Friday, June 25, 2010
WarCraft
The virtual world that I chose was World of Warcraft. I have seen advertisement just about everywhere, but I have never taken the time to actually explore the game. I’m a fan of JRR Tolkien and Robert Jordan books, so I figured I could handle a fantasy world of trolls, elves, fairies, dwarves. I started off by creating a character. Since the game is centered on quests and War, gamers have the option to either join a good or evil side. I chose the evil side because I am somewhat of an artist. I draw demons and pictures of things unknown, but mostly dark and gruesome like the characters on the dark side. I’m NOT crazy! But I thought the characters on the Evil side looked more appealing. I chose a bull like character naming him Psychochops. Psychochops stands on two legs with three long strands of braided facial hair. He has a ring in his nose and carries a large mallet. I could either be a hunter, shaman, healer, or warrior. I chose the warrior. I had the choice to change his skin color, horn color, facial expressions, but nothing about age. I started the game by roaming and conversing with other gamers. I guess they were kids because some of the characters just stood there and said nothing… but eventually would run away. Some talked to me, but they were short conversations and really I just wanted to fight. I don’t play video games and the one’s I played in the past were violent games. With a name like Warcraft I figured that’s what you do…. Fight. I quickly got bored conversing with the others so I decided to explore the terrain. As soon as I got out of my little territory a prairie dog came out of the woods and mauled me. I wasn’t even in the world for 5 minutes and I died. Not quite sure what the point of the game is. Maybe group participation to achieve a goal? There was an option about joining a quest but I couldn’t find the right person to deal me one. Does anyone think that Warcraft could serve as educational medium for children?
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yeah the main thing you do it accept quest (yellow ! marks) and fight those poor animals....at least in the beginning. you won't find people to talk to until you actually make it to the bigger cities and then its just to much talking.
ReplyDeleteI think Warcraft is more entertainment than educational. You could probably make a game designed with the same kind of graphics and character types just centered on math or any type of subject quests to provide a fun educational experiance.However as the platform stands presently I dont think there is much educational value in casting spells and throwing axes at spirit trolls. In fact I am scared to try to play warcraft just because it might have the toal oppposite effect. You see I love video games and I think all the characters and class building in a game like warcraft is cool. I feel if I started playing Warcraft it would suck me in deep where I would spend all my free time and money playing it. My brother is a high school teacher and he's told many many stories involving bright students flunking class beacause all they do is play Warcraft. On one hand I am intrigued to see what such an addicting game offers but like I said I know to stay away. Maybe sometime Ill give it a shot.
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