Novice

Female

Early 30s

Designs games; Active in LARPs and RPGs

Introduction

Subject 3 is a compelling subject, with some of the most interesting results in the study. Of particular note is that while she was a novice to World of Warcraft, she is a game designer who has experience with previous generations of computer role-playing games (RPGs) and is an active member of several Live Action Role-Playing groups as well as an experienced tabletop role-player as well (i.e. Dungeons & Dragons). As a result, she figures out controls etc. faster than Subject 1. Despite some massive peaks early in the experience, Subject 3's response to the game is somewhat flat but also remarkably regular. It is an interesting side consideration that with her previous experience with computer RPGs, she was an ideal audience for this game, so her extremely regular responses to the game may in fact be the result of a design decision to elicit a response from new players at a regular interval. This is then generally decreased as the player moves into the flow of gameplay. It should also be noted that due to a camera issue, the sync on the interview graph may be off by as much as a minute (although I think it is pretty accurate).

Events 1 & 2

Events 1 and 2 were before the subject had even entered the game. The peak at Event 2 in particular is from when the subject locked in the name she wanted on the game server, which is frequently hard to do as names must be unique in World of Warcraft, and there are so many players. She said, "I get really into character creation…God knows how many players there are. Maybe my name will be taken." Indeed, the character name that Subject 3 chose was also the name of a beloved LARP character that she clearly felt very strongly about and had fond memories of. When asked about the moment of getting the name she wanted, she said, "I was happy to see it - it comes from something I care about and is unique...You want a really cool name...I like to fully step into a character." The peak at the end of this moment in the interview track comes from a discussion that Subject 3 engaged in while the experimenter fiddled with the camera about the disappointments that come from having a lame character name, particularly one where you add a number to the end in order to make the name unique.

General Discussion

In the area on the interview graph, I asked her some general questions about her experience in general. She related, "I have a bias against MMOs," because she generally wants to feel "unique" and "creative" during game play. You don't get the satisfaction of doing something unique, which, by contrast, her in-person gaming activities allow her to do. In particular, the spike in the middle of this section is exactly when she decided to really get on a design soapbox and talk about the differences between the two experiences. Still, during the questioning she acknowledged that she wanted to finish questing when the experimenter came in to stop her. The second, smaller peak found on the downward slope of the large peak is when the subject, also an expert in education, was asked if she learned anything in the game. She related that she did definitely need to do some learning of various interface and mechanical aspects, including how to use abilities and to discover optimal strategies.

Event 3

Event 3 is the subject's first real moments of gameplay as she searches for and finds a quest giver, including engaging the game's map functions. It has been noted by at least one EDA expert that this may be a movement artifact, but the evidence is inconclusive. It should be noted that if this is in fact an accurate depiction of the subject's EDA, that is remarkable similar to (if shorter than), Subject 1's experience of searching for her first quest turn in as well.

Events 4 - 8

Events 4 through 8 are all small moments of satisfaction or pique on the part of the subject. Event 4 in particular is worth noting because of the pronounced spike in her EDA. She is discussing the satisfaction of finding her quest turn in, but then is very annoyed that the quest giver believes that she, as a new warlock, is only suited for fetching twine. Once again, the subject climbs onto a design soapbox and argues that players should be made to feel powerful and awesome, instead of performing what she sees as a demeaning task. It is also worth noting, I believe, that the subject has already discussed the importance of character identity to her. Her rant carefully entwines her frustration with the game mechanics with the frustration of being diminished. The other moments are all of less significance, but event 7 for instance provides an interesting contrast. In Event 7, Subject 3 is griping about the dialogue system in World of Warcraft, but it is less tied to her identity and also less spiky.