I started playing World of Warcraft with basically only text knowledge-- the things that I had read in preparation from academic literature, from fan sites, and what I had heard from friends. I also started getting some information when I actually purchased the game and started reading the manual (*Anne has some interesting examples of how she has been using the manual in her game play), but none of this compares to the type of knowledge I gained from actually experiencing the game. Observations from these initial steps:1. The installation of the game was an epic journey in itself. It took about 2 hours. Also included in the installation were a series of updates from Blizzard, reflecting not only the debugging process typical in software programs, but also the iterative design process clearly built into the program based on user feedback. The updates ranged from fixing bugs to "Mage's ---- spell will now last an hour rather than a half hour" or "---- Monster can now be defeated --- way..." and so on.
2. My first thoughts on getting into the game were how to select a character and how to enter into the game. These were the factors I considered:
- aesthetic concerns
- my character's abilities in the game, and in a larger sense, as Gee (2003) speaks of, my virtual identity, and probably more important, my projected identity
- which server I would pick ("role-playing centered game," "PvP" (Player vs. Player), or "Normal")
- where on the map I would start out
- right before I installed the game, Anne told me she was a Mage on the Nazjatar server, starting in the Elwynn forest
- I also had nebulous concerns about how I would operate the controls in the game, "talk" to other players, and how "good" I would be at playing.
A good resource was WoWWiki's Newbie Guide and a chart within it that had a matrix of the WoW "classes" and a breakdown of their talents. I found myself looking into which classes would be okay to "solo" (work alone in the game) as because I wanted to learn how to use the game before I started cooperating with others. My initial idea (just from reading the manual) that being a Warrior might be cool changed to picking a hybrid class, a rogue.
I had fun designing her, and at first using the Stratics Random Name Generator to find a name, I got these options: Cielind, Ocilibeth, Ibarenia, Cyven,Weni, but I noticed a mystical/pagan-ish trend to the names suggested by Stratics and by the game's own generator (and I know there are vague roots in WoW to Tolkien and Norse myths) so I picked Luxindra. There are actually a lot of rules about naming characters, but while playing I've noticed these violated often. I've also noticed a lot of characters and guilds named after Family Guy and South Park characters and places.
And then... I started the game. The graphics are pretty cool. And after playing it a while, I wonder if the simulated 3-D interface actually does start to change mental visualizations.
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