John Seely Brown: I would rather hire a high-level World of Warcraft player than an NBA from Harvard. Why is a game, a massive multiplayer game that has maybe 12 million people or more playing it like the World of Warcraft, so important at both the individual level and maybe at the corporate level?

http://bigthink.com/ideas/45592

World of Teachcraft

What is an Epistemic Game?

• “Authentic Professionalism”

• “Explicit instructions to specific contexts and situations”

• Include Communities of Practice, reflective practice, and epistemic frames

Source: Shaffer, D.W. (2004). Epistemic games. Innovate.

What is an Epistemic Frame?

• Includes targeted community’s practice, identity, interest, understanding, and epistemology

• Different communities have different epistemic frames

Source: Shaffer, D.W. (2004). Epistemic games. Innovate.

Communities of Practice

• “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”

Source: Lave, Jean; Wenger, Etienne (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Affinity Group

• “A group of people associated with a given semiotic domain” (p. 27)

• Examples: Lawyers, Educators, Gamers, WoW players, Olympians, etc.

• Can be large or small

Source: Gee, J.P., (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Palgrave McMillan, NY.

What does all this mean?

Brief History of Games

1st Person Shooter

FPSs are distinguished by a first person perspective, that renders the game world from the visual

perspective of the player character.

You will typically not see your avatar in an FPS, unless there is a mirror or cinematic transition between

levels

Third Person Shooter

Third-person shooter (TPS) is a genre of 3D computer and video games in which the player character is seen at a

distance from a number of different possible perspective angles.

Common angle is looking over character’s right shoulder

MMORPG

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) is a genre of 3D computer and video games in which the thousands of players are playing online at the same time. This genre of game typically includes a social interaction requirement to complete certain activities.

Common angle is looking over character’s right shoulder

MMORPGs #1

World of Warcraft (WoW)•41,007 hours of game play on June 14, 2012 by almost 10,925 Xfire players for an average of 3.75 hrs / player (http://beta.xfire.com/games/wow)

•10.2 Million players worldwide (12/31/11) http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=647732

What is World of Warcraft?

• Sword and Board Fantasy

• Players Choose Race and Roles for their Characters

• Once in world, players progress by accepting and completing quests

Terminology

NPC

Non-player character, a character, monster, or animal in a role-playing game or video game that is controlled by the

gamemaster or computer, rather than by a player.

Some advanced players are blurring the lines here, through the use of bot technologies

Mob

NPCs that are aggressive towards the player. Mobs may be monsters, animals, or of similar

race to player.

Boss

Typically stronger than normal Mobs that present a more difficulty fight for the player.

Bosses typically drop higher quality gear when defeated.

Guild

A group of players from the same side that collaborate and pool resources in a group bank. This collaboration is

encouraged by game designers and is necessary in multiplayer games

WoW Basics

Player Roles & Responsibility

• Tank

Player Roles & Responsibility

• DPS (Damage per Second)

Player Roles & Responsibility

• Healers

Cross Functional Team

• Gee video: – Each person must have deep expertise in one skill

set, but understand the big picture. They retain expertise but must integrate with the other different skill sets to be successful.

– http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/jim-gee-on-the-use-of-video-games-for-learning-about-learning/

Cross Functional Team

Performance Driven

DPS Mage

Example of the Math• Mastery for Mages

– Assumption: • Mastery rating gives you 10% damage increase based on mana• Your base is 10,000 dps

– Math in your head• at 10% mana, 10,100 damage, which corresponds to the normal damage value

increased by 1% (10% of the 10% increase from Mana Adept).• at 25% mana, 10,250 damage, which corresponds to the normal damage value

increased by 2.5% (25% of the 10% increase from Mana Adept).• at 50% mana, 10,500 damage, which corresponds to the normal damage value

increased by 5% (50% of the 10% increase from Mana Adept).• at 75% mana, 10,750 damage, which corresponds to the normal damage value

increased by 7.5% (75% of the 10% increase from Mana Adept).• at 100% mana, 11,000 damage, which corresponds to the normal damage value

increased by 10% (100% of the 10% increase from Mana Adept).

Sounds Easy….

Right?

Now..

• Which do you choose? – Increase Mana (Intellect)? – Increase Mastery? – Lower Hit rating to increase Mastery? – Lower Critical Strike Rate to increase Intellect?

– Oh what about those pesky new patch notes… :D

Optimizing Play Styles• Websites: – Ask Mr Robot – Elitists Jerks– Icy – Veins

• Add Ons: – Curse Client

• Others?

Resources

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

http://www.wowhead.com/

http://icy-veins.com/

http://g.a.m.e.shivtr.com

The Learning Continues…

Questions / Conversations