Thinking With Her Fingers

I can't thank her on her blog for plugging mine (she recently nixed comments), but I'll return the favor by plugging her blog here.

Excerpted from her profile: Torill Mortensen, an associate professor at Volda College in Norway, has a journal-blog. Her journal discusses, among other things, media studies, reader-response theory, Multiple User Dungeons (MUDs), role-play games, academic weirdness and online communication. I'm looking forward to more of her writings. Perhaps she'll even contribute some of her own comments here!

Feel free to visit her at the link on the sidebar or at Thinking With my Fingers.

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Time is Not on my side.

Lately, I've been losing interest in playing WoW. I started playing during the stress test over a year ago. About the same time I was tiring of City of Heroes. I had been playing that for about a year, and was quickly becoming tired of the monotony that is CoH. Although it's interesting to make new characters and design their funky outfits, the quests are carbon copies of each other, just scaled based on level. Some of the powers are neat, like flying, super jumping, mind controlling, but also get tiring. How many times have you jumped to the top of the tallest building? How many times have you flown over an area of the city? Yawn. How many times have you seen the insides of the same warehouse, the same cave, the same... well, I think you get my point.



Unfortunately, I've found that WoW has its own mundane traps. It's the same in every game. It's the "grind." For the first few weeks, you grind levels. Then you grind for items. Grind for reputation. Grind for elite items. Grind for elite mounts. Grind for gold. Grind for sets.

The only exception to this I've seen was on a roleplaying server I joined. Many individuals and some groups there were genuinely interested in role playing. It was interesting, and gave me some hope. But when I mentioned in my newfound (now ex-) guild (on the RP server) that maybe we should get together and do some guild roleplaying, I got the same response from nearly everyone in the guild, including the leader: "Sorry, too busy leveling."

How many times have you heard that? Me? Too many.

Has the social aspect of the game been ground down to level and item grinding? If you can't help me get my set items, bugger off!

Well, this rhetoric isn't really the point of my topic. It's more of a background. It's based on opinion and point of view. Many players have an entirely different experience playing these games.

However, my true point is not opinionated. It's all based in fact, with numbers, even. It's an analysis of the number of hours I've been playing WoW (since retail), and what I could have been doing during those hours if I hadn't played online games. The time period covered is about one year. Basically since the day retail came out last November till today.

Protected Character Name (Level): /played Time [total minutes for character]

Lightning's Blade:

• M1 (31): 3 days, 15 hours, 23 minutes [5243m]
• M2 (1): 0 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes [940]
• Y (42): 8 days, 22 hours, 29 minutes [12840]
• P (60): 28 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes [41580]

Nathrezim:

• A (17): 0 days, 20 hours, 0 minutes [1200]
• B (6): 0 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes [1005]
• P (59): 19 days, 21 hours, 29 minutes [28649]

Shadow Council:

• V (3): 20 minutes [20]
• A (44): 10 days, 0 hours, 48 minutes [14448]
• M (4): 0 days, 2 hours, 46 minutes [166]

Twisting Nether:

• A1 (10): 0 days, 8 hours, 52 minutes [532]
• L (22): 1 day, 22 hours, 15 minutes [2775]
• A2 (23): 1 day, 9 hours, 24 minutes [2004]

Total minutes: 111,402

Total hours: 1,856.7

Total days: 77.3625

Average daily hours: 5.09

Total number of 40 hour work weeks: 46.42

If I make $5 net per hour: $9,283.50

If I make $10 net per hour: $18,567

If I make $20 net per hour: $37,134


This shows why I'm considering quitting WoW. And maybe all RPGs.

A few main reasons. One, I could be making an extra 10 to 37 THOUSAND dollars per year. (Yeah, that's if I spent all that time working). But I do have mad skills, and can do a certain amount of freelance work.

Two, just think of what else I could be doing with all that time, and the potential benefit I could gain... tangible benefit!

That's my problem with these online games. No real benefit. Other than entertainment. I mean, for entertainment, it rocks. It's interactive, ever-changing, and obviously holds my interest. But do I really need that much entertainment?

Let's compare this entertainment to some other activities:

• How many 2-hour movies could I have seen in all that time? 928
• If it takes me about a week to read an average book, about two hours per day, how many books could I have read? 132
• How many 1/2 hour walks through the park? 3,713
• How many four-hour kayak rides? 464
• How many three-hour plays could I have seen? 618
• Number of foreign language courses (6 hours per week, 6 weeks) I could have taken? 51
• Number of professional articles I could have written (2 hours per day for 1 month)? 30
• If I averaged just $5 net per hour for working during those hours, how much extra cash would I have in my pocket right now? $9,283.50

What’s my point here? I really have to rethink my habits, my life, my choices.

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Class Surplus, Personal Preference, & Peer Pressure

So, I'm perusing Van Hemlock's blog, which, I might say, has some fairly amusing anecdotes, and I strongly suggest you take a look at his site (link on sidebar). Wow, run-on from hell there.

His most recent post deals with a dilemma I'm sure we've all encountered: play the "cool" and powerful class, or play the "underdog" class that's most often lacking and therefore begged for on my server?



In his situation, he truly enjoys playing his warrior, but there is an overabundance of warriors on his server, and a dreadful lack of healing classes. He loves the warrior, but feels the peer pressure to roll a priest or shaman so that he can be more useful in instances, and in greater demand.

I responded to his post thus:

You know, I've tried a handful of classes, but when it comes right down to it, there usually seems to be just one that really "fits."

My first, during pre-beta stress test, was a Night Elf Hunter. I enjoyed it while it lasted. It was a great way to explore and always have a companion. But when retail finally came out, I had to go with Warlock! Shot that little warlock all the way to 60.

But, I think ultimately, although it was nice having such range and power, it didn't suit me. I didn't feel very comfortable in my warlock outfit.

So I tried some other stuff. Found the wicked, evil Rogue.

Of course, it fit.

But having looked at the statistics, and noticing for myself the deluge of other rogues in the WoWverse, I begin to wonder if the way the class itself is built is why so many people are drawn to it. As some stats describe, the "mechanics" of Rogues are the most appealing. I wonder if that's why there are so many rogues, or if it's something about the darker, shadowy nature of the rogue, and that as a rogue, you can move around just about anywhere without being seen.

Funny how those same statistics describe rogues as one of the least exploratory classes.

Not me! I get around!

I, like you, at one time thought I should drop the rogue/DPS routine and roll a priest. My first attempt wasn't so bad, but nothing could really compare to the rush of being able to defeat an opponent quickly and efficiently. With my priest, it took forever to kill anything worthwhile, and, as the rumor goes, partying tended to be tedious, although interspersed with some exciting moments. Yes, I fell back on the rogue.

But the ultimate question: Is it me? Or is it the class?

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I Eat What I Am

So, I popped on as Ayæ (TN, level 20) last night for a few minutes.

The halloween decorations, though at first nice, were so repetitive and oddly placed, that they kept screwing up my video. It was nearly as choppy as landing in IF on a Saturday night.



I did think the costumes were funny, though. The moment I arrived, standing dumbfounded in the Westfall Inn, I received a party invite, and in a flash and puff of smoke, I was suddenly a human ninja! Hah! Well, that wasn't anything new, but throughout the night, I saw alliance in the guise of skeletons, skeleton raiders, ghosts, pirates, undead pirates, ninja, and many more. I also spotted a few very cool looking "flimsy" masks. My favourite was the flimsy female orc mask on a male night elf hunter.

Well, not wanting to waste my precious time on such twiddles, I quickly pickpocketed the spikey undead guard at the creepy tower in southeast Westfall, completing the poison quest I started a week ago.

Made my way to Darkshire, where I gathered all of the quests I could to begin my Duskwood circuit (where I basically start at level 20 and run circles around Duskwood, performing and turning in quests so efficiently that by the time I'm done, I can get 5 levels in one night). I've done this with at least three other characters, so it was like *autorun* and sit back to wait for me to get back to Raven Hill. A long run.

However, this time turned out a bit different. Within a few hundred long strides of my departure from Darkshire, BAM! Before I could blink, two level 30 undead rogues came out of nowhere and had their way with me. As I collapsed to the ground in painful death, they faded back into the shadows.

Although this made me angry, I did respect the fact that they didn't taunt me afterwards, laugh, or make other rude gestures. As a rogue, myself, I only use those for enemies that have done something to deserve it.

Fortunately, by the time I got back to my corpse, a great number of alliance had arrived, scouring the land for the rogues. Amazingly, the rogues were spotted, and chased down (I was in the pack, but couldn't manage to land a blow). And eventually the rogues fell.

So, why do I bring this up?

Many a day ago (over a year, actually), I began my retail life as a lowly warlock, trying to make my way through this wonderous land. If anyone at all is a sneaky rogue's dream, it's a solo warlock. This same situation had ended my poor warlock's life more times than I could possibly count.

So, naturally, I wanted some revenge. I made a human rogue. I leveled it to 42. Now, at that time, I hadn't learned about being a combat rogue, and my silly rogue was wielding weak daggers, and I still got my butt kicked.

What I ultimately wanted to do was to be the same kind of road brigand that repeatedly ambushed me.

Did that ever happen? No.

Even though I made an undead rogue and quickly advanced to level 59... I don't recall ever ambushing anyone ten levels below me. As a matter of fact, I nearly always targeted higher levels, for the challenge as well as the HK.

So, what happened? Why didn't I pursue the path that led me to the rogue path in the first place?

I believe it's because each of us plays with a moral and ethical style that closely mimics what we'd really do in real life in those situations. Yes, most of us playing aren't criminals, murderers, thieves, or even honorable heroes. But what would most of us do in a world of virtual lawlessness?

Yes, I hear your argument already.... "I'm Role Playing!" You say. I can't deny that I've role played some pretty nasty characters, especially as a game master (it's required!). But ultimately, the characters I play the most, for the longest time, and the ones I enjoy playing (and really have an affinity for), rarely have prinicples and ethics far from my own. I don't stand around frequently traveled paths and gank people because that's not honorable.

Ah, yeah, you got me! You're saying, sneaking up on AFK characters in Southshore IS honorable???

Hah! Well, I guess the difference would be that more often than not, those characters I attacked were higher levels, had epic armor, and quite often reacted immediately upon me attacking. -- Meh. Not enough justification for you? Too bad.

Well, if it's not the "honorableness" of the situation that keeps me from doing things that make most people hate rogues, what is it?

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Philowha?phical

I'm going to get a bit... deep here.

I say "deep" because my limited vocabulary hasn't introduced me to the proper word.

I just have a query.

What if you snatched all the gamers in the world. I don't mean the Capcom gamers. I mean the RPG, MMOG, etc. players. Snatch them all up and have them use their time and energy on a single goal.



What's the single goal? I dunno, it could be anything. Save the rain forests. First woman on Mars. Heck, first woman anything. Clean fuel/energy. Doesn't matter. As long as it's something that will otherwise take humanity way too long to develop.

So... considering the world now has... well, a LOT of gamers. What would be the consequence?

Of course, I'm talking about snatching the "time and energy" that the gamers are currently using to play games. Not to do their normal, everyday paythebills jobs.

What could we accomplish?

(Yeah, we're suspending some disbelief here, that gamers would ever get together and do anything at all other than game or talk about gaming)

Let's say you got a legit invitation to be part of such an organization. Gamers United for Peace. Gamers United for Real Space Exploration (GURSE?). Gamers Involved in Making Peace (GIMP?). Whatever. Let's say you didn't have to leave your comfy computer chair to contribute. All you needed to contribute would be: ideas, coding, calculations, a monthly "fee" (donation), and any other bit of time/expertise you could muster.

Let's see. That's... well, around half a million WoW subscribers. Let's just guesstimate: one million worldwide gamers wish to contribute. They'll pay a measly $15 per month, and contribute about 2-4 hours per day, plus about 10-20 on average on the weekends.

Wanna do the math here? Let's ignore taxes and other crap, and assume we're operating as a non-profit organization. That's $15,000,000 per month. Plus, on the low end, 80,000,000 "man hours" per month. That's $180,000,000 per year in cash, and 960,000,000 hours per year. On the high end, 1,920,000,000 hours per year. (yeah, that's about 2 billion). We'll work with the average: 1,440,000,000.

Let's compare that to your "average" job. Say, a 40-hour work week (ignore vacations and whatnot), nets approximately 1,920 hours of work per year for a single worker. That's 1,920,000,000 for a million workers. How about income? A bit tougher, but we could take the national average (I know it'd be much different worldwide), and it's about $32,000 per year (single male householder with no children, as per U.S. Census, 2004). That's $32,000,000,000 total income per year for one million workers.

Obviously, there's a huge difference in "income." Since the monthly donations by our gamers are so small. You might, at first, think that's a bad thing. I mean, we won't have nearly enough money! Actually, it's a great thing! Consider the budgets of government agencies and how much goes into paying salaries. Obviously a lot. So, what's the net result with our analysis? We create as much workforce as a million average regular workers, but instead of us being "out" $32 billion per year, we're making $180 million per year.

Considering how the government is notorious for slacking off when it comes to actual work, and for spending money so flippantly, that it resembles a black hole, you must admit that a system based on "volunteers" is much more desirable.

Of course, if you're reading this, you're probably asking why any gamers would be so stupid as to "pay" to "work." Well, that's an issue, certainly, but consider all the "grinding" gamers do just to get a little farther ahead than their fellow gamers. Just to get that nicer set of gear. Or better ship. Or better anything. All those hours of mindless grinding. With a few hours of bang'em'up pvp or something to keep you interested.

So, just make the work on the "project" interesting and, most of all, rewarding. Those who "grind" more will get their names on plaques. Or cash rewards. Or a chance to do live projects with prominent scientists or others in advanced fields. Maybe job offers. Who knows? The options are endless.

What do you think? Any fundamental flaws in this concept? Any ways to make it better? Will it/ could it work?

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Movies Gallery of sorts

If you've seen some of my movies, and/or want to see more, I've got a website you can go to on a regular basis for updates without actually needing to see me announce it or post specific links. I'll post the link to the website here as well as on the sidebar. It's best to download the movie you want to watch, and then watch it locally. They aren't that big, so the downloads should be relatively quick.

Yes, you can HIRE me to film you! Okay, you don't need to pay me, but if you put in a request, I'll pop on your server (in any game I own), film you, edit it (music your choice or you can leave it up to me), and I will post it on my site for a limited time. If you have a guild raid you want to go on, and want it filmed, no problem. The best servers for me, obviously, are the ones I'm already on, but I can be bribed to make a new character on a different server. Just contact me for details.

Movies: Psy's Movies

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Doh! Where the Eff Are You, Psy???

I bet you're wondering, Where the hell did Psyae get off to? It's been like... years since she posted!

Bah... Okay. I bet you're not.

Well, I've still been WoWing (way too much). I hooked up with Tomas and pals from rofkahr.com, and made a character on some RP server, Scarlet Crusade, or Simple Clowns, or something with SC. I never get these servers right in my head. Not enough room, ya know.

So, I power-leveled a rogue there fairly quickly, named Ayae. I didn't even bother trying the æ, even though there were plenty of people with funky shyte in their names. I just didn't want to deal with another forced name-change / arrogant GM issue. Bah.

Ayae is a damn fine rogue. Got her to 40 quickly, and with her beautiful mount, have risen to a lovely 44. Well, then the damn bastages that I went there for in the first place started scattering all over, and wanted to try out some newfangled RP/PVP or PVP/RP or whatever server. Like, what's the difference? (hint: NOTHING). It's a PVP server, through and through. Don't be fooled by rumors that they "enforce" RP there. It's bogus. Anyway, it's not an entirely bad place. It's neat, though, because it's just like it was on the very first day of retail, when everything was fresh and new, and YOU got to help form the world. So, it's like that again. The economy is weak, but the prices aren't entirely overbearing yet. Which means stuff is more affordable, but it also means you can barely sell your stuff for over vendor price. It's a challenge... you have to survive mostly on your own abilities.

Which, of course, is the benefit in being in a decent guild with inside trading.

Speaking of guilds... bah.

So, the SC guild I was in kinda fell apart. I'll leave out the details.

Anyway, Tomas and I thought about starting a guild. So, he did so. But on Twisting Nether, the PVPRP server. Bah... Well, I hadn't power leveled anything there!

(Interlude: What if. What if I had pooled all of the time and energy I've put into various characters scattered over at least 4 different servers, and then put all that time and energy into ONE character on ONE server? Man, I'd be like... Goddess PSYAE! Bow down before my might, mortal!... Ah, dreams)

Back to the feature presentation:

Okay, so, now I'm like #2 in this new guild, and it's not bad. I like it, I like Tomas. What don't I like? ME! Yeah, I made a decent rogue, but as Tomas put it, I just wasn't karmically attached to it like I had "connected" with Ayae. So, I pretty much had decided to dump that whole TN idea and shift back to SC. (heck, I nearly jumped back into Psyae's rotting skin for a jump at some epic sets!)

So, I created my own guild in SC, and it had a pretty good start. But I felt bad about Tomas. He had some good points about taking advantage of the opportunity to help develop a new world (server). Plus, my new friends kept shifting back and forth. I figured I could do the same.
I came up with a neat little trick. I made a clone of Ayae on TN! Just to see if it karmically fit, you could say. I decided that if I couldn't get comfortable on TN with that, then I'd drop TN entirely. Well, turns out, this clone is not only karmic, but also better than the original Ayae! Woot. So, the plan worked, and now I'm torn between being a high officer in one guild and the leader of another. Sigh.

And then... I did something REALLY bad.

I downloaded, installed, and signed up for...

Eve Online.

Ohh, it burns, it burns!!!

Don't worry, it'll take me at least a month or two just to learn the controls of the game. And there's no way I'm quitting WoW till I get a full epic set.... SOMEWHERE!

I plan to update this blog with regular reports of my adventures on all realms. However, one of the reasons for my recent hiatus is the fact that I got a "new" job that restricts a lot of my Internet access, so I have much less time to do updates. But I'll increase my efforts. Who needs sleep, anyway?

Plus, now that I'm a favorite link on Kill Ten Rats, I have a slew of new people to impress with my lyrical prowess! W00t!

Hah

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