The serious gamer look: WoW add-ons

I had officially stopped playing WoW for research in mid October. It was time for me to start writing my paper, and as a level 12 or so, I wasn't high enough to have all the types of interaction and problems that I was trying to understand. I understood the most important one, though, which was the difficulty and time investment required to level up your character, get gold, and play the game. All the other experiences I needed, I would have to get through observation, research, and interviews.

Needless to say, I did not stop playing the game completely. My husband and I have found a game that I enjoy playing with him, so we continue to get online together on date nights or random moments. We have gotten online enough together that we are now level 31 characters. It may seem that we have leveled quickly and therefore have spent long days grinding away, but our high level is mainly due to the "refer a friend" program that WoW offers. I referred Paul to WoW and as a result, we are allowed to summon each other once an hour (this is handy so we don't have to waste so much time traveling to each other- especially if we have one character bound in one city, and the other character bound in another city. We can use our hearthstone to bring us to our bound city, then summon the other person. Poof! We saved an hour of travel time!), we get triple the experience points when we are grouped together (which allows us to get so much experience that we "outgrow" our quests, meaning they become too easy for us too quickly and we cannot finish all of them before we level), and it will give me a mount (an animal to ride, increasing my travel time by 60%) once he is online for 3 months. This has been a great incentive to refer a friend, and a great alternative to the frustrating grinding it takes to get anywhere in the game.

So, now that I have settled into a Sunday night game time pattern with my husband, it was about time to admit I needed to add some tools. Paul had been using Carbonite Quest for a while to help us locate quest locations, and I had been relying on him leading our little two person group. However, I get online occasionally by myself to do random little things, like work on professions. Since I had wanted to track where I found items I needed, I also added Gatherer, a program Paul found to track all the items you pick up. (I was thinking I was going to print out a map and draw color coded icons on it to denote where I found things, but what was I thinking in this techno age? Someone, of course, wrote a program to do just that!) So, I added Carbonite Quest and Download Gatherer as add-ons to WoW.

Here is what my new screen looks like:



You can see the Carbonite Quest on the right side of the screen listing out all the quests I have in my log. It shows me where to turn in the items, where to find items, and I can list people as “punks”! (I like the idea of being able to list people as “punks” when they kill my character for no good reason.)

Features (from the software website:)
Punks List - The Punks list is part of our enhanced Social window. It allows you to add enemy player names to the list and when detected near you or another Carbonite user in your guild or zone, it will alert you with a message, sound and draw a green circle on the map.
Map - The Carbonite map gives you all the information you need in one easy to use and flexible Google like map. Move, size or zoom it the way you like.
Favorites - Records map notes, targets and general comments.
Quest - Blaze through quests at lightning speed and level faster than you ever thought possible. Our extensive quest database lists the location of quest objectives and turn-ins. Simply click any objective from your quest watch list and Carbonite will show you where to go. No more wasted time bouncing back and forth between a web browser and the game.
Battlegrounds - Dominate your opponents with our enhanced battleground map. See the location and names of all your teammates. See objective timers right on the map and issue orders with a click of the mouse – call for reinforcements to attack a vulnerable enemy target or simply announce the status of an objective. “He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.” - Sun Tzu
UI - Windows can be moved, sized, scaled and locked. Values are saved for each character. Coexists well with most UI addons.
Privacy - Not in a social mood? Just turn off communication with guild, friend or zone and other Cabonite users won't see you on the map.

WoW in every corner of the culture

My husband sent this to me, saying if only it said "almost to level 30", then it applied to me:



Find other great cat humor at icanhascheezburger.com

The era of the Lich King begins

Like many role playing games (RPGs), World of Warcraft (WoW) has a story line. Some people enjoy and play it for the story line, others play for other content (I fall into the later category). Part III of the saga, The Wrath of the Lich King came out last night. There was a 45 minute wait to access the servers right after work PST.

The new material opened new lands, quests, and higher levels (now the max level of a character was 80; it used to be 70). It also included new classes. Here are a list of the features from WoW's website:

Hero Class: Death Knight New
Continent: Northrend
Massive World PvP Brand-New Dungeons and Raids Engaging,
Epic Storyline
Graphics Improvements
Expanded Bestiary
New Profession: Inscription

I logged on to say hi to my friend, whom I knew would be playing the new material (he waited in line to buy the software at midnight on Wednesday.) In my eyes, he is a dedicated and addicted player (I might be getting addicted as well, but nonetheless), but to give you an idea of the fan base- when I logged on last night there were already level 70 Death Knights online. My guild members, who are more dedicated than me, were congratulating fellow members when they hit level 71. The 70 Death Knights must have been playing all night long for the prestige of being some of the first members to play the new material.

The Economies of MMOs

In World of Warcraft, there is a primary economy- the harvesting and exchange of goods and money with in game world itself. This economy is first introduced to the lower level players by having them “loot” creatures they have killed or sell items they have picked up. They are also able to obtain money from quests they complete. This new wealth (albeit small) can now be used to purchase goods from the game (via vendors in each city) or through other players (via an auction house). Other ways to make money are to create professions with your character collect, hunt, and gather materials to create equipment, potions, foods, enchantments, etc. Some of these skills can be very lucrative, at least in the game economy.

The gold and silver made in the game, however, is not just “Monopoly” money. It can have real world value. This is the secondary economy that has become familiar to most online games, despite some developer’s attempts to stop it. For World of Warcraft, (this is similar to other MMOs), the End User License Agreement (EULA) states that the end-user “shall not, under any circumstances - …exploit the game… for gathering in-game currency, items or resources.” The acts that are prohibited are restated in the Terms of Use (worldofwarcraft.com).




Other creators, like Sony (Everquest series), have decided that supporting customer’s demand for real-money and virtual goods exchange, have created a Station Exchange (Siegel 2008).

Despite the EULA and Terms of Uses, and the threat of recourse (Siegel 2008), players and companies willful play a part in the money making venture of “farming” gold or items in the game. Here are some examples of websites selling gold:

http://www.mygamesale.com/
http://www.wowmine.com/
http://www.thsale.com/
www.SusanExpress.com
http://www.ige.com/

In games such as Everquest, players were averaging making $3.42 for every hour they played, with the nation having a gross per-capita of $2,266 (Knight, 2002).

WoW Gold exchange rates: right now you can buy 500 gold for $11.01 USD, which turns out to be roughly 45 gold for a dollar. (According to Thsale). The conversion rate is roughly 2 cents for a WoW gold (Goldsoon).

Works Cited:
Knight, W. (2002). “Virtual World grows real economy.” Retrieved from
http://www.newscientist.com on October 25th, 2008.
(2008). “World of Warcraft – US Buy Gold.” Retrieved from http://www.thsale.com
on November 13, 2008.
Siegel, R. (2008) “Paying Real Money to Win Online Games.” Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org on November 13, 2008.

The questions to ask

November 8, 2008

I choose to be priest, but in a previous game, EverQuest, I chose to be a Paladin. The WoW guide book had suggested becoming a character that you can relate to or you might have a poor experience with the game. I think many people do actually pick characters that they are attracted to in some way- they can relate to the role they play in groups, they enjoy the tasks they choose to do as professions.

I am interested in asking my fellow WoW players some of these questions.

Are you male or female?

Is your character male or female?

What class is your character?

Are you Horde or Alliance?

What primary professions did you choose?

What secondary professions did you choose?

Do you work at increasing skill on the primary professions? Secondary?

Do you feel you relate to your character?

What do you get online to do?

Have you ever twinked or buffed another player? Did you know them? If not, why did you help them out? Was there any game advantage? Do you do charity work in real life and if so, what do you get out of that?

Do you feel that leveling a low level character is tedious and time consuming?

Do you belong to a guild and if so, how does that social interaction play a part of your game play?

Do you think the game should be an even playing field for all involved?

Do you think others should be allowed to purchase items, levels, and characters if they want?

Have you ever purchased items outside of the game’s economy? (With real money?) If not, would you consider it?

Have you ran into people camping areas in order to “farm” objects or gold while in the game? Could you tell if they were just professional gamers or really farmers? Did they interfere with your enjoyment of the game?

Have you ever had someone help you move forward in the game? If so, did you know them in real life or through social networking in the game?

Which of the following have you used: guide books, websites, buffing or twinking from another player, purchased goods, donated items, etc.?

What is the purpose of the game? Is there an end game?

What do you feel you want out of the game?

When does the game end?

Grinding my way to level 10

Week 9: October 26, 2008

I am a level 10 priest after almost 9 weeks of playing. Granted, I don’t get to spend a lot of time on the game, so it amounts to less than a 40 hour work week (maybe), however, I can see why people buy guides and spend real money to skip some of the tedium or “work” of playing such MMORPGs. It also makes sense that having time consuming parts (running, building skills, leveling) all help MMO companies build revenue through monthly subscriptions.

With the large number of players and a high player dedication, there are other ways of making revenue also.

There is an amazing amount of places to purchase gold and level characters. The first kind of website I cam across was the people who are trying to sell their own guides to WoW. They boast of being able to quicken game time instead of drawing it out like the company (Blizzard) may prefer. Brian Kopp’s guide is one of them:

http://www.briankopp.com/?hop=shtmlssl

From there, I found other gold making guides claiming to be legitimate and game-play legal. People claim to be able to make 100 gold (in game) per hour by knowing some tricks and of course, they are for sale:

This is Luke Brown’s website where he has a video to show you that he has a character that has a lot of money, weapons, and armor in minimal playing time:
http://gold-secrets.my-guide.ws/

Wayne Williams:
http://www.wealthofwarcraft.com/?gclid=CNCYteP8xZYCFRlRagod1RGbyA

Professions

Week 8: October 20, 2008

This last week I got online to play solo again. This was only my second time that I got online without meeting up with another player or friend. Someone immediately offered to duel me. No one talked to me seeking out groups. I thought I might work on some boring tasks while I was soloing so that when I got online with others we could go to the meat of things like quests and raids.

I had just chosen cooking as a skill. This is considered one of the three secondary professionals. Although characters can only have two primary professions, they can do all three secondary: cooking, first aid, and fishing. Professions, according to the WoW Battle Chest guide, “are a way to improve your character”. You can chose professions that might help your character or you might chose a profession that generates extra cash flow. For example, as a Priest, I might find alchemy useful to make defense, agility, and even invisibility potions.

“Spell casting classes can use alchemy to create mana potions and related buffs. You can create potions for yourself, sell them to others, or give them to your party members and friends. Alchemists are well loved when they hand out potions.”
WoWwiki

As a secondary, I might do herbalism since I could pick the ingredients I needed for alchemy without paying the high price on the open market.

I planned on working on a cooking quest I had acquired- gather 7 small spider legs and return to Zarrin, a cook, in Dolanaar. My reward would be experience and the recipe for spider kabobs. I ran around the area of Dolanaar but only found 1 spider who gave up the small spider leg as loot upon death. I thought I might be hunting in the wrong area, so I ran back to my starting city, Shadowglen.



I had completed a quest there that required entering a spider lair. I ran over there to hunt but was disappointed to find that those spiders were giving loot like “snapped spider legs”. I needed help to understand where I should find specific types of loot. I looked up guides to WoW and found a few:

WoW wiki

WoW Database

Allakhazam

WoW thottbot

However, I did not find what I was looking for, which is a map of loot items. I might have been able to find it another way, such as under the quest name. I ended up returning to the area in Dolanaar where I had found a few wandering spiders and camping them until I got enough small spider legs. (Camping here means that I stayed after I killed the spiders until they reappeared so I could kill them again and get the amount of loot I wanted,) I took the required quest items to the cook and gained experience and the recipe for kabobs.

While I had been looking for an answer to how to find these small spider legs, I came across a guide online that told me how to gain skill level 40 without ever leaving the trainer:

“Quick Start Guide (Alliance up to 225)
• Find a cooking trainer and spend the 9 copper to learn the cooking skill. This will most likely be in Goldshire, Dolanaar, Kharanos, or the Exodar.
• Start with making as much [Spice Bread] as you can. It will cost you 30 (copper pieces) per 5 bread and this will get you up to skill 40 without ever leaving the trainer.
WoWwiki

Although one can find this next information in the Battle Chest guide book that comes with the game, I found on WoWwiki what the colors of the recipes mean (this is the same for any profession):

Red = Cannot create yet; you need a higher skill level in Cooking before you can create this recipe.
Orange = Will always receive a Cooking skill point when you create that item.
Yellow = Likely to receive a Cooking skill point.
Green = Unlikely to receive a Cooking skill point.
Gray = No skill increase.

Without the guides, online help, and my friends, I surely would have spent a lot more time trying to inch my way up the experience level.

While I was in the area, I signed up for my second primary profession (you can only have two and I had previously picked tailoring). My second profession became herbalism. My goal was to pair it with alchemy and get rid of tailoring, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

Socializing with who knows whom?

Week 3: September 21, 2008

I got online today to play a little more WoW and understand some interactions between members and social playing skills. Last week I had set up the voice software (Ventrilo) so I could now chat with other players online. I had gone to Fry’s to purchase the headset with a microphone and ended up buying the gamer’s version - Creative Labs, sound blaster Fatality headphones. As I was using those headsets, I was introduced to the Guild members who were online. They asked me about what kind of character I was playing (a Priest) and asked if I wanted to play a Rogue, since they needed some more of them, and if I really liked my Priest character that I should learn the damage spells instead of healing spells, since everyone gets a Priest that can heal. I kind of chuckled since I don’t think I would be much use to them, even if I managed to play long enough to get a high level character- I will never be the player who dedicates a certain number of hours a week (or day) to helping on raids or being a :leader: in the guild. I actually have some friends, the ones who gave me access to their account, who actually left a social party to run home in time to participate in a raid.

This particular evening added some interesting turns to my observation. As soon as I logged on as my character, my level 70 friend was online chatting in the guild and said that he hated all the people in the guild. And promptly after that statement, he quit the guild. Well, wow. Not only was he my “guide” to this surreal socialization game, but the guild was a group of people he had close contact with and socialized with often, at least in the context of the game. I was thinking that the guild would be a support tool, a support group of people I could ask questions to and who rendered help when I was unable to easily do things myself (like made me a few backpacks). Now I am unsure of what to do, since I am a real life friend of Scott’s and I do not know any of the guild members. How will they see me or treat me if they are not getting along with Scott? Can I still ask them questions? Should I also quit the guild?

Scott got back online at my request as his lower lever character so he could play online with me. He also introduced me to a friend of his, Stone, who is a 15 year old kid in the middle of rural Arkansas. It was then that it struck me at how the game forces us all to be social with people we might and probably would not ever seek out attention or time with in real life. We know so little about each other, we know little about our social and cultural expectations, the depth of life experiences, the interests or personalities and yet we willingly depend on each other for support on the game and work together as a team to defeat players or complete quests.

The game relies on socialization for a number of reasons. One, it is riskier to attack a creature if they agro (one gets attacked and all the others in the vicinity run over to help) if you are alone. As a non-risk taker (someone who doesn’t like to lose), attacking agro creatures doesn’t make me feel easy. I like the idea of attacking in a group, even if it means playing longer to get to the next level. Other quests and missions require group work, and many attacks are just managed better by using a puller (someone who can target a creature from far away and “pull” that one closer without pulling the whole herd of creatures, then using a good tank, a person who can take a lot of damage and inflict damage, along with a healer or spell caster of damage- this last person helps heal the group and can usually do a little negative damage to the creature. This teamwork ensures that all skills needed for an attack are well represented.

The learning curve of WoW

World of Warcraft

First Week of school
September 2, 2008

I was originally considering doing an independent research project on social technologies. Social Technologies is a broad category and we use them in many ways, daily; we use Instant Messenger, text messages on our phones, Twitter, Blogging, etc. And how many of us use many of these technologies both in our social life and for business? I am even using a blog and response forum to communicate with my professor regarding this project.

The first idea tossed around of looking into a social technology was to study Second Life, an online community where each customer logs on and creates their own avatar to interact in a virtual world that the customers create.

http://secondlife.com/whatis/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

While researching SL as a topic, I discovered that there were less than 500,000 people worldwide that logged on to spend an hour a month.

Second Life population


In comparison to other online communities, such as popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), this is not many people. The press likes SL because of its direct tie to real world economy, but MMORPGs are not without shadow economies and with a larger, more active, more dedicated, growing community, maybe this is were young entrepreneurs should be looking at “selling”.

One example of a highly populated MMORPG is World of Warcraft (WoW). As of July 2007, they had 8.5 million players (Snow, 2007). Once I decided on studying this game as a social technology, I had to go out and purchase it. I walked into the local Best Buy during the first week of school to quickly “pick up” my software. There was an isle dedicated to computer games, and half of them were probably MMORPGs. Despite researching the popular MMOs, I did not recognize all the games and could only assume they were also competing for the same audience as WoW.

Popular MMOs
MMORPG games available

There are many choices out there, some of which I have played before – EverQuest (EQ), City of Heroes, and many more I have not played - Diablo, Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, City of Villans, etc. WoW, however, had the largest number of active users, and therefore the largest online community to study.

Focusing on my choices of software in the store, I discovered there were about four different boxes of WoW. I wanted the one with the most updates and expansions, so I selected a double box containing what appeared to be the original WoW and an expansion called “Burning Crusade”. I went over to the lady at the cash register and asked if this was the latest version and did it include all the updates. She thought it did, but as we were talking a male colleague of hers approached and he said that there were additional pieces, one of which they did not have in stock. I decided I needed to review the choices myself and I left without making a purchase. This is obviously not a spontaneous “buy” nor a community you join on a whim.

After reviewing all the choices, there were only two releases (expansions) and I ended up picking up the same software later. There is a third release, Wrath of the Lich King, that is coming out on November 13th of this year. This was just a little taste of all the setup I was about to do just to start playing a video game.

One of the first things to consider was if I could play WoW reasonably on my computer; I do not have a gamer’s computer. In the end it took 4 hours to set up since I had some conflicting software, but I was able to get online reasonably well if I keep all the graphics turned down. I was still hours away from playing however, since I still had to choose a server and create a character: what race (there are eight playable races), faction (two factions, Alliance and Horde, which are similar to the idea of good and evil), and what class (there are 9 classes, but each is specific to certain races). A character’s race determines what starting city you begin in.

I logged onto a player versus player (PvP) server mainly because I know some people on that server. I am strictly speaking, more comfortable with a player versus non-player characters (PvNPC) server, but since I wanted to study a community and get involved quickly, I selected a server where I already knew someone in real life (RL). I created my first character, choosing a Night elf, and making her an Alliance Priest. The manual says you should create a character that you connect with, and give them talents you enjoy using. I picked clothes, hair, and styles for my character and once I was happy with that, I logged into the game.

As soon as I landed in the middle of the starting “city”, someone asked me to join their group. I wasn’t even sure how to type a response, so I had to hit decline without telling them anything. It took me a while, and a phone call to a friend, to easily access all my important information (hit/s to say something). As soon as I placed my spells into hot keys and understood how to move and talk, I started to run around and pick up quests. The quests in that area are organized to help people try to get used to the game. One quest is to go talk to a trainer, who gives you another spell, another quest is to hunt and kill certain types of non-agro (they don’t all attack if one is attacked) level 1 animals.

Quest 1: Kill 7 young nightsabers and kill 4 young thistle boars
Quest 3: Gather 8 fel mos and deliver to druid Athridas Bearmantle in Dolamaar
Quest 4: Kill 7 mangy nightsabers and kill 7 thistle boars