Instead of a link to the game, I posted a screenshot from the actual gameplay from World of Warcraft, the MMORPG which stands for Massive Multiplater Online Role Playing Game. I've been playing on and off now for about 5 years. Although I've never been addicted to it like a lot of people I know, I do like it and play quite a bit.
World of Warcraft, or WoW for short, most fits the "Virtual Technologies" category in which your avatar is seen and while it's your avatar and it's meant to represent you, it's ALMOST a third person point of view, not quite, but it gives that sort of experience. Unlike a first person shooter that is meant to represent you moving through space, WoW lets you view what you are doing instead of just seeing the result.
WoW uses technologies that let you group with other people, talk with other people invarious chats depending on which group of people you want to talk to, for example you can private message or "whisper" one certain person at a time or talk to different groups all at once. There's also other technologies like codes you can do to make your characters do things. For example, typing "/dance" in the game will actually make your character dance. All the different types of characters do different dances. Mine does the Electric slide. There's an elf that does the Britney Spears dance from her music video for the song "Toxic."
This is my character, Impervius is the name (it's a spell from Harry Potter haha) and my boyfriend is the other person there. When I asked him why he likes playing the game so much, he says it's because he likes to interact through it with all the friends he's made. Once again, I love the internet!
When I saw this assignment I was thinking, wait, what does this really have to do with advertisements or media?
I would say that an ad equivalent to the type of game World of Warcraft is would be an Ad in the same point of view. In this sort of ad, you would see a person meant to represent you, as in, meant to represent every person, universally. You would see this person going through a situation in a way that you could also see yourself going through personally.
Say this person is learning about a product, for example sears appliance comercials, progressive auto insuance comercials, etc, and now that you know about this product you can go out and go through the same experience with a feeling of familiarity.
I suppose video games using different points of view can teach us this =)
This looked complicated to me, but probably because my computer skills are not the best. I think it is amazing how technology has allowed to play these games. Do you find yourself, while playing this game, in a position that you actually feel like you resume the role you are playing? I was just curious. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI always see all these boys playing this like its food and they are starving. Or you hear them say WOW all the time. Haha I think this game looks like it could be fun. I too would also have to get my computer skills up to par. Good choice.
ReplyDeleteThats too funny...How long have you been playing? Like I said in class I had played for about 5 years with my wife and brother and a few close friends. I look at this game and miss the interaction and the people. It was always good to forget about myself and get lost in that place.
ReplyDeleteTo Bkremple: It's kind of hard to imagine yourself taking this role and feeling like it's actually you because of how unrealistic the aspects of the game are. I mean, it might be hard to tell, but the form of character which I play happens to be a sort of undead...cow..type thing, so...yeah, but it's fun though =)
ReplyDeleteTo J. Priest: I've been playing for about 5 years, like I said in the blog, I've never been so addicted to it but it has very much served me well as something to do.
Amber,
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see so many video games out there where, like you have said "can get lost for a while". Do you think that advertisers and video producers target your audience more so because of the fact most young adults like to forget what is around them and need the "escape" to cope with life? Differences in generations have really lead to major differences in how advertisers and video game producers have lead the ploy to get our young adults interested in games that allow them to "escape". Thanks for sharing. Pat Kaehler.