Reflecting on all of this

Well the end of the semester is here. Now is when I decide to keep this or not. My answer is an unwilling "I have to".

Blogging and Facebook were tedious and time-comsuming at best. These type of acitivities are definitely something I will not do for fun or spend my leisure time doing. Yet at the same time I know that I must do these even in I hate it.

According to one of my business classes, experts agree that networking through the internet and through social websites such as Facebook, Myspace, etc. is the best way to get exposure to the world and increase chances of success. With my career choice as a writer looming over me, I'd be stubborn to ignore the merits of networking.

In regards to this class, the experience is something I will probably not look on favorably. Having to participate in a game that I really didn't want to play anymore (at least at the moment) sucked what little fun it still had. Yet I still had to do it in order to generate blogging material. Don't get me wrong, when I first came back it was fun but it started to drag on and bring back uncomfortable memories of treating an MMO like a job or an obligation and not a game anymore.

Getting to meet new people and establish ongoing contact was nice. However, I was only doing things because I was obligated to, not because I wanted to. I like socializing, but I much prefer it face-to-face and not monitor-to-monitor.

So in the end what have I learned from this course? At least I know how to create profiles for social websites, as I will most likely have to in order to get more exposure. I learned that blogging is something I loathe and yet I will still probably be forced to do this crap too.

Online Bullying

Recently I read an article from a facebook link in which a girl committed suicide. This was brought on by constant teasing and bullying from anothr individual, a mother no less.

This was terrible and apalling. How could ANYONE feel the need or have the desire to bully someone? How could anyone put someone down so much that he or she would kill himself or herself?

It's reasons like this that I originally made my online bullying blog. People can be hurt on the Internet just as much as they can be hurt in real life. People need to realize that their are consequences for your actions, virtual or not.

I'm just glad the perpetrator is being brought up on charges and treated as if this series of incidents was committed face-to-face.

Skill vs Gear

Damn this has been bothering me for awhile now.

When WoW came out, the emphasis was all on skill. Knowing how to play your class, knowing the in's and out's of your abilities, and having familiarity with other enemy classes. Even if someone had better gear, you could still beat them if they weren't as good as you.

Slowly and subtely that has all changed. Skill has become less and less important. It didn't matter that I had been playing the game since beta, people in better gear who played under a year could nearly kill me before I even had a chance to defend myself.

How aggravating.

Patience....

Another thing I have had to learn (and still do) with MMO's is patience. All kinds of patience. The patience against failure and frustration. Patience against negative people and negative attitudes. Patience against inexperienced people who are trying their best to learn.

This is a tie-in to my other blog, but patience is just as important as teamwork. People have bad nights and tempers flare. Nothing was worse than losing a hard-fought game only for arguments to erupt. Worse still was when people just quit playing for the night and really demoralize the group.

Nice thing about all of this though is the principles I learned from this certainly can be applied to real life.

Teamwork

If MMO''s taught me anything they taught me teamwork. Didn't matter how well you played by yourself, if you didn't have chesmistry or the capacity to work well with other you weren't going to go far.

I spent a long time on my Field Marshal grind from the World of Warcraft. A lot, scratch that, all of, my success came from working together with other people.

Even today, teamwork is just as important as it was back then, epspecially in WoW. The horrendous days of having to attain enough honor within a certain pertange of your competitors is over. You still can't have a gung-ho, lone-wolf attitude these days.

I have to say, it's still just as much fun as before.

Online Relationships?

Recently, I've been hearing more and more how online dating and relationships are becoming more precedent and common. This is bothersome to me.

Yet, with the internet and online-socialization becoming more common-place, are online relationships bound to occur more and more?

My best friend's brother has had several, none of which succeeded. Yet, I have heard of some being successful, and there HAVE been couples that wouldn't have met unless it was through the internet.

What do you all think of this?

The Zombie Invasion

A while ago, on WoW, the company created an event. To celebrate the Wrath of the Lich King "expansion" (adds new character classes, dungeons, monsters, spells and abilities, etc.), the company, Blizzard, suddenly created strange crates and infected rats in the major trade cities.

If the rats happened to die in your vicinity or you investigated the crate, you became infected. After 5 minutes, you died and turned into a zombie. Upon this happening, you could kill NPC's (basically any character that isn't under player control) and create more zombies that would follow you around. You were also free to attack any non-infected character. Even landing one attack on them could infect them.

Your health decreased constantly, forcing you to continue feeding or receiving various abilities from other players (such as a sort of battle-cry or a vomit that would slow people down).

It wasn't uncommon to find areas completely infested, with people on my buddy list trying to convince me to go there. Little did I suspect they were trying to lure me into their infected clutches. Luckily for me, Paladins can sense the presense of undead, as well as purge diseases even as potent as the infection (though it could take me up to 10+ attempts).

This event was a blast to participate in, as players themselves were the ones to spread the disease. You had two sides, also player instigated.

ALso, in case you were wondering, when your zombie was killed, you could revert back to normal.

Computer Woes

Oh boy. Ever since the flooding, my computer hasn't been running the same. It started with a burnt out video card. I was forced to run the computer off the internal card, which is like using a bicycle attached to a hamster wheel to power your house.

I get a new card, and the damn thing doesn't want to work. To top it off, it now seems that my motherboard and processor are starting to grow. This is putting some nasty pressure on my wallet. It's also going to put a hamper on this class, as I am going to have to find an additional means to make these posts. Not fun at all.

Trip Down Memory Lane

Oh man Second Life's opendedness reminds me of Ultima Online. Yet at the same time it shows me some of the differences my current MMO has compared to UO. The professions in WoW are largely secondary. Characters are forced to quest and kill monsters to gain experience points in order to level up. Without leveling up it can't be possible to train up professions beyond basic levels.

In UO, your character did whatever you made it do. It was easily possible to make character's that never left the town. In fact, since players had a limited number of training points to distribute, mixing trade skills with combat skills was foolhardy. It was very common for people to create characters specifically as merchants.

In WoW, you MUST fight against monsters and you are limited to only two primary trade skills. This is kind of a let-down compared to UO, especially since the craftable items and gear are typically substandard to quest rewards.

It's a game, not a job man.

Another chapter in the (mis)adventures of my paladin.

During my early days of WoW, before I started the "honor grind" as it was known, I attemped to raid dungeons, rather than fight enemy players. One thing quickly became apparrent: people took (and still take) WoW waaaaaay too seriously. The following stories are taken from the two guilds (an association of players with the typical intention of raiding computer-controlled dungeons).

The first guild required me to download modifications to the game, such as the ability to see all 39 other team member's life bars, rather than the other 4 in my group. Another such download was a calendar that you had to "sign up" for raids and "hope" to be accepted. People would review your gear, your talent spec (all character classes have 3 talent trees involving various aspects of the character. My Paladin, for example, could spend talent points in the Holy skill tree to improve healing aspects, Protection to improve defensive capabilities, or Retribution to enhance offensive capabilities), and how long you had been playing.

If you were declined, you were told to play more, get better gear, or choose a different talent spec to benefit the entire guild. This game isn't free; people play about $15 a month to play. And here comes someone else telling you to spend YOUR $15 dollars differently if you wanted to play the game with them. Frankly, what a bunch of bull&%*^.

After that guild, I attemped to join another. I was asked to "fill out an application" for the guild. That's right; I needed a resume to participate in an online video game. That wasn't the worst part either. The raid organizer was very biased towards my class, seeing it as nothing other than a "heal-bitch class" as the term came to be known. If a monster dropped a piece of gear you could use, you had to see if you had enough "currency points" within the guild to "afford" the item, provided you were allowed to bid on it in the first place.

I also have to say that I have quit jobs before due to blood-pressure from obnoxious bosses, but the organizer gave the absolute worst tongue lashes I have ever heard. Profanity, insults, threats, beratings in giuld channel chat and over headsets or in private channels where she/he could scream at you. I timed him/her, beratings were over fifteen minutes.

Was this a job or a game? What the Hell....?" I told myself.

After all this I walked away from Player vs Environment (PvE) and focused on Player vs Player (PvP).

Soapbox hits a homerun in regards to WoW

I recently read through that soapbox article. Man oh man, did that thing nail WoW.

I played World of Warcraft since its beta, and I remember keenly the honor rank system. Killing enemy players and participating in battlegrounds based on popular themes such as capture-the-flag and king-of-the-hill earned you honor points.

At first, the system wasn't so hard. You had to wait a week for your honor to calculate your rank. There were caveats to ranks, such as a private (and later knight) tabard you could wear to prove your rank, an insignia that could free you from being stunned or paralyzed, weapons and armour sets as well.

But the system was skewed towards who had the most time. It didn't matter how good you were; you still received the same honor for victory. This rewarded not skill, but time, as your rank was determined by how much honor you were ahead or below the other ranks. There were people who dedicated their entire spare time only to see they lost rank.

That wasn't the only problem; there could only be one rank 14 (Grand Marshal for the Alliance, High Warlord for the Horde). Being rank 14 gave the recipient access to a very powerful, top-end weapon. But people could remain rank 14 and antagonize other players striving to reach follow suit. There was no reason to remain rank 14; you forever had Grand Marshal or High Warlord added to your name and your weapon could never be taken unles you yourself made the decision to discard it.

In the end, time does not neccessarily indicate skill. Furthermore, alot of people wasted good money and time striving to reach something out of their reach and had nothing for it but bitter memories.

Missed Days and Online Courses

Something has been on my mind lately. Is it possible to have a "missed" day with online courses?

I remember the day and age of staying home and having to make the work up later. That dirverged into stay home and have a sibling or class mate drop the work off. Then that became "it's your responsibility to make up for any days you miss".

Anyways, what made me wonder is can an online course have a missed day? I thin back to the flood we had, and how supposedly some students still have homework to do since their course was online.

This makes me wonder what happens if there is a legitimate reason for not participating. Is the student held responsible since he/she merely needs an internet capcable computer or can exceptions be made?

What do we do about our privacy?

I ran across an interesting facet of online profiles. People can access your information freely. Even if you have your profile on private, they can often become friends with other people that know you, or other people who are your online friend.

What happens if they casually happen to mention your profile and innocently inquire personal information from them? What happens if someone creates an alternate identity just to try to get close to you?

It's a situation where you have to make sure those people you have set to "friend" are really trustworthy.

Social Bookmarking

It's interesting to see social bookmarking sites. I can attest to saving lots of bookmarks. Often times, my list gets waaaaay to big and I find myself creating folders or deleting stuff. Other, worse times, I lose some neat stuff to computer crashes or an overzealous internet security person who regulary deletes browser history, temporary files, and even bookmarks I may set up.

The pages I have could be mired in over a thousand search results. At times like this expletives would run from my mouth like a waterfall, as I lament the loss of a neat little gem of info.

At least, if I understand social bookmark sites, I could still find stuff I am interested in even through a computer crash or deleted PC bookmarks.

Pretty cool Congress

I just have to say that it's pretty cool to see those photos of Congress. It's really cool to get this peek into the past. It's kinda like an online museum, except we get free admission and leisure of time.

It's really neat to see some of these war photos, historical people, and even historical photos of some of America's quintessial pastimes like baseball.

Needless to say, I will be devoting some time to look at these.

Age of Myspace Users

I found the Myspace age article interesting. I think it has an older audience for two reasons.

The first is its popularity. It's one of the most well-known social websites. This causes it to draw larger crowds. This also makes people who are new to the whole "internet socialization" community to flock to the most well-known example.

Another reason is Myspace's ease of use. My girlfriend makes extensive use of Myspace. It's not uncommon for her to check it really quick when we're spending time together. One thing I noticed about Myspace when compared to Facebook is how much easier it is to use. It took me time to sort through the varuous functions and utilities of Facebook and I found myself wishing it had been Myspace as it seemed much easier to navigate.

I think this is why alot of older people settle for Myspace. It's easy to navigate and well-known.

What's Your Name?

Something has been bothering me lately. More and more, I get asked the simple line "What's your name?". I answer either my generic online moniker or my character's name if I am playing a game. Then I get asked "No, I mean your real name." I do not know people over the Internet and I don't feel comfortable giving out my real name.

In response to this, people often become belligerent with me. They often give me their name, and again reiterate their desire to know my real name. I remind them that I never asked for their name and they handed theirs out freely; this does not mean that I am obligated to do the same. By this point disparaging remarks are thrown at me, ranging from expletives to insults.

Is it really that offensive to people to not be given a real name? Do they assume I think negatively of them? Is my reluctance to give out personal information really considered tacky enough as to give me attitude about it?

Does anyone else have this problem?

Online Identity

One aspect that continues to fascinate me is online identity. Why is this? People are often rude and disrespectful online. When confronted, I hear, all too often, that "people can't see me in real life. I can do what I want and you can't stop me." The sad truth is that these people are often right. They can be or act whoever and however they want. People have the option to be as anonymous or open as they like.

They don't have to fill in a profile. They don't have to take a digital camera and upload a picture of themselves. Who is to say the information they provide is authentic anyways?

This brings me to facebook. I recall one of our articles mentioned that Facebook kinda prides itself on making sure our identity is authentic. I like this feature, as it makes being rude and disrespectful harder to do when users know more about you.

Online Brow-beating

One thing became apparent to me very quickly when I first started online socialization: There is a ton of electronic brow-beating.

People are very quick to bully and brow-beat you. My experiences from the World of Warcraft (which is where a majority of my online interaction takes place) have taught me this. This is a fantasy game, set in the same vein as Lord of the Rings. Users create a character, whether it be a warrior, wizard, healer, thief, etc. The charatcer I created is a Paladin, a mix between a plate-armour wearing warrior and the titular healing class, the priest. I quickly learned this was a mistake.

A quick side note about the World of Warcraft: The game is broken up into two factions, the Alliance (comprised of humans, dwarves, elves and gnomes) and the Horde (comprised of Orcs, Trolls, Undead, corrupted elves, and a race of walking bulls known as Tauren). There are two ways to play the game. Players can band together and storm dungeons run by computer controlled monsters. The other way is to band together and fight other enemy faction players in various battlegrounds. These battlegrounds could be classic king-of-the-hill or capture-the-flag battles, or players could enter a pictched battle of 40 vs 40. There were also specialized arena battles of teams of 5 and under.

Anyways, about 3 months or so into my Paladin's career, I was constantly hounded for not strictly healing. More and more, people would not invite me into their group unless I strictly healed. I was not a strict healing class. The Paladin's healing powers were easily bested by a dedicated healer class like the priest. The other mixed classes, such as the shape-shifting Druid and totem dropping Shaman were also superior healers compared to us. Nevertheless, people demaded I strictly start healing or they would spread the word that "Assilius is a shitty player and an even shitter team player". My best friend, who also created a Paladin like me, was much more outspoken and succeeded in blacklisting himself for his refusal to be pigeon-holed into one role. As a result, he had to spend money to change his name and switch to a different "realm", another copy of the World of Warcraft with a different population of people.

This amazed and appalled me all at once. People have online reputations? People who simply play a game online still have to be careful or subservient enough otherwise they can get a bad rap?

What's even more appalling is how little there can be done. Online intimidation and threats can only be reprimanded if the individual's personal health and well-being is involved in most cases. This means that online "bullies" can often brow-beat and terroize at their will and leisure.

What can be done to stop this?

To Remain or Not to Remain?

One thought has crossed my mind throughout this course. In dealing with being a digital immigrant to the social aspects of online communication, a thought occurs: Do I keep active after this class is over? Do I simply let this account and my Facebook lay fallow? Do I intend to keep in touch with my peers and classmates? Do I let this all go after the semester?

A part of me is annoyed at what I perceive as "online maintenace" in terms of keeping contact with people. The other part of me knows that technology (especially online technology) is the future. Do I stubbornly resist its tug and pull or do I force myself to synthesize with it all?

Right now, it is much too early for me to decide. I will have to come to a conclusion by the end of the semester.

Starting a New Step

Well, after getting over my cold finally I feel well enough to start blogging. All of this is a new experience for me, as I have never used Myspace, or Facebook or anything else simuiliar to it. This is also the first time I will have to keep an active blog. Hell, I've never even kept a journal before. I also don't socialize very much online, much preferring phonecalls and face-to-face discussions to online communications.

All in all, getting started in all this feels...overwhelming...but I feel that as soon as I get started and lay down my foundations, things will get easier.