World+of+Warcraft



World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). While many releases and expansions exist, I played the fifth extension titled Warlords of Draenor, as a demo version was available for free online.

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The game begins with a short animation that explains the semiotic domain that you are about to play within. This expansion, while part of a whole WoW universe, is set on Draenor (an orc world) with the Alliance fighting against the Horde. After the short animation, players begin by choosing a realm to create a character in. Players may choose PVP (player versus player) realms or normal realms. I actually created two characters so as to test the differences between the realms. Players then choose a character race either within the Alliance or the Horde; for example, a player could choose to be an Orc in the Horde or a Night Elf in the Alliance. For one realm, I chose to be a female Draenai, an alliance character with cloven hoofs, horns, bluish skin, and dark hair. Within these races, players have options in classes of their character. My Draenai was of the Shaman class.



Once the characters are built, players enter the realms and begin playing the game. The player is dropped into the world and directed to move toward a highlighted character. Movement is simply controlled by the arrow keys. This highlighted character offers information through audio and text and gives the character their first quest. As players move to obtain goals for the quests, they learn abilities and options of the game. They may also accept multiple quests at one time. As players achieve these quests, their level raises and the quests become more difficult and new player abilities are learned. WoW is a game that allows for exploration and offers great learning challenges. It requires active, critical, and adaptable learning. Players are sent on quests and given specific information that they must decipher within the semiotic domain. The game requires one to consider prior knowledge while simultaneously redirecting actions, a great way to develop critical thinking. For example, in the very first quest, a player is given detailed instructions and information of the location to which they must travel. A later quest will ask players to recall this knowledge, to travel to the same location to complete a new task. To be successful in this game, one must actively engage and draw on progressively generated abilities and information while also being adaptable. There are many kinds of teaching involved in the game of WoW. Generally, players are issued a quest and rewards are given upon completion of these quests. Guidance and information are given as minimally as possible so as to promote exploratory and adaptive learning styles within the game. Principles of Learning that were utilized were numerous but I will focus on five specific principles and how they functioned in this game. 1. Active Critical Learning Principle – As mentioned earlier, this game is easy to get lost in due to the active engagement required to play. WoW engages players in the semiotic domain through constantly adaptive strategies that require players to remain active and not passive. 2. Identity Principle – WoW allows players to build characters and choose character classes and traits that will then affect how they move about in the WoW domain. The identities at play in WoW are a combination of the real world player identity, the virtual identity and a projective identity that combines the two. 3. Ongoing learning Principle – WoW requires players to constantly build on skills and abilities learned in previous quests. For example, once my character mastered a specific attack move, the move was then required to achieve other ends. Once this move became automatic, it was then re-taught as a sequence of attack moves that could be utilized. In this and many ways, WoW supports the ongoing learning principle. 4. “Regime of competence” Principle – WoW only provides the minimal amount of information required for a gamer to complete a task. For example, one of my quests told me to use a crystal on a specific creature, but did not explain what controls on the computer would allow me to do so. WoW allows players enough resources to make the game challenging but not impossible 5. Multiple Routes Principle – While a player can move quest to quest through this game and achieve higher levels at a quick pace, there is no rule as to when or how you progress within the game. At one point, instead of moving to a different part of the map to complete a task within a quest, I chose to explore the area and talk to characters and develop professional skills in one area before continuing.

There are endless online sites, forums, wikis, etc., devoted to WoW because it is one of the most popular MMORPG’s. For example, to complete this assignment, I even had to use a WoW devoted Wiki database that allowed me to search for and recall game-specific vocabulary. Upon searching Google, I found forums regarding anything having to do with WoW. I found that most popularly discussed were the role-playing aspects of WoW and more specifically the character choices, such as alliance versus horde, race, class, or professions.



This was my first experience with the WoW universe and this type of role-playing game. I am very much intrigued by the game itself and plan to play more on my own time. I played for a total of 4 hours before writing this review and found that the time passes very quickly because I am actively engaged while playing this game. I enjoyed the personal modifications that each player can make to create their characters and found the character building process to be fun. I was very interested in the class options within each character. I thought that this allowed for a complexity in the role of relationships within the semiotic domain of WoW. Playing the game and completing various quests increased in difficulty and required players to draw on prior knowledge. I enjoyed this once I understood the patterns of thought required to master each quest. One thing that was difficult for me was actually figuring out how to control certain actions. An example of this would be when I was sent on a quest to decontaminate the lake. I was unaware of how to get the potion from my characters backpack into the lake and accidentally threw it away and deleted the quest instead of correctly dragging the item out of the backpack and into the toolbar to then use. Overall, this game is very entertaining and I would suggest that anyone who enjoys creative problem solving and critical thinking play this game.