Interviews Of Online Gamers

Due to limited time we were only able to interview one person per game. 

EverQuest Interview 

How old are you?

fifty years old 

What do you do for a living/profession?

I am an Information Technology Professional and a Server Architect  

How often do you play EverQuest a week? 

Now where days I play Everquest 23 hours a week but, when I was younger I probably played 35-40 hours. 

How long have you been playing EverQuest? Are you still playing? 

I started playing December 18, 1999. Yes I am still a frequent player  it actually came out March of 1999. 

How would you rate your game addiction? 

I wouldn't call it an addiction Everquest is more of a hobby, I enjoy the fellowship aspect of the game though for some people it can lead to social alienation. In this game you develop sudo-relationships its intangible relationships you may feel like you know someone by playing an online game with them but that doesn't mean you truly know who they are in the real world. 

Most people who play Everquest play for the raiding aspect, they enjoy the high end content of the game and enjoying defeating enemies that require a large group to fight.

If you still play what keeps you playing? 

The social dynamic keeps me going back, along with game content which requires you to jump through a lot of hoops and repeat areas to gain full satisfaction, it can be time consuming but its a wonderful feeling when you get what you were looking for. The Tech in me also enjoys the mathematical components of the game like trying to figure out how the math for damage works. 

What attracted you to the game in the first place?

It was back when I worked at Microsoft I had never played online games. A friend of mines at work was beta testing for Everquest, March 97, he continued into the alpha testing. When it opened up for everyone to play we had 20 people at Microsoft who started playing. Our guild was called Divinus Conisilem (latin for Divine Council), I really got into the game because it was a fantasy world you could really enjoy. 

Everquest will be coming out with a new game soon Everquest Next which will be made for the new graphics engines in computers. 

What Character class and race is your main? 

Tedahmeister

He is a Warrior Human, level 90

Define what a guild is in your own words? 

Guilds are kickass, well at least mine is.  I would define a guild as  a group of people that reside on a systematic way to progress through in game content, of whatever game they are in.

Are you in a Guild? If so what is the focus of your guild if any? 

Since I have been playing so long I have switched around to different guilds. Right now I am part of the Red Band Brigade, we meet three days a week we are already half way through the newest expansion. Some of the best guilds in Everquest ill raid up to 42 hours a week, and if you don't keep up with the guild at least 90% of playtime you will be removed. There are people who eat, breathe, piss, sleep this game.

The coolest looking guild name I ever saw was The Big Fat Catfish 

How do you communicate in the game?

We use Ventrillo as our main base of verbal communication. Its easier then typing when you type it gets hard due to lag, you loose a lot of content and might mess up a whole raid. When we use Ventrillo one person gives instructions and everyone listens much easier and more successful 

Do you feel your communication with the outside world is affect by your in game communicating?

Yes, it makes me more distrusting of people I don't know. Most people I know on game I don't trust. If you communicate well in an online game, you can tell how people are by the way they play their character. So when you see people in real life you can read them well because you are use to the verbal and nonverbal communications.  

Do you use similar words/sayings as you do in the game outside? Do you often talk about the game with outsiders?  

Yes, I say AFK when I am at work and BRB. There is a whole sub-culture of online gaming. I have found myself talking about Everquest to people who are unfamiliar with online gaming. 

Where do you stand on the issues of online gaming being bad for you? WHY?

I think online gaming is a good hobby, its a good way for people to socialize as  long as your holding conversations about things other then online games. I would compare it to someone who watches T.V 24/7 if you did that it would be bad for you and hurt your communication style. Its just how you balance your time, it can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you use it.

Do you feel online gaming has lead you into any other hobbies? or vice versa? 

When I was younger I use to play Dungeons and Dragons before online gaming was even around. So the fantasy aspect of D&D lead me towards online gaming, like Everquest. Also I have played tons of online games due to Everquest tried out WoW, Lord of the Rings, and some face book apps (like mafia wars)  

Anything you have added to the game either inside or outside of it? (youtube videos, art work etc) 

I really haven't done much of that but I have done some social experiments. I, being a man, have played a female character and found that by playing a female character I was given free items by other users where as when I play a male character you don't get free items from strangers.

Have you seen/done/reported any sort illegal activities on game? What was the activity? And what was done about it? 

Well if by illegal activities you mean people breaking the user license agreement (ULA) or terms of service. I have seen accounts hack, characters stolen, items stolen from characters. There was this one zone where a bank would trade out silver for platinum coins, it was a bug that people exploited. Gold farming, account sharing, and griefing are very common 'crimes.' In 2003-04 there was the online economy issue were people were paying real money to buy characters and weapons, like thousands of dollars. 

World Of Warcraft 

How old are you?

I am 27 years old.

What do you do for a living/profession?

I am a Wal-Mart mechanic manager.

How often do you play WOW a week? 

I play every day for at least six hours a day.

How Long Have You Been Playing WOW? Are you still playing? 

I have been playing World of Warcraft for a year and a half. I am no longer playing.

How would you rate your game addiction? 

On a scale of 1-10 I believe my gaming addiction is an 8.

If you still play what keeps you playing?   

What kept me playing for so long was that I liked socializing with people in the game who have the same interests such as World of Warcraft.

What attracted you to the game in the first place?

I was attracted to the game because I really enjoy RPG’s and creating my own characters.

What Character class and race is your main? 

I play a blood elf paladin.

Define what a guild/faction is in your own words? 

A guild/faction is people getting together running dungeons.

Are you in a Guild? If so what is the focus of your guild if any? 

I have my own guild, it is called “built horde tough”. Our focus is simply just leveling.

How do you communicate in the game?

I communicate in World of Warcraft through typing or using my xbox headset with my guild members through party chat.

Do you feel your communication with the outside world is affect by your in game communicating?

I feel my communication with the outside world is effected because I work with or am related to everyone that I play with.

Do you use similar words/sayings as you do in the game outside? Do you often talk about the game with outsiders?  

I do use similar words/sayings in the outside world as I do in the game. I do not talk to people on the outside about the game unless they mention it first.

Where do you stand on the issues of online gaming being bad for you? WHY?

I do not think online gaming is bad for people because it is very social.

Do you feel online gaming has lead you into any other hobbies? or vice versa? 

I really enjoyed playing on computers and this hobby led me to play video games more.

Anything you have added to the game either inside or outside of it? (youtube videos, art work etc) 

I have added to the game outside of it by making a facebook page for my guild.

Have you seen/done/reported any sort illegal activites on game? What was the activity? And what was done about it?

I have been a witness to buying gold in the game. Nothing was done about the illegal activity.

Brief History Of MMORPGs

The history of online gaming began around the year of 1969. It was developed by a two player game and the aim was for education. With time many changes have been made trends and new introductions have been made. With the new changes made it brought attraction and new features, which was completely new for this time period. Hence the first multi-player game was born as a result of a toils of the scientists and the software developers. Many things about gaming were learned during this period and all of them were incorporated into the games that were built. After the year of 1995 online gaming blossomed. The National Science Foundation Network restrictions were removed during this time allowing it to really expand. This resulted as online gaming as realism for online gamers. It gave online gamers complete and full access to hence maximum domain of internet.  Competition, features, and new games tend to become more and more advanced. With online gaming today there are always ways to find free games and they provide the resources needed without spending money. (Gupta) 

Throughout the late 1970’s the market for video games increased with teenagers having an obsession for the new wave of video games. The list includes Milton Bradley, Microvisons, Epoch Game Pocket Computer, Nintendo Game Boy, Atari Lynx / Lynx II, NEC Turbo Express, Sega Game Gear, Sega Nomad, Neo-Geo Pocket/Pocket Color, Game Boy Advance etc. Because online gaming had free online games it became easy access and allowed you to also download on your mobile phone, most online games don’t have a time limit. Plus they are available at any moment growing rapidly with new advanced levels creating networking amongst other gamers. (Andersen)

How Do You Know About MMO?

Creators of MMORPG's are smarter then you think, they know just the right way to attract people to games, even people who don't usually play online games. There methods are always the use of advertisment from commercials to merchandise. They even give appeal to gaming in a world wide fashion. And well sometimes the games are just better then the movies.

Our own group even showed a good healthy helping of free advertisment for the games. Showing off our t-shirts and Blu dressing up like a halfling or better known as a hobbit

From Left To Right
Superphean, Blu, V.B, Lola 

New Questers Home Movie

World Questers Youtube Link

Whose an Avatar?

The Avatar behind the faces. When playing online games you create an avatar from a set boundaries of the games graphic, and story line perimeter. An avatar is a character that will represent you in the virtual world.

Yvette as Blu

ACCOUNT BANNED
Screen Name:  Blu
Class: Thief
Level: 5
Hit Points: 542
Armor: 1,254
Mana: 120
Special Ability: Haxkzor
Weakness: Lack of Sleep, Energy Drinks, Raids
Bio: Blu is an avid forum mother and online game player. She has been known to often stay up late retaining no social life outside of the virtual worlds. Blu has also been found guilty of hacking to enhance her character stats, or just to cheat the system to see if she can get away with it. Its sort of become a game how often she can get banned from hacking and how she can hack her way back in.

Isaac as Superphean

Screen Name: SuperPhean

Class: Captain

Level: 6

Hit Points: 420 

Armor: 546 

Mana: 130

Special Ability: Tanking/Power House 

Weakness: Dr Pepper, Comic books, Dance Central

Bio: Superphean is a gamer, his preference isn't always online gaming but he tends to check out what's new and what's up with Blu and her forum updates. His profession is student so he has a lot of time to devote to leveling up and enjoying games especially on his Xbox, where he can often be seen playing Dance Central.

Anastasia as VB

Screen Name: VB 

Class: Rogue

Level: 4
Hit Points: 380

Armor: 525

Mana: 215

Special Ability: Invulnerability  

Weakness: Lack of Wi-Fi, Incoming Phone Calls, Easily RL Distracted
Bio: VB is a casual gammer, she doesn't have herself jacked into the internet or a specific game at all times of the day. Normally she gets on only when the others pester her enough to log in. But, when she does play she gets into her role, she enjoys all the forms of communication in games and can be see writing reviews on her down time from her busy life. The only one of the three other gamers that holds a professional job in the real world.

                        Lola: Forum Moderator

Christine as Lola

Online Game Terminology

Most of these Terminologies were found on the gamer wikis, urban dictionary, and also from Blu's own online gaming encounters. I have choosen the best discriptions I have found to describe the terms and the terms often used and that most people may not know. WARNING R RATED LANGUAGE 

A

Alpha

(General software term) First phase of testing software. The structure and most of the content has been developed but not all the intended features may be present. Alpha tests are typically run in-house or by specialist testing agencies.

ADD

When you are fighting a mob and another one pops up to attack  

B

BTW 

"by the way"

Buffs 

Spells that enhance strength, power, or other abilities. One of the primary functions of the healer classes and some caster classes

BAF

When you attract a mob and it brings along more then expected 

Beta

(General software term) Second phase of testing software (not exclusively games) and last development phase prior to release. Most features have been implemented but some of these may be removed during the beta phase if they turn out to be too problematic to fix.

Open beta

The beta version of the software is available for anyone to test and report bugs to the company.

Closed beta

The software is only available to selected people who may be testing for very specific things. 

Bug

Faults in the programming which cause unintended effects both good and bad – crashes, unintentionally high character advancement, etc.

Bio

Another way to say "brb" when you are going to use the bathroom 

BoE 

"bind on equip" - refers to loot drops that anyone can pick up to use, sell, or give away.

BoP 

"bind on pickup" - the moment you pick it up, it becomes bound (soulbound in WoW) to you. In groups, if you pick up a BoP item which you cannot personally use and without asking first, you will die and go to the deepest, coldest hell ever imagined by any gamer anywhere. Your first response to any BoP drop is to PASS.

C

Camp

To remain in one strategic place and repeatedly kill people or mobs.

D

Ding! 

You've achieved a new level in your game.(can also be said over voice as "WOOSH!") 

DOT 

 A pesky spell or poison that causes "damage over time" - repeatedly hurting you until it is cured, wears off, or leaves you lying on the ground looking for a rez.

DPS 

 "damage per second." 

E

Expansion Pack

Lots of additional content for a game that is created by the developer and often costs almost as much as the original game did in the first place.

F

Faction

A group of allies, either racial or ideological.

FTA

For the Alliance. It refers to The Horde one of the two factions in World of Warcraft.

FTW! 

"For the win!" As in, "Skimpily-clad, epic-busted, bouncy-bottomed chick avatars ftw!

Frag

Kill.

For the Horde 

For the Horde. It refers to "The Horde" one of the two factions in World of Warcraft.

G

GRATZ! 
(or the variations: Grats!, Gratzz! Gratzzzz!) Gratz is an easy abbreviation to decode; it is simply a contraction of "Congratulations". Use it often, make friends, play nice.

GTFO

"Get the Fuck out" normally yelled by a raid leader when the monsters in the area are too tough 

Gate

A potion in Everquest 

Grind

Performing mindlessly repetitive tasks in order to level up or proceed in the game – most often seen in MMORPGs where you frequently have to kill massive numbers of unchallenging creatures around your level to gain the necessary experience to level up, or to get a specific prestigious item.


Guild

 Can be a mixture of races and similar ideologies. Normally people in a guild like to hang out and do quests together.

K

KITE 

 A term in video gaming and elsewhere to describe when a ranged fighter skirmishes with a hand-to-hand fighter by running and shooting. This can have 2 purposes: a) to damage the enemy while staying outside of hand-to-hand range, or b) to make the enemy follow you so you can lead them to a specific locatio

L

LOS 

"line of sight." Casters can't make firebolts curve around obstacles the way that guy in Wanted could.

Leet, 1337

Elite

LFG/LFP

Looking for group/party/person

M

Main 

Your most played, highest level, or first created character.

Mine, Farm, Pharm 

To stay in one place, killing the same mob over and over and over again, for loot or xp.

Mob

NPC monsters or opponents.

N

Noob

Newbie, new person, inexperienced person

Ninja Looting

grabbing loot from a slain monster, chest, etc., that you don't have a right to grab, or that you didn't earn, or that you don't need. Ninja looting is very, very bad. Its so bad most games don't have the ability to take loot from something you didn't kill

Nerf

To weaken or make less dangerous. Taken from the "Nerf" brand name, which makes sports equipment toys out of a soft foam (e.g., the Nerf football is soft foam rather than the hard leather of a real football). Used frequently in the context of computer game balance changes. 

"The chaingun was awesome til they nerfed it, now you can't hit shit with it." 

O

OTW 
"on the way"

OOC

Out of Character" If a game requires roleplaying you say this to stipulate that you are not playing the character but speaking as youself

P

PK, PKing

Player-killing. Usually used in the context of MMOs, where killing other players is not necessarily the object of the game.

Pwned

Owned. One of those strange internet variations that start at typos and become words unto themselves

PVP
Play vs Play. Normally these are done on online gaming in only certain locations since all people dont enjoy being killed by others.

S

Spawn

The act of a character popping into existence in the game world.

Spawn point 

A position at which several characters will pop into existence.

Snare Train

(Ever Quest) Druid or Wizard cast a snare effect run circles around the mob while attacking them keeping them snared

Spawn camp 

To sit within range of a spawn point and kill characters as they appear, often before the newly-spawned players have a chance to get their bearings. Very heavily frowned-upon in most circles.

T

Train

A whole bunch of mobs chasing after someone who can't handle them. Choo choo!

Trained 

Someone pulls mobs ontop of you normally one that is way to strong or over powering

Tank

Character who can take a lot of damage. Normally sonething of a melee class who hits hard, and distracts the enemy.

W

WTG 

"way to go!" Self-explanatory

WTS/WTB/WTT

Want to sell/Want to buy/Want to Trade. Commonly heard in the general areas of MMOs

WTFO

stands for what the fuck over normally used after some 'trained' you. 

Z

Zone

Many on-line gaming worlds are so vast they have to be divided into areas or "zones."




Here are the sites I used and many more definitions can be found that aren't listed here 
http://www.theaveragegamer.com/terminology/
http://www.squidoo.com/gamingacronyms
http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Final Proposal

 MMORPG: What Is It Really?

The topic our group has chosen to study is Muti-Massive Online Role Play Games. We are focusing on the popular online games known as World of Warcraft and EverQuest by comparing them and also how non-gamers learn about them due to their pressence throughout popular culture.The reason we feel that this topic needs to be studied is because MMOPRPGs are becoming a major social trend. A large part of the world’s population is joining in on these games and some even becoming addicted to the point of losing their loved ones, and all their valuables. Our goal is to educate the class about what makes these games so appealing and the effects they can have not only on the players, but the world around them. There are a few questions we have about MMORPGs that we feel are very important. The first question we are looking to answer is if online games are really bad for you? or if online gaming itself isn't neccessarily bad. And what else online gaming lead to or be lead from? These are the main two questions we are focusing on. Aside from that we are looking to see the differences and similarities between the two games. We want to know the types of social interaction they contain, the attraction factors that keep people in the game and how the games themselves run on what sort of storyline and differences they use to keep players interested. We will also define key words that are often used on online games like faction or guild to better educate the public about how online games work. 

We plan to conduct our research in three different ways textual analysis, ethnography, and auto-ethnography. The way we will find our research through textual analysis is by looking over the websites made for the game to gather information. We will also look for forums, wikis, and fan based websites, videos, and maybe even apps and how they spread MMORPG’s out even further into the public eye and how they help shape it as well. 

Through the use of ethnography we will interview people who play the games using both in-game and out-of-game interviews. We will try to engage them in their own settings and along forums and areas of common place for the gamer. We will take in how the online games can slip outside of the game itself and into other areas like Face book, YouTube, etc and how games can become greatly affected by the fans themselves. 

We will use the Auto-ethnography as well. A few of our members are already, or have been involved in online gaming, through their play we will learn more about how the game works and interview them as well to see what keeps them attracted to the MMORPGs, and how they interact differently in social settings in the game as opposed to outside.

While working on this topic we hope to find a connection between the two games. We are hoping to link the two different styles of Multi-Massive Online Role Play Games together through their similarities and differences. We want to find out how people interact on the games and how they are affected. We also hope to find out what some of the major reasons people are attracted to online games, and how their attraction can lead to distraction, addiction, and sometimes suicide. A few of us, being gamers and online players, hope to disprove the idea that video games are only bad for you, as that tends to be generally what society believes.

Some of the things we think we may find on this topic are how people are affected by the online social interaction both in and out of the gaming world. We believe the way people act on online games can be different from the way they act outside of games. We also think we will find a connection between people in creative jobs who play and interact on these games. We hope to find that online games add to cultural participation and maybe even dig a little deeper into the history of what led to online gaming like tabletop games.

A lot of our theories will come from Chapter nine of our text book which is about social media. We will discuss all the ways online gaming is like social media from discussion boards, forums, wikis, blogs (Pavlik 262-5). We will discuss how online games form social networks both inside and outside the game can create ties (Pavlik 268-70). We will talk about how online games can generate users to not just be consumers but become produsers either directly towards the game or on outside networks were mass amounts of people, both players and non-players can view (Pavlik 273). There will also be discussion of legal and ethical issues regarding the bits on people’s privacies (Pavlik 274-5). It will also go over how people begin to modify and ‘steal’ from the online gaming world without ever leaving their seats. 

The project will be taking shape in two ways, the first way is with a video presentation and the second way is through a blog (Like what you are looking at). The video presentation will consist of Yvette, Anastasia, and Isaac being in the film. They will be portraying some typical kinds of online game players to a new game. All three will also go by online screen names to better sink them into their characters and make it believable. It will show how it can be an addictive source, how not everyone is always a participant in the online game, how people socialize, and even a bit of how people can do illegal things while on online games. 

Christine, during presentation day, will further go over what the video is portraying and explaining in a bit more detail about what is going on, the definitions, and clear up on what they are speaking about in the video. Our final format will be on a blog it will have all our gathered research and information on our research questions. It will hold this proposal, and an explanation of the film. We will also answer if we found what we were looking for and post up a blooper reel from our filming. We will use sources, photos, videos and screen shots from the game and maybe use and find articles for our research. We may also have an array of fan made items and even some from our own collections.