Settlers Online has been an eye-opener for me as I have
never played a MMO before now. I was always leery about them as I didn’t want
to embarrass myself or be associated with” crazies”. I can now say I am
pleasantly surprised and look back on my wariness as without merit.
The goal of the Settlers is to build a city and defend it
against bandits by having a strong military, seek and experience adventures
while sharing and supporting other players. Strategy and time play important roles
in expanding the city from one community building to a thriving productive
city. Strategies can be limiting as well as productive, make the wrong
choice and your military is defeated. Make the right choice and your production
chains continue to expand. Time is an ever present limiter in that all processes
take time to be built. Time is also integrated to the feedback or reward system.
Rewards and punishments are immediate. As soon as you defeat a bandit, you can
collect the loot. When you have completed a task, you are informed of the
result. Each time you level up or defeat a bandit, that sense of pride or fiero
as McGonigal noted (p.33) is felt. This also fuels the state of flow, you want
to stay there (p24) (McGonigal, 2011) . What makes this a pleasurable
and safe experience for all players to enjoy are many. The anonymity of the
game through fictional gamer tags prevents any personal knowledge of other
players or of you. Public chats are monitored and inappropriate comments can be
flagged.
I want to see what is next. Where can I go? While the tutorial
is helpful, it doesn’t lead to any outcomes, it is just a guide. Your decisions
get you where you are. I discover new
personal skill levels every time I play and that, to makes me want to play
more. This is the flow that McGonigal points to (p.41) when she states” It was
this fast, reliable fix of flow and fiero that kept Sudnow and all the earliest
gamers coming back for more” (McGonigal, 2011) .
Michael
ReplyDeleteWhen I started playing Settlers I also worried about embarrassing myself and associating with the crazies. I immediately received at least 5 guild invitations and only recently accepted one. I wonder if it is our generation/age that makes us worry about that. My children don't feel that way. Their anonymity is just that completely anonymous and they do not worry about embarrassing themselves.
I am enjoying playing and the flow is strong to continue. I started playing for the class but I think I will continue to play for the friends I have made. I enjoy a challenge in my free time. I am not a big TV watcher. One of the videos talked about that for this week's assignment. I have to agree. I don't enjoy being passive. I would prefer to use my brain. I can also see how younger people are becoming addicted to games like this. Finally I agree that the game has started to brighten my days after a hard day at work:)
I agree as well Michael! I felt much the same way that you and Diana felt in the early weeks of playing Settlers. My son (he's 12) jumped right in, set up the account and was immediately playing and figuring out things that I'm still asking him to help me with weeks later! Kids are certainly more inherently risk-takers than adults with respect to almost anything technological. I tell my colleagues that when they are stuck with a problem with a technology device or software glitch, to ask a student! Very often they can figure it out before I could get to the room to help. I don't think it's that the kids today are "smarter" than we were when we were their age, they are just using their brains in a different way and they are optimized for more digital tasks than we are, mostly because that's the age in which they've grown up.
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