Game Intros

Prompted by my reviewing of the Diablo game intro, I've included a link in the side bar to the Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) game intro. You see the little short characters that scream "BEHEMOTH"? Ya, that's the race I play. I only wish I could cast the spell they're casting.

Please listen to the music playing in the background. I believe that part of the gaming experience are the cutscenes' background music. Music can add so much to gaming. A memory can be triggered from music, just like emotion so you feel for your characters...even if they're 8bit.

Tell me about game intros you remember, or games you remember playing. Even Ms PacMan had a story: remember, beat stage one, and Ms PacMan has a run in with PacMan. Yeah, dig into your gaming memory, you know you want to.

Scholar Crush

*in best flight attendant voice*

To your right is a section titled: Links: clicky click. In this section, there are links. Now, the links will include YouTube videos and what have you. But, there will also be links to what I am calling, my scholar crush.

Scholar crush? Nothing weird going on here, just a bit nerdy/geeky. These are scholars who I find absolutely intelligent, unique and just plan ole nifty in their scholarship (aka they rawk! \m/ ).

So check out Constance, who was mentored by James Paul Gee. And /bow down before N. Katherine Hayles! More will be added throughout the semester.

Thank you for reading Le Noob in Academia. Now clicky click.

Gamer or Instructor...?

First of all, I'd like to offer this: I do not want this to become an emo blog. But I do want to include my endeavors in academia. This includes teaching; hence the following post.

So the first week of class has passed. On the first day I introduced myself, the class and did an overview of my syllabus. Know the syllabus, love the syllabus. I also hold an introduction exercise for my students where I get to know a little about them; and since I don't have them do something I would not, I introduce myself to them.

Simple, right? Maybe not so much. I'm in a precarious position here. I am the dreaded Teaching Assistant *cue the "bom bom BOM"* So, am I faculty or student, maybe I'm just a weird hybrid. But that's a different post. Basically, I'm a junior. Yes, I can get perks--hello faculty parking--but I'm also a peon.

The head of the program I teach comes and sees me today. No biggie, the faculty here is friendly like that (weird, considering the program I came from). So, I find out a student has moved from my class, and spoke to the powers that be about me. Now, I admire that the student felt comfortable to give their reasons about the transfer and talk about me. I feel that's a characteristic of a good program and department: the students are comfortable enough to state doubts and concerns AND most importantly, the faculty listens to them. Get that, listen not just hear, but listen.

So, since they listen, I got "spoken to". Yes, the concerns about my comments didn't seem normal for me. I admit, I can have a very sarcastic sense of humor--just like I can go way out there where only 1 or 2 people get me. It happens. So, lesson learned, explain my humor.

What does this have to do with gaming? Good question, dear reader (channeling Bronte, here). My humor is the same in the game as it is in the classroom. Now, in the game I can get away with it. Why? Is the idea of who and what makes a gamer completely alien to the ideas of who at what instructors are? Are instructors not supposed to be sarcastically funny? Is this solely reserved for misanthropic doctors on scripted drama tv? If you do something stupid, am I not allowed to laugh? If you give me a console and controller, do I not game? If you give me scholarship, do I not analyze? The answer is I do. I laugh at people who do stupid things. I game, I analyze. I analyze the games I play! Try explaining that in an xp grind.

So, ultimatly this rant boils down to WHY!? *melodramatic falling to knees (think something ala Shatner)* Why do we associate certain qualities with people who game? Why do we associate certain qualites with those who teach? Why can't the two blend? That's the beauty of MMOs. You're playing with people of all professions, and they are gamers. They can game chat with the best, and be crude and whatever stereotype you associate with gamers. Those people are also doctors, scholars, business execs, moms and what have you. Should they be forced to hide the gaming aspect of their personality just because the world can only define them as one thing? If so, I cry foul! Rebel...subvert authority and be who you are.

It's the end of Vana'diel as we know it.~ and I feel fine

Yes, ladies and gentlemen; tragedy has stuck Vana'diel--gamers were banned. 500 accounts perma banned because of exploiting a glitch. 400 or so accounts temp banned, because a review of a years worth of logs showed that they were there when the glitch was exploited but they no longer have the hard evidence on them. LS have been taken down, the high ranking players of servers have are now gone forever (some have already switched to WoW, according to the gossip).

Some people would say karma, others merely tough shit, and still others cry foul. Why? Yes, a lot of players don't like MMOs because they are grind heavy; and a lot of complaints about FFXI are about how you have to have a party for almost everything (my favorite response to this being: go play WoW crybaby!) There are jobs you can solo to 75 by yourself people, and then just like WoW you will be forced to group up for endgame events. But I digress...

I'm not sure how to feel about the bannings. I had an acquaintance that was perma banned, and quite frankly it was shocking. Now, a domino effect is happening. You see some communities in FFXI are tightly knit--even if you aren't aware of it. Now, when a thread is removed, the fabric of the community weakens. Because of this, communties are easier to rip apart. B got perma banned, since B was banned M doesn't want to go on. Since M is "taking a break" (which usually means quitting) R is going to take a break too. Now, what's three players in an MMO? Not much really...but then multiply the domino effect because these are just reactions to one players banning (there is their main character, and then most have 1-3 mules, if not more. That's one account but 4 characters). An MMO can be fun and addicting; but it can also take a lot out of you. There is the time commited to your online character--basically for those that were perma banned; their characters life was executed for disobeying ToS. On a game based around communities, ripping out random threads of characters here and there weaken everything overall. But the question remains, whose fault was it? SE for having the glitch and making drops so hard to get that gamers felt they had to exploit? The gamers for being human and being greedy and impatient? For not following the rules laid out for them?

Who actually reads the ToS? I think something gets forgotten: your character really isn't yours. Yes, I feel that the character I play is mine. She has been in existing for five years. Five years of grinding, of meeting and losing friends. Yet, ultimately, SE does not see her as mine. I pay to play and have her in existence; but she is considered SE property. It's in the ToS. This is the same reason why you can't sell your character on eBay--SE owns them. You're paying for a privilege; this is something that's easily forgotten. Yes, your character's life and friends become your own, Vana'diel is another world in which a part of you exists. But the deities of the game are not the only ones for your character--there are also the creator of the game. Deities/creators can be loving, but they can also be cruel.

Why am I noob?

What is a noob? Is a newb, the same as a noob or nOOb? No. Now, newb and noob sometimes carry the same meaning; some one who is new to something. They're just learning. nOOb, is an insult--you're incompetent in your ability to participate in this community--it is not because you are new, but you act like one even though you know better.

I've been pursuing higher education for 8 full years. I've obtained two degrees, and am working towards my third. Now, it would seem as if I'm opening calling myself a nOOb because I have been in academia for a while. However, if I was a nOOb, then the university I'm attending wouldn't have accepted me, now would they? So, that brings be back to noob. How does one have 8 years of experience yet still be noobish?

Academia--the ivy tower that people seek to climb and you can see several mutilated bodies that fell from the top as you approach. It's dangerous, but I'm knocking at the gate with my gaming consoles in hand, along with tons of books and praying the cannonical dragon doesn't come out and eat me. You see, I'm a noob because I'm daring (as some others have) to bring gaming into the field of English. That's right, English--the subject that gives many nightmares only rivaled by Math. So, how does gaming fit into a world of Composition and Rhetoric and the ages of Literature filled with white succesful men that barely have noticed that hey, women can write too. Get my point yet? This is why I describe myself as a noob. It fits, I have many ideas mulling around in my head on how gaming fits into English. It's just a matter of avoiding xp loss and fighting the NMs when they come. Eventually I'll get to the endgame events.

In the Beginning

Here I am, a noob in academia. Mind you, I've chosen this path and part of me still wonders why. But hey, I can game and work that into something, so why not?

Let this RL adventure begin...