Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft
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Transcript of Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft
Leet NoobsTHE LIFE AND DEATH OF
AN EXPERT PLAYER GROUPIN WORLD OF WARCRAFT
Mark Chen@mcdanger [email protected]
University of Washington
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.
World of Warcraft
MMOG 6 million subscribers in 2006
World of Warcraft
MMOG 6 million subscribers in 2006 Fantasy with races / classes
World of Warcraft
MMOG 6 million subscribers in 2006 Fantasy with races / classes Complete quests, kill
monsters for loot and XP
Raiding
Large group joint activity Highly coordinated Specialized roles Organization and leadership Molten Core
Main arguments
1. Expertise = sophisticated sociomaterial practice, accrual of social and cultural capital
2. Trust needed for efficient group work1. Can come from different sources
3. WoW community increasingly emphasized loot, changing nature of trust, killing my raid group
Expertise in game mechanics?
Expertise as sociomaterial practice Emergent through push-pull of constraints-workarounds Limited by access to the right social networks
World of Warcraft wiki
Regular chat channels and specialized ones by character role say whisper party raid healsting madtankin splittranq madsheep soulburn madrogues
Communication, coordination, and camaraderie
Hierarchical and interwoven
Communication, coordination, and camaraderie
19:30:00.953 : [2. madrogues] Rebecca: good... poison up... assist wei
-'good' refers to the fact that no Rogues said they have not done this fight. Even so, Rebecca clarifies our role—use poisons on our weapons and focus-fire on Wei's target.
19:30:02.484 : [5. madtankin] William: where is wallace tonight?
-madtankin channel for the Warriors. wallace is a character who usually comes to our raids.
19:30:07.703 : [Raid] Maxwell: Henry peels to Marcie
-role assignment
19:30:10.468 : [3. healsting] Drusella: *runs around like crazy people*
-Druids are getting a little silly now...
19:30:12.656 : [3. healsting] Sven: We could... DPS shaman, Holy Nova priests?
-more suggestions on turning certain healers into damage dealers instead
19:30:15.312 : [5. madtankin] Wallace: I didn't make it in time. Rawr!
-Wallace is still subscribed to the madtankin channel even though he is not part of the raid. These custom chat channels exist independently from any other channels in the game.
19:30:17.453 : To Lori: May I have a healthstone pretty please?
-Healthstones made by different Warlocks sometimes have different amounts of healing they can do (depending on how a player has 'specced' the character) which means they can be stored in one's inventory at the same time. In this case, I know Larry and Lori create different types of healthstones, so I've requested one from each.
19:30:17.687 : [Raid] Maxwell: Horace peels to Mary
-role assignment
19:30:19.640 : [4. soulburn] Lori: Les-for this fight you will be ssing Derek.
-what to do with that one soulstone that Lester has available
Visualizations are handy
Communication, coordination, and camaraderie
Trust/performance evidenced by joviality, level of chat
Communication, coordination, and camaraderie
I love our raid. I know we are all going to get burned out at times and frustrated and upset and disagree with one another. It is part of being human. We are like brothers and sisters really. Stuff like this is going to happen.
Meltdown prevented by realignment / reiteration of group values
Communication, coordination, and camaraderie
A new addon and its effect on raiding Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS Threat and aggro KTM = no longer keeping it in our heads Yet KTM only used temporarily in Rags fight KTM used on multiple scales of time and actor
networks / mangles (Latour, 2005; Pickering, 1993; Steinkuehler, 2006)
Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
Yo, over here!
!
Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
rogue (DPS)
warrior(tank)
priest (healer)
mage (DPS)Yeah, hit me!
Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
rogue (DPS)
warrior(tank)
priest (healer)
mage (DPS)
pew pew!
Yeah, hit me!
SS, SS, Eviscerate!
+300 +120
Tripartite roles: tank, healer, DPS
rogue (DPS)
warrior(tank)
priest (healer)
mage (DPS)
pew pew!
Yeah, hit me!
SS, SS, Eviscerate!
+300 +120
Has the most threat and monster “aggro”
Threat and aggroTime 1
Player Ability Activated Threat Generated (hypothetical)
Existing Threat
Total Threat(hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 780 1040
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 560 700
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 400 800
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 0 500
Time 2Player Ability Activated Threat Generated
(hypothetical)Existing Threat
Total Threat(hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 1040 1300
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 700 840
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 800 1200
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 500 1000
Threat and aggroTime 1
Player Ability Activated Threat Generated (hypothetical)
Existing Threat
Total Threat(hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 780 1040
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 560 700
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 400 800
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 0 500
Time 2Player Ability Activated Threat Generated
(hypothetical)Existing Threat
Total Threat(hypothetical)
Wendy (tank) Sunder 260 1040 1300
Rand (DPS) Sinister Strike 140 700 840
Shaun (healer) L. Healing Wave 400 800 1200
Mandy (DPS) Frostbolt 500 500 1000
KTM (KLH Threat Meter)
• Knockback• Rogues
getting aggro
this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.
this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.
I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.
this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.
I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.
so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro
this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.
I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.
so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro
i hit him once. that made no sense
this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.
I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.
so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro
i hit him once. that made no sense
Roger, they [the tanks] may have been out of position for just a second which is enough for anyone else to get aggro who is in melee range.
this is a steady high dps fight, no bursting, bursting will get you aggro, in my experiance, anything over 1000 gets rags to say hi to ya unless you are feint everytime its up, and a split second after your burst.
I got aggro on that one. Not sure how, was using the same technique as last time.
so, I have threatmeter on... noticed I wasnt very high up and did a cold blood evis just fine.I strongly suggest you get the mod... so you can judge how good you are on aggro
i hit him once. that made no sense
Roger, they [the tanks] may have been out of position for just a second which is enough for anyone else to get aggro who is in melee range.
Victory!
Conclusions• Becoming expert depended on access to expert
groups and expert practice (Collins & Evans, 2007)
• Not all players could gain access• Group success depended on coordinated action and trust in others to play their roles (Hutchins, 1995)
• For my group, trust came from hanging out and having fun: social capital
• KTM changed how raids worked
• Becoming expert depended on access to expert groups and expert practice (Collins & Evans, 2007)
• Not all players could gain access• Group success depended on coordinated action and
trust in others to play their roles (Hutchins, 1995)
• For my group, trust came from hanging out and having fun: social capital
• KTM changed how raids worked
Conclusions
The Death of a Raid
• KTM reflected overall change in WoW community• Emphasized efficiency,
progression, loot
• Didn’t just let us offload cognition; also offloaded trust (surveillance tool)
• Hanging out and having fun wasn’t enough anymore
• Eventual fracturing of group
The Death of a Raid
• KTM reflected overall change in WoW community• Emphasized efficiency,
progression, loot
• Didn’t just let us offload cognition; also offloaded trust (surveillance tool)
• Hanging out and having fun wasn’t enough anymore
• Eventual fracturing of group
Better understanding of games and development of tools led to demise of group—Were we playing it wrong??
Leet NoobsTHE LIFE AND DEATH OF
AN EXPERT PLAYER GROUPIN WORLD OF WARCRAFT
Mark Chen@mcdanger [email protected]
University of Washington
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science of Learning Center program under grant SBE-0354453.
Leadership tasks required for raiding
Wolfenstein, 2010
Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004) Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session Met 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums Disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)
Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.
Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004) Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session Met 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums Disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)
Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.
Remember, who you give soulstones to will change when we encounter Majordomo Executus, but, until then, the priest or shaman who you’ve been assigned to should have your soulstone at all times.
Ethnographic methods (Steinkuehler, 2004) Pool of 60 regular players, 40 per session Met 2-3 times a week for 10 mos (11/05-8/06), 4-5 hrs each time Larger ethnography has over 1000 hrs of chat data ~100 hrs of video + select posts on web forums Disciplined perception (Stevens & Hall, 1998)
Remember, ss target will change at Domo, but until then, your rezzer is to be ssed at all times.
Remember, who you give soulstones to will change when we encounter Majordomo Executus, but, until then, the priest or shaman who you’ve been assigned to should have your soulstone at all times.
a magic item that warlocks can give to others so that they can come back to life if they are killed
priests and shaman can bring others back to life (resurrect)
it’s important to give rezzers the ability to come back to life so they can rez the rest of the raid group
unit frames showing health and status of raid members
my health and status
enemy health and status
cooldown timers for temporary effects
threat meter enemy
debuffs
ability buttons
more ability butt
ons
tank targets
chat window
various bits of info to keep track of
temporary bonuses or impairments (buffs
and debuffs)
minimap and
addon buttons
streaming combat text
name and health of enemy
the jumble in the middle is the actual in-game fight
Theorizing the practice• Push-pull relationship of objects in a
network of activity…– Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 2005)
– Distributed Cognition (Hutchins, 1995)
– Mangle (Pickering, 1993; Steinkuehler 2006)
– Assemblage (Deleuze & Guitarri, 1987; Taylor, 2006)
– Arrangement (Stevens, Satwicz, & McCarthy, 2009)
– Object-Oriented Ontology (Bogost, 2006, 2009)
– Roles and responsibilities constantly renegotiated, redistributed, and reconfigured to adapt to local settings
Analysis methods Discourse and interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995)
Functional Pattern Analysis (FPA) (Rogoff et al., 2002)
Visualization of chat (Chen, 2009)