called “Gym Leaders” along the way.
3. Defeat the final boss, the “Champion” of the region.
4. The End…?

Classically, every Pokemon video game starts with a battle between the player’s starter Pokemon and his or her rival’s (the in-game archnememy) level 5 starter Pokemon.

For me personally, the model has gotten stale for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Pokemon games are non-competitive; players are mostly self-contained within their own environment and the infrastructure within the game to battle other humans is mediocre at best. Secondly, the “leveling grind” to level your Pokemon to the maximum level of 100 is mind-numbingly boring. Here’s some context: a Pokemon requires approximately 1 million experience points to reach level 100. Defeating the average wild Pokemon, which takes 30 sec-1 min, will grant approximately 500 experience points…yeah. You can do the math. To many of us, these games just start to feel a little old.

I don’t know how long it took this person to get Rhydon to level 100, but it was probably too long.

Enter: Pokemon Showdown.

The days of leveling up Pokemon and defeating pre-programmed NPC’s are no more. In the span of 5 minutes, you can visit play.pokemonshowdown.com, customize a team of Pokemon by level, move set, and other traits, and then engage in battle with another user who has done the same. The Internet is truly amazing.

Gameplay of a battle with another user on Pokemon Showdown.

What impresses me so much about the Pokemon Showdown community is how creative it is. TPCI (The Pokemon Company International) created a competition circuit revolving around the official Pokemon games, but Pokemon Showdown has them beat by a landslide in popularity. Members of the Pokemon Showdown community have converged to an online forum dubbed, “Smogon University” to create their own rulesets, ban lists, and tournaments completely separate from the official Pokemon ones.

Smogon University forums: a repository of advice, competitive Pokemon battling resources, and friends.

Pokemon Showdown appeals to even casual Pokemon fans. There is a game mode named, “Random battle” where a team of Pokemon will be automatically generated for you to play against another player with a similarly random generated team. My roommate and I often take advantage of this mode during late nights, or particularly boring Zoom lectures. Further, many more artistically talented members of the community have resorted to creating their own Pokemon, complete with art, move sets, and other data given to real Pokemon. Pokemon Showdown even has a game mode called “CAP” (“Create-A-Pokemon”), made specifically for competitive battling using both real Pokemon and these fake Pokemon, something I think is really beautiful and indicative of both the community’s creative spirit and competitive drive.

“Necturna” and “Syclant” are just two examples of Pokemon that were 100% designed, balanced, and created for Pokemon Showdown. Made by the community, made for the community.

So next time you are about to switch on your Nintendo console to level another Pokemon to level 100, think again. An underground, community-generated world is available to you within just a few quick clicks of a mouse. See you on Pokemon Showdown!

Oh, and here’s a quick guide to Pokemon Showdown if you are interested:

A guide to Pokemon Showdown by a popular youtuber, “PokeaimMD”.

Form and Function

Admittedly, I am a total newbie when it comes to gaming. Seriously.. I’m the kind of person whose experience with games stops with Mario cart and scoops for my iPhone. So when I jettisoned myself out of reality and into the world of gaming by downloading the game Braid, I was skeptical as to if I would have even the minimal amount of fine motor control to successfully play the game, let alone be able to enjoy it.

 

Luckily for me, Braid is the kind of game that is totally transformative. I found myself lost in the aesthetic beauty that appeared on the screen as it whisked the hero, Tim, and me to a fictional and imaginative land. It is the very visual appeal of this game that makes all the difference, as well as works in conjunction with the fiction of the game to elevate and transform the narrative.

 

The backdrop of the game is striking. It’s like being inside one of Monet’s masterpieces. The highly impressionistic setting is important because it lends itself to the creating the element imagination that so many gamers enjoy. I am personally in the camp with the game theorists that believe that the fiction and landscape of the game space are more than just decoration to the game’s rules, but rather are a part of entire gaming experience where form and function come together and help inform one another. I’d like to think that the creator, Jonathan Blow, is too. The game creates a cohesive theme of two-dimensionality within the landscape and the rules of the game that I assume help to enhance the narrative, but I’m not really sure yet. Don’t worry, guys, no spoilers here: it took me many hours and lots of help just to figure out the basics of how to play the game, and I still can’t figure out how to properly utilize the monsters to get more height… However, I assume that when I finally get to the end and have the whole story figured out (I can’t bring myself to read ahead on Wikipedia), this theme of two-dimensionality is going to tie-in some how.

 

Now, while the visual background to the game is exceedingly exquisite, I can’t get over Tim’s chic and streamlined menswear look. I love how his conservative and prep school-ish ensemble stands in direct opposition of his environment. Where a normal game maker might design a charter’s wardrobe to fit the theme of his surroundings, Tim’s outfit stands in stark contrast of it. However, his navy blazer and khakis don’t pull me out of the game, but rather help me to relate to Tim because he looks just as lost in this game as I feel. But actually, Tim’s outfit gives an ironic sense of realism to a game that plays with the concept of time and looks more like a painting than reality. And with class just starting back, the timing of discovering Tim’s outfit couldn’t be more perfect! With his navy blazer and khakis, he looks so ready to hit the books.

 

Here, I’ve made this ensemble more ladylike by incorporating my favorite brown leather Christian Louboutin wedges to keep the outfit from looking too masculine. This Brooks Brothers navy wool blazer and white (wrinkle-resistant!) button down and J Crew tailored khakis keep the look true to Tim. Of course, I had to include a braid as a tribute to the game itself. Now that I look the part, maybe I can figure out how to actually win!

 

-Sparling Wilson

A N00b Experience: From a LOTRO First Timer

My first experience with LOTRO kept me in a trance for about 3 hours. I signed on to the game after class thinking that getting pass the intro was going to be quick. Click -> to look left and click <- to look right, and use the up arrow to “Jump”. I was completely wrong. The Intro immerses you into the game right off the back allowing you to learn how to do all the movements while also teaching you how to accept quests, speak to people within the game, and fight off enemies.

I have a slight obsessive personality and can be quickly sucked into anything video games, television shows,movies therefore; I try to keep away from anything that will completely take me over because I am in school and homework has to be done. But now homework requires me to become “half-real” while playing LOTRO. I have played well into the night passed the intro, leveled up to 8, and dying continuously trying to fight off mobs. Even though, I think that I am a failure at this game because I can’t seem to beat any quests I find myself getting on randomly and even bringing the game up in conversation with my roommate.

I was not completely at ease in the virtual world even though it was kind of familiar because when I played when I was younger and my brother is very much involved in virtual gaming world. I was not versed in the virtual world protocol of the emotions that one could portray, how to speak to someone through chat, or how to join the correct Kinship :). Being in the middle of this world with so many people who are probably more skilled than me and them wanting to speak with me is overwhelming sometimes especially, when I am trying to solve quests and find my way around the on the maps. I am usually good at individual games where I have to count on myself in order to level up (i.e. Candy Crush). But this community game play is a whole new territory and kind of intimidating at times. However, it is very helpful to have the class be able to tutor each other on how to get around the world because it definitely helps and in turn makes it more enjoyable.

The quests are fun to do though they were kind of tedious and fighting off mobs can be completely draining and frustrating when you keep dying. The quests after the Intro are harder for me to follow because I feel like I am taking on a lot of random quests (i.e Find So-and-So’s chickens and return them) instead of a quest that seems to have a purpose. Also it seems like I am doing a lot of walking around and not a lot of defeating enemies and beating quests. It takes forever to get anywhere because I don’t have a horse. Everyone has a horse!! I want a horse! How do I get a horse?!?!?! Sorry the walking/slow running is making me hysterical!

Overall, the game is very immersive and fun to play. I definitely don’t think that I have everything down pack but I like that we all seem to be learning together!

-Amanda 

LOTRO: A Test of Patience

While I revel in the ability to run around for hours in a virtual environment while still convincing myself that I’m being productive, I must say that it has gotten to be a bit tiresome at times. My one biggest complaint about LOTRO is that there is just
so
much
running.

I picked up the controls to the game very quickly and I have enjoyed juggling the various quests I taken on; however, again and again I find myself just running back and forth between the various areas in this vast world of the game.

Now, I do appreciate how that adds to the experience of the game as well as contributes to the narrative. It enhances that sense of journey–of being just a tiny figure in this massive world. It goes along with the long and tiresome journeys we read about in the novel. With this being said, my patience runs rather thin when it comes to video games and I would rather not spend a significant portion of the time just running from location to location.
I did recently learn about the auto-run key, so that along with riding horses has eased my frustration on the matter, though the quests are still often more a test of my patience than anything.

I’ve only come across one quest so far that was even remotely challenging. I had to sneak around these goblin-like creatures and pick off one or two at a time in order to finally reach and kill the Goblin Chief. I later realized that this quest was definitely meant to be conquered with a partner or team, but I still enjoyed the challenge of taking it on by myself. Other than that, my quests have mostly been a matter of taking the time to run and find or deliver various objects or creatures. But maybe I just need to get to a higher level first.

All in all, I’ve enjoyed exploring this enormous world; however, I’m just hoping that as I progress, the challenges and quests will become much less wearisome than they have been thus far. I also really look forward to being able to work with the other players on quests and toward a shared goal, as I have yet to experience that.

– Logan W

LOTRO: The Quests Go Ever On and On

Playing Lord of the Rings Online has been interesting. For me, I have zero experience playing that type of computer game, so a lot of it is just me fumbling around, not sure where to go or what to do. 

 

I have a lot of problems with that, actually. I can start quests, and that’s fine, but ask me to find out where to go? Man, I have problems enough getting around the city where I’ve lived for all of eight years, and you’re asking me to figure out a landscape with very few signs? Needless to say, it takes me twice as long to find a quest’s location/person than it does to finish it, despite the map and indicator icon thingies (yes, that’s a term).

 

I’d also prefer it if it was more interactive. I know that doesn’t really make sense, but I’d like to be able to do more, aside from click on different attacks (sorry, I’m one of the ones who prefers the shoot-em-up games). 

 

Aside from that, however, there is a lot I find fascinating and interesting about the game. As a long time Tolkien fan, getting to see the locations that I know from the books (and from the movies) laid out on a landscape I can explore for myself is, well, awesome. 

 

Unfortunately, there is a downside to being a Tolkien geek. Even as I explore the different areas and options, I can’t help but feel like it isn’t really the Lord of the Rings. The two don’t connect in my head.  Sure, the names are the same, and the land is made out to be Middle Earth, but it’s just not right. Can’t even put my finger on the why, but it doesn’t feel like Tolkien. And I kinda think that if Tolkien were able to see LOTRO, he’d be a bit aghast.

 

So, I guess the end result is that I can play the game, and I find it entertaining, but it will never be my favorite game. 

 -JKH

A Difference of Opinions on Gaming

From the day I began playing video games, my parents and I have been at odds with one another about the merits of gaming. In gaming, I saw a world of opportunities. Not only could they help me to relieve stress from my everyday life, but they also provided me with new and interesting ways to interact with others and challenge myself in a myriad of new ways that would have been impossible to experience in the non-gaming world. However, my parents did not share this love for gaming as I did. On the contrary, they consistently reminded me that I was wasting my time and should be focusing on other aspects of my life, such as my studies or swimming.  They believed that the games consumed too much of my time and effort, unbalancing my life and distancing me from reality. To a certain extent, they were right. I did spend too many long hours on online games, often sacrificing my weekends to the games which so enthralled me.  I also occasionally prioritized the games over other areas of my life which deserved more of my time.

However, my parents neglected some of the intrinsic benefits of playing video games. As I briefly touched on before, games can serve to relieve anxiety and provide an excellent outlet for negative emotions. Furthermore, games can provide online forums for interactions between diverse people, such as in the case of World of Warcraft. Although the game centers on the storyline and fighting, players are constantly in contact with one another, possibly exchanging different opinions on guild chat, learning how to utilize the online economy to their advantage, or gaining other general insights that can be applied to real-world situations. Nonetheless, my parents retained their negative views on gaming, thereby ignoring the intrinsic worth of it.

When it came to my friends’ opinions on gaming, there stood a sharp divide among them. This divide arose from the separation between gamers who only enjoyed console games, and those who enjoyed other types of games like MMOs. To most of my friends, playing massively popular console games such as Call of Duty was perfectly alright. However, when one ventured into the realm of online MMOs such as World of Warcraft, he or she might as well have committed social suicide. A small group of closer friends disagreed with this notion. These select few believed that, in moderation, any type of gaming was acceptable because one should do whatever makes one happy.

Thus, many of my friends and my parents have disapproved of my gaming habits throughout my life. Even those who supported me in my choice to game often believed I played games too much. However, I contend that games do retain merit and can teach important life lessons, even if my friends and family cannot share my passion and respect for gaming.

-juancarlos284

Striking a Balance

Seeing as how the online game has the ability to consume a player’s life just as the bottle can take over a drunk, the uneducated observer might conclude that our class is more or less engaging in the facilitated use of digital drugs.  While this assertion might not be too far from the truth, it is important to note that, just like any other addictive activity, moderation is key. By controlling the degree to which one participates in an addictive hobby, the user is able to reap most of the benefits while bearing a minimum of the costs. As I have been an avid gamer for almost my entire life, this economic process of moderation is something that has been more or less self-taught throughout my grade-school years. By pressing the power button, a player accepts nature’s unwritten agreement that, in a person’s full schedule, engaging in one activity will necessarily deallocate the time alloted for another. The solution (as it is more or less a personal formula) to a successfully-balanced life is to arrange said schedule such that work, play, and other miscellaneous activities are all optimized. Thus, playing LOTRO has had a minimal impact upon the rest of my life since I merely stuck it into the time slot that I had reserved for gaming, anyway.

As LOTRO has slowly shifted to Neverwinter Nights 2, so has my allocation of time in that slot. I still do all the work I need to do, and I still spend a healthy amount of time (and have a lot of fun) with my friends. But, my bipolar life is such that I have more fun overall when I spend an equal amount of my “play” time with friends and video games. After I’m done being a socialite, I go and isolate myself from the outside world with an absorbing video game. I have learned through experience that, for me, this method maximizes the amount of fun I have on both fronts. I head directly from the frat party to BioShock; from Assassin’s Creed I leave for the concert. I succeed (or at least I’d like to think so) in this balance because I am naturally motivated to do my work with the end goal of existing on one of these ends of the social spectrum, knowing that I’ll also get to travel to the other. By economically maximizing the amount of fun I have, I also optimize the amount of work I am able to accomplish via a strengthened motivation.

Yet, I am a rare breed. Many are unable to recognize that each necessary (and healthy) activity should have a minimum amount of time allocated to it. For example, just because I love a new game does not mean it would be wise to forsake my friends to play it; it merely increases the amount of fun obtained from gaming and, thus, my overall fun. The new game will only take full effect if strategically integrated into my life in the first place, so attempting to reduce its effect by allowing it to consume more time in my schedule would be a fallacy indeed. Unfortunately, many fall prey to the addictions caused by such absorbing games as LOTRO and World of Warcraft. They fail to allocate their time correctly, and the time originally reserved for the game expands, taking over other necessary activities in its conquest.

So how, then, does one know when enough is enough? When does one log out of the virtual world and once again exist in the real one? The answer to this question is personal in nature. I know people who play 6-8 hours of Halo 3 every weekend, yet still function perfectly in every regard. On the other hand, if I ask another kid to play 2 hours of Soulcalibur IV with me, I could easily disrupt his perfectly-balanced life, sending it into a chaotic downward spiral. Everyone simply has to figure out for themselves a manageable, sustainable amount of time for which to engage in their favorite activities. An enjoyable activity must not consume a person’s life, but it also must be present in order for any enjoyment to come of it. Although my analysis of a balanced life may sound economic and mathematical in nature, I assure you I don’t have a formula chart to determine how much Mass Effect I can play tonight. It’s just like learning to ride a bike; you may fail the first few times you try, but eventually you get the hang of it and develop a very useful skill.

-Billy Bunce

Nightmare Chess and the Hall of Heroes

Though I think of myself as a ‘gamer,’ I have never played very many arcade games. My experience is limited to the Space Invaders machine at the Dave & Busters back home, and one highly unsuccessful attempt to save my cities while playing Missile Command. On the other hand, I have lots of experience with board games. From Monopoly to Nightmare Chess to backgammon to the War of the Ring, board games have been a part of my life since I was very young. And equally present there is another, very different type of game: the online games, those notorious MMOs that so many love to play to the exclusion of all else.

While both are enjoyable, they present very different experiences to their players. The first, obviously, is the real life interaction present in any board game. When you play a game of chess, or Monopoly, or any other traditional board game, you sit across the table from your opponent (s) and interact with them directly–you speak to them, watch them roll dice, and unnerve them when you study the cards you’re holding.  In addition, the vast majority of board games pit players head to head–they are competing directly against one another to win the game. In gamer vocabulary, board games are purely PvP–player versus player.

In contrast, an online game presents no inherent direct interaction. You can’t physically see anyone else who’s playing, or talk to them (with the advent of applications like TeamSpeak and Ventrilo this has changed, though). Players instead interact through their avatars–the characters they create to play in the game. Though the character represents the player in the game’s world and can interact with other avatars and the game’s environment, the avatar is not real and does not compare equally to the face-to-face interaction present in board games. Lastly, online games in general do not force players to play against each other. Even in World of Warcraft, where the conflict between the Horde and Alliance is central to both the world and storyline, players can opt not to fight other players. Most MMOs present head-to-head competition as an option through PvP servers and arenas; however players can instead choose to fight the challenges presented by the game designers in the game (and indeed must if they wish to truly experience the full game, eg. leveling up and completing endgame content). Players are also encouraged to work together through the forming of groups, guilds, and friendships to beat the game. Thus, online games are not primarily PvP focused; instead they present both PvE (player versus environment) and PvP as options for their players, with most of their content being PvE.

Furthermore, board games are almost always rules-based emergence games, where no ‘heavy’ fiction is presented to the player . Board games sometimes provide a ‘light’ fiction along with their rules, like the tycoon fantasy of Monopoly or the battle for Middle Earth presented in War of the Ring, but these are thin veneers and nowhere is the player of a board game subject to the same ‘heavy’ fiction found in online games. Board games focus instead on simple rules that nevertheless provide variations in every game played. Thus, they are emergence games. There is nothing fixed about a board game except the rules–any twists and turns, and especially the outcome of the game, are determined by the players themselves.

Online games are almost the opposite. They rely heavily on fiction, though rules are important as well, and are generally progression based. The fiction of an online game is almost certainly its most important component. The player must suspend at least some disbelief, and enter the world created by the game designers. In this world, there are quests to do, villages to save, mythical swords to forge, and worlds to conquer. But, in any online game you’ll find that there’s a certain order to these many tasks. Before you can conquer the world, you have to forge the sword, but to do that you’ll have to save the village, but before you can save the village you’ll have to do some errands for the townspeople to gain their trust. Online games present a story, a predetermined path for you to walk, and are therefore strongly fiction and progression based. You can only do the quests they allow you to do, and deviating from the storyline isn’t really possible–should the hero die halfway through, he’ll be resurrected.  If he fails the final boss fight and doesn’t destroy the evil wizard, he can always try again.  There is no emergence aspect to the PvE side of the game. The final outcome doesn’t depend on your actions or the actions of your opponent, like it does in a board game. In an online game, the story always ends the same way.

But, like a board game, an online game could not function without rules. Not only are there rules governing how a player moves about, interacts with objects, and communicates, online games restrict a player’s actions in-game. For example, in Star Wars Galaxies you cannot kill Darth Vader, and in LOTRO Gandalf is equally immortal. Killing either character would drastically change the story each game tells–and so, you cannot attack them. In both types of game, rules play an important part–for indeed, what is a game without rules?

The only real emergence aspect of an online game is its PvP side. In an arena, players learn a set of rules (eg. Movement, special attacks, etc) and play against each other. There’s no story, and though the fiction is heavier than any board game’s, it’s still lighter than the PvE aspect of the game. This is where board games and online games ‘intersect’–in the PvP arena. Here, players of both games have a similar experience in many ways, as some of the trademark characteristics of board games described above display themselves in the virtual world of the online game.

While both the board game and the online game are very different in many ways, they are both fun and enjoyable for the many players who take up their challenges. Their differences merely help to make the world of gaming the dynamic and multifaceted place it is.

So, anyone up for a game of Nightmare Chess? If not, we can always head out to the Hall of Heroes.

Dacia

PS: I totally forgot to post this on time with the math test and everything today….forgive me!! >.< I had it ready yesterday and everything. Oh well, that’s life…

LOTRO and my life

By: Derek S.

Online gaming this semester has really shortened my avaiable time to do other things. If we were just playing for fun it would be ok because I could log on whenever it was convenient. Instead, I feel obligated to log on instead of doing other homework in order to level up that week. It also has led my social life to be less active. There has been more than one occasion when my roommate invites me to go hang out with some friends and I can’t because im doing “homework,” a.k.a. LOTRO. It also cuts into my practice time on tuba. There have been several weeks where I have bypassed practicing to stay in and play the game. I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy the game, but I just don’t feel like it’s fun when I want to be doing something else but I have to play the game in order to keep up in class.