Until last Tuesday night, during our academically mandated gaming session, I had felt like I wasn't understanding the game very well. My problem with MMORPGs is that I always feel like I am the least experienced person around me; even when I see people who are lower levels than I am, they seem to know exactly what they're doing and I can only assume that this character is just part of their ongoing quest to get to level 60 with each race. The thought of 12 year olds making a fool of me in an online world is kind of embarassing, considering that I'm a 20 year old male and should be at my gaming "peak".

Since then, I've played a bit more (cough) and now I feel like I understand the game much better. Although I am a horror affecionado, and would probably enjoy playing a horde character, I have fallen for my Dwarf. Since I bought the game and had to start a new account, my character is now named Oddjob and is a level 14 hunter, and I've learned how to do a lot with him. Exploring new lands and getting to a higher level has also made it easier to delve into the social interaction that this class is geared towards. Although I wasn't sure I was going to, I recently joined a guild that I actually enjoy, but for the completely wrong reason: the guild's creator paid me 50s to sign his petition, and it just so happened that I actually get along with the people in the group. This is good news for me, since now I have a small group of people that I can talk to when I need to start interviewing people about their experiences in WoW.

Back to the real world... I have not read anything from the Bartle book yet, but I will be purchasing the book first thing tomorrow morning. Apparently when you order something from Amazon.com via second day shipping, they sometimes will wait two weeks before telling you they won't ship it until the end of February. Frustrating. But I have kept up with the readings in the course packets and I found an online version of True Names, so I have been able to keep on top of those readings. I enjoyed True Names quite a bit... I read a lot of science fiction when I was younger, some a lot worse than this story, and the film student in me went absolutely wild trying to figure out how many movies obviously took pieces from the story (such as The Matrix, The 13th Floor, eXistenZ, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, Strange Days, just to name a few). It was almost surprising that it was written that long ago; although it is kind of hit and miss, this story assumes technology that we take for granted but would have seemed pretty farfetched in that day and age. It seems like we're closing in on the kind of interface True Names hypothesizes, which is impressive, considering a lot of science fiction of the time had us flying to work or colonizing the sun by the magical year 2000.

I also enjoyed our class project on Thursday. Chatting had been incredibly confusing to me, and it wasn't until this weekend that I finally felt like I was comfortable with all the chat functions. For a long time I had no idea how to chat in the town channels, so I would just yell anything I thought was important; now, because of my guild and the parties I've been in, I think I know how to chat in any form. Maybe I'll try sending a letter soon. Also, it was nice to be able to work in a team setting with some of the people from class. I think working with Katie and Lisa helped me learn a lot in a relatively short period of time, and taught me how to function within a group. I'm looking forward to mixing and matching with people in class as we get farther into the game.