For my Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) toon, I decided to choose the race Elf. Mostly because of my favorite character in the Lord of the Rings movies Legolas. Also, I like the way Elf’s are portrayed in the movies, therefore I figured it would be cool to be an Elf in another world. If you have seen the Lord of the Rings movies they give you a better understanding of how the LOTRO game based its character traits. Elf’s are agile, tactical, strong with the bow and suffer no illness. Which are all great traits that will have to match the class I choose.
After examining the different classes available I decided on the hunter. I like the particular set of skills the hunter has. For example, the LOTRO website says, “Hunters are masters of field and forest, unmatched in their dexterity with the bow. They use their survival skills to guide companions and lay traps for enemies. The coming of the Enemy has forced them to adapt these skills to use against new prey.” It became very clear to me that these were the exact type of skills I felt were suitable for my race, Elf. Elf’s are forest beings and are very close with nature; also, they are very keen archers. The traits of the Elf together with the skills of the hunter class, seems to be a great match.
Richard Bartle explains four player types: the achiever, explorer, socializer and the killer. The titles of these player types are pretty self-explanatory. The achievers goal is to accomplish tasks within the game. Explorers objective is to figure out the perks of the game. The socializers enjoy the interactions with others in the game. Last but not least, killers basically get a kick out of killing other players. When considering the choice of player type I see myself most fitting for, I decided that the killer is the one. I feel like I would as well get a kick out of this role. At the same time there is an objective in mind for class which is to level up, which means that inevitably I would have to assume the role of an achiever as well. Bartle explains that the different player types do in ways correlate with each other, which obviously applies in this case too. When investigating further different player types online I stumbled across a different, but similar, model for player types, presented by Jon Radoff. I found this model more suitable for the type of gaming that we will be doing in class.
With this model Radoff takes into account the element of playing together versus playing alone. His player types are a bit more complex as well. These are the different player types:
Immersion: stories, role-playing, exploration, imagination, and a sense of connectedness to the world of the game.
Achivement: sense of progress, mastery of skills and knowledge, etc.
Cooperation: player involvement in activities where they are helping each other, through creativity, shared adversity, etc.
Competition: player involvement where individuals complete over scarce resources, comparison, and win/loss situatuations.
These different player types that Radoff introduces applies more to our class gaming. The achievement player type is identical with Bartle’s “achiever” but the cooperation player type very much applies to our classroom setting considering we are playing together in groups as well as in class as a whole. This way of categorizing player types doesn’t just necessarily work for MUD’s and MMORPG’s either, but basically any type of game, which adds to its advantage.
Needless to say, I do not quite know how I envision myself in this virtual world yet. I know I will get a kick out of being able to fire the bow and arrows in the game and kill, so my playing will emphasize the usage of my weapon and skills. I am very excited though, to embark on this journey in my new life. One of the aspects that is most exciting is that we are playing together as a class and this will be a different experience than any other class I have ever had. Socially and academically interacting with other classmates through an online virtual world is new to me, but could potentially be something that in the future may be applicable to an experience some of us might have in the job world (example in mind IBM).
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