Here are the conversations the players had for exchanging cultural items.
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Based in the following final rules Download file
An emergent behavior happened: someone got the 4 Universal Cultural Items. Zeke became the 1st Master in Exchanging Cultures, who will be next? What will be the next level? Exchanging Cultural Items from another Planets & Universes? To be continued…
Here are the notes from the last Playtest:
-Make sure to remind players they must turn in their items into admin instead of calling win/loss.
-More formal beginning to game.
-Maybe give full list of possible items to each player so everyone knows what items to look for or what items are possible to get.
-Awesome game. (Whitney’s Notes)
- It would have been better if we could steal items or create alliances with other players to win the game. The trading was good except there should have been a whisper option so not everybody saw what items were trying to be traded. Other than that it was a pretty fun game. (Squabs' note)
* Click Download file to check the Exchanging Cultures Dialogues of Negotiation that happen while the Playtest.
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This is the document with the updated combinations, rules and system of points for playing the 1st level of EC game. We are still working in some elements and playtesting.
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These were the main comments and suggestions of the players during the second and third playtest, the last one hgappened during the Massive, The Future of Networked Multiplayer Games conference:
- To have available all the time a table of possible combinations of cultural items and their points to keep track of them faster.
- To have a simultaneous system of exchanging so anybody can keep one of the item negociated during the transaction.
- To have the ability of observing the cultural items before exchanging and based the exchanging in an audiovisual not only in chatting.
- To have different rounds in the game so the players can develop more advance strategies and can learn better all the possibilities of the game: cultural items combinations, point system, universal items, privilegies, etc.
- To obtain some priviligies in the following levels once certain cultural items from a continent orfrom a category are obtained, for example becoming a master in food, dances, Asia, Europe, ... and get a special ability to exchange or show certain cultural items.
- To integrate in the game experience the possibility of learning about the origin, funtion and materials of the cultural items so that could become a etnographic game as well as a entertainment game.
1st Exchange Cultures Playtest Note:
Getting Started:
1. Enter the glass room where the four colored boxes are located.
2. Each player stands next to 1 of the 4 boxes.
3. When the moderator says to begin, right-click on your colored box and select "buy".
4. Now go to your inventory and find the box (if you are at the red box, it will be called RED BOX in your inventory, etc.) Contained within this box should be 4 items and a notecard with directions on how to play. Continue from there
1st Playtester’s Questionnaire
Here are a few questions that we would like you to consider while playing our game.
1. Are the goals of the game clear enough? What aspects do you think we should build on or eliminate?
2. Do you feel that trading items with other players is too easy/hard?
3. Is it easy to tell which items are from which continents?
4. Does playing the game actually motivate you to exchange the cultural items?
5. Can you think of a way to make trading these items more exciting/fun?
6. Is there enough content/challenge in the game?
7. Did you find it too easy/difficult to obtain the necessary items?
8. Anything other comments/suggestions?
Thanks for your help, we hope you enjoyed play-testing our game.
-Exchanging Cultures Team
1st Playtesters Feebacks
- Rules within the cultural relationships or significant relationships between countries.
- One player who has to scrub up the others. Black market. Who is the smuggler? Traitor?.
- Add a limitation of exchanges.
- Increase level of complexity.
- Based in your items you decide what country or continent you want to collect.
- You can get one object from a free collection by turns.
- You cannot see all the items at the same time; you have to remember where you put them.
- Add more items or/and more continents or rounds.
- Named where the items are from and get points from it or exchange possibilities.
- Abundance of items and some of them are very popular and easy to identify while others do not. This will allow to the players to build different strategies to exchange.
- Limit the Resources.
- Knowing where the people are from or what they are looking for make the exchange very obvious.
What I liked the most of the Tayor's article "Intentional Bodies" was how he develop a compared vision of how virtual world organized socially through the aspects of immersion, identity and social responsibility and legitimacy. Taylor points out how "world builders" take into account these three main themes in order to develop the socio cultural context where the players will live and develop their relationships and personal experiences.
Exchanging of Cultures with the EC Game Mechanics updated. Download file
EC is a diplomatic game within Second life with both short term and long term goals.
Short term: Interact with and complete the games within EC
Long term: Create virtual communities and relationships based on the exchange of cultural items such as dances, art, recipes, clothing, and images of other places for travelers/explorers.
Each player becomes a diplomat who must attempt to understand the cultures of the people that he/she is building relationships with, as well as share elements of his/her own culture.
Power Point Prototype Presentation now available right here right now
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I think that emergence in a system happen in relation ship with other systems. In the case of Massive Multi-user On line Games (MMOG) there are a lot of systems in relationship, not only into the virtual game but also in reality that surrounds the player experience. I believe the environment where the player experience the game is very important in the development of emergent experiences. In fact I believe that only external input of a preprogrammed system are the real cause of the emergence. I think, as Salen and Zimmerman described in Rules of Play (p. 152) “emergence arises out of a complexity” but I think the real emergence arises from the complexity of two systems interacting with each other or when a system is so complex that it becomes several overlaid systems. In my case I changed from one real space to another while playing, where there were different Internet connections, and I was able of looking around but I was not able to keep going straight or backwards so I had to log out and log in the game again to continue my experience. That was an emergent experience of the system because that determines my player experience in an unexpected way.
I went to my neighborhood cibercafe at Korea town looking for playing a Mmpog videogame and the most related game that I founded, from the suggested, was Warcraft III. I had played once before World of Warcraft so I had the opportunity of compare how the administrators of both games “…maintain a balanced relationship between the different types of player” (Brandies R. (1996), Players who suits Mud’s p. 5). I felt between the achiever-explorer type of player more than a killer or a socialiser. The control menu that Warcraft III offered was no clear for me neither for the purpose of learning easily how to achieve the goals and being part of the purpose of the game. I was killed very easily and fast. It took me a lot to learn how to move around and kill others, or at least to defend my avatar so I could be useful for my team.
After I was killed seven times and I had just killed once I felt the fast killers, and my ignorance of how to develop my skills, “were driving me away the game” (p.5). However, I kept trying once more and I realized I could get more info about how to manage my skills, in the world and through the battle, using the chat but I did not. I felt embarrass of being a new Warcraft gamer asking for help in a chat room full of “Double killed” comments (p 4-5), I did not want anybody killing me because my ignorance.
Half life 2 is more an agnostic game, based in the categories of world’s games Roger Caillois developed and Czicksentmehiya cited (page 72) in his article “The conditions of flow”. This kind of games are based in the competition, in this case, the principle of seeking together to increase the personal potential and skills, is more based in the relationship human-computer. The player predetermines the level of competition with the computer by selecting one level of difficulty of another, in my case low was difficult enough for my first experience.
I felt Half Life has good sense of flow if I follow the general definition that the article describes (page 74), about how a flow activity is an experience that provides “a sense of discovery, a creative feeling transporting the person into a new reality”.
I really like to customize my pet although I wanted one, which was in a limited edition, and I felt frustrated not being able to pick it up. I immediately associated the idea of Neopet with Tamagochi and I though it could be a kind of simple game but after going through the directory and visit the different alternatives the game offers I changed my mind.
My Neopet is called VirtualSoul and his species is Scorchio.
First of all I review how to get food because VirtualSoul was hunger. After I satiated my neopet he told me he was thirsty but I could not find a place to get drink for the amount of money NP I had so I tried in the Mac Donald’s place. After too much advertisement and investment some time looking for a free soda or something I was tired of the basic interactivity the Mc was offering so I got bored and I logged out.
Next time I logged in...