Fix 5-6

Interview with another Settlers Player (Khamuul)

The player I interviewed began playing August 21^st, 2012 and has reached level 41.  He plays a minimum of 8 hours a day and spends a lot of his time helping others.  He enjoys the leisurely playing of the game and the patience it takes to play. After talking about socializing during the game he mentioned it being a big part of the success of the game.  He also said he socializes all the time and has met some of his the “best” friends on Settlers.  He does not find many challenges that have to do with quests or anything; his challenges are errors with the game such as glitches and translation errors.  We have talked multiple times and have discussed some of my challenges, which he offered to help.  I feel the new friend perfectly matches what McGonigal (2011) mentions in her text, “We want to be esteemed in the eyes of others, not for “who we are,” but rather for what we’ve done that really matters.” (p.96)   

Social Connectivity

I have not used the social aspect of the game much.  In the beginning of the game I watched the help chat to see what kind of questions were being asked and to get an idea of struggles I may encounter. McGonigal (2011) states, “They [personal service records] connect all the individual gamers into a community, a network of people fighting for the same cause.” (p. 89) I used the social aspect to find out what others are doing in the game to achieve quests that I will encounter.  In the game Settlers everyone seems to be given the same quests to achieve.

I must admit that I was not too enthused about talking with others on this game but as of this week I have connected with a few more people and have noticed how talking with others can help a lot more and feel more productive than researching everything on your own. My new friend, Khamuul, has offered assistance in figuring out any current or future challenges I have or will encounter.  The only other help I received was from the help chat after someone asked a question I had.  The person asked about the production levels of the pinewood.  I was struggling with this at the beginning of the game.  The person on the help chat helped me reach my goal by sending a link that led me right to a web page that described how to achieve the quest and to have good production levels of pinewood.

Guild- I applied to join the guild Just for Fun but have not received a confirmation yet.  I was going to apply for another guild but am not sure if I should join multiple guilds or if I just wait for a response from the current guild I applied to.

Epic Scale

If I had to pick my most memorable, gratifying experience it would be when I completed my pinewood quest because I felt so overwhelmed when I could not complete a quest that seemed so simple. This is the quest I felt so defeated at once, then after completing it I felt an overwhelming feeling of success. McGonigal (2011) states, “…awe doesn’t just feel good: it inspires us to do good.” (p. 86) I had a small feeling of “awe”, I not only felt good after I completed the quest but I wanted to do better.  I wanted to know more before I started placing buildings in the game.  I also wanted to help others after I completed that quest.  I know what I experienced was no where near an epic scale, I was not completing something with a collective group of people like the achievement in the game Halo, but I still felt accomplished to a point that I felt things were achievable and I was not incompetent and incapable. 




McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is Broken. New York: Penguin Group.