A few days ago, a of us gathered in World of Warcraft in order to play together and, for some of us, with the specific goal of having an initial feel of what collaboration in the game involved.

Initial considerations

At first, I had to learn how to use the Communication tools of the game and found myself in a similar situation to that when I started to play the game. Then, I realised that my Second Life reflexes, which I found hard to shake off, were not effective in WoW: this again highlights that similar contexts promote transfer. As Crook states:

“At later times, when learners might be said to 'remember' things, their achievements would be expressed as the reorganisation of previous ways of perceiving and acting” (1994)

This implies that good game design takes into account the wider context and skills that players may have learned (in other games perhaps) and either copy or create different features to either promote similar behaviours, block or generate new ones.

To join other learners, I created a new character which was compatible with the part of the world we gathered in.

The description of the characteristics and values of Taurens was an interesting experience because I felt that it matched my own values - my real-world identity as a nature lover for instance - more than my initial Mage character did.

Furthermore, I could choose the Druid class which made my character a good tradeoff between the Mage and the Tauren and, importantly, one which I identified with better.

It's difficult to assess how much it will impact the quality of my experience in the game but according to the tripartite play of identity defined by Gee (2003, pp. 54-58), it makes it more likely for me to engage better in the game and therefore to learn better in the semiotic domain of the game.

 

 

The Brambleblade Ravin

After taking a simple quest, I followed Anna's character in the Brambleblade Ravin for a quest which would have been difficult to achieve alone. It's interesting to note that this quest may be similar to that I was going to take as a Mage.

 

Screenshot: the Brambleblade Ravin

 

The positive aspects that collaboration brought include:

• the possibility to join skills to achieve more difficult quests

Because of the number of enemies to overcome, it's much easier to do it in group. However, at this level, the quest didn't involve any well thought out strategy or any real synchronisation.

In fact, it was like an individual quest where the number of opponents was divided up between the various players.

On occasions though, it was still necessary to help each other out, when one of us had to face three or more opponents for instance.

• an increased pleasure

Importantly, the collaborative nature of that quest was very enjoyable because of the communication that takes place which borrows attributes of everyday conversation (humour, etc.).

Enjoyment increases motivation and I suppose that this is intended as a way to set the scene and progressively scaffold the player through more difficult quests, involving higher levels of collaboration and synchronisation, closer to that experienced while playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 with a friend of mine.

References:

 

 

Crook, C. (1994). Human cognition as socially grounded. In Computers and the collaborative experience of learning. London; New York, Routledge: 30 – 51

Gee, J. P. (2003). Learning and identity. What does it mean to be a half elf? In What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, Palgrave Macmillan: pp. 51-71

 

World of Warcraft (2009). MMORPG game. Blizzard Entertainment.