Canned Goods

We had a great time at the concert with our free tickets from Triple M, 105.5 fm, so Kate and I sent a thank you note and photo to the station.

Well, we ended up on their homepage, so if you’re interested, here it is.

The following is based on my experience playing a MMOG for the first time and my attempts to figure out why I, and other people, play video games:

Of significance to playing World of Warcraft or any MMO—for that matter, taking part in any community—is the realization that a player’s motivations might differ too greatly from that of the community with which they are interacting. While I share the same principles of player conduct with my guild:

• Maturity In Game Play
• Friendly Attitude
• Helping Others
• Enjoy Working As A Team
• Having Fun In Guild Chat
• Making Friends
• Progressing In WoW

. . . my motivations are primarily Immersion (discovery & escapism) as well as Achievement (advancement), mixed with a dash of the Social (socializing, relationships, and teamwork) (Yee 4). These motivations to play create tensions when inhabiting the virtual world with others (just as it does in RL)—at least on my part. Although I was initially fascinated by the idea of potentially interacting with thousands of people from across the globe, I realized I had no real interest in meeting real people who wanted to be themselves in a virtual world. I wasn’t playing to be a virtual version of myself. I wanted to be someone else. Just as I read science fiction and fantasy books as a child, teen, and adult with the intent of escaping the real-world and immersing myself in the narrative, the characters, and the other worlds, I play role-playing videogames with the same intentions.

And although both Bartle and Yee concede that one’s motives are undoubtedly mixed, their conceptualizations of gamer psychology fail to take into account how the game technology/environment influences players’ identities and the way they use the game technology. As in the case of my experience within WoW, researchers must also consider the game world as more than simply “a backdrop, a common ground where things happen to players” (Bartle). My lifestyle as well as the rules of the game created constraints regarding my interactions in the virtual world.

Further, in light of Sherry Turkle’s research on MUDs, a given player may, at any time, be trying out an identity, and so the resarch conducted by Bartle and Yee seems to become muddied. Bartle and Yee appear to see players as having a unitary identities that they bring with them into the game space; however, any study that attempts to nail down why and how a person plays an MMORPG may merely be taking a snapshot of the player at the time of data collection. How I played The World of Warcraft initially may change in the future. I might decide to be more social and begin my own guild. I might decide to become a rogue, delighting in picking pockets and ganking other players.

If I were to have been surveyed by Yee when I first began playing WoW my answers would have categorized me differently than if I were to adopt one of the aforementioned identies and retaken the survey. With the complexity that is apparent with any assessment of motivations to play, it seem most important that game developers and researchers simply understand that motivations vary from player to player and from one occasion to the next.

And, although pithy, the same goes for students as they navigate the world of school.

After missing our chance on the phone this morning, we didn’t think John Prine was going happen, but Kate got the call from Jonathan this afternoon. The free tickets are in the mail. Thanks Jonathan and Kitty!

So Monday I was sitting at home listening to the 105.5 triple MMM as I was working, and I heard a promo saying that they were giving away 30 sets of John Prine tickets. His concert is here on the 10th. Now Kate and I have been trying to get free tickets for weeks: we signed up on the station website and thought about calling during Jonathan and Kitty’s morning show (but we kept sleeping thru or forgetting the call in time).

But then I hear the promo saying they will be giving out the tickets in front of the Overture Center. I tell Kate; I make a sign: “Will work for 2 John Prine tickets, unless they are FREE!” — You got to have a schtick — And we walk down.

It’s 11:45. We’re the only ones there. That’s cool. Maybe no one else is coming.

12pm. No one else there. No fans. No radio station people in a radio station truck. Just us sittin’ on this potted plant thing. Waiting.

12:15. Maybe they’re planning on just dropping in commando style with a some tickets. I ask Kate if she wants to go across the street to look at the shoes. No. How about we walk down to the outdoors sports store so I can look for that strap for my sunglasses. Nope. We’re here for tickets, and we have to stay committed to the endeavor.

12:30. I get a coffee. I convince Kate to look at the shoes. And I trick her into going to Fontana sports with me.

12:45. We leave. We must have the wrong day. I must have the wrong day.

4:30 p.m. Kate tells me it’s on Thursday. Cool.

So yesterday we’re back in front of the Overture Center. Fans? Check. Radio station people with radio station truck? Check. Lottery for tickets? . . . what? Lottery?

Hey, I made a sign. The only sign in the crowd, and I have to wait for my number to be called?

Anyway. Kate and I are the hit of the show. They take our picture (with the sign); Jonathan interviews us before the drawing (we tell him about Monday); we (and our impending divorce resulting from my making Kate walk to the Overture Center for tickets, twice) are material for quite a bit of the hour long show. Kate even explains it all to the crowd –thru the bullhorn, no less. Our sad story. We’re “The Married Couple.”

We have the audience on our side. Sure they want tickets, but they want us to have tickets too. 20 minutes in, no tickets. We’re still hopeful, even in the face of an undeniable trend. Several people show up just as the drawing starts. The win! Some couple walking by gets two lottery tickets. They both win! A couple waiters on break . . . both win! 30 minutes in. Some lady show up, gets a lottery ticket, and she WINS! Grrrrrrrr.

Kitty’s great, but she needs a bigger bowl next time. One of those things with a hand-crank.

So guess who goes home empty handed.

But the story doesn’t end there. One of the interns working there chases us down and gives us the card of her boss. “Call her,” she says. We call. They liked us. We’re “The Married Couple” — the newlyweds. And if they can find more tickets, maybe we can have them. Very cool.

And this morning? Kate and I were on the radio (taped from yesterday) telling the story of our adventure on Monday, and Jonathan is quoting my sign.

At $50 a pop, we probably won’t be going to John Prine, so you won’t see any concert photos here. But at least we got a cool story to tell our grandkids.