Fix 5-6

I was excited to join a guild this week and connect with many different players.  I asked several players in my guild a few questions and was happy to get several responses.  I chose the player with the user name of Psycle!  (Loved the name!)  She's a few levels ahead of me and I was curious as to how long she has been playing.  She reported that she had been playing the game for almost 3 years.  She told me that she plays about 3-4 hours during the week and sometimes up to 6 hours on the weekends. I wasn't surprised by the number of hours she plays (I can see myself doing the same thing), but was surprised that after 3 years she's still at level 39.  She mentioned that she enjoys meeting people from around the world and that the setting of this game is enjoyable. When we talked about her online gaming experiences, she mentioned that she really doesn't or hasn't played other games. This game is free and that's a great selling point.  One last thing that she mentioned was that she really likes the guilds and that it involves cooperative work to accomplish things.  She does wish that there were more social activities within the game.  I would tend to agree with what she talked about.  I like the fact that the game is free, although you can purchase things if you want.  I feel like her responses were reflective of what I see in the game when I log in to play!!

I believe that socially connective games, like Settler's Online can be important to our changing culture.  We frequently talk about the addictive nature of these types of online games, but in framing in as McGonigal says in the text, "the addictiveness of the game pushes us to initiate social interaction with members of our extended social network whom we might ordinarily leave out of our daily life online" (Kindle Loc 1354).  It made me think about the people that I connect with daily through the use of online games.  I've connected with family members who normally I wouldn't see or talk to for weeks. I play a couple of games on my iPad and use my Facebook friends as my "opponents" although we don't really compete for anything other than the high score!  The communication that takes place as a result of this game playing wouldn't happen if I wasn't playing!  I do agree with McGonigal when she talks about the level of "socialness" we are seeing as a society.  I can see that my own children have much different interactions with their friends than I did at their age (Kindle Loc 1370)

In joining the guild, "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" this week, I've found that a whole new set of connections is opening up to me.  They (the members of the guild) were there immediately to help out and look over my settlement and offer me suggestions on what I could improve upon.  I had an initial conversation with 1 person from my guild who suggested that I needed even more storehouses in my settlement and suggested that I move my residences away from the storehouses.  I did what he suggested and realized (don't know why I didn't see this sooner!!), that with the area around my storehouses open, the time of production decreased when I moved other "businesses" into those now open areas.  I appreciated his thoughts and rewarded him with a "gift" to his settlement.

I think I was initially hesitant to start this type of conversation.  I'm not sure if that was because I was still new to the game or if I was unsure of how this interaction would take place.  I didn't want to seem "dumb" or not know what they were talking about or what the acronyms used, meant.  I felt more comfortable speaking with those in our class rather than "outsiders".  Slowly, I've started to look for more help from others and in doing so, I think I've become more and more at ease talking to people in the game.   I do think that the communication that I've used/participated in with those playing the game has helped me to be a happier player.  I feel more comfortable and I look forward to working on my settlement, and it doesn't seem to me anymore that this is a series of tasks to be completed.  These social connections are important to our existence as a culture.  McGonigal mentions that research on happiness has shown, that "Happiness is not a noun or verb.  It's a conjunction" (Kindle Loc 1368). I like this analogy as it shows us that the connections we make in the game are important. 

With regard to "epic scale", I'm not sure that I've yet experienced that, although I think I've come close!  When I figured out that I can use the Adventures in the game to earn XP that will help move me up levels, I was so excited!  I think that to date, this has been my happiest moment!!