Practicum #8

My eighth and final post. I am glad to be done with that game. I just can't see the appeal of MMORPGs and how people can get so addicted to them. It feels like I'm essentially doing the same thing over and over again with no payoff. The only game I really like that doesn't have an actual end would be The Sims, but at least with that game there's always something new to do, and each character does have an end to his or her "life". With MapleStory there isn't much of a reward to continue doing perpetual actions. I couldn't even change my hair color or style without a "hair coupon" that is apparently rewarded randomly or requires purchase with real money.

At the end of the game I got to level 27, and never was able to get to any of the other islands. I did discover how to make it over there, but unfortunately you have to be over a certain level (I think either 30 or 50) to be able to travel there.

There are just so many detailed aspects to this game as well that I don't understand how some people can manage to get so invested and learn every little thing they can about it. I suppose if I actually was interested in the game I might be more inclined to learn more about different attack moves and what certain items do, but it all seems so complicated. I kept seeing other characters use all these ridiculous attacks that would take down three strong monsters at the same time, while I'm standing there hacking away at one for 30 seconds.

I tried to see if I could give away the items I had acquired to other people, but I was informed that if you drop an item another person can't pick it up. I was hoping I could just drop all my stuff and let everyone fight for it, since I wouldn't be needing it anymore. I didn't bother trying to see how long it would take me to get banned, although I kind of wanted to. I was just to the point where I didn't want to deal with the people on this game any longer and really didn't care about their reactions. I felt I'd be more annoyed than amused in the end.

Practicum #7

If there is one thing I have learned from MapleStory tonight, it is that running would really save a lot of time. There is a particular set of quests involving a specific mushroom that only appears in certain areas that I am dead set on completing, but the NPC you need to talk to to get your reward and find out about the new quest is in an area rather far away. It gets really annoying having to travel back and forth from each area.

And, as usual, I'm finding myself getting increasingly pissed off with the people who keep trying to fight off the monsters I'm working on killing to complete my quests. I've been getting so close to saying some inappropriate things to those who keep coming back (and the ones who repeat the same thing over and over again...) but those lovely little "Maple Tips" remind me that I need to refrain from using "foul language" on the game.

I'm really tempted to break a ton of rules during my last playing session. This game and its players are really getting on my nerves.

I'm also planning on trying a new server with less people in it. Hopefully it will allow me to finish my quests in peace. I'm also interested in how the cities are in the less populated servers.

Practicum #6

I embarked on another set of quests, once again nothing terribly different or exciting. I did obtain an "evolving ring", a new item that gains new stats and gets stronger with each day you login. You have to play for at least one hour each day that you are logged in for it to level up, though. This is an incentive for players to keep coming back during this special event. I know a lot of sites try to pull members in with promises of exciting new items and features, and Maple Story wants its players to know that their item can't reach its full potential unless they come back for 17 subsequent days for one hour each day. That's quite a big achievement for someone who only plays casually, and so it is definitely trying to get people who are normally casual players to come back for more.

One thing that I noticed about the interactions between players is that most of the time it doesn't even seem like real humans are using this site. The way people talk to each other doesn't quite seem real...there's something rather uncanny about it. The conversations they hold are barely coherent, and they almost seem to be talking in another language. Many people try to buy or sell certain items or buy "fame" (I'm still not quite sure what it is, but it appears to be a sort of popularity contest) and so they spam the chat box with the item/service they're looking for/selling and for how much. It gets really annoying when you're passing through a city area where people are piled up just chatting. The game starts to lag because the chat log is filled with continuous spam and I just don't understand how anyone could find it interesting or entertaining.

I also kept getting pissed off when trying to finish a quest where I had to kill over 300 of a certain type of monster, and other characters would come in and start killing the monsters I was working on beating. You have to kill the monster yourself for it to count, and so it started getting really annoying to have to compete with other players to get your monster count up. I just wanted to finish the quest as quick as possible and move on to the next one. In this instance the multiplayer aspect not only provides nothing to the gameplay, but actually makes it worse.

Practicum #5

I logged into Maple Story today, and to my surprise the website had been updated. Apparently they made some big changes, and there is some storyline going on that is called "Big Bang". These bad guys I guess blew something up and the worlds are all switched around. I don't know. That's all I gathered from the video on the main page. So I went into the game, and noticed that they updated the interface- the Health and EXP bars looked different, as did a lot of the buttons and frames. There were also quite a few new monsters.

I went on a couple new quests, as I was curious about what sorts of new things these updates would provide. All I really ended up doing was killing a couple hundred monsters and picked up items as usual to receive EXP points and some other special items. Not very exciting. Though for three of the quests I was supposed to visit some guy called The Rememberer, and I had no idea where he was. I looked online but all I could find were old posts from before this new world change had occurred. Eventually I went to one of the larger cities and asked where I could find this guy to anyone who would listen. No one was really paying attention to me, so I asked again. I actually got a response from someone the second time, which surprised me, so I asked more questions until I got my answer from the same person, thanked them and went on my way.

I didn't do much else after that because unfortunately the game made my computer overheat and turn off. It didn't make me too happy.

Practicum #4

Thanks to MapleGuide.com I finally figured out how to get to some of the other islands. I still can't get to the main island, but I discovered another "starter" island where the starter jobs are different from the ones I was able to choose from. I almost wish I had gone with that choice as it sounds much cooler.

I still haven't been able to learn anything new from this game as far as what the online multiplayer aspect of the game does for the gameplay. I'm hoping eventually when I've gotten to some different areas I can either meet some people who will explain it for me or I will learn how to utilize the multiplayer aspect to enhance my game.

Since you can create a different character on each server, I've been considering starting a new character to see how things differ in other locations. I'd like to see what the game is like with a different job as well. I'd like to also play around with clothing, figuring out which items boost which stats and seeing if I can, like other users, try to make my avatar look as "cool" as possible.

As I've mentioned before, it's hard for me to want to play this game. It's really not very fun to me, which makes me wonder why people get so addicted to it and other similar MMORPGs. It really feels like I'm just doing the same thing over and over again. Fighting monsters, collecting items, finishing quests. The quests are really the only thing that I enjoy doing because there is a reward at the end. There is a definitive ending to each quest, and they are challenging to complete but not impossible. It seems everything else within the game seems too open ended, and I don't get any sense of satisfaction from running around killing monsters.

Practicum #3

On MapleStory I have yet to meet any players other than seeing other users talking to each other. I have no desire to stand around one of the cities and talk to other players, and most of the time everyone is too busy fighting off monsters to converse with one another. Occasionally a user will ask a question about whether another member has a certain item they need, or need help finding something. Other than that the majority of conversations happen when the players aren't moving and are concentrated in large groups in the major cities where there are no monsters.

Most of the time I've been leveling my character up by fighting stronger monsters and completing quests. I finally decided to venture off the island I've been playing on- Victoria Island- and check out some other areas. I found it was rather difficult to figure out how to get off the island and onto another one. I made it to an icy area by riding on a whale driven by a penguin dangling a fish in front of the whale... and also traveled by ship to another area. Neither of those places had anything of use or interest to me, and so I returned to the main island. Those two smaller islands were really part of Victoria Island, but I wanted to visit some of the bigger places. There was no way in the game for me to find out how to get there. I even looked online for some help but wasn't able to figure it out.

Questions for tomorrow's presentation:

Do you think that the MMORPG aspect of these game is what draws players in, or are other elements more important (style, no cost, type of game)?

What is the appeal of purchasing items using real-world money in a free game?

What makes these games so addicting to the point where people refuse to leave their rooms and lose money due to playing them?

Practicum #2

Since my last post I have played Maple Story a few more times, slowly learning more each time. I still haven't figured out quite when the best time to interact with other users is, but it seems that in each "town" in the world I am in there is a specific area where there are no monsters. This place is where many NPCs are located that will give you quests to go on, and many users will congregate here to chat. I did have one strange interaction with a user the second time I played: as I was leaving the training area I began to explore the world where I chose my "job" and another user was walking around. They kept following me around and eventually said "ur ugly beyong[sic] imagination lol". I was so amused by this- was this meant to be a really bad joke or is this person so engrossed by the world they play in that they judge others by the look of their avatars?

As far as the rest of the game goes, I'm still mostly trying to get the hang of fighting and knowing where to go in certain areas. It always feels good to finish a quest, so I try to do a lot of them as it also results in item accumulation, experience points and especially allows me to familiarize myself with the areas and keys. There are also random achievements that you can unlock, such as one I'm working on that requires me to visit 20 different areas.

So in general I'm really still working on finding my way through the game, and trying to make as many observations as I go. Once I feel more comfortable in the game I'll be able to find more ways of interacting with and observing other users.

Practicum #1

My practicum assignment is to examine a MMORPG, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. I chose Maple Story mainly because it is free to download and install, because I have had a small bit of experience with it in the past (played it for about 10 minutes and gave up back in high school) and it seemed relatively easy to get into.

It is a cartoony, 2D style game as opposed to the very detailed 3D universe of WoW. The characters are "chibi" style (Japanese for small child) or "Super Deformed" people. My avatar isn't very exciting yet, as I haven't gotten a chance to buy any interesting outfits or hairstyles. She has straight black hair and some pretty bland clothes. All the names that I wanted to use and typically use on other websites were either already taken or too long, so I looked around my apartment for something to name her. Eventually I settled on "Hausu" as my eyes landed on a small handbill for the Japanese movie on the wall.

As Hausu I walk around these very cartoony cities, encountering NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) who either give helpful hints or send me on quests. Quests range from talking to another character to fighting a certain number of monsters, and in return I receive items, money or experience points which will eventually raise my level when I have enough. To fight monsters, I originally had a hand axe but eventually was upgraded to a razor (somehow this is more effective than an axe?). The first cities are training areas, which I navigated through defeating monsters and raising my levels.

Once I reached a certain level, I could leave the training island. The next destination was a sort of sea port from where I could enter other areas with different settings, climates, characters, monsters, etc. I could also choose my "job". The jobs available for you to choose are Magician, Pirate, Warrior, Bowman, and Thief. I chose Warrior because the moves looked the coolest...

So far I haven't encountered many other people to talk to because the majority of my first session was spent in the training area. There were a lot of other people in this part, but no one was talking and to be honest, I have yet to figure out how the chat features work and when and where people do actually converse. Hopefully once I've gotten a bit more comfortable with the controls, the map and my actual goals I will have more interesting experiences.