World of Warcraft is The Loneliest Road

For all that it is called a massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft is a surprisingly solitary experience. Obviously there are thousands of other people in your world with you, but to play WoW – to enjoy WoW – is to become absorbed in your avatar. You can’t touch, bump into, or otherwise interact with other players without the aid of a spell or weapon. Even public chat via the “say” command, which displays as a speech bubble from your character, leaves no lasting trace of its existence. The spoken word is as ephemeral as the players themselves, and they avoid walking through each other, spread out in group raid photos, to avoid breaking the illusion that they are actually in the world with other players.

WoW remains the most embodied and immuring game I have ever played. Every action and interaction is mediated through your avatar. The story of WoW is your story and it is reflected in every quest text and every suggested goal. You see the world through the prism of your character and while the viewpoint of above and behind gives the illusion of an objective view of Azeroth, you cannot escape the invisible ties that bind you to your character.

You also can’t make other people play better, level up quicker, or keep pace along side you. Anyone who has played for longer than a few minutes knows that all it takes is a little bit of extra time spent questing or grinding to find that your friend who was once the same level as you is now far below (or beyond) your abilities, becoming another cloud of dust on the horizon, another runner in front or behind you on the road. Any attempts to “slow down” the inexorable pull towards the level cap (and beyond, with item acquisition and stat improvement), that elusive goal of perfection and ultimate attainment, are irresistible short of outright rejection. Waiting around for someone else feels like 'wasted time' in the WoW paradigm, and so you’re back to square one. Back to a single player game and grinding alone on trolls in Stranglethorn Vale in the hope of one day reaching the peak at level 60, 70, 80.

Dominic and I tried it a couple of times, first on our original toons (both were Warlocks; I was Daverick, he was Marcos) and then later with our alternatives. By then I was onto Davethree (literally named as such) and he was a Warrior. Dominic was a Paladin. We spent a fantastic afternoon one day in the twilight days of ’07 working together on quests as per the instructions in the popular Jame’s Leveling Guide. He enjoyed collecting a number of enemies on himself while I swung a selection of large swords at them.

That afternoon we fought trolls, goblins, tigers, panthers, crocodiles and other players and enjoyed the simple pleasure of having each other’s company. We were glad not to have to travel that section of the loneliest road alone. Inevitably though, school and other commitments made him log off for a while and an abundance of time left me to plod along by myself. I rapidly out-leveled him.

We met up again, months down the track. By then I was 70, and he was still 68. Getting keyed and geared for Karazhan was my goal while he was still grinding mobs in Blade’s Edge, focusing on the inexorable accumulation of experience points. The loneliest road took us to 70 separately and resisted our best efforts and resolutions to “stick together”.

Tolkien placed these words into the mouth of Bilbo Baggins;

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."

World of Warcraft will do more than sweep you away. Like an overflowing river that has burst its banks, it stands ready to break apart the group of unwary travellers that attempt to cross it. The current will carry them downstream for miles one by one - how far it carries them wil be governed by how well they can swim. I was a WoW player and I was carried off by myself for 18 months. How about you?

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This post was inspired by the recent discussion of World of Warcraft and the addicting nature of some videogames on the Idle Thumbs podcast – episode 25 ‘pause theme from battletoads’.

Gaming Soundtracks (and not the kind you’re thinking!)

The first album from the Emo rock band ‘Panic! At the Disco’ has been stamped into my brain to such a degree that, if I can’t quite remember all the words, I can certainly always sing the melody. Also, whenever it’s played, a strange phenomenon occurs in my brain as it stirs up memories of a place far, far away from anywhere I have actually ever been. For me the album ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ will always remind me of the crimson shores of Bloodmyst Isle, and a young Warrior in his low teens named Davetwo.

Back in the day I was a pretty serious WoW player, spending as much as 10-12 hours a day playing if given the chance and while I was levelling up my third character towards the goal of level 70 I also fell head over heels for Panic! At The Disco. The album was on massive high repeat, not entirely unlike the act of ‘grinding’ for XP. As an indication of just how much I listened to that album at the time, for a period of about a month I would often lie in bed awake at night listening to the album just because it was so infectious. I am frequently go on what Dan Bruno has called ‘bingeing’ on media (he originally applied it to games, but I think it’s an idea that has wider applicability also).

So when I put it on again just the other day it felt like being back there grinding on Blood Elves for XP. The sensation of being in that place was just below the surface, like having a word on the tip of your tongue but for a feeling of place. My response was almost one of synaesthesia in that the music becomes the sensation of ‘being there’ again. Of course, this album is by no means the only example, there was another in particular that also reminded me of Un’Goro Crater (another World of Warcraft zone) which I can’t recall right now but will probably recognise instantly the next time I hear it. And if this sort of thing is purely the result of the confluence of music and game levels then Metronomy’s ‘Nights Out’ album will remind me of my GoW2 marathon of the other night…

But I suspect Metronomy will be saved from that rather unfortunate fate for the time being. For starters, GoW2 wasn’t memorable enough (more on that a bit later), and there probably wasn’t enough repetition to ingrain the ‘location’ with the music into my brain. And in that sense, WoW is perhaps a stellar candidate for this kind of musical/locational imprinting because a player often spends long periods of time in one particular location doing highly repetitive tasks.

Another album that reminds me of a game level is ‘Lost in the sound of separation’ by Underoath (possibly the best album to Audiosurf to ever). There is a particular part in the 4^th track of the album, where the cacophony cuts back to primarily the sound of the hi-hat beating out a straight rhythm. After having been barrelling along at 100mph the track comes to a period of relative calm (a flat area in the track) and it undulates up and down beneath you in time to the hi-hat. It’s quite memorable to the point that now whenever I hear that part of the song I see the track hopping up and down madly in time to the hi-hat in my mind, even if I’m not playing Audiosurf. However, Audiosurf is probably unique in that it renders levels unique for each song in a way that is generally representative of the song itself. Whether this improves the chances of imprinting the level/music combo, I have no idea, but the game also encourages replaying songs over with its scoring system.

I’m sure if I took the time I could think of a bunch more examples of non-game music reminding me of a place in a game, but the important fact is that the phenomenon happens at all. Videogame ‘levels’ are as real to my brain as ‘physical’ places.

Care to share a similar occurrence of game bingeing mixed with music bingeing? I’d love to hear about your own extra-game musical experiences if you have any. Let’s see if we can’t find some patterns about when and how they occur and whether it really is just as simple as plenty of repetition.

Becoming Gamer; or "My last ever log out."

I hearthed to Shattrath, at the request of a very good friend of mine. She had something to show me, she said, and I had a good idea of what exactly that was. I had, after all, 'twinked' her with 1,000 gold a few weeks prior and, as it turned out, it was her snowy gryphon mount that she had purchased with my parting gift, that she wanted to share with me. I felt like a big brother to a little sister - I had never met her in the 'real 'world. She hugged me, made a *sniff emote and said with lots of exclamation marks that she'd miss me. I was going to miss her too.

Recently, after a particularly bad experience with an overly controlling and somewhat arrogant guild leader, I was left without a World of Warcraft guild that I called home. I wanted to 'progress' and to see (and beat) new content but finding a new raiding guild to start building relationships within was just not something I was prepared to do again. University was also starting to heat up, with an increasing amount of work having to go into assessment tasks and my major thesis, when my job, which that suited me and my study timetable perfectly, sadly dried up. Without a steady income, and having to still pay the bills (not many, but a few) I decided that, well, after a good run of a year and 6 months with the World of Warcaft, maybe it had become time to hang up the gauntlets and retire gracefully.

So I did. And it's probably one of the best things I could have done. Now, I'm not saying that wow is the devil or anything knee-jerkingly reactionist like that (although I *do* have some serious issues with some elements of it: the grind, only having one somewhat flawed model of guild leadership, etc, etc). But instead, much like Mr Brainy Gamer himself, Michael Abbott, said - it means that I can play other games again. I mean, in all honesty, how many people who play wow seriously do you think also play other games seriously and critically on a regular basis? I'd wager not many.

I make no secret of the fact that I want to work in the games industry. I am working towards that with my degree and with my thesis, and also, now, so with this. I can't just play WoW all the time and call myself a gamer. I honestly have no desire to work in any other field. I recognise that I probably will, but I hope that eventually I will be able to work for a living on what I am so most passionate about. My passion is for gaming, and that's really what this experience has been all about. I've left WoW and all of the amazing wonderful (and some horrible) people that I met on the Alliance side of the Dath'Remmar Oceanic Realm, and yeah, I'll miss them too. But I'm not a really a WoW-er. Not anymore. I'm a GAME-er.

1st Academic Conference held in the World (of Warcraft): "Convergence of the Real and the Virtual" Conference

So, I thought I'd just upload a few quick pics of the conference session that I attended, through the power of caffeine and some late evening visitors beforehand. The session I attended was on last Saturday at 12:30 Eastern US time (which translates to 2:30am START for me... how convenient.)

All of the discussions were held in guild chat, and it was interesting sitting around in a cavern full of avatars, all sitting and doing nothing. It seemed very unnatural for wow, and perhaps represents an attempt to colonise the popular phenomena that is WoW by academia. That said, there was some audience participation in the form of /agree /nod and /cheers at interesting points, but overall, it was an experience very detached from normal every-day WoW.

Here's a couple happy-snaps I took of the session that I attended (the 2nd session) and it was held in the Undercity.

Aww, lovely - we're fishing for Orks-es

Left hand side shot of the cavern it was held in

Accompanying right hand shot.

So, there were about 230 people online at the time, with maybe 200 of those actually in attendance. The discussion was kinda interesting, but not particularly illuminating. Constance someone from Germany made probably the most interesting points, and I've got a transcript that I've started editing and might include some of the more interesting points.

Like I said earlier though, the most interesting aspect of the conference was just gathering 200 academics from around the world and watching them interact. The build up to the conference and the activities where everyone got involved seems much more interesting, and I think they could support a conference type structure in themselves.

Coming soon: Update on the 'Call of Duty' presentation I gave to my Honours class, and some more ideas it spawned about VR and Immersion. Till then.

Post #4 More posts about MY games, darrnit!

Why hello there, avid readers!

I bet you've been dying to hear from me again. Well, I hate to be brief, but I just don't go in for those boxer things, so briefs it is!

So what have I been playing lately? Have I dutifully gone back and played through SS2 as a Psy Op specialist as I hinted at? Hell no, dear readers, the limited time available to this author means that he has decided to move onto greener pastures, as it were, at least for the time being. I'm now playing the 1998 Blizzard classic, Starcraft(tm)!

So I've been getting around in SCraft for a while, and when i came back to it, It was just like riding a bike. A friend of mine got me back into it, as he wanted to "get into shape" before Starcraft 2 comes out (as if he could! Bar-humbug!). So we've been playing it a fair bit over Hamachi (a VPN program) and I've come to appreciate the dependability of the '98 style AI. My friend, who shall remain nameless, showed me this awesome tactic to apply when the first wave of enemies arrives.... RUN AWAY!

Woah, revolutionary stuff, but it really works! You just grab the guy that the enemies are attacking, find an empty space on the minimap that looks ripe for a bit o' exploring, and off he goes, trailing 12 hungry space marines in his wake... weeee!

Well, enjoy trying out this new (only took 9 years to develop this tactic) awesome Strat, and tell me how it goes. I used to ALWAYS get beaten in the first wave as a young'n... but now, I can pwn the computer with the best of them. It's interesting how age adds a very new perspective to things, no? I guess David Sirlin wasn't right when he wrote the article World of Warcraft teaches the wrong things... time really DOES = Skill.... or... does it just = NOT suck? Either way, Sirlin is a... well... when I approached him on his website to discuss this idea, instead of actually responding to my actual question, he decided to take it as a personal attack and convince me of his arguemnt by saying "No no no, YOU'RE wrong." Seriously. Doesn't he get the idea behind rejecting someone else's premise, and instead proposing a different one? Gosh, what is wrong with people on the internets! It's almost enough to make me cry, except that I'd get cyber bullied, so i'll just go be all emo in my room and turn off all the lights and dress in black. MMmmm sleep is very tempting right about now, and I've written about 3x as much as I initially intended. Oh cruel Blog, why must you always run deviously long or short?

Is this entire post self-indulgently long? Tell me in the comments! I crave the attention!

Peace out!