Week 11; it’s so crazy how it comes right before…Week 12 (bum, bum, buuuuuuhhhhm!).
With one week left to go before the final presentation, there’s no time to make anymore small decisions. Ya gotta bring out the big guns & make something worthwhile. This past week I met with three of the core faculty in the Media Design program at different times to go over not only the results of the WOW probes, but also the analysis that I’d begun as well as ideas for what the final outcome should be. There’s a lot to take in; especially trying to bring the original research questions, (i.e. How can online and virtual experiences be legitimately conveyed as unique and valid experiences to others that have or have not held the same experiences?) to align with the findings from the WOW probes and make sense in the final thing to be presented to the rest of the class who haven’t been exposed to all of the research and background knowledge I’ve already accrued. The excuse, “Well it all makes sense to me,” just doesn’t really warrant an ‘A’ in grad school.
The analysis of all the data from the WOW probes left me with a few insights I wanted to build on. One of the observations was that, although players did interact with one another and the game encourages grouping up and other social forms of interaction, there wasn’t a great longing from the players to meet their real-world counterparts. Probe participants talked about wanting to be “where most of my guild members are,” but there was never any mention of or apparent desire to meet any of the people behind the avatars.
Another finding & probably the most definitive was that Questing seemed an integral part of the virtual experience in World of Warcraft. In the game, as the player progresses through the world, various computer-controlled characters will be able to give the player a variety of tasks (aka Quests) to perform. If completed successfully, the player will generally gain experience (XP) at a faster rate than if they just went around killing things, as well as monetary compensation in the form of gold or equipment for their character to use. These computer-controlled characters will have a yellow exclamation mark floating above their heads to notify the player that a quest is available to them. Here’s more information on WOW Quests on the actual Warcraft website. A few participants wrote down that Quests were the one aspect of the game that they would want to make a part of their actual life, and the idea of Questing was referenced several more times in other areas of the participants’ answers. Since this was a common theme, I’ve chosen to specifically convey this experience to other individuals who haven’t had much exposure to the game, beyond what I’ve already told them (i.e. the rest of the class & faculty).
Week 11 Sketches & Notes
So after pushing for a group crit in class (Thanks to the class too for humoring me!), I presented two different ideas for a final product/experience project to do. The first was to create portrait-like images taking the format in which quests are presented in WOW and applying it to “real-world” individuals and situations. The individuals giving these quests were persons like Jesus of Nazareth, Barack Obama, and Brad Bartlett (a professor at Art Center) and the form in which the Quests were presented was the same as WOW players encounter in the game. Critiques of this idea included questions about where would the portraits live, and that the images seemed more about explaining the individual than relating the idea of Questing. While still visually appealing, there was still refinement if I was to go with that idea.
Buddha Quest Poster
The second proposal was more of an experience design piece where students and individuals at Art Center would be given Quests to complete around the school. The purpose behind these Quests would be to expose students to areas of the school building they had never been to before (like the Archives or Student Life offices), as well as discover new aspects of the college that were unbeknown to them before (such as the details of Art Center at Night courses). I would either walk around with the same yellow exclamation mark above my head like in WOW, or set up a table somewhere in the hallway with the yellow mark above my head, and give out quests to students depending on their major or background. One immediate drawback to this project, though, is that it would have to occur during Week 12…which would mean no ACCD student in their right mind would stop to talk to someone in the hallway, let alone tramp around the school to go to somewhere they’d never been to.
The feedback that I received was somewhat helpful. The second idea felt more like a tour you’d receive if visiting the school while the first one seemed more about explaining about the individual in the portrait, than relating the idea of the Quest to an uninitiated audience. The biggest (and probably most obvious) critique was that I needed to present these ideas with my findings from the probes. In other words, give the projects a context. Otherwise the critique is simply of personal tastes in what visuals are being shown.
Sooo, there is one week to go. I’m leaning more towards the portraits, although I still need to figure out how to better convey the idea of Questing as well as what kind of space in which it will live (online, in a hallway, etc).
On a side note, the WOW group in Pasadena is meeting tomorrow. I’m wondering if I’ll still go…
